boutons_
01-22-2008, 12:44 AM
Last Shot: Snyder's second chance
By Adrian Wojnarowski (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/expertsarchive;_ylt=AkkdyOJnydg5BeOO7cqJYJ_TjdIF?a uthor=Adrian+Wojnarowski), Yahoo! Sports
January 18, 2008 http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/sp/p/yse_lo_70x24_2.gif (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/sports/yhoo/nba/article/SIG=11daaeced;_ylt=Ah8YFZafP2mMFP0NBvwlWDrTjdIF/*http%3A//sports.yahoo.com/top/expertscorner)
BOISE, Idaho He is sitting in the lobby of the Hampton Inn, just off the breakfast buffet bar. Outside, the street is cold and quiet. As confessionals go, this is fitting for a Boy Wonder who lost his way. Quin Snyder, 41 years old, runs his fingers through his hair, stiffens his shoulders and uneasily goes back to the University of Missouri.
"Maybe I tried to do it too quickly," Snyder said. "When you're young, you don't see the pitfalls."
There are a lot of reasons that Snyder had to leave Missouri a year and a half ago, that a fast-track coaching career careened out of control. Mike Krzyzewski had minted him as one of coaching's rising stars a decade ago. Snyder was smart and driven and produced of the perfect pedigree. He was a favored son of the Duke dynasty. He wanted it all and chased it hard and something blind ambition, arrogance, fame and fortune something drove the smartest kid in the gym to too many unwise choices.
As candidates go for teaching the San Antonio Spurs (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/sas/;_ylt=AiXJ9xOPLFJ1Hp0I2ebil27TjdIF)' way in its minor-league affiliate, the rookie coach of the Austin Toros seems an improbable choice. Spurs vice president and coach Gregg Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford have constructed an NBA dynasty on the belief that there are no quick-fixes, no short cuts, no compromises; that character counts. The Spurs are a model of professionalism and performance. When you're hired, you're legitimized.
Basketball's most respected operation believed Snyder was the best choice to teach and mentor its young players. On precious matters of basketball, they make judgments free of concerns over public perception and political correctness. San Antonio doesn't do charity cases.
San Antonio has mined basketball for some unlikely star talent Manu Ginobili (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3380/;_ylt=ArjW.nM002.QKck5qG7CRPTTjdIF) and Tony Parker (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3527/;_ylt=AiY0z37DooKCkJsh0CT0dSzTjdIF) on the floor, Mike Brown on the bench and Kevin Pritchard and Sam Presti in the front office.
"If you look at our entire staff, starting with Pop and myself, there are none of us that you would've pulled from the lineup and said, There's a pedigree for success in the NBA,' " Buford said.
Even before the Spurs purchased the Toros this summer, they pushed Austin ownership to hire the deposed Missouri coach. So far, Snyder has honored San Antonio's faith. The Toros have come out of the D-League Showcase this week with a 14-6 record and first place in the Southwest Division. Buford is thrilled with the way the Spurs' 2005 first-round pick, France's 6-foot-11 Ian Mahinmi (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3954/;_ylt=AhZcuvL8q6Cuuq44QC3fz_HTjdIF), is progressing, the way the shuttle between Austin and San Antonio has moved seamlessly for call-ups.
As a college coach, Snyder issued thick, glossy reports for players on everything they needed to develop as players and students. He had a staff for everything. He had so many innovative ideas, so much possibility, and yet it all started to go to hell when troubled recruit Ricky Clemons, convicted of choking a coed, drove his ATV up the chancellor's front lawn. Eventually, Clemons ratted out the program on tape in jailhouse confessions and landed Mizzou NCAA sanctions.
Snyder never needed to take the risks he did at Missouri. Sometimes, he had too much talent, too little chemistry. The longer Snyder stayed over his seven seasons, the more chaotic the program turned.
"There were a lot of ways that I was very well prepared for that job and, wasn't in some other ways and I don't think I understood at Duke," Snyder said. "I had never recruited junior colleges at Duke. There were some blind spots for me.
"But as you step away from it, you're able to see it more clearly. When you're in fight-or-flight mode for almost three years, it's hard to think what you should've done in that fight because you've got another one in front of you."
After leaving Missouri in 2002, he dropped out of basketball for a year. He has a JD/MBA degree. He's no gym teacher. He didn't need to coach. Still, Snyder couldn't shake the game. Privately, he has told friends that he has no desire to return to college basketball. Right now, he'd be a fool. For him, Austin is a most fortuitous landing spot. The blessing of Buford and Popovich gives him second-chance credibility, the way that Duke made possible a Big 12 coaching job at 32 years old.
