Alvin Gentry
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Alvin Gentry
basketball coach
Personal Information
Born on November 5, 1954, in Shelby, North Carolina; son of B. H. Gentry (a fiber worker) and Bulah Gentry; married twice; second wife's name Suzanne; two children, Alexis (by first marriage) and Ryan.
Education: Graduated with management degree from Appalachian State University, 1977; attended graduate school at the University of Colorado.
Career
Professional basketball coach. Graduate assistant, University of Colorado, 1977-78; assistant coach, Baylor University, 1980-81; assistant coach, University of Colorado, 1981-85; assistant coach, University of Kansas, 1985-88; assistant coach, San Antonio Spurs, 1988-90; assistant coach, Los Angeles Clippers, 1990-91; assistant coach, Miami Heat, 1991-95, interim head coach, 1995; assistant coach, Detroit Pistons, 1995-98, interim head coach, 1998, head coach, 1998-.
Life's Work
Early in his first full season as head coach of pro basketball's Detroit Pistons, Alvin Gentry faced a crisis. The perennial championship-level team had missed the playoffs the previous year, and things seemed to be getting worse. The Pistons lost five games in a row. Team members Jerry Stackhouse and Grant Hill bickered publicly over ball control, and center Bison Dele lamented his lost "energy." For a newly hired coach, it seemed like a nightmarish situation.
Gentry kept his cool, however, and the Pistons went on the make the postseason playoffs. The Detroit News dubbed him "Gentry the Stabilizer," and quoted this evaluation of the new coach from assistant coach John Hammond: "The one thing about Alvin is he is a real positive person. We went through some tough times and it would have been very easy for a coach to overreact. That is one of his strengths." Gentry had learned patience and perseverence during a lifetime spent involved with the game of basketball.
Enjoyed Supportive Family Life
Gentry was born in Shelby, North Carolina, on November 5, 1954. His father, a fiber-industry factory worker, once went eleven years without missing a day of work. The Gentry family numbered six children and two adults in a three-bedroom house, but the home environment was close and supportive. Gentry told the Detroit Free Press, "I don't have one of those kind of heartache stories to tell. There was always all kinds of lovin' in my house." The Gentrys valued education highly. As a student, Gentry showed an aptitude for mathematics, and his older sister Loretta went on to become a senior analyst for the United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C.
Gentry graduated from Shelby High School, and attended Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. In 1977, he graduated with a degree in management. He played varsity basketball for all four years of college, starting in over 20 games during his freshman, junior, and senior years and scoring a total of 489 points over a four-year span. Following graduation from college, Gentry went to Denver for a tryout with the NBA's Denver Nuggets. However, he failed to make the cut. During the 1977-78 college season, Gentry began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Colorado.
Followed Mentor to Pros
In 1980, Gentry landed a job as an assistant coach at Baylor University. He returned to Colorado the following year, and remained there as an assistant coach through 1985. From 1985 through 1988, he served as an assistant coach at the University of Kansas. Ironically the coach at Kansas, Larry Brown, was the same person who had cut Gentry during his tryout with the Denver Nuggets. In 1988, after Kansas won the NCAA championship, Brown left the university for a head coaching position with the NBA's San Antonio Spurs. He quickly hired Gentry as his assistant coach. Gentry eventually moved on to assistant coaching positions with the Los Angeles Clippers in 1990, and the Miami Heat in 1991.
Gentry remained as an assistant to Heat coach Kevin Loughery into the 1994-95 season. With 36 games left in the season, Loughery was fired and Gentry was hired as interim head coach. The Heat went 15-21 under Gentry, missed the playoffs, and Gentry was fired at the season's end. Some criticized Gentry for not being tough enough on his players, but many Heat players defended him. African American coaches are a rarity in the NBA, and the issue of race hung over Gentry's short tenure as head coach. Heat forward Keith Askins chided his teammates in Sports Illustrated, "All we've been saying in this league is that there aren't enough black coaches. The majority of this team is black guys, and they can't even play for a black coach?"
