FAYETTEVILLE -- Twenty years after Eric Musselman worked for Lon Kruger in the NBA, they'll be on opposing benches as college head coaches when the University of Arkansas plays Oklahoma during the 2020-21 season.
Musselman will be in his second season leading the Razorbacks and Kruger in his 10th season with the Sooners when their teams play Dec. 12 at BOK Arena in Tulsa.
After Kruger became the Atlanta Hawks' coach for the 2000-01 season, he hired Musselman as an assistant coach. They worked together for two seasons, then Musselman left to become head coach of the Golden State Warriors.
"I loved working for Coach Kruger," Musselman said Wednesday on a Zoom meeting with reporters. "Forget all the basketball stuff. He's just a really, really great human being.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSW1E3qzFro]
"When his son, Kevin, was in high school, we used to play one-on-one before and after practices."
Kevin Kruger is now an assistant coach at UNLV, where he played for his father.
"I thought he was the best guy that I've ever worked for," Musselman said of Lon Kruger. "I had a young family at the time, and he was incredible telling you to leave the office and make sure you were home."
Musselman said Kruger allowed him to spend valuable time with his son, Michael, who is now Arkansas' director of recruiting.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm_Fz_mqhGA]
"One year in particular, I was at my son's bus stop every day -- when we weren't on the road -- at 3 o'clock to see him when he got off the bus," Musselman said. "Lon's the first coach that I've ever been around that put family ahead of everything else."
Kruger, who also talked with the media via Zoom on Wednesday, said he appreciated what Musselman said about him making family time a priority.
"That's always a goal, that we make it a great experience for our staff and their families," Kruger said. "We take very seriously what we do. We work really hard at it. But if we have a practice that ends at 4 and a coach with a son's game at 4, we want them to get out of there and go to the game and be there on time. That's the goal."
Kruger was a player and assistant coach at Kansas State under Jack Hartman.
"His style was a little bit different in that we went back to the office late at night often," Kruger said.
Kruger said that as a head coach -- 34 seasons in college and three in the NBA -- he's never had his assistants work at the office at night.
"We're going to get our work done during the day," he said. "We don't micromanage. We expect them to take care of their business. If we do a good job on the hiring front, then that will happen."
Kruger knew Musselman only by reputation when he hired him in Atlanta.
Musselman, the son of longtime college and NBA coach Bill Musselman, at the time was an assistant with the Orlando Magic.
"He came highly recommended," Kruger said. "He had that coaching blood in his background, his family, his network. Great relationships. Relentless worker.
"When I met with him and talked to him about basketball, he was really on top of things. Very organized. So just all the things that you'd want in any coach. Pretty easy decision."
Musselman played at the University of San Diego, where Dave Babcock was an assistant coach. His bother, Pete Babcock, was the Hawks' general manager who hired Kruger.
"So there was a connection with their GM," Musselman said. "I think Pete Babcock had maybe given my name to Lon, and then Lon had a pool of people he was going to call and talk to, and I happened to be one of them.
"It was a great move for me. I was behind the bench in Orlando, and that got me on the bench. So it was a great time with him and that obviously led to the Golden State head job, and his recommendation with Golden State carried a ton of weight."
Musselman said his responsibilities in Atlanta included game planning and scouting opponents as opposed to focusing on player personnel decisions in Orlando, where he described himself as a conduit between coach Chuck Daly and general manager John Gabriel.
"If we were calling up a player from the minor leagues, I basically kind of dealt with the GM because coach Daly didn't want to deal with it, didn't know any of the minor-league players," Musselman said. "Then I did a lot of the individual player development stuff in Orlando, as far as working players out, pre-practice, post-practice, the offseason.
"So I would say in Atlanta, obviously I had a more elevated role dealing with game preps and schemes, X's and O's things."
Kruger said Musselman brought a lot to the coaching staff in Atlanta.
"Passion, great knowledge," Kruger said. "Relentless energy. Sharp, very sharp. Very good."
Musselman and Kruger both began the 2002-03 season as NBA head coaches, but they didn't face each other.
By the time Golden State swept the Hawks in two games in February, Kruger had been fired in Atlanta after an 11-16 start.
Kruger was 69-122 with the Hawks, but as a college coach at Texas-Pan American, Kansas State, Florida, Illinois, UNLV and Oklahoma, he's 645-410 with 20 NCAA Tournament appearances. The Sooners were 19-12 last season, including 9-9 in the Big 12, and likely would have made the NCAA Tournament before the season was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic.
"I learned so much from him, but X's and O's, he's phenomenal," Musselman said. "He's a great people person. The way that he dealt with practice, he's a great practice coach. He's a great preparation coach.
"We went to the Dominican Republic with a bunch of sponsors, and I remember sitting behind him on the plane, and he was memorizing everyone's name, all the sponsors' names and what company they were with. He knew their wives' names. He's just a guy that prepares incredibly."
Musselman has a 130-46 record in five seasons as a college head coach at Nevada and Arkansas, including 20-12 with the Razorbacks last season.
"Muss is very smart," Kruger said. "You combine that with his work ethic and energy, it's going to get good results."
Sports on 05/07/2020