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Del Harris on Peter Vecsey: I want to begin by saying I first met Peter almost 50 years ago when he brought a group of good players from New York City’s Rucker Park, including Tiny Archibald, to the Dominican Republic to play against the DR national team to help prepare them for the Central American Championships. I had contacts in the DR and they asked if Tom Nissalke and I could bring some Rockets during this off-season time to play as well. They paid money in DR pesos, but that is another story. It was a good thing to do for everyone and DR won the championship. That was all good. The Rockets were in receivership when Tom asked me to come there with him from the (ABA’s) Utah Stars. We had a great first year because we traded two future first-round picks (1977, ’78) for Moses Malone at the start of the season. He had been with us in the short time we were at the Stars. Getting what would become an all-time great was not the only boost — we drafted John Lucas in our first round, giving us a great feeder for the big guy and we had very good players who were excellent shooters all around with them. We lost in the 1977 Eastern Conference finals in six to Philadelphia with Dr. J (Julius Erving), George McGinnis, Bobby Jones, Doug Collins and others. Tom was named the 1977 NBA Coach of the Year.
Del Harris: Even in the North the number of blacks a team could have on the floor at a time was limited by unwritten rules that were understood in various conferences. So, when the gates were open for the upcoming black players, Peter had formed relationships with so many of these city players, black and white, that it allowed him access to their feelings and concerns. At least this is my take on it. He held the trust of so many, which was a good thing; but, at times this caused coaches to be leery of Peter because he had better access to them than the coaches did. Of course, by nature of the work, the coaches are at a bit of a disadvantage because a certain distance is inherent in the roles between the coach and the 12 players. Nonetheless, I don’t know of any who were separate from the team who were able to connect to so many players and their families as Peter, especially a national writer.
Marianne Stanley, presented byCathy Rush (‘08), Lisa Leslie (‘15), Nancy Lieberman (‘96) Hugh Evans, presented by Reggie Miller (‘12), George Gervin (‘96) Theresa Shank-Grentz, presented by Cathy Rush (‘08), Charles Barkley (’06), Vivian Stringer (‘09) Del Harris, presented by Nancy Lieberman (‘96), John Calipari (‘15), Sidney Moncrief (‘19) Lou Hudson, presented by Spencer Haywood (‘15), Jamaal Wilkes (‘12) Larry Costello, presented by Billy Cunningham (‘86), Wayne Embry (‘99), Bob Dandridge (’21) Radivoj Korac, presented by Spencer Haywood (‘15)
Sirius XM NBA: Long time coach Del Harris will be inducted to @Hoophall later this year. He tells @Rick Kamla he’s grateful to be included with the other great names in his class. pic.twitter.com/0SJDZWoSzW
Long time coach Del Harris will be inducted to @Hoophall later this year.
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) April 7, 2022
He tells @RickKamlaSports he’s grateful to be included with the other great names in his class. pic.twitter.com/0SJDZWoSzW
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Marc Stein: Longtime NBA coach Del Harris has been chosen alongside George Karl for induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. The 13-member @Hoophall class for 2022 includes former NBA stars Manu Ginobili, Tim Hardaway and Lou Hudson, coaches George Karl, Del Harris and Larry Costello, longtime referee Hugh Evans and WNBA stars Swin Cash and Lindsay Whalen.
The rookie’s inclusion in the starting lineup was the result of forward Robert Horry spraining his left ankle during the team’s win over the Seattle SuperSonics. Coach Del Harris decided to move guard Eddie Jones to the three-spot, then put Bryant into Jones’ role at shooting guard. But even then, Harris had a contingency plan in case the moment proved too big for Bryant. “It’s a risk,” Harris told The County Sun during shootaround. “If it doesn’t work out, we’ll put Jerome Kersey in there. At this point, Jerome will be a backup, and we have to get him settled into that. And Byron Scott is a backup. Kobe knows when Robert’s back, he’ll go back (to coming off the bench).”
What have you learned about organizational structure in the past two decades? Mark Cuban: There’s business organizational structure and there’s players. It’s a player-driven league. You have to adapt to the players. What does that adaptation look like? Mark Cuban: Nico and J-Kidd. They get to come in with a fresh start. The players are just different. When I first came here, there was a playbook. Del Harris would hand you a playbook. There are no kids today reading anything. I don’t care what it is. But if you put it in a video? We are talking about putting plays in an app where you just scroll like a TikTok video. It’s no different than my 12-year-old, my 15-year-old and my 18-year-old. If I want to know what news is happening, I ask what happened on TikTok because that’s how you get them. Why are the kids coming into the NBA any different than our kids? It’s the exact same thing.
Mark Berman: Former #Rockets coach Del Harris,named winner of 2020 Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Basketball Coaches Assoc. Del says when introduced to kids: “I get introduced as Kobe’s 1st coach,Magic’s last coach & in the movie Space Jam. That’s all they care about” pic.twitter.com/AbCnHkLctr
Former #Rockets coach Del Harris,named winner of 2020 Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Basketball Coaches Assoc. Del says when introduced to kids: “I get introduced as Kobe’s 1st coach,Magic’s last coach & in the movie Space Jam. That’s all they care about” pic.twitter.com/AbCnHkLctr
— Mark Berman (@MarkBerman_) October 2, 2020
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Six decades later, Harris is still involved in the NBA. And still getting accolades for a career well-played and well-coached. On Friday afternoon, Harris will be announced as the 2020 winner of the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, given by the National Basketball Coaches Association in memory of the hall of fame coach whose outstanding NBA coaching career set a standard for integrity, competitive excellence and tireless promotion of NBA basketball.
“Del is like an encyclopedia of basketball,” said No. 6 all-time NBA scorer and Mavericks’ legend Dirk Nowitzki. “I would always go to Del and see what he has to say because he knows so much. He’s been around forever. “He’s given the game of basketball so much. He’s a pleasure to talk to and I could talk to him for hours. Great guy. Coached a lot of NBA greats. And he’s done a lot for our sport and our league. I’m a huge Del fan and congratulations on getting this award. Well, well done.”
The award recipient is selected annually by a committee comprised of some of the most respected coaches and basketball executives in the game, including Bernie Bickerstaff, Billy Cunningham, Joe Dumars, Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich, Pat Riley, Donnie Walsh and Lenny Wilkens. The award has been given out since 2009. Tom Heinsohn was the first recipient and others to win the honor include Pat Riley, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry Sloan and Bernie Bickerstaff.
Apart from losing in the NBA finals against the Boston Celtics back in 2008, not playing in his first two, three years was the least favorite part in his illustrious career. Even though the Lakers at that time had solid players on the guard positions, Kobe believes he should have played more minutes. He said the main reason why that didn’t happen was because of the Dell Harris, who was the head coach for the Lakers during those years. “There were a couple of them. Losing to the Celtics in 08 was tough. Before that, at the beginning of the journey, it was not playing. Coming in as a rookie knowing s--- is going to be like this, I would go back to school because I felt like my coach Del Harris at the time was trying to make sure he is not favoring the young kids and as a result, he swan in the other direction doing things that weren’t really fair. My first 2,3 years were a nightmare for me.”
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