Sideline Warriors - Eric Musselman '87

Former USD Player is NBA's Youngest Head Coach

Eric Musselmanby Timothy McKernan (Courtesy of USD Magazine)

There's a unique relationship that forms between coach and player, a combination of teacher-student, mentor-protégé and, for a select few, father-son. So it was natural for former USD basketball guard Eric Musselman '87 (right) to dial up his college coach and share the crowning moment in his basketball career — landing a job in 2002 as head coach of the NBA Golden State Warriors. And it was natural to ask his old coach for a little help, too. "Eric had asked me previously to join him with the Warriors if he got the job," says Hank Egan, who skippered the USD men's basketball team from 1984 to 1994, and recently retired from coaching after eight years as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs. "I told him I'd think about it, but I told him no — twice. " After he got the job, he called and asked again," says Egan, who will be one of the team's assistant coaches. "I was sitting in my living room, wondering what I was going to do with all the free time I had, so I said yes."

Hank EganThe fact that coach and player are together again, in collaborative roles, is tribute to the friendship they developed over the years. The duo kept in contact after Musselman graduated and launched a successful coaching career, first as a head coach in the Continental Basketball Association —basketball's minor leagues - then as an assistant for the NBA Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks. Some NBA fans were surprised when the Warriors tapped Musselman — at 37 the youngest coach in league history — to reverse the fortunes of a team that won only 21 of 82 games last season. But Egan says the struggling franchise may have found the perfect remedy. "Eric is young enough to relate to today's NBA players, but he has been around the game so long and understands it so well that he commands their respect," Egan (left) says. "There were a lot of headlines about Eric being the youngest coach in the NBA, but age is just a number. He has been preparing for this his whole life."

In fact, basketball runs in the Musselman blood. Eric's father, Bill, who passed away five years ago at age 59, led the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves. The elder Musselman held 14 head coaching jobs over 35 years, each time moving his family with him. One of those ports of call was San Diego, where in 1975 Bill coached the now-defunct San Diego Sails of the CBA, and where Eric remembers taking in USD games at the Sports Center. "Because I grew up as the son of a coach, I think I understood the game a lot better than most of the guys I played with through high school," Musselman says. "I loved playing, but I also loved the strategy and the techniques it takes to make strategy successful."

Eric MusselmanIt was the same way in college, where Egan says Musselman quickly became an on-court extension of the coaching staff, directing his fellow players and providing inspiration. "He was a feisty player, not the quickest and certainly not the biggest, but he knew the game better than any college kid I ever coached," Egan says. "We had more talented players, but no one with whom I was more comfortable handling the ball." After graduation, Musselman sold season tickets for the L.A. Clippers for six months before he was named assistant director of player personnel. Within a year, he was head coach of the CBA Rapid City (Iowa) Thrillers. He posted a .688 winning percentage over seven seasons in the league, and became the first coach in professional basketball history to win 100 games by age 28.

"If there is one thing I learned from my dad, it is to never let the other guy be better prepared than you are," Musselman says. "The Warriors contacted me on a Tuesday and set up a Friday interview. In that time I watched about 130 game tapes. I've wanted to be an NBA head coach for a long time, so there was no way I wasn't going to be ready when the chance came." The Musselman coaching gene is already reaching the next generation. As part of ESPN's coverage of Musselman's introduction as Warriors head coach, a reporter noted that he is one half of the NBA's first father-son head coaching tandem. "My son Michael turned to me and said, I'm gonna make it three (generations)," Musselman says. "I like his ambition. After all, he's only 6."