Probably no one had a more unlikely background than Motta, who had coached at Weber State University. You won’t find many teams that go to a place like Ogden, Utah, to find a head coach. Motta obviously was special.
He arrived in the Bulls’ third season in the league and the first two years, he learned the pro game and built the roster while going 20 games under .500.
In his third year, however, the Bulls started a streak of four consecutive seasons of 50 or more victories. They could never get far into the playoffs, however, because they could not beat Jerry West’s Lakers or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Milwaukee Bucks.
After eight years in Chicago, Motta went to Washington for four years, then landed, for him, a dream job in Dallas, where he coached the Mavericks for seven years. Motta loved coaching young players and teaching the game.
For each of those seven years in Dallas, I covered the team and for the most part, I had a good relationship with Motta. At the end of his tenure, we had a falling out and didn’t talk for 10 years or so, but such matters eventually fade.
It was always difficult to not like him. He was one of the all-time great storytellers and before games, or on planes, or in restaurants, he would be the center of attention because he was smart, funny and creative.
When he was coaching in Washington, the Bullets went on a road trip and played a game in Houston. Two reporters who were supposed to cover the game spent the afternoon at a local watering hole and lost track of time.
When they realized it, they hurried to the game and stumbled to their seats and it was evident they had been partying at little too much.
Motta noticed their entrance and called a timeout. But instead of talking to his team, he walked over to the reporters and mockingly said: “You guys are disgusting.”
When he coached the expansion Mavericks in 1980-81, he said he had three types of players – those who had bad contracts, bad attitudes or who were simply bad players.
“And some of them were two out of three,” Motta famously said.
At a game in Golden State, he was frustrated with his team. He could accept that players were less talented than other teams, but he couldn’t accept less effort. At halftime, he noticed the entertainment was a tiger and a professional animal trainer. He asked the trainer if the tiger was a nice tiger and she said yes. So he told her to bring the tiger in the locker room and he screamed at the players: “If you don’t start rebounding, I’m going to do something about it.”
The tiger entered the locker room and the players scattered. One headed for the shower and Motta yelled: “Don’t go in there; he’ll corner you.”
During a game against Atlanta, the Mavericks ran a back door play, got a layup and Motta leaped off the bench and began running down the sideline, pointing at Hawks coach Mike Fratello. After the game, Motta was asked what he could have possibly been doing.
“We were at a camp in the summer,” Motta said, “and Fratello was bragging that I’d never run a backdoor play on him. We bet on it, so I wanted to make sure he remembered.”
Now, of course, being funny and a sense of humor are not necessarily qualifiers to be in the Hall of Fame. But perhaps voters who are in the process of selecting the 2013 Hall of Fame class should remember this:
If Motta gets enough votes to be enshrined in the Hall, he won’t be the only coach with a record less than .500. There is at least one more – a man who coached nine seasons and had winning teams only two times. His career record was 55-60. Now, no doubt this man made the most significant contribution in basketball history. But as a head coach, he did not have his moments.
The other coach under .500 in the Hall of Fame?
A man named Dr. James A. Naismith.
Jan Hubbard has written about basketball since 1976 and worked in the NBA league office for eight years in between media stints. Follow him on Twitter at @whyhub. For Hubbard’s archive from SheridanHoops.com, click here.
To all voters for the Hall:
Coach Motta took young inexperienced teams as a challenge and coached them to success. This is why his record is where it is. He could have been the type of coach where he only went for the winners, but he is the type of coach that coaches young and inexperience to the level of an NBA super team, this takes time and losses. His legacy is the winners he developed and the style that is used today. He is class in every sense and others should use him as a model for coaching and life. He is everything the Hall stands for as well as the NBA. Stearn and every writer in America should put Coach Motta in the hall immediately, He deserves it, his family deserves it and the NBA needs it.
He is a class act in every way. and those losses should be looked at as a badge of honor not disrespect..
Aguirre should be in over Dantley. Dantley was selfish, didn’t pass, couldn’t shoot 3-pointers, couldn’t post up. Aguirre could post up (OK, he was great at it!), was an effective passer, had a 3-point shot. And who was the better rebounder? Aguirre, oddly.
Dantley would get the ball, and if he got an assist it was because he didn’t think he could score. Aguirre got assists because he passed the ball to the right guy, not just the nearest guy. I’d take Aguirre on my team over Dantley any day, just because he’d pass the ball and not freeze out teammates. And Aguirre made every team he played on better (Dallas was a contender until they dealt him, then fell to 9th and made the playoffs only once in 6 years; Detroit went up in winning % when Aguirre joined, dropped when he left; even the Clips saw an uptick with Aguirre, a drop without him). Plus his awesome DePaul career (If Sampson gets in for Virginia, Aguirre gets a lot for DePaul).
Motta didn’t run an offense to get Aguirre open shots, Aguirre got his own shots. Motta ran plays mostly for Blackman and Harper, anyone who watched Dallas knows that. If Aguirre had a coach who indulged him like Bird, Thomas, Wilkins, and so many more did Aguirre would be in the Hall and Dallas would have won a title in the 80’s.
This is nothing but crap Motta should be in the hall