Seton Hall Pirates men’s basketball coach Shaheen Holloway remembers not getting a fair chance at New York Knicks training camp back when Rick Brunson was a player/Tom Thibodeau served as an assistant coach.
(via All The Smoke):
“There’s Charlie Ward. There’s Chris Childs. There’s Rick Brunson. Rick Brunson’s my guy. So now I’m like, ‘All right, well, I played Rick Brunson in the summer leagues — I could get his job.’ But you don’t know that Rick’s been here for two or three years. Thibs at the time, was assistant coach. Thibs love him. Mase love him, God bless the dead. Oak. He’s been there for three years, he’s one of their guys. So I chose to go to the Knicks camp, I’m home. I’m in there: I’m workin’, bro. I ain’t gon’ lie, I’m workin’ these dudes, workin’. I’ll never forget this, Anthony Mason was like, ‘Yo, this dude belong on the team. I don’t know about the politics part of it. This dude belong on the team.’ Charles Oakley, I know he’s a big brother to the show. So Charles Oakley’s like, ‘Yo. he’s gonna be my little man in veteran camp. I’m gonna take care of him.’
“So, I’m rockin’. I’ll never forget this, man. This takes my mind. That’s why I tell the kids all the time. We in practice. So if you know Thibs, they do three-a-days, and two of them is all defensive practice. So Rick Brunson came down and scored, and he elbowed me, ‘Boom.’ So I’m like, ‘All right.’ So I went down and scored on him. The very next play, he’s bringing the ball up. I rip him, I scored. Thibs is like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Young fella, he’s a veteran. Go stand on the wall.’ For the next two practices, he had me on the wall, bro. I didn’t say a word. So people like, ‘Yo, Rick. Why you do that, bro? You knew how Thibs was gon’ do that.’ He like, ‘Yo, he trying to take my spot.’ And I’m not mad. I wasn’t mad at him then, but now when you look back at him: surviving.”
