May 27th, 2018. Otherwise known as Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. 

I am sitting on the bench with the Celtics in my first full season as an NBA assistant coach. As the 2nd half begins we are leading the Cleveland Cavaliers 43-39. Twenty-four minutes from making the NBA Finals.  

Over the course of my coaching career I had taken to living by the motto:

“If what you did yesterday still seems big, then you haven’t done much today”.  

What it meant to me was no matter what I had overcome or accomplished to this point in my career, the key to my success would be to always strive forward and attack the next challenge in front of me. 

However as I watched LeBron James and the other players take the floor for a pivotal 3rd quarter of the biggest game I had ever been involved with, I took in the excitement of a sold out Boston Garden crowd, the intensity of the teams, overall zoo-like atmosphere and couldn’t help but take a short moment and think to myself...

“How the hell did I get here?”

As I had trained myself to do, I quickly re-focused on the task at hand but alas, we fell short to possibly the greatest basketball player of all-time as LeBron went for 35 points, 15 rebounds, and 9 assists en route to his 8th straight NBA finals appearance. 

Later that night, when I took a moment to reflect on the season, I re-visited the question that I asked myself at half-time. My journey to that moment, in fact, had taken me literally from one of the most unlikely places in the basketball world to quite literally the highest possible level.

What I realized was, sure I had put in a lot of hard work and taken some chances to make it this far, but in reality it was a small miracle for me to be here – more accurately a series of miracles.

“A nice, clean place to live.” 

That's the motto of the Village of Morell, Prince Edward Island where I was born and raised. A simple yet accurate statement to summarize the smallest community in the smallest province in Canada. It was a perfect place to grow up with minimal crime or danger to speak of, lots of space to run around and a few good friends to share the innocent, simple pleasures of small town living. 

However it was not the first place you might think of to produce a professional basketball coach.

Perhaps one of the last places in North America. 

As far as I know we had produced one NHL player (Alan MacAdam 1970s/80s) in the history of the village. For someone growing up in a place like Morell, it would be ridiculous to even dream of making it in the world of professional basketball in any facet especially as an NBA coach.

Miracle #1 happened when I was five years old.

My father George was named the head coach of the UPEI Panthers men’s basketball program.

Over the next 13 years I had a front row seat, literally, to the most successful basketball era in PEI history with my Dad’s teams winning three AUS conference championships and at one point being ranked #1 in Canada. I sat with my Dad to watch coaching clinics on VHS tapes. I drove to practice in the passenger seat with a whiteboard to draw up basketball plays to win imaginary games. From my bedroom I could hear him on the phone making recruiting calls to high school players all over North America. On road trips, in a 15 passenger van, I sat with 12 “older brothers” of different ethnicities and cultures from locations all over North America.

After exposure to the basketball world far away from Morell, each night I was able to return to our safe little bubble, the nice clean place to live.

I then fulfilled a childhood goal to play for the Panthers at UPEI. After a solid five year career it was time to think about the next stage in my life and only one thing was for certain...

I wanted to keep basketball in my life.

Miracle #2 came after my first year of graduate studies at Dalhousie University. 

I was ready to try a start coaching, and with one year of school remaining decided I would meet with the Men’s coach about joining his staff as a graduate assistant. Literally on the walk from my apartment to his office I happened to bump into the coach of the Dalhousie women’s team. Dr. Carolyn Savoy was a legendary Canadian coach and had met me at a coaching clinic I attended while I was a player at UPEI. She said she had been meaning to reach out to me and wanted to know if I was interested in being her assistant coach next season.   

I said yes on the spot.   

It was a great opportunity because I would be her top assistant and get a chance to participate in all aspects of the program.   

Later that season Coach Savoy announced she was taking a one year sabbatical to write a book, and that 24-year-old Scott Morrison would be the team’s head coach while she was away.

Enter Miracle #3.  

Dalhousie had a new men’s coach that season as well. John Campbell who, like me, was the son of a successful coach and had just made the switch from Laurentian University women’s coach to the Dalhousie men’s team. John and I had become good friends that season and when discussing my lack of future options, he had a thought. He encouraged me to apply for the Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, Ontario) men’s head coaching position. Two months earlier I had applied for the Lakehead women’s job and did not get a response. But, with John as a new reference, I got a call back. John’s old boss was friends with the Lakehead athletic director. Three candidates were offered the job and turned it down leaving them with me. 

And again, I was able to take a step forward. 

