Flip Saunders, the legendary NBA head coach and executive, died this past Sunday from complications relating to his chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He had been in a coma for nearly six weeks.
Saunders grew up in Cleveland, the son of a marine and hairdresser. Though undersized, Saunders was an all-state basketball player in high school before he went on to play at the University of Minnesota. There, he played alongside NBA luminaries like Mychal Thompson and Kevin McHale, starting 101 out of his 103 games.
Immediately after his collegiate career ended in 1977, he began coaching, eventually returning to Minnesota as an assistant from 1981-1986. From there, Saunders coached all over the country, spending time in Tulsa as an assistant and as a head coach for CBA teams in Rapid City, Sioux Falls and La Crosse––where he won several championships.
The NBA finally came calling in 1995, when Saunders was hired as a general manager for the Minnesota Timberwolves and worked under his old teammate, McHale. Saunders was quickly inserted as the head coach, where he worked on developing a brash young rookie named Kevin Garnett.
Over the next 10 years, Garnett became one of the best players in the league, while Saunders led the Timberwolves to eight playoff berths. Though they only advanced past the first round once, Saunders remains far and away the most successful coach in the history of the franchise. Saunders was fired midway through the 2004-2005 season before being hired by the Detroit Pistons.
In three seasons in Detroit, Saunders led the Pistons to two of the three highest-winning percentages in the team’s history; however, in three successive Eastern Conference Finals, the Pistons ran into the Shaq and Dwyane Wade’s Heat, the historically great Celtics championship team and LeBron’s Cavaliers during perhaps one of his greatest seasons to date.
After the loss to Boston, Saunders was fired. He coached the Washington Wizards for a few seasons and spent some time in the broadcast booth before returning to Minnesota in 2014, where he was president of basketball operations and head coach until complications from his treatment necessitated he go on indefinite leave in early September.
Saunders was remembered across the NBA this week, his loss mourned by everyone from his former players—Garnett, Stephon Marbury and Ricky Rubio—to his fellow coaches, Tom Izzo, Doc Rivers and Rick Carlisle. He is survived by his wife and four children. He was 60 years old.
Bernstein is a member of the class of 2018.
