USD Magazine Summer 2019

TORERO ATHLETICS

Golden States Warriors Assistant Coach Mike Brown ’93 (below right) is just one of a group of Toreros who have coached, drafted or been connected to many of the NBA’s most elite players.

F o r m e r T o r e r o s f o r m a n N B A b r o t h e r h o o d [ u n i t y ] A L L I N THE F AM I L Y

guys. They’d volunteer during summer league and hook up with the NBA teams. It went from there,” Egan explains. Twenty-seven years later, Brown’s NBA resumé includes three NBA championships, two head coaching jobs and NBA Coach of the Year. Today he’s a top assistant with the two- time defending NBA champion, the Golden State Warriors. Brown’s in good company. Fizdale and Borrego are now NBA head coaches with the New York Knicks and Charlotte Hornets, respectively. Bickerstaff is a senior advisor with the Cleve- land Cavaliers. Grant, former Cavaliers’ general manager, is a San Antonio Spurs scout. Mussel- man is a former two-time NBA head coach with Golden State and Sacramento. Egan’s initial meeting with Bickerstaff has a permanent reminder for visitors: it’s part of a wall mural near current Men’s Basketball Head Coach Sam Scholl’s office. “It’s one of our key selling points, for sure,” says Scholl ‘01 (BA), a former USD player and assistant who was coached by Fizdale and subse- quently worked at his side and as an assistant to Borrego. “After we talk to prospective players about the education they’ll receive, about the campus and people they’ll be around, the mural is right there.”

by Ryan T. Blystone

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LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. The USD connection is an en- during thread. “It started with Mike Brown,” Egan recalls. “I was USD head coach and Bernie was the general manager of the Denver Nuggets. [Then-Athletic Director] Ky Snyder and I were in Colorado for a USD game. We talked about it in the car, met with Bernie and told him what Mike wanted to do.” Brown’s idea was born when

he’d learned that veteran NBA coach and executive Bickerstaff’s pathway to the professional ranks from playing and coaching for USD did not require first play- ing in the league. A light bulb went on. All Brown wanted was a shot. “Bernie said, ‘We don’t have interns, but maybe we should,’“ Egan recalls. Brown went to work as an unpaid video coordinator. “Mike did a terrific job. He be- came an ambassador for other

f you’re looking for the definition of stellar success in NBA leadership, a group of seven Toreros are at the front of the pack. Bernie Bickerstaff ‘68 (BA), James Borrego ‘00 (BA), Mike Brown ‘93 (BBA), Hank Egan, David Fizdale ‘97 (BA), Chris Grant ‘94 (BA), ‘96 (MEd) and Eric Mus- selman ‘87 (BA) have coached, drafted or been connected to many of the NBA’s most elite players, including luminaries like

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