NBA & Coaching Career Of Alvin Gentry
Ships need Captains, an army squadron needs a Lieutenant and a basketball team needs a coach. Coaching is the less celebrated part of any sport, as the players usually hog all the media attention, yet it is a job that someone has to do. Cue Alvin Gentry, a former college basketball player who has chosen to take the less glamorous path and be the guide for his soldiers. He currently leads the New Orleans Pelicans as head coach.
Who Is Alvin Gentry? Alvin Gentry was born on the 5th of November, 1954, in Shelby, North Carolina. The basketball coach attended Shelby High School before going on to play college basketball for Appalachian State University. He had a one-year stint in private business before returning to the sport that would become his life’s work. He became a full-time collegiate assistant coach at Baylor University in 1980. After a year, Gentry returned to the University of Colorado, where he had previously spent one year as a graduate assistant.
This time, he returned as an assistant coach, a position he held for five years. Though Alvin Gentry has led four different NBA teams and currently is the head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans, his coaching career in the NBA started in humbler roles as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs in 1989. Alvin Gentry was part of a 4-man assistant coaching staff and after two years in San Antonio, he moved to Los Angeles and came an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1990-91 season. He later became an assistant coach for the Miami Heat coach, Kevin Loughery in the ’91 season. His assistant coach journey, however, did not end there because after leaving Miami, he moved to Detroit where he served as an assistant for two and a half seasons before he was later named as head coach in the latter parts of the 1997-98 season. Alvin’s first term as head coach did not last for long. In the 1999-2000 season, he returned to San Antonio as the head assistant coach, in a little reunion with former assistants from his first time in San Antonio. It, however, was a short reunion as the Los Angeles Clippers offered him the head coach position shortly after he took the San Antonio job. He had a great first two years in his position as head coach, leading the team to 31 wins in his first season and 39 wins in his second season. The team, during those seasons, was characterized by the solid play of young players like Elton Brand and Lamar Odom. In his third season, however, the team declined and Gentry got the boot in February of 2003. Perhaps it was seen as a false start or as a sign he wasn’t ready yet to fully embrace the role of a head coach. Nevertheless, Alvin Gentry took a step back and became an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns for six years, learning under different coaches.
When Terry Porter was fired in his first year as head coach, Alvin was given the position on an interim basis. He was later named the full-time coach for the 2009-2010 season. His record as head coach in his first year was 54 wins and 28 losses, a personal career high. The Suns made the playoffs but lost to the Lakers after game six. He did, however, become the fifth coach in franchise history to lead his team to a Western Conference Final in his first full season. Alvin Gentry parted ways with the Suns on January 18, 2013. In July, he made a return to the LA Clippers and took the title of associate head coach. After one year with the Clippers, he penned a three-year contract as an associate head coach for the Golden State Warriors. Although Alvin Gentry later signed on with the Pelicans on the 30th of May 2015, the agreement allowed him to remain with the Golden State Warriors until the end of the series, allowing him to win his first NBA championship with the Warriors defeat of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