The Detroit Pistons hired Gentry as an assistant coach for the 1995-96 season. Until February of 1998, Gentry served under Pistons head coach Doug Collins, whose fiery, unpredictable personality was the direct opposite of Gentry's. When the Pistons hit the skids that spring, Collins was fired. Gentry seemed a natural replacement, and he took over the team as interim head coach on February 2. In the last 37 games of the season, the Pistons compiled a record of 16-21 and missed the NBA playoffs.
Named Pistons Coach
At the end of the season, the Pistons considered several candidates for the permanent head coaching position. As he had in Miami, Gentry enjoyed the support of his players. Star players Joe Dumars and Grant Hill expressed their hopes that Gentry would get the job. In May of 1998, the Pistons named Gentry as their new head coach. He was signed to a two-year contract worth an estimated $1 million a year, plus incentives that could bring the figure to double that or even higher.
Gentry's tenure as head coach got off to a rocky start during the 1998-99 season. Over the course of the season, the Pistons lost a total of 126 man-hours to injuries, and several of the team's established stars had substandard years. Gentry continued plugging away, and he earned the admiration of his players when he defended them against criticism in the press. The Pistons were eventually able to turn their season around and made the playoffs. However, the Atlanta Hawks eliminated them in the first round.
Going into his second season as head coach in the fall of 1999, Gentry had to deal with the constant awareness that he had only one year left on his contract. With the Pistons returning to the playoffs for the first time in several years, expectations for greater improvement were heightened. Gentry faced these challenges with characteristic aplomb. "One of the things I never worry about, from my standpoint, is my job," he told the Detroit News. "I really don't. I have to do whatever I feel is best for this team and the rest is out of my hands."
Further Reading
Books
- Bonavita, Mark, et al., eds., The Sporting News Official NBA Register: 1998-99 Edition, The Sporting News, 1998.
- Austin American Statesman, April 27, 1999, p. C7.
- Chicago Sun-Times, April 29, 1998, p. 124.
- Detroit Free Press, April 29, 1998, p. D1; May 8, 1998, p. C1.
- Detroit News, February 3, 1998, p. E5; April 19, 1998, p. D1; April 29, 1998, pp. D1, D3; May 7, 1999, p. F1; September 15, 1999, p. D1.
- Jet, March 6, 1995, p. 46; May 22, 1995, p. 51.
- Sports Illustrated, May 8, 1995, p. 76.
— James M. Manheim
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Alvin Gentry
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Alvin Gentry
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Alvin Gentry (born November 5, 1954) is an American professional basketball coach, and college basketball player, who has led four different NBA teams. He served as an interim coach for the Miami Heat at the end of the 1995 season, and later coached the Detroit Pistons and the Los Angeles Clippers. He is currently the head coach for the Phoenix Suns.[1]
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Biography
He was born in Shelby, North Carolina, where he grew up and attended Shelby High School. His first cousin is former NC State and NBA star David Thompson.
Gentry played college basketball at Appalachian State University under Press Maravich and Bobby Cremins. In 1978 he spent one year as a graduate assistant at the University of Colorado. He also was an assistant coach at Baylor University under Gene Iba in 1980. After one year Gentry joined the University of Colorado staff. Gentry served as an assistant at the University of Kansas under Larry Brown, where they won the 1988 NCAA National Championship. While in Colorado Gentry married his first wife, Pat Sue DeLuca. They have one daughter, Alexis.[2] Gentry and DeLuca divorced in 1986 after five years of marriage.
In 1989 he began his NBA coaching career as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs under Larry Brown. It was in San Antonio that Gentry met his future/current wife, Suzanne Harris. They have two children, Ryan and Jack.[2]
Gentry joined Gregg Popovich, R. C. Buford, and Ed Manning as part of Larry Brown's assistant coaching staff for the Spurs when Brown left Kansas before the 1988–1989 NBA season.
