LAS VEGAS, July 17 -- Nearly 20 years ago, Flip Saunders and Don Zierden would go to the Ponderosa Steakhouse and dream of the NBA.
The two coaches, longtime friends and colleagues, were on the staff of the La Crosse Catbirds of the minor league Continental Basketball Association, with Saunders as the head coach and Zierden as his assistant. Minor league coaches don't generally reside in lofty tax brackets, and their per diem was about $15 a day, but the franchise had an arrangement with the buffet chain that allowed Saunders and Zierden to eat cheaply. So after morning shoot-arounds on game days, Zierden would grab the Minneapolis and St. Paul sports sections, and the men would spend two or three hours sitting at the restaurant and talking basketball: about different schemes and approaches, about where their careers were going and about what they would do if they were in charge of an NBA franchise.
"I'm dead serious," Zierden said this week. "You can't make this up. It wasn't the Timberwolves per se; it was, 'Someday we're gonna be in the NBA.' "
Eventually they got there, first in Minnesota, later in Detroit, and finally in Washington, where Saunders quickly hired his longtime friend as an assistant coach after he took over the Wizards in the spring. On Friday night, Zierden led the Wizards' Summer League team against those same Minnesota Timberwolves; Minnesota won, 89-82, dropping Washington's record to 1-2.
Saunders and Zierden met when they were both college point guards playing summer pickup games at the University of Minnesota, Saunders for the Gophers and Zierden for Division III Mount Senario in Wisconsin. ("Unfortunately, yes, Flip got the better of me," Zierden joked of those games.)
They both wanted basketball to be their lives, so Zierden got a job leading his high school alma mater in Minnesota and Saunders went to Golden Valley Lutheran College and Minnesota before landing at Tulsa. One day in 1986, Saunders called his friend and said that if Zierden was going to do basketball for his whole life, he should really think about college coaching. Soon, they were colleagues at Tulsa.
And that would become the pattern. Saunders went to the CBA, soon bringing Zierden along as an assistant -- "Hey, if you want to try this pro thing, it's pretty good," was the pitch, as Zierden remembered it. After Zierden moved on to a head coaching job in the CBA, splitting two uncomfortable head-to-head meetings with his mentor, Saunders was hired to guide the Timberwolves. Soon, Zierden was there, too, as a video coordinator and then an assistant coach. Saunders went to Detroit, and Zierden followed. They've worked together for nearly 20 years in five cities, obsessively dissecting the game at each step.
One year in La Crosse, for example, the Catbirds lost the opening game of a playoff series against the Quad City Thunder. The two men retreated to Saunders's basement, commandeered his young son's easel, and stayed up until 3 or 4 in the morning drawing up plays, some involving a spread offense. They went on to win the series, and they still use the plays they conceived that night.
"Those are the things that you remember; you look back with fondness," Zierden said. "When we go on the road, our evening of excitement is maybe go to dinner, see a movie and go back to his hotel room and talk about the game. We're pretty boring people, I can tell you that. . . . Even when we were younger, it was always about getting this player or running this set better."
Their latest reunion was more complicated than most. A health issue in his family required Zierden to go back home to Minnesota, and he spent two years coaching the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA while also spending a year as the radio color analyst for Gophers basketball. From the women's game, he said he learned more about how to get jump shooters open, and from the radio job, he learned that it was fun to be an expert.
"When you're a color analyst, you know everything," he said with a laugh. "When you go back to being a coach, you know nothing. I literally could say whatever I wanted, and there's probably somebody at home going, 'Yeah, yeah, that guy's right.' "
He also remained close with Saunders, whose son Ryan was a graduate assistant for the Gophers. The two veteran coaches would exchange texts about the Gophers games during commercial breaks, and would meet after the games for more basketball talk. Zierden still wanted to get back to the NBA, and when Saunders was hired by the Wizards and the health issue was resolved, a few days of negotiation resulted in Zierden leaving the Lynx less than a week before its season started.
