The Simple Life: Don Newman

[Kori Ellis]

December 6, 2004
The Simple Life: Don Newman
by Grant Fuller, spurs.com contributor

http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/newman_041206.html

Don Newman joins the Spurs coaching staff carrying a Texas-sized load of coaching wisdom and experience along with him.

Many old-school NBA fans will not forget the 1980-81 Boston Celtics because they captured the first of three Celtic championships in the 80s. Current Spurs assistant coach Don Newman will never forget that team because he was nearly a member of it.

Drafted by the Celtics in a 1980 class that included Hall of Famer Kevin McHale, Newman was the last player cut by the team to accommodate for Nate “Tiny” Archibald, who was in the midst of a resurgence as Boston’s floor leader.

“That was the most devastating day of my life,” Newman said. “I cried like a baby.”

However, it doesn’t take a long conversation with Newman to recognize the resiliency in his character and his desire to learn through every situation. So for Newman, being denied the chance to play more than a few preseason games with Celtic legends like Larry Bird, Robert Parish, McHale and Archibald only served to spark his determination to succeed.

“That’s when I started to grow up,” Newman said. “It knocked me back on my heels, but it taught me a big lesson. You’ve gotta be willing to go through the fire to get what you want in life.”

This new member of Coach Gregg Popovich’s coaching staff is a simple man. He’s the type of guy that would ask for peace and quiet for a Christmas gift, he loves paintings by artist Thomas Kincaid, is most comfortable on lakes and rivers, enjoys easy listening music and will even tell you, “I’m not a very complicated guy, it doesn’t take much to keep me happy.” But for such an easygoing coach, Newman acquired a frantic desire for learning over the years, fitting for a guy with a master’s degree in Education from Washington State University.

“Every time you’re in a situation, whether it’s positive or negative, it has to be a learning experience,” Newman said. “If you’re not learning something everyday, then you’re not growing. So that’s why I feel good walking into the Spurs organization because it’s a chance to take a quantum leap in my growth as a coach. I hope to give it a little of my flavor and increase my own abilities as well.”

Newman’s professional career did not stop at the Celtics’ doorstep. Nearly a decade before Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders popularized the notion of a two-sport athlete, Don Newman, without a single day of college football experience, made the unusual combination of basketball and football. In his new sport, Newman played seven seasons as a defensive back and wide receiver in the Canadian Football League, allowing coaches to smoothly convert him into a football player based on his athletic build and natural talent. Then, after spending time in training camps with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and New York Jets, he enjoyed a successful Continental Basketball Association career, where he became known as a high-energy, scrappy player for the Montana Golden Nuggets, led by Coach George Karl.

“I grew up playing everything, then I played college baseball and basketball and at the end of it all I was a basketball and football player,” Newman said. “It’s almost funny now, I get a kick out of it because we’re just living in different times now, but at that time, financially it made a lot of sense [to play two sports] and I had no responsibilities, no children yet, so I just tried to put my best foot forward and give whatever I could to the world of athleticism.”

And, like always, Newman took something away from the experience.

“And I learned a lot of lessons from it,” Newman said. “It taught me about coaching, how to talk to players, things that work. So I try to learn something from everything.”

With nearly 20 years of coaching experience under his belt, Newman has moved through the high school and college ranks to arrive at the pinnacle of basketball coaching, the NBA. He has led successful programs, but it hasn’t always been easy. He guided tiny Sacramento State into Division I compe ion as his first head coaching job and five years later he stepped in as interim head coach for the struggling Arizona State Sun Devils, leading the way to an 18-14 record and a spot in the 1998 National Invitational Tournament.

“As a coach I came and just tried to get in the door, and along the way I learned a lot of tricks of the trade,” Newman said. “You’re going to be thrown a curve ball, but the test comes when you decide whether to quit or to keep on fighting and let that ignite your fire rather than put your fire out.”

Newman inherited his passion for sports from his father, who was a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and taught Newman how to make connections between his personal life and the life of an athlete.

“He was real big on giving it everything you have on the court, on the diamond or on the field,” Newman said of his father, who passed away last year. “You had to give it every ounce of energy and lay it all on the line. That’s how I grew up, going out to get what you felt like you deserved. You might not always get what you want, but you can’t let it knock your boots off because you just gotta pick your chin up and get on to the next fight.”

The “next fight” for Newman now takes the form of the 2004-2005 San Antonio Spurs season. As he makes the transition from the Eastern Conference to the West, Newman looks forward to the challenge of helping lead the Spurs back to the NBA Finals that were out of reach by just one last-second Derek Fisher heave last year. According to Coach Newman, the NBA is often misconstrued as being overly glamorous when it is actually home to the most genuine basketball teaching he has seen in his long coaching career. And he’ll make no secret about his motives for bringing his teaching methods to one of the league’s most talented teams.

“I want one thing out of working with Coach Pop, and that’s a championship,” Newman said. “I hope to absorb as much wisdom and knowledge as I can because he’s been tremendously successful in this game and he’s a tremendous human being. It’s really a great opportunity to give what I have to this team.”

While Don Newman claims that he didn’t understand the business of basketball when the Celtics cut him back in 1980, he certainly understands it now. And if that means he has to settle for coaching future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan today instead of having played with the Hall of Famers of yesterday, he’ll take that tradeoff anytime.

“I’m extremely excited to have this opportunity because when the company wins, everybody wins, and that’s a very fortunate situation that the people here in San Antonio have created,” Newman said. “So I plan to give it all I have and let the chips fall where they may.”

[timvp]

Nice article.

I see Newman working before the game with a lot of the bigmen. If you notice them using hook shots in the lane, that is his work. I saw him make Robert Horry shoot 100 hooks in a row, alternating between left and right handed shots. He's also been trying to get Duncan to use his left handed hook more ... a shot he used when he was a rookie and second year player but hasn't used in a while. He's taught Rasho the sky hook ... which Air Rasho has broken out a couple times.

Overall, I say he's done a good job.