Former Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau On Why He Loves Watching Kelvin Sampson’s Practices and What He Told This Revamped Houston Team — a PaperCity Exclusive

When former New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau stood in front of Kelvin Sampson’s University of Houston basketball team, he knew he had his kind of audience. So Thibodeau told Sampson’s revamped squad one of his favorite basketball stories. One that has an in-his-prime LeBron James in it. But one that’s decided by a loose ball.

OK, it’s a lesson really. But let Tom Thibodeau tell it. Taking us back to the 2008 NBA playoffs when the Boston Celtics team that Thibodeau defensive coordinated for Doc Rivers won the NBA Championship.

“In the conference semifinals against Cleveland, it was Game 7, a very close game,” Thibodeau tells PaperCity. “It comes down, there’s probably a minute left in the game, I think we were up three at the time and there’s a jump ball. (Cleveland’s 7-foot-3 center Zydrunas) Ilgauskas against James Posey. So we were at a big disadvantage. And (Celtics star) Paul Pierce dove onto the floor on a jump ball to come up with a loose ball, and called the timeout.

“And probably if it doesn’t get to that, there’s a big possibility we could lose that game. That was the difference. And we end up going on to win a championship. Often times when you see a big play that could swing things, it’s not sometimes what you think it might be.

“Although LeBron had 45 (points) in that game, Paul Pierce had 41, it really came down to that loose ball. So everything does matter.”

Thibodeau did not choose that story for Sampson’s UH program, a program he loves to watch practice, by happenstance. It fits with how Houston plays under Sampson, fits how close the Cougars are to knocking down that door to winning it all.

“With Kelvin, there’s no detail that is too small,” Thibodeau says, his voice over the phone not as hoarse as it is when he’s in the heart of a season coaching. “And he started off talking about loose balls and charges. And how important they are. All the small things add up. The small things are how you win games. . . And often times whether you can advance or you go home comes down to one possession. So that one possession, might be a charge.

“I felt that two years ago Houston was one possession away from a national championship. You don’t know which play that might be.”

Show up to a Kelvin Sampson practice and you never know what you’re going to see. On the first official day of fall practice, Thibodeau, former all-time Villanova hero Ed Pinckney and CBS Sports college basketball guru Jon Rothstein are all in Houston’s gym. Sampson’s created something of a great basketball laboratory at UH and entering his 13th season at the school in the city’s Third Ward, it is humming along.

Thibodeau is happy to partake in it, a basketball junkie who’s found a happy place for hoops obsessives.

“I just love the passion Kelvin has and his love of the game,” Thibodeau says. “Where he is in his career and you can tell how much he loves it. How committed he is. He could easily be sitting on a beach somewhere. And this is what he chooses to do. His passion for the game. His love of the game. His commitment to the players.

“I mean, he’s demanding. But often times with those type of coaches there’s a great appreciation.

“I just love the passion Kelvin has and his love of the game. Where he is in his career and you can tell how much he loves it. How committed he is. He could easily be sitting on a beach somewhere. And this is what he chooses to do. His passion for the game. His love of the game. His commitment to the players.” — Tom Thibodeau

As Houston’s 7-foot true freshman center Arafan Diané catches post passes and spins to the basket off a defender, Thibodeau watches intently. Pinckney, who’s now a Houston Rockets scout, sits next to Thibodeau and the two discuss what they see. When practice is over, Kelvin Sampson will join them in the chairs against the wall on the side of the court and the discussion will become even more animated.

Learning is always encouraged at a Sampson practice and it does not end when Houston’s coach signals the end of the session for the day.

“Tom is — we’re both gym rats,” Sampson tells PaperCity. “We like to talk basketball. I was picking his brain today about some pick and roll stuff for Arafan. . . We’re having to make some adjustments for (Arafan). And what better resource to have than having one of the best defensive coaches in the NBA available to ask questions. Same thing with Pink.

“Won a national championship at Villanova. He’s been a great resource.”

Houston Basketball’s Land Of Learning — and Winning

UH basketball’s Guy V. Lewis Development Facility and the Fertitta Center, a quick step outside between doors and a walk up a ramp away, are as pure a basketball learning lab as you’ll find. If you’re a coach who loves talking ball or a player obsessed with the game, it can feel like nirvana. It’s not about the frills — though UH’s design enthusiast chief of staff Lauren Sampson makes sure the players locker room and lounge areas upstairs in the Guy V. are as sweet as any 19-year-old hooper could dream of.