While at Lakehead, I made many mistakes and we had our struggles as a program. However, by year 6 with the help of some great players, excellent assistants and a great deal of understanding from the school’s administration we turned the corner and became a national contender having went to the “Final 8” a record four straight seasons. Taking a page from Coach Savoy’s book 10 years earlier – I negotiated a sabbatical for one year in order to learn the pro game. 

Although I didn’t know it at the time, after losing in the national championship game to Carleton on March 8, 2013, I left the arena for what would end up being my last game as the coach of the Lakehead Thunderwolves.

Miracle #4 happened soon after.  

While none of the 30 NBA teams was willing to take me on as a volunteer (naïve request on my part at the time) I was able to find a G-League coach named Mike Taylor willing to let me be the league’s oldest Intern.

At 36 years old, I packed up my dog Moses and we drove to Portland, Maine to volunteer with the Red Claws.

It might not have seemed like much of a lucky break when I spent most of my days folding towels, doing the players’ laundry and driving the team bus, but I made the most of it. I was studying the pro game, working out players after practice and spending time in Boston watching the Celtics while the Red Claws went on road trips. Sure enough my hard work and experience as a head coach caught the eye of a couple of front office executives and in the summer of 2014, they had an opening and I was interviewed and hired as the head coach of the Maine Red Claws – Boston’s minor league affiliate.

The G League is filled with players who are there in an attempt to advance their career. 

For some that means trying to get to the NBA and for others it might mean trying to get a more lucrative contract in Europe or overseas.

These goals are very individualized but the trick to having a successful team is to find some common ground between the goals of the individual player and the team. In our case, we communicated to the players that the NBA and high level professional teams overseas are only about winning. They are not looking in the G League for someone that can score 30 points a game. They are looking for guys that can play as a team, play defence, work hard, and execute.

For a month straight leading up to that first season with the Red Claws, I had nightmares of finishing my first pro season with zero wins.

Deep down I didn’t know if I was good enough. Miracle #5 was being blessed with a great coaching staff and an even better group of players. In 2014-15, we had the league’s best record and I was named Coach of the Year.  The kid from the smallest village in the smallest province in Canada was knocking on the door of a literal dream scenario that only a series of miracles could produce.

After two more successful seasons with the Red Claws, I received the call from Coach Brad Stevens with an offer to join the Celtics as an assistant coach.

Being from Prince Edward Island, you sometimes slip into that “we aren’t as good as the bigger places” type of mentality which can really work against you.

My first day on the job at Celtics training camp, Coach Stevens asked me to be one of the referees for the scrimmage at the end. One of the players fell in front of me and when play stopped, I ran to grab the dry mop to wipe the floor. Without looking I swung it around and drilled Jeff Green in the shin and he went down in a pile.

I thought I would be fired on the spot.

Jeff and Coach Stevens were cool about it and I settled in. Soon that “PEI isn’t good enough” mentality turned into a “something to prove” mentality and it took off from there. Call it Miracle #6.

The reason I started down this path in the first place was because my goal was to see if I could work with the best in the world. At the end of the day, the NBA is about the players and it should be because they have the biggest impact on whether the team wins or loses. An assistant coach has a very small, even minuscule potential effect on a game’s outcome.

Sure, it would be easy to “go through the motions”.

But being around people at the highest level who are driven to be even better makes you want to get the most out of your own preparation and performance.  If I have the potential to impact the game 1% I make sure I get my 1% in and try to look for ways I can make it 1.5% because you never know what might put a team over the top at the end of the day.

So there I was. Game 7 versus LeBron in the Eastern Conference finals.

Preparing for any playoff series, especially against one of the top players in the world like LeBron begins weeks, months and sometimes years before the actual series begins. And when you lose that chess match, there is a decompression time for most coaches.

After a couple of days, it hits you that after ten months we have a day off. Much like quarantining during a pandemic, at first it is hard to get comfortable but eventually you settle in and enjoy free time with family.

That said it only takes a couple of weeks with no work before "the itch" gets the better of you.

It starts with individual projects and research on film, then comes summer league and before you know it the players are working out again in preparation for training camp.

“If what you did yesterday still seems big, then you haven’t done much today.”

I still have more dreams to fulfill and bigger steps to take. While not forgetting the help that many have had in getting me to this point, each day I go to work to improve as a coach and to help Coach Stevens and the Celtics in whatever way I can. I want to be an even better coach and reach even greater accomplishments. 

After all, LeBron James is still out there, he’s still one of the best of all time, and if we get the chance again, we owe him one. You can bet I will do all I can to help put us in that position...

And hope there might be another small miracle to help along the way.