Few moves across the San Francisco Bay have garnered as much attention and never before has 40 miles made such a difference.

After 18 wildly successful years as the head men’s basketball coach at Stanford University, Mike Montgomery accepted an NBA head coaching job in May of 2004 with the Golden State Warriors. Leaving Palo Alto and the self-proclaimed “best job in the country” for the reigns of a struggling franchise in Oakland raised eyebrows. After leading Stanford to new heights, including a Final Four appearance and #1 national ranking, the Long Beach State graduate was ready for a new challenge.

No longer able to lean on over-achieving athletes and an admiring community, Montgomery amassed identical 34-48 marks over the past two seasons. Turning an NBA team into a playoff contender is not an overnight task. A strong work ethic and lofty goals leave little time for Saturday morning trips to the golf course. The friendly 59-year-old is a reliable 13 handicap armed with golf coaching experience and a childhood with a father as a golf coach. With memberships at Spyglass Hill and Stanford Golf Club, the father of two plans family vacations around good golf courses and envisions a retirement full of relaxation and golf with his wife.

-Hilary Howard

When did you start playing golf?

When I was a kid in elementary school. You could go to the recreational park 9-hole course in Long Beach and it was 25 cents to play. You could get a cherry coke for another 25 cents so we were getting a pretty good deal. We weren’t very good, but nonetheless I had a couple of friends who liked to play golf and it was great entertainment. My dad was the golf coach at Long Beach State. He didn’t play golf with us, but that’s where we got started. I didn’t play for quite awhile when I first got into coaching and was in the service and really didn’t have much of a chance to pick it up. When I got to the University of Florida, they had their own golf course and one of the assistants there was an avid golfer. We got fired and since I didn’t have anything else to do I started playing golf again.

How often do you play now?

During the season I don’t play at all. If I’m really ambitious, occasionally I will go to the driving range when the weather is nice and hit some balls during the season but I didn’t even do that this year. In the off season I play as often as I can. In college athletics, you have a pretty big window and various tournaments and fundraising deals come up so you’re really playing maybe two-three times a week. Now, I try to play as much as I can during the off season – may get 20 to 30 rounds in.

Is golf a release from the stress of your job?

Either that or it adds stress because it’s such a hard game. Nothing beats just being outdoors and walking 18 holes, especially if you’re with good friends. It does tend to release the tension. It’s not bad exercise for someone my age and it takes a good deal of mental discipline. It is a good thing to do.

Does your family play?

My wife has gotten very interested in it and that’s something new to her, although she comes from a family where her dad and two brothers are avid golfers in Minnesota. She has been around it and now she really enjoys it and plays more than I do.

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How would you describe your golf game?

Like most guys I always complain about my golf game, but I can manage a golf course. I don’t hit it very well but I used to be able to manage it and score pretty well. I’m mediocre at best. Mediocre to poor. If you compared me to everybody in the country who played golf, I’m probably ok. It’s just that you always compare yourself to par and compare yourself to the pros and that’s a bad comparison.

What is the best tip you’ve received?

Take up another sport is the best tip. I haven’t taken many lessons but I actually coached the golf team at Boise State University for three years and at the University of Montana for two years because nobody else there would take it. And I really learned the game by being around those guys. They would look at my swing and say, “Coach you really ought to try this or try that.” Being a coach in that situation was organizing the tryouts, driving the vans to the tournament, paying the fees, getting lodging – it wasn’t coaching them to be better golfers. In playing with them, they would just say stuff to me, give me tips and I’d watch and ask, “Why are you doing that or what about this?” I really started to learn about the game and the golf swing through them.

Who would be part of your dream foursome?

Tiger Woods. I knew Tiger when he was at Stanford and I probably could have played with him, especially if I knew then what I know now. Having the opportunity to play with Tiger would be pretty spectacular. Fred Couples. I like Couples just because he seems like such an easy-going good guy who would be fun to play with. And I don’t know – pick the best looking gal you know that plays golf (Laughs).

That would be your wife right?

YEAH! Good call.

What role does golf play in your life now?

Truthfully, I’m getting to the age when I’m thinking it is something I’ll do when I retire. Most of what we do, we try to center around golf. If we go on vacation, we look for a good golf course. It just gives you something to look forward to, something you can do with your spouse. I’d love for my daughter to get to play but she hasn’t done it yet but my son plays pretty well.

Do you get a little bit nervous on the first tee?

If there are spectators I do, and especially if you are playing for real and you don’t get that breakfast ball. Or if I’m in a tournament and everything counts, I get a little bit nervous. I certainly would be nervous if there were spectators lining the fairway.

How did your move to the Golden State Warriors transpire?

Through a friend of a friend. Somebody asked if I’d be interested in talking to them and I said sure. Through the course of 5-6 conversations we both got more interested in each other in terms of it actually happening. Next thing you know we got to the point where somebody was going to have to say…. Are you serious about this?” And then Chris Mullin’s (Vice President of Basketball Operations) reaction back was, “Is this something you’d be interested in?” Neither of us believed the other would do it. But, eventually it seemed to make sense.

