The wheels began to revolve in the summer of 1993, when NBA veteran Tree Rollins received a call from his old friend Brian Hill. A youthful Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway played for the Orlando Magic, who had Hill as their new head coach. Hill especially wanted Rollins to work with O’Neal as an assistant. After thinking about the offer for a few weeks, the 7-foot-1 Rollins, who had just finished playing two seasons as Hakeem Olajuwon’s backup with the Houston Rockets, decided to take it. In his late 30s, Rollins saw it as a fantastic opportunity to begin the next stage of his basketball career. But he had no idea what it would soon develop into.
OTD (1986) Michael Jordan pump fakes, drops Cliff Levingston then dunks on Tree Rollins!
😂 Charles Oakley pointing at Rollins pic.twitter.com/2sBAx0sdFS
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) December 10, 2021
Rollins told the Guardian, “I went to Orlando to be an assistant coach.” I would go outside and work on teamwork. You couldn’t stop him with the big guy, Shaquille. With my experience, however, I could deceive him into working harder.
O’Neal was the NBA’s most exciting young player at the moment and was the reigning rookie of the year. And Rollins was the ideal coach to develop O’Neal’s undeveloped talent because of his maturity, sage advice, and composed demeanour. Yet an amusing event took place. Rollins asserts, “I’d do a better job of challenging him than our other backups.”
With the veteran, the other coaches would make fun of the idea of having him put on the uniform once more. However, things took a serious turn when Magic management informed Rollins that they genuinely required him to don a uniform during a period of the season when the team was severely depleted as a result of injuries. On January 10, 1994, against Houston, of all teams, Rollins played his debut game. The seasoned professional joined a distinguished list of individuals who had performed double duty for an NBA organisation by participating in that game. As a player-coach, Rollins was now
When reflecting on the moments leading up to the game versus Houston, Rollins recalls, “I don’t know if I was nervous or afraid; I don’t know what I was.” However, a contract was negotiated. He pauses and chuckles, saying, “I should have held out.”
Fans believed it was a ruse by the Magic to get him to play, according to Rollins, the most recent player-coach in the NBA. But the reality was stark. Rollins played a total of eight minutes, grabbed two rebounds, and scored two points as the Magic defeated Houston in their first game. Throughout the entire season and into the following one, he remained on the active roster. What is his one-player caution? According to Rollins, “I didn’t do wind sprints.” When the team needed to sprint, the players would jokingly say that Rollins would “pick up the coaching book.” In addition, the NBA experienced a lockout in the summer of 1995, which prevented management from contacting players following Rollins’ two years with the Magic and the team’s (Rollins’ first and only) trip to the finals. The joke, according to Rollins, was that he couldn’t speak to himself.
All these suggestions and Tree Rollins was right there the whole time. pic.twitter.com/SzJQwpusU3
— Steven Polanco (@sjp2010) May 12, 2022
The Georgia-born centre claims that Detroit assistant coach Brendan Malone—the father of Nuggets champion coach Michael—was the first to recognise his aptitude for coaching when he first started to feel his “body winding down.” Hill, a scout at the time, and Rollins became friends when Rollins was a member of the Atlanta Hawks. Then, it made sense when Hill was appointed Orlando’s CEO. Rollins coached four more NBA teams before becoming the head coach of the WNBA. He continued to work with the Magic as an assistant through 1999. However, success took a lot of effort, especially as a player-coach. Hill assured Rollins that once he agreed to play, he could unwind on the coaching front, but Rollins couldn’t help himself.
He claims that “me being me,” he kept up with all of the assistant coaching responsibilities. Rollins wanted to maintain his coaching skills since he knew that his playing days were coming to an end and he needed to show the team and staff that he wasn’t coasting. Thus, he organised scouting reports in advance of the games and prepared postgame reports following them. However, the big man went through more hardship as a result of the job than only the demands of the roles. He twice made the NBA’s all-defence team. While he made an effort to maintain positive interactions with the players and coaches, there were moments when he became mired in business.
Rollins claims I’ve always been a straightforward guy. “So dealing with really sensitive people was the hardest thing I had to do. As a coach, I was aware when a player was about to be released since we had discussed it in a meeting. However, I now have to see him in the locker room as his teammate since I’m a player. That aspect of the experience was the most difficult for me.