"He's lived what happens when you skip steps and it goes wrong for you," a long-time associate said. "I think it's made him more resolute about the character that you need to have for success. Because of what happened (at Missouri) he's even more invested in Popovich's belief system."
For Snyder, he's been afforded a staggering support system by D-League standards. Dell Demps, the Spurs' pro personnel director, immersed himself in re-creating the Spurs culture in Austin. Demps and Buford hired Mo McHone, one of the best minor-league coaches in basketball, as director of basketball development. They gave Snyder an assistant coach, Roy Rogers, with an NBA playing and D-League coaching background. They gave him one of the most talented rosters in the D-League. Mostly, the Spurs gave him this mandate: Mentor in the pros the way you did in college.
"There are these great competing forces here," Snyder said. "To me, that's the challenge of the whole thing. For players, you have this survival component. There is this instinct of self-preservation that goes with the challenge of trying to get them to play together as a team, to value the team.
"You try to get them to understand that they can get to where they want to go by doing it this way."
During the summer, Buford led his Toros staff on a trip to Cleveland to visit with Indians general manager Mark Shapiro and his front office.
"We tried to study how successful minor-league programs in other sports, especially baseball, had used it," Buford said. "The trip to Cleveland was really empowering for us."
Through it all, Snyder found himself revitalized. The D-League is where you can find out about the truth about coaches, and where the coaches can find out the truth about themselves. This is where you can find out what happens when all the things the profession worships the rollover contracts, the rock-star status get stripped away. Sometimes, the job comes down to this: After driving eight hours overnight from a loss in Fort Wayne, Ind., who gets his team to play hard in Des Moines tonight?
"When the water goes out at the hotel before the game, if you can't shower, the whole team can't shower," Snyder said. "But I love that part of it. I do. And I love the anonymity. I wouldn't trade that right now. I'm in the moment a lot, which is awesome for me. That's always been a struggle. My mind races a bit."
Finally, he can take a breath and slow down. No more shortcuts, no more false gods of fame and fortune. This is the Spurs way now. For a coach, the credibility can be cleansing. For Quin Snyder, it's sheer salvation.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-lastshot011808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
By Adrian Wojnarowski (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/expertsarchive;_ylt=AkkdyOJnydg5BeOO7cqJYJ_TjdIF?a uthor=Adrian+Wojnarowski), Yahoo! Sports
January 18, 2008 http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/sp/p/yse_lo_70x24_2.gif (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/sports/yhoo/nba/article/SIG=11daaeced;_ylt=Ah8YFZafP2mMFP0NBvwlWDrTjdIF/*http%3A//sports.yahoo.com/top/expertscorner)
BOISE, Idaho He is sitting in the lobby of the Hampton Inn, just off the breakfast buffet bar. Outside, the street is cold and quiet. As confessionals go, this is fitting for a Boy Wonder who lost his way. Quin Snyder, 41 years old, runs his fingers through his hair, stiffens his shoulders and uneasily goes back to the University of Missouri.
"Maybe I tried to do it too quickly," Snyder said. "When you're young, you don't see the pitfalls."
There are a lot of reasons that Snyder had to leave Missouri a year and a half ago, that a fast-track coaching career careened out of control. Mike Krzyzewski had minted him as one of coaching's rising stars a decade ago. Snyder was smart and driven and produced of the perfect pedigree. He was a favored son of the Duke dynasty. He wanted it all and chased it hard and something blind ambition, arrogance, fame and fortune something drove the smartest kid in the gym to too many unwise choices.
As candidates go for teaching the San Antonio Spurs (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/sas/;_ylt=AiXJ9xOPLFJ1Hp0I2ebil27TjdIF)' way in its minor-league affiliate, the rookie coach of the Austin Toros seems an improbable choice. Spurs vice president and coach Gregg Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford have constructed an NBA dynasty on the belief that there are no quick-fixes, no short cuts, no compromises; that character counts. The Spurs are a model of professionalism and performance. When you're hired, you're legitimized.
Basketball's most respected operation believed Snyder was the best choice to teach and mentor its young players. On precious matters of basketball, they make judgments free of concerns over public perception and political correctness. San Antonio doesn't do charity cases.