He had worked on a transition plan with the team, and said he still has good relationships with the owner and current coach, but for one of the first times in his career, he came under pointed criticism from media members, who accused him of abandoning his team.
When he joined Saunders in Washington, though, he said it felt as if nothing had changed. Both men have tweaked some of their philosophies since they were last together, but they quickly started texting each other about strategy, and drawing up new ideas on whatever scrap of paper was handy.
"Most of my coaching games in my pro career have been with Flip, and I think it's the same way with him," Zierden said. "We've really been together at every stage."
Wizards Note: Nick Young had 23 points in Friday's game and is now averaging 25.3 points in three Summer League contests.
Source
"I'm dead serious," Zierden said this week. "You can't make this up. It wasn't the Timberwolves per se; it was, 'Someday we're gonna be in the NBA.' "
Saunders and Zierden met when they were both college point guards playing summer pickup games at the University of Minnesota, Saunders for the Gophers and Zierden for Division III Mount Senario in Wisconsin. ("Unfortunately, yes, Flip got the better of me," Zierden joked of those games.)
They both wanted basketball to be their lives, so Zierden got a job leading his high school alma mater in Minnesota and Saunders went to Golden Valley Lutheran College and Minnesota before landing at Tulsa. One day in 1986, Saunders called his friend and said that if Zierden was going to do basketball for his whole life, he should really think about college coaching. Soon, they were colleagues at Tulsa.
And that would become the pattern. Saunders went to the CBA, soon bringing Zierden along as an assistant -- "Hey, if you want to try this pro thing, it's pretty good," was the pitch, as Zierden remembered it. After Zierden moved on to a head coaching job in the CBA, splitting two uncomfortable head-to-head meetings with his mentor, Saunders was hired to guide the Timberwolves. Soon, Zierden was there, too, as a video coordinator and then an assistant coach. Saunders went to Detroit, and Zierden followed. They've worked together for nearly 20 years in five cities, obsessively dissecting the game at each step.
One year in La Crosse, for example, the Catbirds lost the opening game of a playoff series against the Quad City Thunder. The two men retreated to Saunders's basement, commandeered his young son's easel, and stayed up until 3 or 4 in the morning drawing up plays, some involving a spread offense. They went on to win the series, and they still use the plays they conceived that night.
"Those are the things that you remember; you look back with fondness," Zierden said. "When we go on the road, our evening of excitement is maybe go to dinner, see a movie and go back to his hotel room and talk about the game. We're pretty boring people, I can tell you that. . . . Even when we were younger, it was always about getting this player or running this set better."
Their latest reunion was more complicated than most. A health issue in his family required Zierden to go back home to Minnesota, and he spent two years coaching the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA while also spending a year as the radio color analyst for Gophers basketball. From the women's game, he said he learned more about how to get jump shooters open, and from the radio job, he learned that it was fun to be an expert.
"When you're a color analyst, you know everything," he said with a laugh. "When you go back to being a coach, you know nothing. I literally could say whatever I wanted, and there's probably somebody at home going, 'Yeah, yeah, that guy's right.' "
He also remained close with Saunders, whose son Ryan was a graduate assistant for the Gophers. The two veteran coaches would exchange texts about the Gophers games during commercial breaks, and would meet after the games for more basketball talk. Zierden still wanted to get back to the NBA, and when Saunders was hired by the Wizards and the health issue was resolved, a few days of negotiation resulted in Zierden leaving the Lynx less than a week before its season started.
He had worked on a transition plan with the team, and said he still has good relationships with the owner and current coach, but for one of the first times in his career, he came under pointed criticism from media members, who accused him of abandoning his team.
When he joined Saunders in Washington, though, he said it felt as if nothing had changed. Both men have tweaked some of their philosophies since they were last together, but they quickly started texting each other about strategy, and drawing up new ideas on whatever scrap of paper was handy.
"Most of my coaching games in my pro career have been with Flip, and I think it's the same way with him," Zierden said. "We've really been together at every stage."
Wizards Note: Nick Young had 23 points in Friday's game and is now averaging 25.3 points in three Summer League contests.
Source
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