Eric Musselman

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The Kings’ new head coach is known for demanding a lot of his players. Will he be any different in Sacramento?
 
Redemption is a common theme in sports. Everyone loves to see a favorite player come back from being down, pulling himself up by his bootstraps to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, yada, yada, yada. But the question for new Sacramento Kings head coach Eric Musselman is: How do you redeem yourself from a career that has been filled only with success? And, moreover, how do you do it with an organization that just rewarded your predecessor’s eight years of unparalleled accomplishment by unceremoniously giving him the boot? It is a significant challenge, and not one easily conquered by the basic “giving 110 percent” and “taking it one game at a time” platitudes also common to modern sports. But even a few minutes of verbal one-on-one with Musselman illustrates at least some of the reasons why the brothers Maloof—masters of all things Kings-related in this world—felt he was exactly the right guy to follow Rick Adelman onto the team’s coaching hot seat.  

He is, at first blush, not someone you would expect to find stalking an NBA sideline for a living. At 5 feet 7 inches, Musselman is a foot shorter than most of his players, and his youthful good looks make him appear to be even younger than his 41 years. But he is exactly as advertised when the team introduced him to its adoring public in June: extremely bright, well-spoken, energetic and possessing just enough sense of humor to break down most anyone’s initial defenses. Unlike Adelman, Musselman is totally at ease with the fans and the media, something he may need to help smooth his way with the many Kings faithful who still question the sanity of cutting loose a coach who had produced eight straight winning seasons.  

But coaching in the NBA is not about winning a popularity contest, at least not with anyone other than the people signing the checks, and Musselman is no wide-eyed neophyte: He knows the Maloofs expect him to win now and win big. If anyone could ever really be prepared for the walk on hot coals that is being an NBA head coach, Musselman seems to be it. 

“Coaching is all about expectations and pressure,” Musselman says. “You want expectations because that means you have a good roster and tools to work with, and that’s what coaching is all about.”

Musselman should definitely know about pressure and expectations. He learned both at the knee of his late father, Bill, who coached teams from the college ranks through basketball’s minor leagues and all the way to the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Born and raised primarily in Cleveland, Musselman grew up living the life of a coach’s son, which often meant long stretches of time with Dad gone on road trips. But it also meant learning to love the game down to its minutiae, which planted the first seeds of desire to eventually follow in his father’s footsteps. When Bill was home, he taught his son to always play to win, no matter what. 

“He had an unbelievable will to win and whatever we did, it wasn’t cool to lose,” Musselman recalls. “I didn’t beat him in basketball until 10th grade and then we never played again. It was one game and that was it. After that, we only played together on the same team, which we did all the way up until about a month before he died.”

That desire to win filtered into everything, Musselman says, noting that Bill would “play Pacman in whatever restaurant we went into, and he wouldn’t leave until he beat the top score. I remember sitting at the dinner table and he’d get up and play and he’d be there for an hour and half, until my sister and I would say, ‘Let’s get out of here.’”