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The first Canadian to be a head coach in an NBA game took it just as the stereotype would suggest: Nothing to get too excited about, it's not about me, one game in 82.
In essence, Jay Triano, who will stand in for head coach Sam Mitchell when the Raptors take on the New Jersey Nets tonight, was embarrassed by the attention his nationality was bringing him.
“I don't think a whole lot of people think it's that big a deal,” Triano said yesterday after practice. “It's one game in our season and this is Sam's team.”
The opportunity came about in less than ideal circumstances: Mitchell had to leave the team for Atlanta on Monday after his father-in-law died.
While most NBA coaching staffs operate somewhat hierarchically, the Raptors have a slightly different chain of command: Mitchell as the occasionally benevolent dictator and his assistants – Triano, Mike Evans and Alex English, all equally under the gun.
Since Evans was responsible for scouting the San Antonio Spurs, he was the head coach on Monday. Triano is “the scout” for the Nets, and so he will get the nod tonight.
So in one sense, Triano is right. It's no big deal, he could just as easily have not had the chance to be the first Canadian to run the bench at an NBA game.
But he's wrong in the respect that being in a position to pick up for Mitchell represents the homecoming of a long shot every bit as unlikely as Steve Nash – whom Triano coached at the Olympics – becoming the first Canadian to become the NBA's most valuable player.
At least Nash could make his case on the floor: make enough plays and everyone forgets whether you're from Swaziland or Switzerland.
But becoming a coach is a trickier proposition. There are fewer jobs, for one. And a majority of them are reserved for those who played in the NBA. The rest are usually doled out to those with long associations with influential coaches: There's the Pat Riley tree (the Van Gundy brothers) and the Larry Brown tree (Gregg Popovich and George Karl), and both of those trees have their own root systems.
Triano was one of the best basketball players Canada has produced and a three-time Olympian. He got his coaching career started at his alma mater, Simon Fraser University, and burnished his reputation coaching the men's national team to a seventh-place finish at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
But his entry into the NBA was an unconventional one, where his work for Canada at the Olympics drew the attention of the Raptors' general manager at the time, Glen Grunwald. He encouraged head coach Lenny Wilkens to meet with Triano, who ultimately hired him as an assistant, giving Triano a soft landing when the Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis. Triano had been the team's radio colour commentator and director of community relations.
But Triano would acknowledge there is a perception that his nationality was as big a factor in his getting the opportunity with the Raptors as his résumé.
Kevin O'Neill followed Wilkens as the coach and also kept Triano on, but never fully embraced him.
Ironically, it has been with Mitchell and his more egalitarian approach that Triano has been able to spread his wings and prove his value.
Chris Bosh even trusted Triano to help him alter and improve his shooting mechanics, and even though Triano will be the head coach tonight, he will still be on the floor with Bosh putting him through a 30 minute warm-up routine they do together before each game.
“He's cool and collected,” Bosh said. “And he's an Xs and Os guy, so he'll have some plays for us.”
It's high praise from an NBA all-star, particularly if you talk to players whom Triano coached early in his college coaching career and who considered him a player's coach first and a technical coach second.
But good players work on their weaknesses, as do good coaches. And Triano has made himself a valuable NBA coach.
Just this past summer, Triano was invited to work with Team USA, which wanted to draw on his expertise in preparing for teams such as Argentina, Brazil and Puerto Rico. The hot-shooting kid from Niagara Falls, Ont., had the full attention of Kobe Bryant, who looked at him not as a Canadian, but as a basketball expert who could help him and his superstar teammates prepare for an important competition.
Which, ultimately, is why tonight's game is so meaningful for Triano and the small but intrepid Canadian coaching fraternity, who through him and his success can at least validate their own technical know-how and basketball dedication.
Not because Triano is the first Canadian to have the chance to be an NBA head coach, even if it is in the briefest of cameos.
But because he has earned the right to be called coach first and Canadian second.
