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The list of players who have passed through Ron Naclerio’s program is a “Who’s Who” of basketball talent, including Rafer “Skip to My Lou” Alston and Royal Ivey. When asked what separated these future NBA stars from the rest, Naclerio points to a relentless work ethic. “They wanted to get better and when they got better, they wanted to keep on getting better.” But for every NBA success story, there are dozens of “wins” that never made the newspapers. Naclerio speaks with equal passion about the kids he helped pull out of gangs or those he stood by during legal troubles. “When you’re in the hood and I like to say that I’m the most well known honky in the ‘hood, there are a lot of things you do that people don’t know about.”
Myles Turner: I rock with Rick (Carlisle) too. He’s one of my favorite coaches. But I think he was salty too. You know what I’m saying? With how everything shook out.
New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown acknowledged Brooklyn’s performance after Friday’s 93-92 road win at Barclays Center. “Give Brooklyn a lot of credit. I thought they came out and they were extremely physical from the beginning of the game throughout the whole game and it impacted us and start with Jordi on down. Jordi outcoached me,” Brown said.
Marc J Spears: Knicks head coach Mike Brown reached 500 wins with a victory at Brooklyn tonight and became the 40th coach in NBA history to reach that mark. Hawks head coach Quin Snyder also has 496 career coaching wins.
Vanessa Richardson: Ime Udoka tells me Reed Sheppard will start tonight vs Hawks. Starting lineup: Reed Sheppard Amen Thompson Kevin Durant Jabari Smith Jr Alperen Şengün
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Coty M. Davis: “Guys should not have to feel they have to play hurt or injured.” With the possibility of Cade Cunningham missing out on regular season awards, JB Bickerstaff shares his thoughts on the league’s 65-game rule. #Pistons
“Guys should not have to feel they have to play hurt or injured.”
— Coty M. Davis (@CotyDavis_24) March 20, 2026
With the possibility of Cunningham missing out on regular season awards, Bickerstaff shares his thoughts on the league’s 65-game rule. #Pistons pic.twitter.com/tvoexGgYJ3
Brian Lewis: Jordi Fernandez on if Michael Porter Jr. could play this season: "So, 2 or 3 weeks and then obviously there's a ramp up to go back to a competition level. We cannot predict but it'll be close. So we're going to go through these 2, 3 weeks, put the work in and then we'll see where we are." #Nets
Mike Brown when Cavs hired Jordi Fernandez: I told him, I said, "Hey, look, if there's nothing that you have to do for Elijah or Cameron, then you come down to the practice facility. You can sit in our meetings. You can watch practice. Now, you won't be able to coach or anything because you're not an employee of the Cavaliers, but I do have the ability to allow you in our meetings and practices." Fast forward on one of the days right before the season started. Somebody comes in and says, "Hey, such and such here. Need somebody to work him out. There are no coaches." Jordi was sitting in my office. So I said, "Jordi, go work him out." Danny Ferry comes busting in my office. “Who's that coach working with our player?!” And I was just like, "Oh Danny, I should have ran this by you." And he goes, “The guy's great." And I said, "He is?" I said, "Yeah, he's great." Then he's like, "Do you want to hire him?" Literally just like this. And I was like, "Hell yes, I need to hire him." Then he goes, "Okay, cool." I was like, "Okay, great." And that's how he got hired in the NBA.
Rod Strickland was not the Hall of Fame-level player that those three were — though he did have his number 10 retired by DePaul this season. LIU is a long, long way from the big stages on which he is accustomed to performing, but he’s embracing a new sense of accomplishment. “I think it’s different probably because as a player, that was a comfort level,” Strickland said Thursday. “I’ve been playing basketball all my life. I think being a coach, that coach bug kind of hit me at the end of my career, after my career. So it feels good to be able to lead a group of young men and get to them to a point where they’re somewhere where they’ve never been before. And I can see it every day, like, since we got the bid. You can see the excitement.”
Despite the blowout win, the conversation in the postgame press conference quickly shifted toward Friday’s matchup against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. The contest features a meeting between Rajakovic and his compatriot, three-time season MVP Nikola Jokic. When asked how he plans to neutralize the Serbian superstar, Rajakovic kept the mood light before turning to the realities of his roster depth. “We’re going to surprise Jokic. We’re going to put our point guards to guard him. So, we’re preparing a very special strategy against him,” he joked, drawing laughs from the media. However, his tone shifted to the importance of forward Collin Murray-Boyles, who has been sidelined with a left thumb sprain. “Having CMB would be a huge help to have in that game,” he added.
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Mike Bibby’s former backcourt mate, Doug Christie, is currently in the midst of his second season coaching the Kings. After taking over the team midway through the last season and posting a respectable record (27-24), things have been nothing but a struggle this season, with Christie even calling out the team early in the season. “I think Doug’s doing the best job he could do with the cards that he was dealt,” said Bibby in a one-on-one interview with R.org. “Doug has a lot of passion for the game. He has the greatest assistant coaching staff. It’s unfortunate that it’s a rebuilding year or however they want to put it. “But it’s unfortunate for Doug because I think he has the passion to coach, and he loves the guys, and he has that,” Bibby continued to say.
The Warriors' longtime leader became the 28th coach to achieve the milestone and did so in 943 games, behind only Phil Jackson (805), Pat Riley (832) and Gregg Popovich (887). "It's surreal to hear my name in that group, but I can tell you that it's one thing that bonds us all together, those names and mine," Kerr told reporters after Golden State's 125-117 win at Capital One Arena. "It's talent. It's talent. I mean, you can't win in this league without great players, and I was blessed from the day I took this job with incredible talent with Steph [Curry] and Klay [Thompson] and Andre [Iguodala] and Andrew Bogut and down down the list ... "All these guys are just amazing, and so I owe the honor to incredible talent and a great organization. Just to work for the Warriors, to be part of this amazing group of people that [Warriors owners] Joe Lacob and Peter Guber put together. Just to be a part of this, I'm so blessed, and most organizations are not this strong and this aligned, and I'm very, very lucky."
Sandro Mamukelashvili: Darko doesn't take easy on anyone. Like if you make a mistake, he you're going to hear about the mistake in the film. If you didn't pass the ball, you're going to hear about that you didn't pass the ball and it was a bad shot. So I respect that as a coach just knowing that he going to get on everybody and he going to put everybody and treat everybody at the same standard. But also defensively, a lot of guys are like, ‘Oh, Sandro defensively did it, Sandro.’ He came to me and he said, ‘If you don't get beat, that means you're not playing hard.’ So I'm okay with you getting deep as long as you are playing hard and pressuring the ball and playing to our standards. So that also is amazing. Just just coach giving you that freedom to be aggressive and interesting. Get beat. But yeah, that's why he said always there's helps, there is help side, there's eagles and everything, but he loves he loves to challenge you.”
It doesn’t take long to realize that Tony Dobbins, in many ways, serves as the antithesis of the intensity that exudes from (the majority) of the Celtics’ bench, in particular from Joe Mazzulla and DJ MacLeay. He’s soft-spoken and comforting, frequently putting his arms around players, fellow assistants, and even referees. “I’m not going to be able to be more intense than Joe or more intense than DMac [DJ MacLeay],” Dobbins told CelticsBlog in a lengthy sit-down conversation. “But I can offer a different perspective, or in a moment, I can offer a different lens through which to view the situation, whether it’s my conversation with a player or an official.”