When a player is fired, it has an impact on his livelihood and the future of his family. Those players would occasionally become irate with Rollins because they wanted a better heads-up or to be battled for with management. As a result, Rollins found himself mostly avoiding players he knew would be fired. Apart from that, the work did have certain advantages. Rollins recalls his game playtime with O’Neal with nostalgia. He says, “Twin towers.” “I think, ‘Man, amazing!’ when I reflect back on that. Playing alongside Shaquille O’Neal made me feel like a young child.
But how did he do it as a rookie coach and player at the same time? In any case, Hubie Brown, Rudy Tomjanovich, Chuck Daly, and Lenny Wilkens are just a few of the illustrious coaches Rollins acknowledges as his past teachers. He also claims to have never called a play or checked himself into a game. The well-travelled Wilkens is also a former NBA player-coach, which may not be a coincidence. Bill Russell (the only player-coach to win an NBA title in the position, doing it twice), Red Holzman, Dave DeBusschere, Dolph Schayes, Bob Pettit, Bob Cousy, and Dave Cowens, who was the final player-head coach in 1978–79 with the Celtics at the age of 30.
With regard to Wilkens, he spent a number of years as the Seattle Supersonics’ player-head coach before taking over as the team’s permanent head coach and earning a championship in 1979. Wilkens was a superb decision for Seattle as a point guard who is renowned for his court vision and ability to set up guys. He used to sit behind the varsity head coach as a freshman in college to “see what he saw.” When the Sonics fired their head coach, Wilkens was asked to take over by the team’s general manager in a professional setting. Wilkens at first assumed the man was “crazy.” But he agreed because training camp was so near at the time. Wilkens told the Guardian, “I knew how to deliver the ball to people; I knew who should have it. That wasn’t a concern.
Wilkens’ move from teammate to head coach was less difficult than anticipated, making him the third-most successful coach in NBA history. He remarks, “The players were very receptive to me.” ” They believed in me. I knew how to manage a practise, what we needed to work on, and how to assist defensively. I was confident that we would succeed if I planned ahead and took the necessary action. It wasn’t that difficult, after all. When the players responded favourably to what I was doing, it made me feel even better.
Hall of Fame forward and former Olympic gold medalist Spencer Haywood played for two years for Wilkens’ team in Seattle, and he describes the experience as “fucking great.” Haywood claims that Wilkens was able to make adjustments on the court while still directing the game plan with the ball in his hand. According to Haywood, their chemistry and deft signal calling on the floor produced numerous easy buckets. Haywood informs the Guardian about Wilkens: “You’re playing with a point guard who is an all-time great.” ” And he’s making his coaching debut, and he’s also an all-time great coach! What the heck, I ask?
Because head coaches’ pay is not capped, the NBA in 1983–84 outlawed player-head coaching (but not player-assistant coaching). Unlike players, who earn a lot more than coaches, (However, the Dallas Mavericks attempted to break the law in the 2000s.) An opportunity to make more money than he should can exist for someone who is a player-head coach. (Today, both the NFL and MLB adopt this way of thinking.) On the court and in huddles, though, many players today operate as coaches in a de facto capacity. Future coaches Jason Kidd and Steve Nash each made a lot of noise as players for Phoenix and Dallas. Just the year before, Joe Mazzella and his crew observed Marcus Smart leading huddles. LeBron James, who is regarded as one of the all-time greats, is even renowned for calling his own game-winning shots while holding a white board.
When asked why there are no longer player coaches, Rollins, whose 18-season playing career ended in 1995, said, “It’s a sad thing to say.” But the issue is financial.
Around 1990, Rollins recalls joining the Detroit Pistons. One day, the coaches called time on practise, but All-Star point guard Isiah Thomas insisted the group needed to put in more effort. Thomas supervised practise and prepared his troops for the coaches’ departure. According to Rollins, this is a common occurrence. The coaches’ extensions are frequently the team captains. However, Rollins is a dinosaur; he was the last NBA player to wear canvas Converse sneakers. He would like to see the role reinstated today. And although Wilkens thinks it would be “hard” to bring the player-coach back because some items, like canvas sneakers, may never come back, Rollins isn’t so sure. The door was left ajar by him.
Rollins believes that eventually “they’ll find another way to bring the player-coach back.” Look at that elderly man in Miami [Udonis Haslam, a 20-year veteran who recently retired]. He is not a musician. What then is he doing? He is serving as a mentor. He reportedly does well in the locker room. Since they are going to find a way to bring it back, I’m sure they are looking for a way to ease back into it.