Phoenix Suns 2010-11 Media Guide - NBA Media Central
Phoenix Suns 2010-11 Media Guide - NBA Media Central
Phoenix Suns 2010-11 Media Guide - NBA Media Central
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Personnel<br />
26<br />
Alvin<br />
Gentry<br />
Head Coach<br />
A 50-win season, a return to the playoffs and homecourt advantage with a squad few picked to contend for a<br />
postseason spot, and two <strong>NBA</strong> Coach of the Month awards: not bad for Alvin Gentry’s first full season as head<br />
coach of the <strong>Phoenix</strong> <strong>Suns</strong>.<br />
A coaching veteran of more than 30 years in the professional and collegiate ranks, Alvin Gentry was named the<br />
14th head coach in <strong>Suns</strong> history on May 9, 2009, after originally being elevated to the role of interim head coach<br />
on Feb. 16, 2009. In just <strong>11</strong>3 games under his leadership, Gentry’s <strong>Suns</strong> have compiled a 72-41 (.637) record, giving<br />
him the third-highest win percentage among coaches in franchise history (Paul Westphal, Mike D’Antoni).<br />
In his first full season as the <strong>Suns</strong>’ head man in 2009-10, Gentry was a two-time <strong>NBA</strong> Western Conference Coach<br />
of the Month winner for November 2009 and March <strong>2010</strong>. He guided the team to 54 wins, his career-high as a<br />
coach, and earned his second career playoff berth as a head coach, first since 1998-99 as leader of the Detroit<br />
Pistons. Gentry coached the <strong>Suns</strong> to 10 postseason victories in <strong>2010</strong>, tied for the second-most in a single<br />
postseason in franchise history, and became just the fifth coach in franchise history to lead his team to a Western<br />
Conference Finals berth in his first full season.<br />
In addition to winning, <strong>Suns</strong> basketball under Gentry has featured two signature qualities: a high-scoring brand<br />
of basketball that has made the team the league’s most exciting to watch and a dominant homecourt advantage.<br />
For the second-straight season and for the fifth time in six seasons that Gentry has been with the organization,<br />
the <strong>Suns</strong> led the <strong>NBA</strong> in scoring in 2009-10. During his tenure as head coach, <strong>Phoenix</strong> has averaged <strong>11</strong>2.3 points,<br />
even more than the trendsetting <strong>Suns</strong> posted from 2004-05 to 2007-08 (109.8).<br />
Since taking over with 31 games remaining in 2008-09, Gentry has compiled the seventh-best home record of<br />
any <strong>NBA</strong> head coach in that span (46-12), a mark that includes an impressive .838 win percentage against the<br />
ultra-competitive Western Conference (31-6).<br />
Named the club’s interim head coach after the 2009 All-Star break, Gentry’s 31-game tenure with the <strong>Suns</strong> in<br />
2008-09 saw him lead the club to a 46-36 (.561) finish, the second-most victories for a non-playoff team in the<br />
25-year history of the <strong>NBA</strong>’s 16-team playoff format, as he compiled the highest winning percentage of any interim<br />
coach in the <strong>NBA</strong> (.561). He returned the <strong>Suns</strong> to the franchise’s high-scoring roots as <strong>Phoenix</strong> averaged an<br />
astounding <strong>11</strong>7.7 points following his promotion and raised its overall scoring average five full points to 109.4<br />
for the season, best in the <strong>NBA</strong>. The <strong>Suns</strong> opened Gentry’s tenure with a bang: a 40-point victory, the largest<br />
following a coaching change in <strong>NBA</strong> history, and three-straight 140-point efforts, the first time the <strong>NBA</strong> had seen<br />
such prolific scoring in three consecutive games in nearly two decades.<br />
Originally hired by the <strong>Suns</strong> as an assistant coach on June 1, 2004, Gentry served in that position the previous<br />
four-plus seasons before earning the midseason promotion in 2008-09. In 21 seasons in the <strong>NBA</strong>, Gentry has<br />
worked alongside some of the game’s most respected coaches, including Larry Brown, Kevin Loughery, Doug Collins<br />
and Mike D’Antoni, who have combined for more than 2,000 <strong>NBA</strong> victories.<br />
Gentry is at the helm of his fourth <strong>NBA</strong> team after stints with the Los Angeles Clippers (2000-03), Detroit<br />
Pistons (1997-2000) and Miami Heat (1995). Gentry took over for Collins in Detroit on Feb. 2, 1998, and the next<br />
season his 1998-99 squad earned a playoff berth. In 2001-02, his second season with the Clippers, he guided Los<br />
Angeles to an improbable 39-43 (.476) record, the team’s highest win total in nearly 10 seasons, a season after<br />
leading the club to a 16-win improvement in 2000-01, his rookie campaign with the club.<br />
Gentry received his first head coaching opportunity with the Miami Heat, taking over for Loughery on Feb. 14, 1995,<br />
after serving as an assistant with the Heat from 1991-95. Miami compiled a 15-21 (.417) record under his guidance.<br />
The 55-year-old Gentry, who assisted the USA Basketball Men’s Senior National Team in training camp as they<br />
prepared for the 2006 FIBA Men’s World Championships in Japan, made his entrance into the <strong>NBA</strong> as an assistant<br />
to Brown with the San Antonio Spurs in 1988-89. That came the season after serving under Brown with the 1988<br />
NCAA Champion Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team. Gentry subsequently moved to the Clippers for one season<br />
as an assistant under Mike Schuler.<br />
He played point guard at Appalachian State for coaching legends Press Maravich, the father of “Pistol Pete,”<br />
and former Georgia Tech Head Coach Bobby Cremins. Gentry graduated from Appalachian State with a degree in<br />
management in 1977.<br />
After graduation, his cousin, former <strong>NBA</strong> All-Star David “Skywalker” Thompson, got him a tryout with the Denver<br />
Nuggets and although he didn’t make the cut, he made an impression on Brown, who later hired him.<br />
Gentry began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Colorado during the 1977-78<br />
season. After one year working in private business, he returned to the bench when he received his first full-time<br />
collegiate assistant coaching job at Baylor in 1980. Gentry then returned to Colorado as an assistant coach from<br />
1981-85 before joining Brown at Kansas.<br />
Gentry and his wife Suzanne have two children, Ryan Marcus and Matthew Jackson. He also has one daughter,<br />
Alexis.