Another Valvano Player Hired as NBA Coach

Vinny D

Add former Wolfpacker Vinny Del Negro to the list of Jim Valvano’s former players who have made a big splash in basketball years after their playing careers ended.

Multiple media reports indicate that Del Negro is set to become the Head Coach of the NBA’s Chicago Bulls.

The deal isn’t complete, but sources said Del Negro will sign a two-year contract with a team option for a third season and be paid roughly $2 million annually. That will make him one of the league’s lowest-paid coaches.

Del Negro is considering hiring former Spurs, Sonics, Knicks and Pacers coach Bob Hill as his lead assistant, sources said.

That Del Negro, most recently the Suns’ assistant general manager, edged out former Minnesota coach Dwane Casey despite having no coaching experience was viewed with surprise around the league. The Bulls offered no official word on the impending hire.

This will link you to ESPN’s most recent article.

Del Negro joins current NC State Head Coach, Sidney Lowe and one of the NBA’s best current coaches, Nate McMillan as former players from Coach Valvano’s NC State program to have become Head Coaches of NBA franchises. Add Dereck Whittenburg, Andy Kennedy and Terry Gannon’s prominence as a successful college coaches and as an ABC television announcer and one builds a very strong case to stick in the eye of the army of naysayers who criticized the ‘character’ of Valvano’s players and teams in the 1980s.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

Alums NCS Basketball

48 Responses to Another Valvano Player Hired as NBA Coach

  1. wolfonthehill 06/10/2008 at 9:29 AM #

    All guards.

    Mostly point guards.

    It’s a truly impressive run of capable, upstanding individuals that came out of V’s program.

  2. kyjelly 06/10/2008 at 9:46 AM #

    ^A splash? Let’s not get carried away here,Looks more like Bull’s managment looking to hire on the cheap and let Paxton run the whole show.

    SFN: I just think that it is important to share with you one more time — we delete most of your comments because they offer no value and position you as a troll always looking for trouble. Your leash is much smaller than everyone elses. Please just keep this in mind in the future when you wonder why you waste your time posting only to see your posts vanish by deletions.

  3. blackdom 06/10/2008 at 9:53 AM #

    ^ Naysayers???? What the ? Listen Collins declined the job I wish Vinnie all the luck and best with the Bulls,but word has it he is going to hire Bob Hill as his top assistant not a good idea with his track record…………As we know it is very important for an inexperienced coach in over his head that he surrounds himself with the most experienced and qualified people! Isn’t that right Sid? Oh never mind

    1

  4. PAPacker 06/10/2008 at 10:11 AM #

    The link that notes Del Negro’s hiring makes no mention whatsoever of Valvano as it implies that Del Negro is ultra green. Another case of slipshod reporting.

  5. choppack1 06/10/2008 at 10:20 AM #

    I was thinking today how amazing it is that all of these players are having success in the NBA arena: Lowe, Nate and now Vinnie – as 3 NBA head coaches from one college coach and one school. Can any school compete?

    Regarding character – I think it really depends on perspective: V recruited a lot of very heady basketball players w/ high b’ball IQs who have equated themselves well after their playing careers ended. V also recruited a lot of kids who had no business on campus from an academic standpoint. Also, the graduation rate while he was here was miserable.

    I think V could have recruited a better student and should have been given the chance to do so.

  6. Ed89 06/10/2008 at 10:21 AM #

    ky, is there any reason that blackdom follows your every post about 5-10 minutes later?? Just wondering….I think you (or both of you) are an infiltrator. You (neither of you) have ever posted one thing with an ounce of anything positive about State or State athletics. You should consider going back to a UNC blog. Just my opinion…

  7. Astral Rain 06/10/2008 at 10:28 AM #

    Honestly, there is some truth behind this. A lot of the Bulls fans are unhappy with the pick. Hopefully, Vinny proves them wrong, I think he can, but this was a risky choice for the Bulls. He’ll get respect quickly though I think.

    Hopefully Sid can right the ship, and start the tradition over again. Going to be a rough road though.

    SFN: No doubt that there is truth behind the fact that they are getting Vinny on the cheap. That is why we didn’t delete the comments.

