Even in the year 2022, Lute Olson’s impact remains strong at the pinnacle of basketball — the NBA Finals.
Olson coached four of the men taking part in this year’s Finals — five, if you count Richard Jefferson on ESPN’s “NBA Countdown.” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr, assistant coach Bruce Fraser and veteran forward Andre Iguodala all played at Arizona.
So did Damon Stoudamire, an NBA Finals first-timer who’s serving as a Boston Celtics assistant coach under childhood friend Ime Udoka. The Warriors and Celtics will play Game 6 on Thursday night in Boston; Kerr, Fraser and Iguodala can secure another championship with a victory.
“I look at it like his pyramid from a basketball standpoint when (Olson) was at Arizona,” Stoudamire told the Star. “He would always talk about Pete Williams being the guy he recruited that took a chance on him when Arizona wasn’t Arizona. Then you got Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr, and then when I got to Arizona, I looked at it like what I have is passed on from the Elliott and Kerr era to me. It’s just eye-opening to see the pyramid with Coach Olson at the top and how he catapulted everything. Being in this series coaching against Steve and ‘Q’ (Fraser), it’s been great — and I know (Olson) is looking down proud.”
Stoudamire is back coaching in the NBA for the first time since 2011, when he was an assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies. From there, Stoudamire joined Josh Pastner’s University of Memphis coaching staff, where he remained until 2013. He then joined Sean Miller’s staff at the UA before becoming head coach at University of the Pacific. He ran the Tigers’ program until last summer, when he joined Udoka in Boston.
Stoudamire talked to the Star about his relationship with Kerr, reuniting with a childhood friend in Boston and Olson’s coaching tree.
How would you describe your relationship with Kerr since the first time you met him at the UA?
A: “Steve was the guy. All the pros would come back every year when we started school, and Steve was actually staying in Tucson at the time, so he would always come over and play. He would always give guys thoughts and tidbits. I thought it was so cool how a former player would always come back. A lot of the guys came back, but he was around a little bit more. He used that time to not only get himself ready for his season, but he always took time to educate us on some things that we were trying to obtain and achieve our goal. People forget, Steve and I used to play together. We played together in Portland for one year. In that time playing with Steve, I gained so much respect for him.
“When he spoke, we all listened. He was a consummate pro, very professional and I always appreciated that about him. He wasn’t a star or a guy who got a bunch of accolades, but he was a guy who was about consistency, and to me that was more important. He’s a little more fiery than people would think. He’s a competitor and loves to compete — as a player and coach. … One of my all-time moments with Steve was when we played against the Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee, and Steve took the ball out of bounds. I came off a pindown, he hit me, I came off a high ball screen, knocked down a 3 to win the game and we all ran out after a last-second shot. But I just remember Steve as a consummate pro. You have to understand what that means. I’ve seen him not play one minute for three quarters, come off the bench and have double figures in the fourth quarter alone. That’s a consummate pro. That’s a guy who is selfless, who stays ready, because when you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.”
Portland guard Damon Stoudamire, right, pushes past San Antonio defender — and fellow Arizona Wildcat — Steve Kerr in the first quarter of Game 2 of the 1999 NBA Western Conference Finals. The two former UA stars are squaring off in this year’s NBA Finals — Kerr as coach of the Warriors, and Stoudamire as a first-year Boston assistant.
What’s unique about your relationship with Udoka?
A: “I’ve known Ime my whole life. My dad used to run a midnight league in Portland, and Ime would always go. I’ve known Ime pretty much his whole life. Just a good dude, no nonsense and that’s what makes this whole thing so special. It’s one thing to be in a position to win a championship, but how many people can say they’re in position to win a championship with someone you knew growing up. That just doesn’t happen. I’m a little bit older than him, but we went to rival high schools. I went to Wilson, he went to (Jefferson). We always talked about the journey and the path, but never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d be on course. We never talked about one of us getting a head coaching job with the other one on the staff — we never talked about it. … We go way back and it’s just been fun to be on this run, especially with someone that you’ve always seen.”
How would you describe the difficulty of getting to the NBA Finals?
A: “I went to the conference finals three times. I always say this, even at Arizona: You’re never promised getting to a Final Four and winning it. You’re just never promised. … I went to two conference finals when I was 25 and 26 (years old). You couldn’t have told me I wasn’t going to this every year, but then I didn’t get back in until I was 34. For me, being right now where we’re at, there’s two teams left and the whole world is watching. It’s an honor, but more importantly it’s a credit to the people I’m around. I work with great people, great players who make the job easy. This whole process for me has been an amazing journey.”
What was the message to the team after starting the season 23-24 to becoming a team vying for a championship?
A: “Just buying in. I wasn’t concerned about the start, I was more concerned about the buy-in. There’s always an adjustment period in the NBA when you have a new head coach. I think I’ve played for seven head coaches in the NBA, three of them were midseason changes, so there’s always going to be an adjustment. … The guys were receptive to coaching, they just needed to figure out who they were playing for and how (Udoka) wanted it done. Once our identity was created on defense, it made our offense that much easier. We just became a really good defensive team. If you can coach the two best players the way Ime coaches Jayson (Tatum) and Jaylen (Brown), then everything else will fall in line.”
Damon Stoudamire played in the NBA from 1995-2008 before becoming an assistant with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Between yourself, Kerr, Fraser, Joseph Blair, Jud Buechler and Bret Brielmaier, among others, why do you think there are so many NBA coaches that stem from the Olson coaching tree?
A: “Coach would emphasize the fundamentals of the game and he didn’t compromise. He wanted thinkers and guys who could read and react. He didn’t compromise that in recruiting, so that’s why you see what you see. Coaches come in all different shapes and sizes. We learned from a great teacher and he wasn’t trying to trick you. There wasn’t a secret to the success. The secret was to not be afraid of doing the right thing all the time — don’t get bored and enjoy doing it. That was the secret. It wasn’t an overwhelming message, but you had to be consistent.”
Considering you’ve never won a championship, let alone appear in one, what would capturing a title mean for you?
A: “Honestly, I can’t talk about winning a championship, because we haven’t won it. I can’t speak hypothetically. Never have, never will. … Even though they’re not the defending champions, we feel like we have to dethrone them.”
