Coaching Against An NBA Champion

A memorable game of our middle school season

I looked across the court as my basketball team went through our pregame lay-up drill for our final league game and couldn’t believe my eyes.

I was coaching against Kurt Rambis… a former Los Angeles Laker who played alongside Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy. You probably remember him if you’re a Boomer-age basketball fan like me.

He wore thick, black horn-rimmed glasses and complimented his more famous teammates by snatching rebounds and playing strong defense for the Showtime Era Lakers in the late 1980s.

This older version of Super Man no longer had long, straggly hair and a bushy mustache like a guitar player in a rock band. His hair was neatly trimmed, the mustache was gone, and Rambis looked more like a middle-aged school principal.

Still, I was excited to coach against the former Laker fan favorite in a South Bay Athletic League game between two private schools.

He was coaching his son, Jordan, after being an assistant coach for the Lakers for the past six years (serving as the interim coach the previous year after the head coach was fired) while this was my second season as a middle school coach.

My motivational speech

Needless to say, I wanted to say I beat a former NBA player and coach for the rest of my life. It might even become a bullet point on a resume.

“You see the coach over there for the other team?” I told my team before the game began, pointing over at the six-foot-eight former power forward. “Does anybody know who that is?”

Fortunately, two of my players knew Rambis.

“It’s Kurt Rambis,” my best player said. “He played for the Lakers with Magic Johnson.”

“Any of you ever watch an NBA game?”

Every hand shot up immediately in the air.

“Any of you ever had an NBA player who has won four championships watch your game?”

No one raised their hand, and I saw in their eyes that my players had gotten my point.

David vs. Goliath

My team was winless in six games. The closest we came to winning a game was 10 points, and this was because I told my team they could give me a wedgie afterward if we pulled out a win.

“You don’t have a lot of talent on your team,” the other coach told me after the game. “But I’ve never seen a middle school team play as hard as your team competed. Great coaching!”

I had only one player who would go on to play high school basketball, and we had no center on the team if the other team had a tall player — and this was our last game of the season, and I hoped for a happy movie ending to our season.

Contrasting coaching styles

It was clear from the beginning of the game that Kurt Rambis and I had opposite coaching styles — at least in terms of this middle school game.

I was animated. I shouted to my best player, “Go! Go! Go!” as soon as he rebounded the ball to dribble up the court and start a fast break.

I yelled out names of open players to pass the ball to, even though I knew it was better if he hung on to the ball and tried to score himself.

Kurt Rambis rarely said a word during the game. He stood with his arms across his chest and watched the game unfold on the court.

The optics of a former NBA player yelling at middle school players or questioning a bad call by the referee probably wouldn’t look too good.

But I had no problem letting the ref know if he made a bad call or encouraging my players to give an all-out effort by yelling out commands.

Halftime coaching adjustments

We trailed by six points, 18–12, at halftime. I looked over at Kurt Rambis as my team drank some water, and he was talking with his 6'1 son.

The parent of my best player walked by and said, “Stop their big guy and you can win this game.” The big guy was Kurt Rambis’ son.

“We’re going to try something different,” I told my team. “Tremaine, I want you to look like you’re guarding your man. But watch their point guard and shade over to Rambis’ son. They’re tossing the ball to him from the top of the key.”

The tactic threw their offense out of whack, and we had a rare burst of offense with 12 points to tie the game, 22–22, going into the last quarter.

Now it was Rambis’ turn to make a coaching adjustment, and I knew what I’d do if I were Rambis: Let the wings pass the ball to his son.

“Tremaine and Eric, let their wing players shoot from outside. Stay close to their big guy. Sag into not the big guy gets easy looks in the paint.”

Will we beat Kurt Rambis’ team?

I sensed this was going to be one of those games where every play mattered, and one missed or made shot, one errant pass, or steal would turn the tide of the game in our or their team’s favor.

We swarmed their big guy just as I’d instructed every time he touched the ball, and it was like a crowded pig pen with a lot of jostling going on.

Still, Rambis’ son scored three baskets near the hoop due to his size, and their team held a two-point lead with one minute left in the game.

We just needed to have two or three “micro” wins: a basket on offense, a defensive stop, and another basket and one final defensive stand.

A Cinderella finish?

Our best player drove in the lane and flung up a difficult shot to tie the game, and they missed a jump shot from the wing, and it all came down to us having one more “micro” win on offense.

One made shot and we’d go from a winless team to a fairytale ending to our thus far hard season.

We’d be the happiest one-win middle school team in the country, jumping up and down like we’d won the NCAA tournament for defeating a team coached by a four-time NBA champion.

I decided to “roll the dice” and not call time out. Let the Basketball Gods decide if they wanted to shine down on our gritty, gutty basketball team.

Tremaine was a hooper. I figured he would know what to do with our fairy tale game on the line.

He drove past his man and flipped up a shot near the free throw. The ball floated in the air, and everyone watched the ball’s aerial flight.

It bounced on the front of the rim, hung in the air, hit the back and the front of the rim again.

And it didn’t go through the net—and we lost in overtime when our Cinderella effort fell short.

I shook hands with Kurt Rambis after the game. Almost winning against an ex-NBA player felt good, but winning the game would’ve felt even better.

Thanks for reading my story.

Tagging some fellow sports fans: Gerald Sturgill, Sam Ochstein, Jameson Steward, Laura McDonell, MarkfromBoston, Julian Cosky, Scott Younkin, Craig Stanland, Michael L Butler, Frank Priegue, Andy Spears, Harold Zeitung, Susan McCorkindale, Brian Wright, Charles Waters, J.R. Spiers, Michael Dolan, George Blue Kelly, Patrick OConnell

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