NBA vet joins D’Antoni to lead the Herd

Corey Bodden, Contributor

A joking response to an April text message led nine-year NBA veteran Chris Duhon to trade in his jersey for a suit.

“I was at a point in my life kind of figuring out what I wanted to do—if I wanted to continue playing or move on,” Duhon said. “It just so happened I saw coach [Dan] D’Antoni got the head coaching job, and it started with a simple text message saying congratulations. He told me I should come and coach with him, and just jokingly I said ‘Alright I’ll be there tomorrow.’ He immediately called about a minute later [and] told me he was serious. I told him I’d get back to him after I talk to my family, and I decided this was a good move for me.”

Duhon was hired in May shortly after D’Antoni was hired to replace Tom Herrion as head coach. Duhon played at Duke University from 2000-2004 and was part of the 2001 NCAA national championship team. The point guard scored 1,268 points and had 819 assists and left Duke as the team’s all-time leader in steals (300) and minutes played (4,813).

Duhon played in the NBA from 2004-2013 with stints with the Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Lakers. Duhon scored 3,946 points, pulled down 1,364 rebounds and dished out 2,690 assists in his NBA career.

Duhon played under D’Antoni and his younger brother, Thundering Herd legend Mike, who was the head coach in New York and Los Angeles.

Though he has only been on the job a few months, Duhon is experiencing the benefits of being a coach including what he calls connecting with his players, teaching them, learning with them and seeing their love of the game.

“It’s been the best just watching them work every day and get them to become better players and better people,” Duhon said.

He said the transition from player to coach has not been difficult.

“For me knowledge is knowing that it’s going to be more film watching and more analyzing trying to get our kids to perform at a very high level,” Duhon said.

Duhon said his experience and knowledge from playing in the NBA will help him handle personalities of different players and help his players realize he and D’Antoni know what it takes to get to the NBA.

“In the NBA there’s a bunch of different personalities and one of their [coaches] main jobs is to be able to handle those personalities and get them to play as one. I saw that first hand,” Duhon said. “So, I can kind of use those same techniques to deal with my situation here at Marshall.”

When Marshall takes the court for its season opener Nov. 14 against Jacksonville State, Duhon will take the court for the first time in a regular season game as a coach and not a player.

“I’m going to have to remember to hold my emotions. I’m an emotional guy,” Duhon said.

Corey Bodden can be contacted at [email protected].