After two seasons in San Antonio, Gentry left to become an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers beginning in the 1990–91 season. For the 1991 season Gentry joined Kevin Loughery's staff as an assistant coach for the Miami Heat, where he coached for three seasons. He then moved to Detroit following the 1994-95 season where he served as an assistant for two and a half seasons before being named head coach late in the 1997–98 season.
Gentry briefly returned to San Antonio as head assistant coach following the 1999–2000 season, where he was reunited with former co-assistants Gregg Popovich (the Spurs head coach and vice president of basketball operations) and R.C. Buford (the Spurs General Manager). But that assignment was brief, as Gentry accepted the head coaching position for the Los Angeles Clippers weeks after taking the San Antonio job. He did a solid job with the Clippers his first two years, leading them to 31 wins and 39 wins respectively in those two seasons. Those seasons were marked by the solid play of youngsters, such as Darius Miles, Elton Brand and Lamar Odom. In Gentry's third season, however, the team regressed (despite the addition of Andre Miller), and Gentry was fired in February 2003.
Gentry later became an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns for six years, serving under head coaches Mike D'Antoni and Terry Porter. When Porter was fired in his first season as head coach, Alvin Gentry took over on an interim basis. He was named Suns' head coach for the 2009-2010 season. Gentry's record in his first year as head coach during the 2009-2010 season was 54 wins, a career high, to 28 wins. The Suns advanced to the Western Conference Finals and lost to the Lakers in six games. He became the fifth head coach in franchise history to lead his team to a Western Conference Finals berth in his first full season.[citation needed]
Coaching record
| Legend | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular season | G | Games coached | W | Games won | L | Games lost | W–L % | Win-loss % | |
| Post season | PG | Playoff Games | PW | Playoff Wins | PL | Playoff Losses | PW–L % | Playoff Win-loss % | |
| Team | Year | G | W | L | W–L% | Finish | PG | PW | PL | PW–L% | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIA | 1994–95 | 36 | 15 | 21 | .417 | 4th in Atlantic | — | — | — | — | Missed Playoffs |
| DET | 1997–98 | 37 | 16 | 21 | .432 | 6th in Central | — | — | — | — | Missed Playoffs |
| DET | 1998–99 | 50 | 29 | 21 | .580 | 3rd in Central | 5 | 2 | 3 | .400 | Lost in First Round |
| DET | 1999–00 | 58 | 28 | 30 | .483 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| LAC | 2000–01 | 82 | 31 | 51 | .378 | 6th in Pacific | — | — | — | — | Missed Playoffs |
| LAC | 2001–02 | 82 | 39 | 43 | .476 | 5th in Pacific | — | — | — | — | Missed Playoffs |
| LAC | 2002–03 | 58 | 19 | 39 | .328 | (fired) | — | — | — | — | — |
| PHX | 2008–09 | 31 | 18 | 13 | .581 | 2nd in Pacific | — | — | — | — | Missed Playoffs |
| PHX | 2009–10 | 82 | 54 | 28 | .659 | 2nd in Pacific | 16 | 10 | 6 | .625 | Lost in Conf. Finals |
| PHX | 2010–11 | 82 | 40 | 42 | .488 | 2nd in Pacific | — | — | — | — | Missed Playoffs |
| PHX | 2011–12 | 66 | 33 | 33 | .500 | 3rd in Pacific | — | — | — | — | Missed Playoffs |
| Career | 664 | 322 | 342 | .485 | 21 | 12 | 9 | .571 |
References
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alvin Gentry |
| Preceded by Kevin Loughery |
Miami Heat head coach 1995 (interim) |
Succeeded by Pat Riley |
| Preceded by Doug Collins |
Detroit Pistons head coach 1998–2000 |
Succeeded by George Irvine |
| Preceded by Jim Todd (interim) |
Los Angeles Clippers head coach 2000–2003 |
Succeeded by Dennis Johnson (interim) |
| Preceded by Terry Porter |
Phoenix Suns head coach 2009–present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
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