One-on-One With New Orlando Magic Head Coach Sean Sweeney

All right, joining me on the pod, the former assistant coach of the Nets, Pistons, Mavericks, and Spurs following a successful stint with Anoka Ramsey Community College. He is now the head coach of the Orlando Magic, Sean Sweeney. Welcome to the show. And first, where is Anoka Ramsey Community College? First, thanks for having me, Chris. uh, Anoka Ramsey Community College is in the Twin Cities up in, uh, just North of Minneapolis up in Minnesota. So how did you wind up beginning your coaching career there? Uh, I needed a job when I finished college and that was the only one that would take me. And, uh, yeah, it was, it was a fun time, fun time, not a lot of wins, but a fun time. What was, I mean, you played college basketball, a couple of stops there began at Green Bay. Um, I, you know, I loved about your Wikipedia page, by the way, it says like, if anybody played college basketball, it says NBA draft undrafted, like, yeah, I did go undrafted. You don't know that I was eligible. You joined the ranks of the undrafted, uh, NBA players. Like, well, how did you get into coaching? Why was coaching the way you want it to go? Yeah. You know, I, uh, when I, when I was playing in high school, I always knew that I wanted to be in basketball some way, shape or form. And when the shape and form was not going to be as a player, uh, I knew I wanted to get into coaching. So I started immediately. Anoka Ramsey went there right away. Actually, my, my high school coach was the head coach there, a guy named Bill McKee. And so he, right when I finished playing, offered me a job and, uh, went there. And then from there with the University of Evansville and bounce around for a while until I got to the New Jersey Nets back when I was asking you about fights on epics and, uh, been in the pros ever since. That's how we met, your love of boxing when you were working with the Nets there. And you can see your championship belt there behind you. What is that? Is that the WBO title, if my eyes don't mistake me? That is the WBO title. And Chris Algieri gave it to me when he came to talk to the team. My man Russ Amber's book is up there, as well as Chris's book on how to eat if you want to be a fighter. Chris Algieri is, in addition to being a very good fighter, world champion, world-class nutritionist. knows knows his body you had him you had to speak to the team recently right yeah he came up to talk to the team about um we talked about when he fought Ruslan Provodnikov fight and uh yeah Siberian Rocky and you know chris not even supposed to be there gets there gets the opportunity not supposed to win massive underdog and fights an incredible fight you know gets his face broken in the first round knocked down twice and climbs all the way back to win his championship in 12 rounds in the decision, but just in general, who he is, what he had to go through, um, you know, to get, to be a champion, I think speaks to, um, you know, all that we're looking to do from a competition standpoint, from a toughness standpoint. And, uh, just in general, the way, the way he spoke athlete to athlete, to the, to the players was, was phenomenal. Yeah. He was incredible. I'm going to have, um, Sergio Mora come down and like, tell them what not to do. like the Latin Snake and i heard on a recent podcast referring to himself as the Aluminum Boy yeah he would be phenomenal as well he refers to himself as a lot of things on our boxing show i want to go back though like when you're like a young coach in these like far-flung college ranks like is the dream to get to the NBA back then like what were those experiences like yeah i always wanted to get to the pros chris um you know i when i was at evansville i worked for a guy named Marty Simmons and it was a really good start for me with how much he taught me but even then you know I always talked to him about if I ever get a chance to coach in the NBA that's what I wanted to do uh you know the the competition standpoint stood out to me the the highest level of players the highest level of coaches and that was always something that was in the back of my mind or a goal or whatever you want to call it and um so you know very fortunate to be here now What kind of roles did you have on those college coaching staffs? You name it. Drive a player to the airport, in charge of training table at CC's Pizza, get travels organized for the team, buses, road meals, on up to video coordinator, you name it. Every which way, I had to do all the different jobs along the way. um you know so it was i was i was well experienced by the time i got an opportunity with the nets do you look back like i always say that like like i'm glad what i'm doing now i love what i'm doing now but i had more fun like being broke living in new york city like with three roommates in early the early 2000s like do you look back on those times like in the same way yeah no i i love i loved it and uh you know like Evansville I was living in university housing and like my meals were on the student meal card you know so yeah I loved it but you know the thing to me that it was fun because you felt like you were really trying to work your butt off and and help the team in every which way and like you know there was a lot of simplicity to how you had to live because it was out of necessity I mean living off the meal card endless chicken wings uh let me tell you Yeah. That, that cafeteria at the university of Evansville was phenomenal. Can't go wrong with that stuff. Um, how do you get to the, how do you get to the Nets? Uh, you know, I was at the, uh, University of Northern Iowa working for Ben Jacobson and the lockout occurred and the Nets ended up looking for a video coordinator. And so through a guy named Mitch Kaufman, who was actually the first video guy in the NBA who runs Hoop One Video, uh, I got connected and got an interview with Avery Johnson and went out there and And right after Thanksgiving, got hired. And two weeks later, I was packing up and moving to Jersey and getting ready to go for the 2011-2012 season, the lockout year, 66 games and three games in three nights, all that stuff. So it was like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. I mean, I was in Cedar Falls, Iowa one day. And two days later, I was driving across the country to Newark, New Jersey and getting ready to roll with the Nets. So what's it like? Like you'd been a video coordinator in college before, but like you said, you were kind of a jack of all trades, do a lot of different things in college. Like when you get to the NBA, like how, how big an adjustment is it to be an NBA video coordinator? Yeah, dude, it's extreme. I thought I had a good feel for how to coach and what good basketball was and, you know, what good players were. And then when I got to the Nets, I remember thinking to myself, like, holy cow, these guys are so good. The coaches are so smart. you know early on we go down to Orlando and we're playing the Magic and like Dwight Howard and the Superman Dwight Howard days and I'm looking at him, Derrick Rose, how fast he covered the court, LeBron like you name it Blake Griffin when he was with the Clippers I mean these guys like just seeing how athletic and how explosive and how talented all these guys were and then seeing how good the coaches were to figure out ways to guard or stop or compete against each other like it was it was eye-opening for me to say the least and you started there like you said under Avery Johnson the next coach with the Nets was Jason Kidd and that was developed into a really productive relationship for you you guys seemed to have great chemistry early on you multiple had multiple stops with Jason Kidd, Milwaukee in Dallas like the two of you did you click right away was there something about that dynamic that worked immediately yeah we we clicked pretty early on you know Jason um you know with me he did a really good job of trying to help me grow just as a young coach and i owe him a huge debt of gratitude and a lot for what he did for me in my career and yeah early on we clicked and then as we got to know each other better um you know Milwaukee we we got some things done there helped help the Bucks improve and then in Dallas had some great years going to the Western Finals our first year and then going to the finals uh you know a couple years later and so you know i owe him a lot and from a coaching standpoint he taught me a ton on how to operate how to coach great players how to see the game creativity yeah he helped me a lot in my career that's the like i'm kind of jumping around a little bit but like you have had great relationships with superstar players like you know with Giannis early on and throughout his time in Milwaukee Luca like i just got back from Slovenia Luca was talking ---- about you in Slovenia and you know your relationship with him has been rock solid your one year in San Antonio great relationship with Wemby and the young guards that they have there is that something like you Jason obviously comes from a different position as you he's a hall of fame player and immediately gets that kind of respect but like coaching stars what did you learn from him about the best way to do it you know what he was really good about was he was a great listener one and the other thing he really did a good job of was he made sure that everybody knew you're here to service the players your job is to help the players regardless of who it is be as efficient as in and as impactful as you can possibly be and so as coaches your job is to serve and I think the thing about Jay and it was the same way he was as a player like he leads as a guide not as a hero you know he's like servant leadership from that standpoint not only as a player and how he set up his teammates but as a head coach he did the same thing didn't take credit for anything and and really wanted to see guys do well how do you as as someone that comes from an entirely different place that doesn't have the NBA career or all the accolades like all these guys like on some level they grew up watching Jason Kidd whether it was early years in Dallas more likely with the Knicks at the end with the Mavericks um like for for you like how what what's the i guess the question is like what's the best way to get respect from guys like all these guys that that you built these relationships with is there a common thread there in how the how you coach them yeah you know for for me chris and i think it's the same with our staff and that's why you know happy about the guys we have here our job is to be direct communicators our job is to know what we're talking about to be really prepared to be really consistent and And then at the end of the day, our leadership is intention-based and our attention is active because our job is to help the players get as much as they can out of themselves and ultimately the team. And from our standpoint, from my standpoint, we want them to have individual success as well as team success. And the best job they do with their individual execution means the best job we're going to do with our team execution. So we try to really put an emphasis on that each and every day. So when you got to Milwaukee, like Giannis was still the stringy kid with potential. Like, did you, could you tell right away that like, this was, this kid had something? Yeah. You could see internally, he had way more than people grasp on the outside. Probably, you know, his drive was incredible. And then I think his mind was, was, was really stronger than people probably understood. you know your young player coming from overseas trying to learn the language trying to figure out what to do and so you can make some mistakes early on but you could tell he was a smart player he was a driven player and he had a level of competitiveness that was singular you know and then obviously on top of that he had size he had a skill set that kept getting better and better and better that's got to be the common thread with some of these great players a level of competitiveness like the three guys the three biggest names i would say that you've been involved with, with Giannis, Luka and Victor, like straight from the outside, it looks like they have this relentless competitive streak. Yeah. The competition piece for those guys is, is huge. I mean, Luka, as you probably saw in Slovenia, like he'll compete in anything, cards, checkers, tiddlywinks, you know, guessing numbers. He doesn't care. Like he wants to compete. You put a scoreboard on and he's trying to win, but that's all those guys. I think to a certain extent they all have that desire to compete and and the hate of losing and the love of winning and the other thing i think with those guys that stands out to me is they're willing to do every day what most are not their consistency uh you know day in and day out whether the lights are on or not it's it's different than than most and that's what separates so many of those guys that are great is they're willing to do what others aren't did you ever beat Luka at anything Ah, man, you name it. Not basketball. Anything not basketball. Cards. Who's going to win, whether it's Notre Dame or the opponent? Ah, yes. You name it. The love for Notre Dame. I keep forgetting that. The Midwest love for Notre Dame. As a Boston College guy, I can't weigh in on that. Yeah, you're one. We've got you this year. We've got you guys on the schedule this year. I know. ND's got BYU coming up this weekend. so it'll be a big one but now Luca you know i'm gonna be honest i probably took more L's than i did wins with Luca uh you know he he's a multi-talented kid and just a special person all the way around and you only got the the one year in San Antonio with Victor but and there's been so much written about Victor i've had a chance to sit down with Victor a couple of times in his career i wouldn't say i know him at all but he's a really fascinating guy to me uh during the conversations about that what tell me something that you learned about Victor that impressed you when you got to San Antonio you know the thing to me right off the bat Chris when when i got there and asked him it was like mid-June or maybe getting almost July and i asked him you know how can i help you get what you and the team want and the two things he asked me for was hold us accountable and make sure we don't waste time this is like a 21 year old and you know i remember thinking to myself holy cow like that's impressive but who he was every day how thoughtful he was the kind of teammate he was the inner drive to be great uh the pride in his own performance and the team performance were second to none i mean it was pretty special to see that and i think you know being there seeing how mitch uh johnson operated with him like it was really helpful for me you know in in a number of ways but definitely learned a lot from being there and being around those guys what was the harder finals lost to get over '24 or '26 uh '26 yeah yeah '26 you know your voice went a little bit lower right there man well at least you put the knife in my chest no '26 they were both really tough but '26 i mean all those games went right down to the wire you felt like they were you know each game you could have gone either way but you know the knicks were a phenomenal team all year that they had great players you know i was fortunate enough when we were in dallas my first year got to coach jalen uh brunson see how special he was at that time and so you know credit to them but yeah '26 was a a tough one did you did you see the brunson ascent coming like he was good in dallas like like really good in dallas but he he'd become great like did you see that jump coming you know i thought he was going to be really good man i thought he was going to keep getting better and better like just to see how much he improved in that year when Luca was out he raised his game even in the playoffs I mean he had 40 in the first round in a game against Utah like you could see the beginnings of like a guy that's going to be an all-league kind of guy but I mean to say I think he was going to a few years later tear my heart out in the finals? No, I wasn't anticipating that. Do you, like we talked about how like players grow from experience, like Victor's going to get better. Harper's going to get better. Castle's going to get better in San Antonio. Do you, as a coach, like, how do you take the heartbreak of that and use it to make yourself better? Yeah. I mean, you know, after you get done crying yourself to sleep every night, you just got to study it. You've got to learn from it. You know, we've got to look at what did they do really well to impact winning what did we need to do differently and then it's like anything else you take the test you do what you do on it if you get a good grade you look at what you got right you try to do it again if you look at you get your marks that you got wrong you try to correct them and you move on and just in general i think you know the approach is if you make one mistake don't make two and if you get it right once try to get it right right twice you were uh a coach in demand last season last off season for a lot of teams um you got this job officially during the finals you were named um uh head coach um like what was what was that process like for you like was there a specific team or teams you were like these are the teams that i want to coach were you looking for any opportunity kind of what was your mindset as you started to become this like hot property out there well you know we were fortunate um you know with how good things were going in san antonio that um you know in talking to andy miller my agent you know we we had the opportunity to be a little bit more selective and when orlando opened this was the job that i wanted to go after um you know the players and the talent was something that really stood out to me the front office uh with jeff weltman being here john hammond who i was with in milwaukee before on the medical side arnie candor who had experience with in detroit been in the NBA for 40 plus years and then when you started to study it the the ownership here the DeVos family just how strong the franchise was in all these different areas it really reinforced and made me double down on a desire to be here and then when you look at the you know the weather and the city of Orlando and just how great it is like all the boxes were checked Um, so that, that was kind of the approach this, this, uh, this summer, you know, when the opportunity came around. So the, the roster was pretty locked in when you took the job, a lot of talent, like good talented players in that roster, but it's not a situation where you're going to a rebuilding team or a team that's going to make a ton of moves, at least not right away. Like, what did you think of the roster from afar? Uh, well, I, I love the talent and I liked the size and versatility of a number of the players and you know there's certain guys that stand out that have more name value or whatever but just when you look it up and down the roster and as I've gotten to know these guys like really impressed with all of them you know whether it's Desmond Bain and his leadership or Franz Wagner and his skill set and his commitment to win you know Wendell Carter and his ability to to make the invisible plays you know Jalen Suggs who I've known him since he was a little kid we grew up about 10 minutes from each other uh obviously i grew up at a different time period than he did uh but you know i used to play in the aau program i used to coach in and then like paulo and and how he's been with carrying the torch for attacking each day and and on down the line you know there's there's a number of players here that are talented and you know i'm excited to coach um you know so that was that was how i looked at it so when you got through the finals you were able to catch your breath and take on the new job kind of like what was your off season like like were you visiting guys were you talking to them on the phone kind of what was what was your preparation pre-camp preparation to kind of try to build something with these guys yeah all all all of the above yeah right away basically after the finals ended um you know and really before that once the job uh everything was wrapped up and interviewed with you know jeff and those guys and then met the DeVos family and once everything was done i immediately was calling players you know and just touching base with those guys regardless where they were you know franz was in Germany like Tristan uh De Silva was in Orange County you know guys were all over the place wherever they were but I made sure to reach out to those guys immediately and then once we got here to Orlando um some of the guys were here saw them went to see some of the guys so yeah it was immediate you know building the the connection and the chemistry that we want to build to do what we want to do was right away what do you Paolo is you know he's a star um the question is like how biggest star can he be what kind of what's his ceiling as a player When you look at Paolo like what do you see like how do you see him developing this year and beyond well you know I I love his I love his ability to compete you know he's done a great job this summer with his work ethic and how he's really worked to get his body where it needs to be to handle attacking each day and attacking all 82 games and I think he's a he's a guy that can drive your team in a number of ways he can drive offensive success you can leverage his size and physicality on the defensive side and his rebounding he's got a diversified skill set but the thing I've been really impressed with with him Chris is he's carried the torch for for who we want to be since got the job you know his level of competitiveness is high he's got a high level of toughness you know he's committed to the connection side of things with his teammates and just in general like he's done a great job of being open in his communication and great with his effort so what kind of team do you want this to be like they've had like they've been kind of a little Jekyll and Hyde sometimes last couple years and I've been bullish like I'm on record I've been bullish about the Magic for years now I thought they were going to make a run the last couple of years like the talent is real I love the Bane trade a year ago um a couple years ago they were this like defensive minded team try to grind out wins they were still good defensively last year in spurts but they were playing a little bit faster last year like what is your vision for how this team looks at its best every night yeah well I think you know to that point like there's a foundation that's been laid here I mean this team over the last several years has had a lot of wins and um you know more than people probably grasp, so you know there's a foundation here in that sense but for us you know defensively we want to be a team that dominates the ball we want to punish our opponent with some physicality and what i would term as appropriate violence which we've got to get a little better at here because we've been fouling too much in our first couple of preseason games. But, you know, we want to do a great job with our physicality and then we want to be ready to attack the play. And the more we can do all that together, I think, you know, we're going to have a chance to be a pretty good defense. And then offensively, you know, it starts with being aggressive with balance. You know, we really want to attack, but we want to have some balance and control while we do it. We want to do a great job of creating together, you know, that it's us together against the other team and making sure that we make the right play when the right play presents itself. And then, you know, the third thing is we want to weaponize our screening. We've got guys that are versatile, and so we want to put them in different spots that are advantageous for their skill set. So that way we can, you know, leverage what we do have and really look to attack on the offensive end. What was the phrase used? Appropriate violence? Is that? Yeah, appropriate violence. What does that mean? It means you want to do a great job of moving your feet, playing with your bodies and using your hands as the situation dictates okay i hadn't heard that phrase before that's a good one i like that one um the the two you know i was just came from our NBA orientation around guys that are much smarter about basketball than i am guys that played the game Mello and Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady we talk about Orlando during the day and a couple things that come up with the Magic it's like one do they have enough shooting like how would you answer that do you believe that shooting is something that you have enough of to be the kind of team you want to be yeah no i like the way we've been shooting the ball i think you know our first preseason game we shot the lights out our second one we weren't quite as strong but you know we want to do a great job with when i talk about creating together you know it starts with do we make the right decision to get the ball in the paint or to pass it to an open teammate we've got to do a great job with our spacing after that so that way when we are in a situation where passes, uh, dictated, we're ready for it. And then part of it is the shot prep, you know, being down and ready to shoot the basketball. And then the third part is the shots or the last part is the shot selection, you know, making sure we take the right shots. And I think the more that we can educate ourselves on what great shots are, the numbers are going to go up, you know, just in general. And the other one thing we talked about was, was Suggs who has like been such a big part of the team success the last couple of years like i don't know what the numbers are but it seems like they win when he's healthy and out there on the floor like is he like as a playmaker is he capable of being that guy do you need him to be that guy like what do you need out of Jalen Suggs this year yeah you know Jalen's got a great skill set man and just in general like who he is as a person you know he has a level of competitiveness and positive energy that i think that's what you're referring to when you talk about the team winning when he's on the floor he can really uplift those around him. And just in general with him, you know, he's a guy who can dribble, he can pass, he can shoot, he can guard at a high level. And we need him to be a hundred percent of himself. We don't need him to be 80% of somebody else or 150% of, you know, something we just need to be him because when he's been out there and he's been, you know, showing that level of consistency, he impacts winning. You know, you are and have, you know, every guy I've talked to um, about you over the years, uh, whether it's stars or, or, you know, 13th men or whatever they are, they, they say you're tough and direct and, you know, you don't beat around the bush with, with stuff. Like, can you be the same guy as a head coach that you were for years as an assistant? Do you have to modify yourself at all now that you're in the big chair? You know, I think just in general, one of the things that I saw when I was in San Antonio, being around Mitch, uh, is it's actually, you got to double down on being who you are. You know, you can't try to pretend to be something you're not. And then you just try to do the job as well as you can. I think that was one of the things that I learned from being around Mitch, like his leadership was exceptional. And, you know, the guys that were there before me, the way they talked about him, he was the same guy. He just was the head coach and was even more himself. And so that's one of the things that I try to take away from being there and try to remember when I'm here is just, you've got to be yourself and you've got to do the best job you can each and every day. Cause guys seem to want to be coached, right? Like, you know, at the end of the day, like, I think they want, they want to believe in the coach, but they want kind of tough love sometimes. Yeah. Well, we want to give them what we call encouragement as much as we can. We want to encourage them to do things as well and as hard and as, uh, together as they can. But my experience is you know that the great players want to be coached and most guys that i've been around you know the vast vast majority want to improve so it's our job to help them improve and help them with their individual success and then you know that'll lead to team success so that's kind of my last question there like what does team success look like to you this year i know you're not going to give me a number or a ranking or a playoff finish but like what's the end at the end of the year what does success look like just winning you know i i think the biggest thing to me and this is one of the things when we talked this summer with a number of the players is you know we want to get the most out of what we have I think that was a common theme you know when I talked to the guys this summer about what are they looking for from from the coaching staff and just from the season is we want to get everything we can out of our team out of ourselves and I see it the same way and it starts with building great habits and getting great fundamentals and then getting individual team fundamentals built so that way you do have a chance you know when the pressure goes up to be at your best but just in general for us we want to get the most out of what we have and does your team know what kind of psychotic boxing fan that you are like next level like i saw you like for people that didn't know like they in orlando there is this prospect developmental series at the Caribbean Royale i guess what i call Caribbean Royale uh just outside the city uh and i'm watching i knew you were there but like i'm watching on the zone and like i'm hearing the announcement like oh the head coach of the magic and the players are there like you're dragging players you're dragging players into your obsession sean like what are you doing hey listen to zone home of the magic home of the magic come on now let's get some more pub for the magic up on the zone homepage that's right that's right i'm tired to see other teams up there let's get some magic graphics going no i think you know they don't know chris because there's very few who can comprehend uh the psychoses but uh slowly but surely that onion layers may be peeled but you know you're one of the few who probably can grasp uh how much i got it i gotta tell the quick story of like like it was like two years ago now and we're in Detroit. And I think, I forget if you were coaching there or just playing or your team was playing there. And it was a Demetrius Salida, Claressa Shields show that was in Detroit. And Claressa Shields is this great women's boxer, number one, pound for pound, greatest woman of all time, draws a big crowd, draws a very black crowd, like a very, very black crowd in Detroit. And you're texting me, like I'm at the arena and I'm looking around and like, you're the easiest person in the world to pick out in the crowd. Like the easiest person, like the red hair and the lodge like you're sitting in the lodge by yourself up there that's how dedicated in the middle of winter i think it was that's how dedicated you are to going to see a a random boxing fight in the middle of january listen that was easy because you know when you think about when i went to flint to see her at the dort center when i was coaching in detroit that was a little bit of a further drive harder to get to but not yeah i i enjoyed a lot uh she put on quite a show uh you know actually when we played our preseason game in cleveland my man tommy ankello came over with about 18 boxing guys from pittsburgh you know so yeah we we uh we enjoy we enjoy watching people perform at their best especially like my man Amari Jones did down here at the Caribe the other night and we got my man Geo Laroca coming up in Tucson in a couple weeks another Orlando guy you gotta like i've been telling the guys at Matchroom like you gotta get Amari Jones these games like you know you got the head coach the huge boxing fan you You've got a local kid who's an ex-Olympic bronze medalist who is competing regularly right down there. There's got to be some synergy between these two sides, man. Without question. I went over to watch him train at the School of Hard Knocks a few weeks ago. Of course you did. Of course you did. Yeah, looked good. Looked good. Second round TKO was not a surprise to me, my friend. Of course you did. Your next career will be as a boxing trainer. You'll be holding a spit bucket for somebody down the line. Sean, good stuff, man. Great to see you get this opportunity, man. Actually, look, you're not going to make predictions. I think this team can be really good. i really i think the way you guys can get after it defensively um i think you're really good i think the east is so tough this year and much tougher than it's been in years past but i think you got uh you got a lot of potential to surprise a lot of people this year man yeah i appreciate you saying but that's what that's why we like we like we love the competition chris that's that's why we're in the pros that's why you're in the big leagues we're trying to get to your level okay my level I also don't believe that i never believe when a guy says like i want that team to be at full strength i wouldn't i don't want to be missing everybody i want them playing like the 14th man like i want when i want lebron to play this night i want tatum to play no no i'm glad when guys are sitting out like if i if that was me maybe i'm they're on the wrong guy for that job but i'd be glad when guys are sitting out man get the sean sweeney's of the world out there there we go there we go undrafted undrafted in the pros that's right oh sean good stuff man i appreciate your time