Michael Adams has always been a man in a hurry. A fan favorite in just four seasons with the Nuggets, the energetic guard established team records for 3-point field goals made and attempted as part of an impressive 11-year career. Now Adams is making his mark in another area, becoming an assistant coach at the University of Maryland. His boss there is Gary Williams, who coached Adams during his collegiate career at Boston College. Fans accustomed to seeing Adams jitterbug his way around the court might find it hard to believe he’s now 42, but in a chat days before the start of practice for the 2005-06 season, he proved just as peppy as ever.
Anthony Cotton: You left college 20 years ago …
Michael Adams: Isn’t that amazing? I don’t feel old. I look at that and realize that’s when I played for Gary, and now I’m working for him.
AC: It’s not easy working for Gary, but I guess you may be better equipped than most people.
MA: Definitely. I know how he is, I know how intense he is in practices and games; I know it will be the same working for him.
AC: People see him getting in players’ faces. I don’t know if they realize he does the same thing with the assistants, too.
MA: Of course. There are a lot of games where he’ll get on the coaches for something the players don’t do right. It goes with the territory.
AC: Why did you decide to make this move? You had been coaching the Washington Mystics of the WNBA.
MA: I decided it was a good lateral move to get back into the men’s game. I wasn’t sure if an opportunity like this would come up again, the chance to work with your former coach. I loved working with the women, I miss working with them, but I just felt I couldn’t pass this up.
AC: Is there anything you learned in the WNBA that you can bring to the men’s game?
MA: It instantly puts you on the hot seat when you’re the head coach. You realize how organized you have to be, how prepared you have to be, how you have to prepare your players to have a chance to win.
AC: Talking about being prepared, it seemed like you may have been bewildered with the whole Chamique Holdsclaw situation. (During the 2004 season, the all-star forward missed a large portion of the season with what was eventually diagnosed as depression.)
MA: Not really. That whole situation had nothing to do with me, even though some people tried to put it that way. She had some things she had to deal with, and that was that. It was a tough situation when she left, but we just had to find a way to learn to win without her. We had no choice. In some ways it made me a better coach. It made our players better because it made them focus more.
AC: Have any of the Maryland players challenged you to a 3-point shooting contest?
MA: (Laughs) Not yet. We haven’t gotten that far yet. I think that might happen once practice gets started. But they’ll realize they’d better have their “A” game, because my shot is the last thing that’s going to go.
AC: I’m assuming they know about your background, but do you think they care? What impact does it have on them?
MA: Even if they never saw me play, I’m sure they have an uncle or father or cousin. I don’t think they understand the magnitude of my career, or how long I played or how good or bad I was. They think about the here and now. They’re the next in line and want to have their own careers and wonder if I’m a guy who can help them get there.
AC: What do you think of when you look back on your career?
MA: The first thing I think of is being thankful that I was blessed with the chance to play for 11 years. Being drafted in the third round, you don’t know if you’re going to survive (training camp) to play in the NBA. Being 33 and having all the injuries catch up to me … I always thought I could play longer, but my body told me I couldn’t. But 11 years was great. I didn’t think I’d be able to play for that long.
AC: So when that happened, and things started messing up physically, did you wonder what was next?
MA: You know, I could lie and say I knew, but I really didn’t know what would be next. Obviously, you’re rewarded with good play with good contracts, so you can delay those decisions as long as your finances are in order, and I tried to do that. I realize now that coaching is something I wanted to do. I tried the radio and TV thing, but coaching was it.
AC: You talk about this being a lateral move. Other guys have used the WNBA as a way to jump back into coaching on the men’s side, like Michael Cooper did.
MA: Well, that didn’t work out so well. That was sad to see, because Michael Cooper was a great coach in the WNBA, he could have stayed in L.A. for a long time. I think that was a very unfortunate situation.
AC: Is this path taking you back to the NBA or to a collegiate head coaching position?
MA: I haven’t really thought about it. The more experience I get, that will dictate what I eventually do. Gary is a great coach; I hope to sit and watch and learn as much as I can for a number of years. I don’t think he would want an assistant who didn’t want to be a head coach. I hope that opportunity will come, whether it’s in college or the pros.
AC: People in Denver remember all the energy you brought to the court. As a coach, how do you channel that intensity?
MA: I didn’t know how to channel it last season. I just couldn’t sit down on the bench. I think the more active I am with my voice, the better a coach I’ll be. I realized that the second half of the season. I didn’t wear my knees down by being on them the whole game. I found my way back to the bench and tried to direct things from there. There’s the pressure of coaching and then there’s your blood pressure, that’s the thing you don’t want to rise. I’m trying to be calmer now.
Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
