Jerry Sichting spent 12 years as part of the Minnesota Timberwolves, either in the front office or on the bench, but he moved to the Golden State Warriors when the Wolves hired Kurt Rambis to run the team. Following a coaching staff change with the Warriors over the summer, Sichting found himself out of a job this season.
It's not all bad for Sichting, however because the former NBA player might find himself as one of the lead players in a Disney movie. Okay, so it might not be quite that entertaining, but Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim wrote a pretty incredible profile on Sichting this week.
The day the story of Wolf's arrest broke, Sichting was at his home in Minneapolis suburbs. His phone blew up with texts and calls from former classmates. He got some of the details from one former teammate still living in Martinsville and now a school system administrator. "What are you gonna do about the team?" Sichting asked innocently. "Who's going to be on the bench now?"
"No idea," the friend replied. "You want to come down and coach these kids?"
Sichting, 55, had done plenty of coaching lately, but it was mostly in the NBA, never in high school. A year ago he was an assistant with the Golden State Warriors, angling for a head coaching job. Now he was going to coach a bunch of kids barely out of puberty? On the other hand ... "I thought about Martinsville and the basketball program, but mostly I thought of those seven seniors who worked hard and shouldn't have to go out this way," says Sichting. Then he laughs. "Basically I didn't come up with an excuse to say 'no' fast enough."
The whole column is worth a read as Sichting comes off as a stand-up guy helping out his hometown. Hopefully there's another update to the story, either with Sichting's team continuing to find success or the coach finding a new home in the NBA.
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