How Learning From Hall of Famers Helped Put Jason Terry In Driver Seat As NBA G League Coach
In part one of a two part interview with The Call-Up, Grand Rapids Gold head coach Jason Terry goes over the lessons that he learned during his long playing career.
Note: This is part one of a two part interview with Grand Rapids Gold head coach Jason Terry. The interview took place on March 18th.
Dakota Schmidt: How did you fall in love with the game of basketball?
Jason Terry: Early on in my childhood when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, I walked into P.E. (physical education) and my P.E. teacher was the great Sonics legend Slick Watts. Every day we would play basketball and that’s when my love for the game started
DS: In college, you had an opportunity to play for the legendary Lute Olsen. What lessons did you have from playing for Lute?
JT: Well, coach Lute taught a lot of life lessons throughout my college career but the most important one was to be accountable for your actions. He always held guys to the highest standard of accountability and that it was never someone else’s fault because you always had to look at yourself first. That’s a lesson that I’ve carried throughout my career and is something that I preach and taught not only to the guys that I mentor and coach now but also to my young daughters at home.
DS: Do you feel like your time with Lute and lessons in accountability helped guide you to where you are as a coach?
JT: No doubt about it. There’s no better accountability than self-accountability and taking ownership of your own journey. That’s something that I talk to my guys all about because if you want to achieve something you’re going to have to keep yourself accountable, be disciplined, and put the work in. Guys that take heed to that excel and accomplish their goals while others fall by the wayside.
DS: As a player, do you feel like experiencing both the lows of playing with struggling teams and the heights of winning an NBA title helped you both grow as an individual?
JT: I’ve been able to amass a tremendous amount of success and win championships at every level that I’ve been at as a player which includes a state title as a coach in Dallas. The thing is that you can’t fear failure; you have to know that failure is a part of the process. When you do fail, how do you respond and how do you come back from that adversity? Some people shut down and harp on their failures. Other people learn from it and it motivates and drives them to overcome it.
For me, in my first years in Atlanta though we didn't have a lot of winning records, in the off-season I would go around and watch playoff series. I would sit in the stands and envision myself out there on the floor in that environment and that atmosphere. Then, I would tell myself that one day that’s going to be me on that floor in the playoffs playing for an NBA championship.
When I was traded to a winning organization like Dallas, my dream became a reality. In my first two years, I was the point guard that along with Dirk and a lot of other good players took our team to an NBA Finals. Now we didn’t win it (in 2007), but that experience alone motivated me to keep working, to keep fighting, and to get back to that stage. And in 2011, we were able to accomplish that ultimate goal by winning an NBA championship.
DS: You talked about how you won a state high school title as a coach, when did your run as a high school coach begin?
JT: In my first year out of retirement, I served as the assistant general manager of the Dallas Mavericks, which is the Mavs’ G League affiliate. While I was serving my time as an assistant GM, I coached North Dallas Adventist Academy’s girl's varsity basketball team. In that first season, we ended up winning the state championship. For me as a coach, I leaned on my lessons with playing while also understanding that basketball is not always about X’s and O's but the relationships and empowering young people and pushing them, challenging them, and holding them accountable so they can be their best possible version.
The year before I got there, they didn’t even make the playoffs. But then with me in the leadership position, we were able to win the state championship and It was the greatest feeling in the world. I’ve won state championships twice as a high school player for Franklin High School in Seattle, Washington. To not be out there to take the shots, make the pass, or get the steal but to actually teach young people and see those young women go out and believe what I was telling them while having the confidence to go out there to play, perform, and win. That was the greatest joy that I could ever have.
DS: During your eight-year run in Dallas, you played with both Avery Johnson and Rick Carlisle. Is there anything from either a tactical or personnel standpoint that you’ve carried over to your craft?
JT: Well Avery Johnson was one of the biggest influences on my life as far as being a man, being a father, being a husband. At that particular time, I was a young man at 25 learning how to play the point guard position so he taught me how to be a professional. Being a student of the game, watching film, studying my opponent, how to be a leader, how to talk to my teammates, how to run a team from that position rather than just scoring the basketball. He taught me a lot and a lot of those lessons are things I’ve carried over to my coaching career.
Rick Carlisle was a mad scientist. He taught me about preparation. Make sure that your team was prepared instead of always focusing on your opponent. Just make sure that your team and your system are right and it fits your personnel. Emphasizing how everyone on your roster and not the five guys on the court or the superstars are the focal point of the team. It was about the team and how the contribution of each guy could be on any given night. That is also an experience that I teach our guys as well.
