Former Houston Rockets head coach Rudy Tomjanovich was seen by many as a “players’ coach” during his tenure, and he expands on that philosophy in a new interview with his former player, Matt Bullard.
“Rudy T,” as he’s best known, was recently announced as an inductee in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020. In his 11-plus seasons as the team’s head coach from 1992 through 2003, Tomjanovich led Houston to a 503-397 (.559) regular-season record and a 51-39 (.567) mark in the NBA playoffs, headlined by two championships in 1994 and 1995. He is by far the winningest coach in franchise history.
In his chat Wednesday with Bullard and play-by-play broadcaster Craig Ackerman, who normally work together on Houston’s game telecasts, Tomjanovich reflected on his personal Hall of Fame news while also offering some new perspective on his unique coaching philosophy.
Here’s how one exchange from the interview went:
Bullard: One of the biggest things that I took away from your coaching is that when you feel like a coach is on your side, you want to play harder for that coach and not let him down. When you have a coach yelling at you constantly, then you just tune him out.
Tomjanovich: Absolutely. Encouragement builds confidence. Over the years, I tried to verbalize what my philosophy was becoming. I would say it’s 80% positive, 20% correction. When we’re doing a tape and the coach gets excited — ‘Look at this, this is what I’m talking about’ — they get an idea of what I think good Rockets basketball is.
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The complete interview, which covers a wide range of topics related to Rudy T’s current life and his storied NBA career, can be viewed below.
Tomjanovich and the rest of the Hall of Fame’s new class will be enshrined on Aug. 29 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Former NBA players in the class include Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and the late Kobe Bryant.
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