  8. Sweet jumper 06/10/2008 at 10:34 AM #

    Do not sell Vinny short. He worked his way up from an afterthought in a very strong recruiting class to an all-ACC player. His work ethic and steady improvement are very similar to another Wolfpack player–Googs. Good luck Vinny!

  9. RickJ 06/10/2008 at 10:43 AM #

    NC State got Jim Valvano on the cheap.

    Valvano was at NC State for 11 years and has now produced 3 NBA coaches from his former players. To put this in perspective, Dean Smith, Roy Williams and Coach K in over 80 years of coaching haven’t produced 3 NBA coaches combined from their former players.

    V’s record of developing people is simply astonishing. Even today, people that worked for or with the man absolutely love him. I could be wrong but I don’t think V ever fired anybody during his stint as AD at NC State. What we miss the most from V is the belief he instilled in people. As an example, George Tarantini made it to the NCAA soccer final 4 with V as his AD.

  10. StateFans 06/10/2008 at 10:47 AM #

    Doug Moe, Billy Cunningham, George Karl, Larry Brown?

    Others?

    Did one/some of these play for Frank McGuire instead of Dean?

    I believe that Mike O’Koren was an interim coach for a part of a season. I don’t believe that Mitch Kupchak has ever been an interim coach.

  11. Sweet jumper 06/10/2008 at 10:48 AM #

    Larry Brown played for Dean during Dean’s first year as head coach.

  12. SuperStuff 06/10/2008 at 11:17 AM #

    Didn’t Andy Kennedy leave after his freshmen year. I’m not sure I would list him as being heavily Valvano influenced. Always wished that kid would have stayed. If I remember correctly he didn’t want to be known only as a three point shooting specialist so that’s why he left. The thing that is funny was he ended up breaking 3 pt shooting records in the conference he went to. In the end he was known as a three point shooting specialist.

  13. choppack1 06/10/2008 at 11:23 AM #

    RickJ – Regarding Tarantini – it could have been a situation to (dare I say it) Kay Yow…these coaches got in on the ground floor before other athletic deptarments begin emphasizing these sports. As a result, they experienced a lot of success early but competition has revealed their weaknesses.

  14. gopack968 06/10/2008 at 11:38 AM #

    Looks like the Chicago Media agrees with the ‘cheap’ version of the decision…

    “The choice of Del Negro, who will be announced at a news conference Wednesday, seems desperate. They’ve chosen to risk the franchise’s future by hiring an untested and unproven coach.

    This hire reeks of desperation and smells like a bottom-line decision. Why would Reinsdorf push two established coaches like D’Antoni and Collins away, yet approve of Del Negro? Probably because Del Negro will come comparatively cheap. At least until the $4 million he still owes Scott Skiles comes off the books, Reinsdorf doesn’t seem inclined to pay the going rate for a proven head coach.”

    Let’s hope Vinnie proves ’em wrong!

    http://www.suntimes.com/sports/slezak/996762,CST-SPT-carol10.article

  15. redfred2 06/10/2008 at 11:48 AM #

    “V also recruited a lot of kids who had no business on campus from an academic standpoint.”

    Jim Valvano definitely definitely DID NOT have the market cornered on recruiting academically ‘challenged’ kids. Others have had just as many of those types on their rosters. It just that when you have the right people, in all the right places, it doesn’t ever come out. Perception is better than reality.

    “Also, the graduation rate while he was here was miserable.”

    Look around, sheep skins or not, it sure looks to me like THE BASKETBALL COACH did his part.

  16. packof81 06/10/2008 at 12:15 PM #

    Jimmy V took the fall for all the ills of college basketball. Many of his contemporaries did the same stuff but nothing happened to them. John Thompson did worse stuff than Jimmy V. Georgetown developed a gangsta thug image they have to this day. And yet nobody badmouths John Thompson.

    Years after his death, Jimmy V still looms large. We see who got it right and who got it wrong.

  17. choppack1 06/10/2008 at 12:55 PM #

    redfred – You’re right, there were others who recruited as many or more. He wasn’t alone in this practice. However, he could have done better – and he could have demanded better.