They’re two great men, two great leaders, two great mentors, and their coaching styles have molded me as a coach as well.
DS: As the head coach in a league made up of guys with NBA aspirations, in what ways do you feel like your long career and playing with a slew of current or future Hall-of-Famers has been an asset?
JT: I always tell my guys to use my career or my experience as a guide but don’t feel like you have to do what I did because you have to own your own journey. You can learn from some of my mistakes and successes but the only experience is your own experience itself and that’s how you gain valuable knowledge. Sometimes you have to fail and sometimes you have to go 0-10. When you go 0-for-10, are you willing to take that next shot because you believe in your preparation, believe in your training, and trust yourself?
Those are some of the mental teaching tools that I give to my guys because 90% of this game is mental. Once you get to a certain level and you have tapped into your talent and know what you bring to the table, the rest of it is your mentality and how you approach every day, how you approach every situation. That’s how I train my guys to try to make them as mentally tough as I can and give them ownership. I think a lot of time that’s what it’s about.
DS: I definitely agree with you on that, especially on the NBA level. Most players in the league are on the same level athletically and are all skilled in their way. But when it comes to sticking in the league, a lot of that comes with how you’re able to control yourself mentally over a long season.
JT: No doubt about it. Again, you have good shooters, you have great shooters, and you have the elite. You have the Steph Curry’s of the world, Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard, and Trae Young that are elite at that skill. Then you have the deadly scorers like Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, and LeBron James. What is your elite skill? Once you tap into that and take ownership of it, you realize what your worth is. You gotta bring that to the table every single night and be consistent at it.
Because I know as a coach that it gives me great joy and resolve when I know that I can count on a player every single night to bring that spark and that energy regardless of what he's going through or what’s happening in a game. When he checks in I know what I’m going to get out of him. I think that’s what gets the confidence of a coach for a player
DS: While on the topic of that, what skills and habits that you learned from your coaches or fellow teammates during your playing career that you’ve carried over to your coaching career?
JT: Some of the things about how I see and study the game were gotten from a guy that I played with and was fortunate that he was my coach and that was Jason Kidd. He always was seeing the play before it happened. He knew how to manipulate the defense because he knew what coverage they would play on what particular action and would tell you what route to run. If you trust what he was telling you and you ran that route, you might not get it the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd time but that 4th time it will be there, you’ll catch it and shoot it and the results will be what they were.
Jason Kidd gave me the mindset of seeing the game before it happened. With Hall of Famers teammates like Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Garnett, their work ethic and ability to master their craft was by far the best I’ve ever seen. I’ve also seen it with some of the new guys. I played with Giannis Antetokounmpo who is a two-time MVP and now a world champion. He had the same characteristics with his work ethic, routine, discipline, and habits. Watching those guys taught me lessons that I take and tell my guys about. Because they’re always like “Yeah, we all know about your career but who else does this or does that?”
I was just blessed and fortunate throughout my career to play with guys that are Hall of Famers or potential Hall of Famers down the road.
DS: Since your last year in Milwaukee, you’ve dabbled in both media and front office work. What was it about the craft that drew you to coaching?
JT: I know this is for me but also for a lot of people in life when you go to school and you study one particular thing and then that’s what you go into in your field. For me, I’m a basketball lifer. I have a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona but my gift is basketball and is something that I’m passionate about and have a high level of education in because of my experiences with the failures and successes that I've had in this game.
I knew that when I was done I’d continue to be involved in basketball in some capacity. I’ve gone into broadcasting so now I can analyze the game. I went into management so now I can critique and put a team in place while learning about the business of basketball. I’ve been an assistant at the college level so I’ve learned recruiting, academics, and compliance. That wealth of knowledge of experiences from the business of basketball is huge.
During my playing career, I actually was a coach already. During my off-seasons, I would coach my own AAU program. It’s one of the top girl’s programs in the nation called “The Lady Jets” that has put over 300 girls in Division I, II, and III schools all on college scholarships. For me, I’ve always been a coach, there are different levels of it, but it’s just always something that’s been in my nature. Again coaching is not just about wins and losses or the X’s and O’s, it’s about people. My passion is for people and my purpose is for inspiring the world. The vehicle that I try to do that in is through the game of basketball.