San Antonio has mined basketball for some unlikely star talent Manu Ginobili (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3380/;_ylt=ArjW.nM002.QKck5qG7CRPTTjdIF) and Tony Parker (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3527/;_ylt=AiY0z37DooKCkJsh0CT0dSzTjdIF) on the floor, Mike Brown on the bench and Kevin Pritchard and Sam Presti in the front office.
"If you look at our entire staff, starting with Pop and myself, there are none of us that you would've pulled from the lineup and said, There's a pedigree for success in the NBA,' " Buford said.
Even before the Spurs purchased the Toros this summer, they pushed Austin ownership to hire the deposed Missouri coach. So far, Snyder has honored San Antonio's faith. The Toros have come out of the D-League Showcase this week with a 14-6 record and first place in the Southwest Division. Buford is thrilled with the way the Spurs' 2005 first-round pick, France's 6-foot-11 Ian Mahinmi (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3954/;_ylt=AhZcuvL8q6Cuuq44QC3fz_HTjdIF), is progressing, the way the shuttle between Austin and San Antonio has moved seamlessly for call-ups.
As a college coach, Snyder issued thick, glossy reports for players on everything they needed to develop as players and students. He had a staff for everything. He had so many innovative ideas, so much possibility, and yet it all started to go to hell when troubled recruit Ricky Clemons, convicted of choking a coed, drove his ATV up the chancellor's front lawn. Eventually, Clemons ratted out the program on tape in jailhouse confessions and landed Mizzou NCAA sanctions.
Snyder never needed to take the risks he did at Missouri. Sometimes, he had too much talent, too little chemistry. The longer Snyder stayed over his seven seasons, the more chaotic the program turned.
"There were a lot of ways that I was very well prepared for that job and, wasn't in some other ways and I don't think I understood at Duke," Snyder said. "I had never recruited junior colleges at Duke. There were some blind spots for me.
"But as you step away from it, you're able to see it more clearly. When you're in fight-or-flight mode for almost three years, it's hard to think what you should've done in that fight because you've got another one in front of you."
After leaving Missouri in 2002, he dropped out of basketball for a year. He has a JD/MBA degree. He's no gym teacher. He didn't need to coach. Still, Snyder couldn't shake the game. Privately, he has told friends that he has no desire to return to college basketball. Right now, he'd be a fool. For him, Austin is a most fortuitous landing spot. The blessing of Buford and Popovich gives him second-chance credibility, the way that Duke made possible a Big 12 coaching job at 32 years old.
"He's lived what happens when you skip steps and it goes wrong for you," a long-time associate said. "I think it's made him more resolute about the character that you need to have for success. Because of what happened (at Missouri) he's even more invested in Popovich's belief system."
For Snyder, he's been afforded a staggering support system by D-League standards. Dell Demps, the Spurs' pro personnel director, immersed himself in re-creating the Spurs culture in Austin. Demps and Buford hired Mo McHone, one of the best minor-league coaches in basketball, as director of basketball development. They gave Snyder an assistant coach, Roy Rogers, with an NBA playing and D-League coaching background. They gave him one of the most talented rosters in the D-League. Mostly, the Spurs gave him this mandate: Mentor in the pros the way you did in college.
"There are these great competing forces here," Snyder said. "To me, that's the challenge of the whole thing. For players, you have this survival component. There is this instinct of self-preservation that goes with the challenge of trying to get them to play together as a team, to value the team.
"You try to get them to understand that they can get to where they want to go by doing it this way."
During the summer, Buford led his Toros staff on a trip to Cleveland to visit with Indians general manager Mark Shapiro and his front office.
"We tried to study how successful minor-league programs in other sports, especially baseball, had used it," Buford said. "The trip to Cleveland was really empowering for us."
Through it all, Snyder found himself revitalized. The D-League is where you can find out about the truth about coaches, and where the coaches can find out the truth about themselves. This is where you can find out what happens when all the things the profession worships the rollover contracts, the rock-star status get stripped away. Sometimes, the job comes down to this: After driving eight hours overnight from a loss in Fort Wayne, Ind., who gets his team to play hard in Des Moines tonight?
"When the water goes out at the hotel before the game, if you can't shower, the whole team can't shower," Snyder said. "But I love that part of it. I do. And I love the anonymity. I wouldn't trade that right now. I'm in the moment a lot, which is awesome for me. That's always been a struggle. My mind races a bit."
Finally, he can take a breath and slow down. No more shortcuts, no more false gods of fame and fortune. This is the Spurs way now. For a coach, the credibility can be cleansing. For Quin Snyder, it's sheer salvation.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-lastshot011808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns