By LARRY VAUGHT

Rod Strickland was an all-American player at DePaul and went on to score over 14,000 points and hand out almost 8,000 assists while playing in 1,094 NBA games.

Yet when his NBA career ended, he had no problem starting at a non-coaching position on John Calipari’s staff at Memphis.

“I didn’t have any second thoughts at all because I knew I wanted to be a basketball coach. Everybody doesn’t start at the top. Rarely do you start at the top. There is a process and I had to go through it. If I could have left the NBA and got an executive job somewhere in basketball or head coaching job in NBA, who wouldn’t want that. But that is not the reality of the situation. You have to get in where you fit in,” Strickland, now an assistant at Kentucky, said.
“The only opportunity given to me was Memphis. I thought that was a great opportunity to get in basketball and see if I had what it takes to be in this. The best thing that happened to me was going to Memphis and starting from the bottom. I learned from the best and best coaching staff. I worked my way into this.
“When you come out of the NBA — and I don’t care what anybody says — you are used to a certain way of living. You come into coaching and I am checking classes, going to pick up people and doing different things. It’s not the easiest transition, but I was able to be with someone that would let me go through it. I could have gone somewhere else and it might have been harder. Coach understood and let me work my way up.”

Nothing makes him happier than being around basketball.

“Basketball has always been there for me from as far as I know,” he said. “I remember watching my brothers play and I wanted to be like my brothers. So when they played basketball, I did. I remember shooting underhanded and my brother teaching me how to shoot. I remember going and watching them.

“I remember being 9 or 10 and playing with older guys and throwing a behind the back pass every time down the court. That was my forte. They thought it was slick that this little kid could throw behind the back passes. If you could get those guys the ball, you would be on the court and I wanted to be on the court with my brothers. They played all the time. I didn’t want to be on the sideline watching.”

Strickland knows talented players don’t always make great coaches. However, he thinks he can be successful and an asset to Calipari and Kentucky.

“I just have a certain knowledge of the game that I like to share. Just having been through it as a player and competing and knowing what it takes to win and working to get to where you want to get. Just being a part of the game, I can see it and help them see it,” he said.

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