How tough was it to leave Stanford?

It was tough because it was probably the best job in the country for me because philosophically we were so similar in what we believed. We were able to have such great teams and everything was a positive. My own kids were away at college so there was less trauma on them. I think it was harder on my wife because our social structure was set up through the university and that took an adjustment. It was hard but I had been in college for 35 years, so at some point you need to make a change.

I’m assuming you didn’t even have to move.

We have an apartment in Alameda where I spend a lot of nights during the season because of convenience, but in the off season I will drive back and forth to our same house in Menlo Park.

How closely do you follow the Stanford program?

Very closely. Trent Johnson, who took the job after I left, was on my staff and I had recruited him to college when he first got out of high school. And both my assistants stayed there and the players who were there had all played for me. So I follow them pretty closely.

With all of your achievements at Stanford, including the John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Lifetime Achievement Award, a #1 ranking, Final Four appearance, what are you most proud of?

Taking a program like Stanford that had not been successful for many years and turning it into one of the premier basketball programs in the country and doing it the right way. We never broke any rules, we just did it the way it was supposed to be done. Stanford wouldn’t have it any other way, and it worked for us. You were able to sell the university just on the facts. I don’t look back and wish we had done things differently. I felt we did it the right way and I was pretty proud of that.

What’s the biggest difference between coaching in the pros versus coaching in college?

It’s just night and day, especially where I came from. The guys I had at Stanford were special in a lot of ways – generally very self-motivated kids from two-parent homes, over-achievers and that’s not the norm around the country. Here you are dealing with superstars; very well-paid young men that have a lot of outside influences and people influencing them. It’s really a whole different thing; it’s apples and oranges. The game is still the same. The way to be effective in the pros is still through hard work and fundamentals and putting the team first, but all the periphery stuff is very different.

What kind of challenge did it pose to have the fifth youngest roster in the NBA?

Until you have a veteran, which we had in Cliff Robinson, you don’t really understand the value of experience. Knowing the nuances of what you can do in this league and how to be successful is important. There are things in this league that regardless of how good you are as a rookie or youngster, with the obvious exception of a LeBron James, you’ve got to learn. You’ve got to learn how to win games at the end and you’ve got to learn how to play a bunch of games and keep your body healthy and fresh. There’s just a lot of stuff and youngsters just don’t know that. Experience is a huge player in this league.

Do you think that was a deciding factor in some of the close games the Warriors lost this year?

I think. Being injured also hurt us a little bit. Not having the experience of making the right decision or having one person who could make a play – we lost some games that we might have been able to win.

Is the pressure to succeed more intense now than at Stanford?

No question. The media is very critical and they feel like they can be because of the amount of money involved. People are paid pretty handsomely so they are not left off the hook. If a college team had a pretty bad year, they’re left alone. But in the pros everybody needs to comment about it. That’s part of the fun of having pro teams in your area is the constant scrutiny and evaluation and the ability to say anything you want about it.

What are the best and worst parts of your job?

The challenge is probably both the best and the worst. To be able to get this done would be something that I’d like to accomplish because it’s not been done for a long time. It’s not like college where you can just go recruit somebody. But it can also be the worst because again, you cannot change much. When you have your roster – you’ve got to make that roster work for you.

What do you think of some of the new NBA rules such as the dress code and age requirement?

I don’t like the age requirement. I think kids should stay in college for a minimum of three years. I was hoping they would do what football’s done and little bit of what baseball’s done and let kids have the opportunity to grow up, let them learn how to play the game. Let them mature a little bit before they come into the league. In the long run it would be really, really helpful to the NBA. I was disappointed that they put it at one year but I don’t think anybody cared enough about it to really make it an issue. I think the dress code is appropriate for the bench. The guys are pros and they should look like professionals on the bench, which is their place of business. Anything other than that, getting on and off busses and how you travel – I don’t think that is their business.

What was your reaction to Jason Richardson splitting the costs of an advertisement to apologize to fans? (Note: Warriors guard Richardson split the cost of an advertisement in Bay Area newspapers as a sign of appreciation to the record-setting number of Warrior fans.)

I really didn’t have a reaction one way or the other. I thought it was meant to be the right thing. I think he felt that that was something he wanted to do because he felt badly we didn’t do better. I didn’t have a reaction one way or the other. I didn’t think anybody had anything to apologize for really.

How important is Chris Mullin’s support of you?

Well, the alternative is not very good (Laughs). We talked about whether we are doing the things we need to do and what we need to do to get better. I think Chris understands what we are going through and sees the same things we see. I think certainly he’s not happy with everything that’s happening clearly, but he also realizes there’s enough responsibility for everybody to share.,/ 

Do you feel fortunate that Warrior fans are so loyal?

The Warrior fans have been loyal over the years, there is no question about that. They enjoy the product, they enjoy the young guys and the effort more often than not. We didn’t win as much as we would have liked but I do think there were some things that people could get their arms around. We’d like to do better for them and for ourselves as well. We would like to make this one of the better franchises win/loss wise in the league.

This article was filed under NCGA Golf Magazine.
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