点击查看原文：Lee says brief stint with Spurs had 'huge impact' on him
Lee says brief stint with Spurs had ‘huge impact’ on him
Charlotte Hornets head coach Charles Lee calls a play during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
Charles Lee had a cup of coffee with the Spurs as an undrafted rookie nearly 20 years ago.
But as cup of coffees go, this one was “pretty, pretty, pretty good,” as Larry David, the comedian and actor known for “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” would say.
Lee returned to San Antonio on Friday as a first-year head coach with the Charlotte Hornets. His first visit to the Alamo City as part of the NBA came in summer 2006 after he capped his four-year college career as a 6-foot-4, 220-pound guard at Bucknell by averaging 13.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.2 steals over 32 games.
“After I graduated from college, I signed a non-guaranteed contract with the Spurs,” Lee said.
That the Spurs took a flyer on him was no surprise after he was named 2006 Patriot League Player of the Year and helped guide the Bison to two straight Patriot League Championships and consecutive appearances in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Lee knew he was a long shot to make the team, but he was thrilled to be with the Spurs just a year after they had defeated the Detroit Pistons in seven games to win the third of their five championships.
“I got to play Summer League with the team and to actually play with Duncan and Ginobili and Parker and go to training camp with those guys overseas,” Lee said. “And then I got to meet coach Bud and coach Pop and all those guys.”
That’s Duncan, Ginobili and Parker as in future Hall of Famers’ Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. And Bud and Pop as in current Phoenix Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer and Spurs Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich.
Lee said being around all that talent, albeit for a brief time, had a “huge impact” on him.
“The thing I remember most is just that environment and what it meant every day to come into work and have the right mindset and the right approach, and that the togetherness and the alignment in the building was so strong,” Lee said. “I remember once I got cut, just remembering they do everything the right way, and it’s not by luck or by chance that they’re having success. It’s because of the daily process they have.”
After the Spurs let him go, Lee had stops playing professionally in Israel, Belgium and Germany before retiring as a player to work on Wall Street for Merrill Lynch. He made his way back to basketball in June 2012 when Bucknell hired him as an assistant men’s coach.
Two years later, Budenholzer hired Lee as an assistant on his staff with the Atlanta Hawks. When Budenholzer parted ways with the Hawks to become coach of the Milwaukee Bucks in 2018, Lee went with him. In Milwaukee, he was part of the Bucks’ championship team in 2021.
After nearly a decade with Budenholzer in Atlanta and Milwaukee, Lee moved on to take an assistant’s job with the Boston Celtics in June 2023. In May 2024, the Hornets announced they had hired Lee to replace Steve Clifford, who stepped down at the end of the 2023-24 season.
Charlotte hiring Lee came after he had been a head coaching candidate for several years, including in 2021 when he was a finalist for the Washington Wizards job.
Even after several rejections, he remained optimistic he would one day reach the top. He told the New York Times that after each rejection he would ask himself this question: “What am I going to have to do to grow so that one day I can be in the seat of being a head coach for one of these organizations?”
“There are only 30 of them and it was kind of tough to keep hearing no," the New York Times quoted Lee as saying. "But after self-reflection, you take the feedback, and now it’s just my responsibility to keep trying to grow in those areas that they think that I can show some improvement in.”
When he finally landed with the Hornets, he remembered his early days in the NBA with the Spurs, who lost to the Hornets on March 14 in the first meeting this season between the clubs.
“I will just always remember and be grateful for the opportunity to experience Spurs culture,” Lee said.\