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He was going into the family business. Quin Snyder played for and was an assistant under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and he was Larry Brown's son-in-law, so, yeah. Coaching.
No. He would become a lawyer. Or a businessman. Or specialize in business law. But Snyder was close to giving up coaching. That much was certain.
He was going to be on an NBA sideline. Snyder had to climb over rubble to leave the college game, he went through educational boot camp for a joint Juris Doctor-MBA in grad school at Duke yet pick-and-roll still tugged at his heart more than mergers and acquisitions, so the pros. And since R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich run a job-placement program around the league, the Spurs organization.
No. Moscow. The international game. Ettore Messina, a coaching legend in Europe and Russia, wanted an assistant coach and Snyder wanted to broaden his horizon. Done.
The Jazz hired a head coach in June who has been everywhere and done everything. They need to develop young players, and Snyder has extensive experience in college and with San Antonio's minor-league affiliate in Austin. They have Enes Kanter from Turkey, Rudy Gobert from France and Dante Exum and Joe Ingles from Australia, and Snyder understands what players face coming from foreign lands. They want someone who knows pressure, and Snyder had been under the heat lamp of Duke, Brown and the Clippers, NCAA investigations, Doug Collins and the 76ers, and Mike Brown and the Lakers with championship aspirations.
How done everything? Snyder could have written, literally written, his Jazz contract.
"Yes, he's a first-year coach," Utah forward Steve Novak said. "But I think in terms of his experience and his knowledge, he's far from someone who's uncertain or kind of going through it for the first time. He's a first-year coach, but that's not him. He knew before the season what this was going to be like."
"No matter how great players are, they want to be coached."
– Quin Snyder
It is impossible to imagine another rookie coach -- and many coaches, period -- with as diverse a background. Final Fours as a Duke guard to the Clippers to Coach K protégé on the Duke bench to boy genius with the Missouri job at age 32 to the resignation nearly seven seasons later amid looming NCAA sanctions and dwindling attendance. He was "pretty close" to quitting the business, just as he thought he was done when he left Los Angeles to return to Durham for the JD-MBA, after undergrad degrees in philosophy and political science as an Academic All-America while a team captain.
San Antonio was looking for someone to run their team in the minors, the Toros. If there would be a final determination on whether he still loved the job, Austin would be the place to find out, with grassroots coaching, trying to develop D-Leaguers while far removed from the visible places Snyder had been before. Plus, and not least of all, it was the Spurs. Stability Central.
His passion rekindled, Snyder went to the 76ers, then the Lakers where he connected with Messina, then CSKA Moscow for Messina's return to Russia, then the Hawks when Mike Budenholzer went from San Antonio assistant to rookie head coach in Atlanta. To be able to take something from each of those places is some checklist.
Duke. "More than anything, I think Coach K is able to communicate with his players and take the time and energy to try to understand people enough," Snyder said. "When you say communication, it's got to be relevant. It's not like you just call someone on the phone and say, 'Hey, how are you doing?' And that's what he did with me. He took an interest. I think the development of those qualities and relationships allows you to coach guys."
Brown, his boss with the Clippers and his former father-in-law from Snyder's previous marriage to one of Brown's daughters. "I talk to him quite a bit," Snyder said. "He's been unbelievable. He called me after our second game. We got blown out by Dallas on the road. I sent him some film. I talked to him a bunch of times prior to the season. He helped my confidence. He was like, 'You belong. You're good. You're ready for this." He just was encouraging. He helped me. But he knows me, I think."
Missouri. "The ending, it was not so much that it was that bad as that it took so long to matriculate. During that time, it's an introspective period. After I left, it helped me be convinced that I wanted to get back into coaching and it also helped me understand I wanted to be in the NBA.... I feel like in this you're better able to shape your opportunity and your team (compared to college), ironically."
The Toros. "The situation in Austin fit me in so many ways. The people, with R.C. and Pop. The city, the fact that there was a certain amount of anonymity in the city. The city felt right to me at that point in my life. And then the nature of the D-League. The developmental component. The travel and the crowds and all the lack of kind of attention was never an issue for me. In many respects it made me realize, 'Man, I really love doing this.' I probably didn't go into it that convinced. I was fairly (convinced), but I kind of found that out even more. Getting back into it was not just an epiphany for me one day, like 'Oh, this is what I want to do again.' There was a slow process."
The Lakers. "I think one of the most crucial things in coaching that provides longevity is the ability to adapt. That's basically what I've had to do through stops. That situation was much more about finding a fit and a role and being able to contribute was more tactical, kind of understand the basketball component and less developmental. I learned a ton from the players there. The one thing I think I also took from the Lakers is that no matter how great players are, they want to be coached. Great players, if they can learn something from the guy at the gas station, they're going to take it. As a coach, if you can study and provide some sort of an advantage, they want that. That's coaching."
CSKA Moscow. "One of the primary reasons I went there was, one, just to have a general exposure to the international game. I think that has been something that has really been helpful to me when I came back. Whether it's Pero Antic in Atlanta, Rudy Gobert, Enes Kanter -- we have a number of international guys on the team here, where you just have a foundation to coach them from and to understand some of the transitions that they're going through. Joe Ingles played in Barcelona."
The Hawks. "I've been with first-time head coaches everywhere. We were starting a program in Philly with Doug Collins. We were starting a program in L.A. with Mike Brown. Ettore Messina had been to Moscow before, but it was his first year back. And then last year with Atlanta, we were starting a program. Even with the Toros, it was the first year. (The Spurs) had just bought the team. Having the experience of seeing something grow organically and come together and see how all those parts fit together, I think that was something. Bud gave me a ton of responsibility where in many ways I was able to learn the league even more in a very concentrated period of time because he had so much experience in the NBA. It gave me more of a confidence. I had seen so many different ways to do things and you get to a point where you say, 'Given this opportunity, what would I borrow from? What's your core belief and philosophy as a coach?' He really helped me with that. The other thing I will say is, DeMarre Carroll, Kyle Korver, Dennis Schroder and to a degree Paul Millsap were guys, it re-kindled in me kind of a developmental component. I think they felt that. I felt that. It was fun."
The Jazz are Snyder's sixth team in as many seasons, while Snyder is their fifth coach in the Salt Lake City era that began in 1979. (More perspective: Before this, Utah hadn't made an outside hire, a full coaching search, since Tom Nissalke was hired 35 years earlier. Frank Layden, Jerry Sloan and Tyrone Corbin were all already in-house and took over in mid-season.) Other than the frequency of change, though, they match. His background aligns with their needs.
That fit plus Snyder being one of the smartest guys in the league will close the gap on the playoff pack in the West, although the 6-17 record and nine losses in the last 10 games is affirmation the Jazz have a long way to go. But there are reasons for optimism for the future, the new coach, now 48, being one of them. He has developed talent before and succeeded. He has faced pressure and pushed back. It helps to have been everywhere and done everything.
https://www.nba.com/2014/news/featu...3/snyder-fitting-right-in-with-utah-and-jazz/
