The Coach’s Dilemma: From the Trail Blazers to Today’s Thunder – Power, Players & the Evolution of Leadership in the NBA

Episode 3 dives into the shifting balance of power in the NBA, from Abdul Jeelani’s quiet struggle and Maurice Lucas’s defiance under Jack Ramsay, to how Thunder coach Mark Daigneault navigates a modern player-led league. Discover how coaching evolved from control to collaboration—and why that matters now more than ever.

Transcript

In the NBA coaching has always been a highwire act, commanding talent without crushing it, building structure, without killing freedom. And nowhere was that dilemma more vivid than in 1979 at a motel outside Gresham, Oregon, where a quiet training camp breakfast told the story of a league and a country on the brink of change.

Abdul Abdul Gelani was not supposed to be here, a six eight black Muslim forward, fresh off a season in Italy. He wore the warmups of the Portland Trailblazers, but he wasn't truly on the team.

He was shy, but he signed Abdul Jalani, the all powerful servant of Allah.

Back in Rome, he had been a star, but in Portland, he was a mystery.

He came from Wisconsin Parkside, a small forgotten school. He'd been overlooked twice. Cut, and now had one more chance. Kalani's Game didn't fit Jack Ramsey's system. Ramsey's offense was regimented, choreographed each cut, each pass precisely. Timed Kalani's game was free flowing, instinctive, improvisational.

 In the NBA coaching has always been a highwire act, commanding talent without crushing it, building structure, without killing freedom. And nowhere was that dilemma more vivid than in 1979 at a motel outside Gresham, Oregon, where a quiet training camp breakfast told the story of a league and a country on the brink of change. Abdul Abdul Gelani was not supposed to be here, a six eight black Muslim forward, fresh off a season in Italy. He wore the warmups of the Portland Trailblazers, but he wasn't truly on the team.

He was shy, he signed Abdul Jalani, the all powerful servant of Allah.

Back in Rome, he had been a star, but in Portland, he was a mystery.

He came from Wisconsin Parkside, a small forgotten school. He'd been overlooked twice. Cut, and now had one more chance. Kalani's Game didn't fit Jack Ramsey's system. Ramsey's offense was regimented, choreographed each cut, each pass precisely. Timed Kalani's game was free flowing, instinctive, improvisational.

Jelani had the skills, but in Portland that wasn't enough.

Jalani struggle wasn't just about style. It was about belonging Jal's presence, his faith, his name, felt radical at the time.

If Jelani was the quiet outsider, Maurice Lucas was the storm, the enforcer raised in the hill District of Pittsburgh. Lucas grew up with a simple rule dominate or be dominated. I don't know if any player that I've barely known about, but. Come to study has more exemplified a simple rule like that. And Bill Walton explains him really well.

Explained to him as his favorite player that he played with. He played with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, tons of amazing players, but just speaks with exuberance about Maurice Lucas on the court. He tested everybody, coaches, players, refs, and once he tested the very limits of League authority.

There was an incident where Lucas walks towards a referee. The ref blows a technical, and as Lucas marches toward him, the referees a whistle to eject him, and Maurice stares down on him. And says something like, you don't want to do that, and the ref takes a whistle out of his mouth.

Bill Walton at the time called it the most intimidating act he'd ever seen in basketball.

Jack Ramsey admired Lucas's fire, but he couldn't contain it. Lucas didn't just play basketball, he played turf. King of the Hill. From teammates to management, to media. Everything was a test. He once spun around a coach who yelled at him. He once knocked out Artist Gilmore, the strongest man in the A, BA there is in the finals.

Lucas getting into a fight and the guys on the Blazers felt like that was the turning point, that before he stood up to the Sixers in the way that he did. They might not have won the championship. And so it's that contradiction that comes with this guy where he is at times such a great teammate but also plays with an edge that can border on dangerous or distracting.

There's another story about him challenging Jack Ramsey's Sacred two Mile run by walking off the course entirely, just being done with it. Lucas wanted respect. He wanted money, and he wanted power. He believed Portland wouldn't pay a black star like they paid white stars and he wasn't wrong.

His teammate, bill Walton, made more even when he was injured. And Coach just said it wasn't about race, but Maurice, he couldn't have his mind changed even when they told him that that was the truth.

Ramsey for all his brilliance as a coach was caught in the middle. He believed in conditioning, discipline and systems in the precision that we spoke about earlier, but with these small cracks, his systems began to break down. Jelani was too fluid. Lucas too defiant, and Ramsey. He could no longer control his team the way coaches once did.

Portland's 1977 title was built on sacrifice. Ellen had gaudy stats. They played for each other. We talked about that in the first episode, the chemistry, the choreography, the dance that they had with one another. But now. As the years passed, after the championship contracts began to explode and egos grew at an exponential rate.

With those contracts and the leverage shifts the coaches used to control playing time. Now the stars had those guaranteed contracts that still sit with us today and coaches got fired first. I think about the NBA today and Thibodaux getting fired in this last season after making it to the conference finals.

And for what? For another good coach. I think Mike Brown is a good coach, but you can see the echoes of these changes that happened all these years ago where the power shifts towards the players.

Let's talk a little bit about coaching today and how Mark Dagal and the Thunder are gonna navigate and have already begun to navigate some of these same choppy waters. Dagal leads the youngest team in the NBA, but he's different than Ramsey. He doesn't have a commanding presence. Doesn't seem to even have a demanding presence.

Though I'm sure it's there, there is a quiet to him. That means that he has to have a precision in other ways to keep everything on the tracks. If you're just Laie fair and too laid back, eventually people lose respect for you. So you have to have a system behind you, but understand the push and pull of the modern NBA and his style in game.

Reflects this approach. He lets players read the game, lets them make decisions. He fosters leadership amongst the players so that they personify his spirit on the court. Where Ramsey saw rebellion. ALD seems to see growth or even individual leadership. His system's adaptable. Positionless fluid. The MVP Shaked, gilds Alexander and Chet Holmgren, play without constraint.

Holmgren shooting threes driving to the rim. Shea showing creativity and command throughout the game, knowing when to take over. And that's not because there's no system, but because they understand the system deeply and they're empowered to break it when necessary. They have a unspoken trust that, , comes from a lot of practice and a lot of time spent together.

I think the transition here, and the reason that Dagal may succeed or Ramsey didn't, is that he lets go and has moved from control to collaboration understanding. That the players are in charge. He came in knowing that and Ramsey didn't. Ramsey comes up at a time when coaches are the end all be all, and Dagal came in at a time where he already knew the game was the players.

It's a player's league, so collaborating with his players is the only way for him to succeed. Coaching is just no longer about controlling personalities. It's about aligning purpose with your players. Jelani never had a chance at that. Lucas demanded it, but still didn't get it. Agno offers it freely.

So what is a coach? A strategist, a motivator, a therapist, or maybe just a witness? A witness to greatness and to the chaos that comes with it. Jalani faded from the league. Lucas carved his legacy and Ramsey ever. The drill master rode his bike through it all

from the motel in Gresham to the courts in Oklahoma City. The coach's dilemma remains, how do you lead men who no longer need you to lead?