Nate McMillan’s Surprising Arrival at 500 NBA Wins
By Ben Gibson
Nate McMillan reached his 500th in as an NBA coach on Wednesday, the 4th most wins among active coaches.
Nate McMillan’s 500th win in the NBA was as unexpected as a milestone win can be. The Indiana Pacers trailed by 22-points before coming back to beat the Sacramento Kings.
With the win, McMillan became the 29th coach in NBA history to reach that milestone, posting a 500-471 record along the way. He has the fourth-most wins among active coaches, behind Gregg Popovich (1,615), Doc Rivers (1,349), and Rick Carlisle (1,173), and ahead of Mike D’Antoni (426).
The path here for McMillan stalled out four seasons ago when he was fired by the Portland Trail Blazers. McMillan returned to an assistant coach role for the first time since 1999 when he joined the Pacers staff.
After three years as the assistant head coach, McMillan got another chance at the helm.
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As a replacement for former coach Frank Vogel, McMillan had the advantage of familiarity, but also a challenge in the fact that the lack of excitement among fans gives him less leeway when things go wrong, as far as Twitter is concerned.
With a 22-19 record so far this season (and a 7-3 record over the last 10 games), McMillan’s job is safe as the Pacers sit in the Eastern Conference 5th place spot.
His hiring was controversial as it seemed to go against everything Larry Bird claimed he wanted in a coach.
It also went against a trend of hiring minority coaches.
The hire made McMillan one of nine minority coaches in the league. While it isn’t expected to be a long-term trend, there has been a recent dip in the number of minority coaches.
The Pacers, a team in a state often is pictured from the outside as a racist place — rightly and wrongly at times — ended up bucking that trend by hiring McMillan.
Whether the thought ever crossed Larry Bird’s mind or not, McMillan’s promotion was a positive sign for diversity in the league.
The NBA is in exclusive territory when it comes to racial diversity in sports according to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES), which gives out a ‘report card for the major leagues in North America.
The NBA isn’t perfect but is certainly ahead of the curb in both race and gender hiring practices.
For some, they’ll roll their eyes at any talk of diversity, but it is nonetheless refreshing to see the Pacers being on the right side of it.
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It was surprising how McMillan got the job and surprising how he got his 500th win, but so he is proving he deserved his chance by putting the Pacers in the playoff picture.