Post by eric on Sept 28, 2015 15:10:46 GMT -6
The NBA has awarded a Coach of the Year since 1963. There have been 46 NBA players to play for at least 5 COY winners without ever playing on a team whose coach won the COY. Which player do you suppose has played the most games under that scenario? While you think it over, here are some interesting cases I found, none of whom are the answer.
The first player to play for at least 5 COY winners was a tie between Len Chappell and Jim Barnes in 1971. Jim "Bad News" Barnes isn't the Bad News Barnes you're thinking of, that was Marvin, but according to Bob Ryan Jim got the name first from St. Red Auerbach. He played for five COYs but never when they won the award and was teammates with Len Chappell from 1965 to 1966. Len Chappell played a single game for the Dolph Schayes coached Warriors before being sold to the New York Knicks, where he had his only All-Star appearance before having a journeyman career of 9 years with 9 teams (plus a year in the ABA). He played for a sixth COY in 1971 when he was traded from Bill Fitch's Cavaliers to Richie Guerin's Hawks, and was a 12th man on Red Kerr's 1967 COY winning Bulls.
Don May played in the NBA for 6 teams in 7 years, and in every one of those 7 years he played for a COY, though only twice when they received the award. He was traded in 1973 for future considerations which usually meant a draft pick and a lousy one at that, but in this particular case it turned out to be an actual player, and so he played for several months alongside the man he was traded for. This isn't as good as the many baseball/hockey cases where a player was traded for himself, but it's not bad.
Paul Silas played all 16 years of his career under COYs, including Richie Guerin's 1968 win and Tommy Heinsohn's in 1973. This experience put him in great stead to be the first coach of LeBron James. A less well trained coach would only have lasted one or two years before getting fired.
Mike Woodson is one of three players to play for 8 COYs, along with Danny Manning and Mark West. He was teammates with Larry Drew for six years on the Kings and Clippers, during which time they played under six COYs and won zero. He was later reunited with 1987 coach Don Chaney to win in 1991, a year after Larry Drew won with Pat Riley in 1990. He and Larry were later reunited on the Atlanta Hawks coaching staff, where Larry took over after Woodson was fired.
The Kings had a run from 1975-1987 where they employed only COY winners:
Phil Johnson (75-78)
Cotton Fitzsimmons (79-84)
Jack McKinney (85)
Phil Johnson again (85-87)
and finally broke the chain by hiring Bill Russell, who lasted one year and never coached again.
Seventeen players in NBA history have had multiple 10+ block games. Only four of them never led the NBA in blocks: Joe Meriweather and Benoit Benjamin are two of them AND two of the 46.
Matt Barnes played for six COYs after every one of them won.
Frank Brickowski played for six COYs before every one of them won.
Greg Anderson played for the most COYs without ever being on a winner at seven, but he played only 429 games for them and is thus 22nd on the list.
.
Which player played the most games? The answer...
Kobe Bryant
200 games for Del Harris from 1997 to 1999 (won 1995)
837 games for Phil Jackson from 2000 to 2004 and 2006 to 2011 (won 1996)
63 games for Mike Brown from 2012 to 2013 (won 2007)
84 games for Mike D'Antoni from 2013 to 2014 (won 2009)
35 games for Byron Scott from 2015 to ???? (won 2008)
total 1219 games
The next highest player is Michael Finley at 1092. The next highest active player is technically Nazr Mohammed at 669 but he's publicly mulling retirement, next highest proper active player is Matt Barnes at 448. Only 29 players have ever played 1219 games at all, let alone under these specific circumstances. Bottom line, Kobe has at least one record that it's hard to imagine anyone ever breaking.
The first player to play for at least 5 COY winners was a tie between Len Chappell and Jim Barnes in 1971. Jim "Bad News" Barnes isn't the Bad News Barnes you're thinking of, that was Marvin, but according to Bob Ryan Jim got the name first from St. Red Auerbach. He played for five COYs but never when they won the award and was teammates with Len Chappell from 1965 to 1966. Len Chappell played a single game for the Dolph Schayes coached Warriors before being sold to the New York Knicks, where he had his only All-Star appearance before having a journeyman career of 9 years with 9 teams (plus a year in the ABA). He played for a sixth COY in 1971 when he was traded from Bill Fitch's Cavaliers to Richie Guerin's Hawks, and was a 12th man on Red Kerr's 1967 COY winning Bulls.
Don May played in the NBA for 6 teams in 7 years, and in every one of those 7 years he played for a COY, though only twice when they received the award. He was traded in 1973 for future considerations which usually meant a draft pick and a lousy one at that, but in this particular case it turned out to be an actual player, and so he played for several months alongside the man he was traded for. This isn't as good as the many baseball/hockey cases where a player was traded for himself, but it's not bad.
Paul Silas played all 16 years of his career under COYs, including Richie Guerin's 1968 win and Tommy Heinsohn's in 1973. This experience put him in great stead to be the first coach of LeBron James. A less well trained coach would only have lasted one or two years before getting fired.
Mike Woodson is one of three players to play for 8 COYs, along with Danny Manning and Mark West. He was teammates with Larry Drew for six years on the Kings and Clippers, during which time they played under six COYs and won zero. He was later reunited with 1987 coach Don Chaney to win in 1991, a year after Larry Drew won with Pat Riley in 1990. He and Larry were later reunited on the Atlanta Hawks coaching staff, where Larry took over after Woodson was fired.
The Kings had a run from 1975-1987 where they employed only COY winners:
Phil Johnson (75-78)
Cotton Fitzsimmons (79-84)
Jack McKinney (85)
Phil Johnson again (85-87)
and finally broke the chain by hiring Bill Russell, who lasted one year and never coached again.
Seventeen players in NBA history have had multiple 10+ block games. Only four of them never led the NBA in blocks: Joe Meriweather and Benoit Benjamin are two of them AND two of the 46.
Matt Barnes played for six COYs after every one of them won.
Frank Brickowski played for six COYs before every one of them won.
Greg Anderson played for the most COYs without ever being on a winner at seven, but he played only 429 games for them and is thus 22nd on the list.
.
Which player played the most games? The answer...
Kobe Bryant
200 games for Del Harris from 1997 to 1999 (won 1995)
837 games for Phil Jackson from 2000 to 2004 and 2006 to 2011 (won 1996)
63 games for Mike Brown from 2012 to 2013 (won 2007)
84 games for Mike D'Antoni from 2013 to 2014 (won 2009)
35 games for Byron Scott from 2015 to ???? (won 2008)
total 1219 games
The next highest player is Michael Finley at 1092. The next highest active player is technically Nazr Mohammed at 669 but he's publicly mulling retirement, next highest proper active player is Matt Barnes at 448. Only 29 players have ever played 1219 games at all, let alone under these specific circumstances. Bottom line, Kobe has at least one record that it's hard to imagine anyone ever breaking.
