Lockout Antidote: Chatting with Del Harris

Longtime coach Del Harris is returning to the sidelines as head coach of the Texas Legends, the Dallas Mavericks' D-League affiliate. (Mark J. Rebilas/US PRESSWIRE)

Del Harris has coached just about everywhere — at the small college level, as an assistant in both the ABA and the NBA, on international teams from the Dominican Republic to China (where Harris coached the Yao Ming-led 2004 Olympic team) and as the head guy for three different NBA franchises. He has spent most of the last few years as a consultant to the Dallas Mavericks, but last week he took a job that would at first seem strange for a 74-year-old: head coach of the Texas Legends, the Mavericks’ D-League affiliate. Harris took some time out to talk to SI.com about the move, his career and Lt. Frank Drebin.

SI.com: You said in the press release announcing the hire that Donnie Nelson (Legends’ co-owner and a top official with the Mavs) caught you at the right time — just on the heels of working as an assistant coach for a scrappy Dominican Republic team that finished third at this year’s FIBA Americas championship. Is that really what did it — that feeling of getting a lot out of a group that, aside from a few big names, lacked can’t-miss NBA talent?

Harris: It was in some ways similar to what a person might be doing in the D-League, because we were trying to help the team and these players get to the next level, which is the same thing you do in the D-League. It was such a good experience to be working with these guys, who are all good players who had never medaled in a major event. Just to see them make the improvements and come together as a team — it was so exciting.

SI.com: But is that how the hiring really came together? Did you get back and suddenly get offered the job? Or did you ask for it?

Harris: Here is the way it went: While I was at the FIBA Americas tournament, Donnie was over in Europe at the Eurobasket event, and he and I exchanged a couple of emails or texts back and forth where we just said, “You know, when we get back to the U.S., we need to get together and see where we stand on everything.” Two days after he got back, he asked to meet for coffee at our normal meeting place. After we talked a bit, I asked, “How are you coming on finding a coach?” And he said, “We should know in about five minutes.” I said something like, “Well, it’s good that you’ve got a lead that is pretty hot.” And then the way he looked at me, I could something was up. He said, “Hey, you know, we need you to do this,” and I asked him for a couple of days.  I’m obligated to teach a class at a  local college here, and I had to look at my schedule. Well, we found we could accommodate my class, and the travel didn’t appear so daunting. I was just sorta in the coaching mood, I guess.

SI.com: Do you plan to implement something like the Dallas game plan? Or do the Legends not operate like that? It seems like copying an affiliate team’s offense would help cut down on the alleged tendency of some D-League guys to gun for their own points.

Harris: Actually, we don’t really implement the Mavericks’ game plan. We don’t have anyone like a certain superstar player. [Editor's note: Due to lockout-related restrictions, Harris can't mention this player by name, but I can: Dirk Nowitzki]. We will just teach things that are fundamental to NBA ball. Anybody that comes in will have a pretty good understanding, because we’re not going to be doing anything really wild.

What we do need to have is a point guard that can have a reasonable command of the game. Traditionally, the D-League and its predecessors have been guard-oriented; the big guys either aren’t good enough, or if they are, they don’t last long, since they get moved up. It tends to be a guard-oriented league, and a shooters’ league. You need that person who has presence and vision, because a lot of those shooters cannot create their own shots.

SI.com: Let’s switch gears a bit and talk about your career, which has taken you lots of places. I know you’ve addressed it a bit before, but I’ve always been curious what you thought of Leslie Nielsen — or “Airplane” and “The Naked Gun” — with everyone joking about how much you guys look alike. Were you a fan of his movies? Did the comparison annoy you or get old?

Harris: As I noted when he passed on, he and I were friends and celebrity co-chairs of the Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinic campaign in Milwaukee over 20 years ago and helped, along with so many others, including the great Bob Hope and thousands of Wisconsonites, to establish that great facility that has helped so many people over the past couple decades.  He was a fun guy and I am proud to have been associated with him, even mistaken for him.  Rest in peace.

SI.com: In all the seasons you’ve coached, does any one stand out in a way some people might not expect? Some season when you didn’t necessarily win 50 games or make noise in the playoffs, but was somehow really fulfilling?

Harris: You get asked questions like that a lot when you’ve been in it as long as I have. I’ve been fortunate enough to have won championships at every level, if you regard Western Conference championships in the NBA as a championship, which it is, since that’s what it’s called — a “championship.” [Editor's note: Harris is talking here of the 1980-81 Rockets, who lost to the Celtics in the Finals.]  It’s true I didn’t get to win the NBA Finals, but the main reaction to winning a championship is the same at every level. I won at high school, college, the pros and internationally, and the feeling was always the same. I can’t say one was more important than another, because that particular moment was the most important thing at the time.

One thing that stands out was experiencing opening night at the Olympics in 2004, and in Athens, where it all started, you know? Even though I wasn’t representing my own country, to be with the world’s largest country and to be the first foreign guy to really do this — just experiencing that moment was incredible. It was more special than winning a championship, because I really had nothing to compare it to. There was nothing to build up to that moment of walking into the stadium, and all of a sudden, there it was.

That’s the most singularly indelible thing that basketball brought me. And it didn’t even have to do with the game.

SI.com: It’s impossible, I realize, but do you have a favorite player you’ve coached? And define “favorite” however you like — best, hardest-working, funniest, whatever.

Harris: I have coached at least 16 players who are or will be in the Hall of Fame, so it is impossible to say who was the best player. The problem is that I was the first coach for some great players and the last coach for others.  The player I coached the longest and in his prime was the great Moses Malone.

Unfortunately, I had some really great players at the end of their careers, but was fortunate to have had that opportunity at least — Magic Johnson, Rick Barry, Jack Sikma, Sidney Moncrief, Calvin Murphy, Elvin Hayes, Bob Lanier, Tiny Archibald and Adrian Dantley, among others. I was blessed to have had time with six of the best centers who ever played the game — Moses, Shaq, Lanier, Sikma, Yao and Vlade Divac.

SI.com: Defense remains difficult for people to quantify. Including only guys you are allowed to name during the lockout, who is the best perimeter defender you’ve ever seen? And who is the best big man defender?

Harris: Back when they would let a person guard above the foul line more aggressively, it was fun to watch guys like Bobby Jones, Jerry Sloan, Norm Van Lier, Sidney Moncrief, Don Buse, Jim Price and their like work over people defensively.  The rules favor the offense so much now that it is hard to have a real stopper.  One who did a nice job with limited overall ability was Bruce Bowen, with the Spurs most recently.