Still, this is a place ultimately centered around the work that can be put in.

Going to a place where that work is revered, where it’s at the heartbeat of everything, has become a major part of the allure for Sampson’s highly-rated recruiting classes these days. A gym where a complete basketball obsessive like Tom Thibodeau wants to be is also a gym where four star power forward Derek “Beau” Daniels, one of commits in UH basketball’s currently No. 1 ranked 2027 recruiting class, wants to be.

“What made it the choice for me is they work so hard all the time every day,” Daniels tells PaperCity. “They’re going to work hard. Coach Samps is going to get on everybody. But at the end of the day, it’s a family. . . What stood out to me the most is how much they put into development time. The gym is called the development center. It’s open 24-7 for all the guys.

“It’s like if you want to get a workout in at ten o’clock at night, you can do that. It’s always open.”

Win at the level Kelvin Sampson’s UH program does, and you draw more winners. More workers.

“The great thing about all our teams now is all these kids choose to come here,” Sampson says. “We’re not having to wear them down like we used to. Whether it’s the mommas and the daddies or the agents, they point them in this direction. These kids watch us play. And almost every one of them chooses Houston because of winning.”

One of the things that will determine at how high of a level the winning goes this season is how Sampson uses Arafan Diané, one of more unique players this 70-year-old basketball lifer has ever coached. The No. 1 ranked high school center in America, who has slimmed down to 280 pounds at UH, presents mismatches for opponents. (“He’s dunking everything,” third-year small forward Chase McCarty notes enthusiastically.) But Diané also can be caught in mismatches by other teams, particularly if they make him move to try and defend the pick and roll.

These are the kinds of basketball problems that high-level coaches love to discuss with other high-level coaches. It is easy to imagine Kelvin Sampson and Tom Thibodeau happily talking to each other about it, debating possible counters, for hours.

“Anytime you’re around somebody as great as Kelvin is, you learn from each other,” Thibodeau says. “As coaches I think we’ve all had the same kind of challenges and when you get a player like Arafan, a young player, he has certain strengths and certain weaknesses.”

Thibodeau is the coach who put in the foundational culture for the New York Knicks that allowed Jalen Brunson and Co. to win the NBA Championship last season under Mike Brown. This is no outside hypothesis, it’s the feeling within the team. Knicks star Karl Anthony Townes strongly made that case recently. So it probably should be no surprise that the Knicks’ demanding culture setter absolutely loves Kelvin Sampson’s Houston culture.

“I think Kelvin’s greatest strength is his leadership,” Thibodeau tells PaperCity. “They have great order. I think it brings out the best in everyone. He’s demanding. I think that every player who has chosen to go there, they’ve chosen hard. And that says a lot about them.”

“But I think their commitment to winning is second to none. And that’s why they’ve had the success that they’ve had.”

Sampson and Thibodeau got to know each other during Sampson’s years in the NBA, working as an assistant, before he took the Houston job. But Thibodeau gained even more appreciation for Sampson after he had one of Sampson’s best Houston players, Quentin Grimes, in New York.

“(Quentin) was just a big part of turning our team around,” Thibodeau notes. “He told me a lot of the things he had been through with Kelvin. One of the things we really admired about Quentin is the career he had there, the impact that he had. And we knew that being part of the team and doing all the little things would help us.”

While Thibodeau was something of a semi regular at Kelvin Sampson’s UH practices last season too (Sampson estimates Thibodeau’s watched a UH practice 10 to 15 times), he also attended two Houston Rockets practices last week. “The Rockets have a great coach in Ime (Udoka),” Thibodeau says.

“But I think their commitment to winning is second to none. And that’s why they’ve had the success that they’ve had.” — Tom Thibodeau on Kelvin Sampson’s UH program

Thibodeau spent four seasons with the Houston Rockets as Jeff Van Gundy’s right-hand assistant from 2003 to 2007, and his love of the city remains strong. “It’s a great city,” Thibodeau says. “We were coming from New York and we had no idea what the city would be like. But when we got down here, we fell in love with it. Great city, great sports town. Has everything you could ever want.”

All these years later, Thibodeau is a pretty regular Houston visitor. This coaching lifer is not sure what’s next for him, but he knows he’s always happy talking ball with a coach like Kelvin Sampson.