Few people know Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan better than University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball coach Matt McCall. While at the University of Florida, he worked under Donovan as a manager, director of basketball operations and an assistant coach before taking over the Mocs in the spring of 2015.
So when McCall was asked why Donovan has been able to transition so smoothly from college hoops in his first season as an NBA coach, the UTC coach's answer flew off his tongue as swiftly as Thunder guard Russell Westbrook flies down the court on the fast break.
"A lot of coaches fail because they let their ego come into play," McCall said. "That will never happen with Billy. He has no ego. He's always trying to learn and get better. It's always about what's best for the players, for the organization, for the school."
It would be hard for the Thunder players to play much better than they did in Sunday night's stunning 133-105 rout of the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
Said Warriors coach Steve Kerr after that humiliation: "They just out-competed us. They were the more desperate team tonight. They were beating us to loose balls, to rebounds they were fantastic."
The Thunder are up 2-1 in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals heading into tonight's game. If they remain this fantastic for six more games (including the NBA Finals), Donovan can become the second member of the most exclusive club in basketball coaching, joining Larry Brown as the only coach in history to win both NBA and NCAA titles.
The difference would be that Brown won one NCAA crown at Kansas (1988) and one in the NBA (Detroit in 2004). Let Donovan become just the third rookie coach since 1982 to earn an NBA title (Kerr and Pat Riley were the other two) and he'd own two NCAA championships (Florida, 2006 and 2007) plus a pro crown.
It's all enough to return to a conversation involving Donovan's college coach at Providence, Rick Pitino, during the fall of 1994, just after Billy D left Pitino's Kentucky staff for his first head coaching job at Marshall.
Asked if he believed Donovan had what it took to be as successful as Ricky P's other former assistants - Ralph Willard, Herb Sendek and Tubby Smith, to name three - Pitino replied, "I've been blessed with a lot of bright, hard-working assistants over the years, but only Billy has the whole package."
Say what you will of Pitino's personal shortcomings of late, but the man may know both how to coach and how to prepare others to coach better than anyone in the game today, including Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. Two former Pitino aides, Donovan and Smith, have won NCAA titles, while no former Coach K assistants have.
But what makes the Thunder coach special besides his lack of ego and the fact he arguably has two of the league's top five players in Westbrook and Kevin Durant?
"He's a genius when it comes to offense," McCall said. "I guarantee you that no coach anywhere is watching more film in these playoffs than Billy is. Plus, he always gets his guys in the right frame of mind to win. Again, no egos. Everything for the betterment of the team."
Here's genius: Blown out by the San Antonio Spurs in the opening game of the Western semifinal series, then dropped into a 1-2 hole after a home loss in Game 3, Donovan went bigger, putting post players Steven Adams and Enes Kanter on the floor at the same time. Suitably armed to match the massive Spurs, the Thunder won three straight.
Come Sunday night in OKC against the smaller, quicker Warriors, Donovan went small and won by 28. No stubborn ego that one way is the only way. Improvise. Change. Whatever's best for the team.
Or as Donovan has grown fond of saying: "How can I bring value?" Not "How can my team better value me?" But how can the coach bring value to his team and its goal to win the franchise's first NBA title since it was known as the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979?
It's not only X's and O's that have made Donovan special. McCall recalls Billy D convincing his 2006 NCAA champs to tune out the agents and the lure of NBA money to return in order to become the first school since Duke in 1991 and 1992 to repeat as champs.
"And Joakim Noah could have possibly been the overall No. 1 pick in the 2006 draft," McCall said.
The UTC coach also talks of Donovan having both Westbrook and Durant to dinner. Of consulting with players on strategy. Of always being impressed with his team's professionalism.
This is not to suggest that two wins in the first three games of a conference finals series guantees an NBA championship. The Warriors were in 1-2 holes a year ago against both the Memphis Grizzlies and the Cleveland Cavaliers and won the next three games in each series. The same could happen again, beginning tonight.
But Donovan's first year of pro coaching won't be any less remarkable if the Thunder don't win it all.
And a single story from one of his worst moments this winter shows why. On Feb. 27, McCall's Mocs beat Samford to guarantee the program a share of the SoCon regular-season title. Later that night, in what was arguably the best game of the NBA's regular season, the Warriors' Stephen Curry nailed a 38-footer in OKC to shock the Thunder and throw into question Donovan's late-game defensive strategy.
But not 30 minutes after that Thunder loss, the UTC coach's cell phone rang. It was Donovan calling to congratulate his former assistant on the big win.
"He's always putting others first," McCall said. "That's why he's the best. The GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)."
Let the Thunder win six more playoff games over the next three weeks and McCall may not be the only one saying that.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.