    I love V, but IMHO, he did not live up to his potential at NC State. I know that will a lot of people the wrong way. I firmly believe that he had a feel for the game matched by a precious few on the sidelines. But also believe that unlike his two more successful neighbors a few miles west, he wasn’t satisfied being a “just” a basketball coach. V lived a beautiful life – and was as well-rounded as you’d ever find a coach. However, if he’d wanted to, he could have built what Coach K and Dean D at their respective universities – sadly, he didn’t do EVERYTHING in his control to do so.

    Should V have been forced out? Hell no. The man had proven his potential and was ethical. He didn’t fall into the category of “there’s no way he can fly straight.” When he was forced out, NC State athletics took a monumental step back and we still haven’t recovered. But did V do everything in his power to prevent this? Nope.

  18. ShootingGuard 06/10/2008 at 1:30 PM #

    As much as anything, this just shows why Valvano succeeded and why State coaches since have achieved minimal if any success. You have to have MULTIPLE guys capable of having successful careers in the NBA—playing and coaching and mgt—in order to be really successful as a college program year end and year out.

    Lowe, Bailey thru Spud, Vinnie, Nate, Shack, Chucky and on to Gugs, Valvano had a long list of guys who made it and stayed at the NBA level one way or another, playing and/or managing or coaching.

    State hasn’t had anything like that talent and consistency of talent since then, and the program bears that lack of fruit.

    (Please refrain from giving me Herb’s “long” list of guys trying to hang on by their nails like Powell—who ran away from Herb—or Ced as an example of anything other than mediocrity.)

  19. packbackr04 06/10/2008 at 1:57 PM #

    if T Ferg isnt NBA material than i dont care to know what is.

    so, shootinguard, im glad to see you on here, what is the latest? are the coaches spending more time in the practice facilities and less time on the course? are the players getting in shape? any recruiting news?

  20. whitefang 06/10/2008 at 2:01 PM #

    I think it was Vinnie of whom Valvano said something like, “I didn’t recruit him because he is Italian, I recruited him because I am Italian”. Always chuckled when I heard that line. Maybe at a Wolfpack Club event or something I guess.
    In any case I hope Vinnie proves them wrong and quickly earns either a raise or another opportunity. Loved him as a player.

  21. happypackdad 06/10/2008 at 2:07 PM #

    I agree. A program that expects to be at the top has to have NBA players coming through it often. Herb had some some potentially great college players that never stuck around long enough to bear friut. Powell, Wilkins, Harrington, & M. Wiliams could have been top ACC players. But he needed more to raise the program to where it should be. NCSU’s margin for error concerning big-time players isn’t as large as other programs. We need more talent so losing one early doesn’t kill a season.

  22. MrPlywood 06/10/2008 at 2:42 PM #

    Just doing a bit of research on Vinny’s career in SA. Among other things, he and Avery Johnson had the best assist to turnover ratio in the NBA in the ’95-’96 season.

    And Gregg Popovich posted a 17-47 record in the 96-97 season, his first year as a head coach. He was previously GM of the team. I think Pop has turned out alright.

    Vinny is getting trashed by Bulls “fans” on the ESPN board. I hope he proves them wrong.

  23. Wolf Dog 06/10/2008 at 2:56 PM #

    Wish Vinny the best, got a feeling he will do good. Vinny was last point guard to lead us to the ACC tournament/championship, if I remember correctly. NBA all looking for new young bright coach like Hornets got. Bobcats just tried Sam Vincent but that didn’t work out now Larry Brown steps in.

    As far as V, he considered himself a gym rat as a player and a young asst coach. V had a postive outlook on life, never took himself too seriously, loved people, and worked hard. He teached the same and that is why his influence has been tremendous on those that were around him, worked for him, and played for him. I have a print of him on my office wall and his book on my shelf. God Bless Jimmy V.

  24. El_Duderino 06/10/2008 at 3:19 PM #

    ^
    Slight correction, Vinny Del Negro was the 2 guard. Quinten Jackson was the point. He took over late in the year for *sigh* Kenny Drummond – who left the team mid-season.

  25. burnbarn 06/10/2008 at 3:30 PM #

    Billy C played for McGuire.

Leave a Reply