Eric Musselman (born November 19, 1964) is an American college basketball coach who is currently the head coach at the University of Southern California. He is the former head coach at the University of Arkansas, University of Nevada, Reno and of the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Between head coaching stints at Golden State and Sacramento, Musselman served as an assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies under Mike Fratello. He moved to the college coaching ranks in 2012 as an assistant at Arizona State. From 2014 to 2019, he was the head coach for the Nevada Wolf Pack. The son of former NBA head coach Bill Musselman, Eric Musselman was a head coach in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) before becoming an assistant coach with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic (under Chuck Daly and Doc Rivers), and Atlanta Hawks (under Lon Kruger).
Early life
High school Musselman grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and San Diego, California, before moving to suburban Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School in Brecksville, a suburb about 15 miles south of Cleveland. There, he played on the same high school basketball team as former NBA player Scott Roth and former NFL Pro Bowl punter/quarterback Tom Tupa.
College playing career Musselman graduated from the University of San Diego, where he played basketball for Jim Brovelli and Hank Egan, both of whom would later work as NBA assistants. While Musselman was at USD (1983–87), the Toreros compiled a 77–36 record. He was a member of the 1986–87 team that compiled a 24–6 record, the best in school history. The Toreros lost to Auburn University in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 62–61. Among Musselman's teammates at USD were Scott Thompson, a 7-foot center who was drafted in the fourth round by the Washington Bullets in the 1987 NBA draft, and Mike Whitmarsh, who won a silver medal in beach volleyball at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Musselman was a fifth-round CBA draft choice of the Albany Patroons in 1987.
Coaching career
Early coaching career (1989–1997) In the CBA, Musselman posted a 270–122 record (.688), marking the second highest winning percentage in league history behind George Karl, who coached for five seasons in the CBA.
Musselman began his CBA career in 1988 as the general manager of the Rapid City Thrillers, a franchise his father Bill had coached to three consecutive CBA titles during the 1980s. His first week on the job, he hired Flip Saunders as the team's head coach. Saunders, who was recruited by Bill Musselman when Bill was the head coach at the University of Minnesota during the early 1970s, would go on to be one of the winningest coaches in CBA history before moving to the NBA as coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
In the 1989–90 season, at age 24, Musselman became the Thrillers head coach. The following season, Musselman joined his father Bill's staff on the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves as assistant coach making him the youngest front-bench assistant coach in NBA history. Prior to joining the Thrillers, Musselman worked for the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers as an assistant to General Manager Elgin Baylor and Barry Hecker, the team's director of scouting.
From 1990 to 1997, Musselman had 24 players called up to the NBA, the highest number in the league during that span. He holds the distinction of being the only person in CBA history to coach in five league All-Star Games (1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997) and was the first coach in professional basketball history to win 100 games by the age of 28. When he was 23, Musselman became the youngest coach in CBA history.
Musselman also served as head coach of the Florida Sharks of the United States Basketball League (USBL). In the summers of 1995 and 1996, he coached the Sharks to a combined 53–3 record (.946, including playoffs) and back-to-back USBL Championships. Musselman was selected as USBL Coach of the Year in 1996. He holds the highest winning percentage in league history.
Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks assistant (1998–2002) Musselman was an assistant coach for the Orlando Magic from 1998 to 2000 under Chuck Daly and Doc Rivers who would go on to be named NBA Coach of the Year in the 1999–00 season, then also for the Atlanta Hawks from 2000 to 2002 under Lon Kruger.
Golden State Warriors (2002–2004) In 2002, Musselman was named the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, a position he held for two years. He finished as runner-up to San Antonio's Gregg Popovich in NBA Coach of the Year Award voting in 2002–2003 with 231 points, including 26 first-place votes. That season, under Musselman's guidance, the Warriors, for the first time in nearly a decade, reached the .500 mark late in the season, holding a record of 30–30 on March 4, 2003. In Musselman's rookie season, his club finished 38–44, the most wins in more than 10 years.
Despite numerous injuries and the loss of the team's top two players in Gilbert Arenas (signed with Washington) and Antawn Jamison (traded to Dallas), the team still finished 37–45 under his direction during the 2003–2004 season. In two seasons as head coach in Golden State, Musselman compiled a 75–89 record. Nevertheless, he was let go after the 2004 season ended when Chris Mullin took over as the team's general manager.
Musselman's .457 winning percentage with Golden State ranks 10th all-time among Warriors coaches, behind Steve Kerr (.709 through 2019–2020), Neil Johnson (.617), Frank McGuire (.613), George Senesky (.551), Bill Sharman (.534), Al Attles (.518), Don Nelson (.487), Mark Jackson (.473) and George Lee (.470).
Memphis Grizzlies assistant (2004–2006) After his two seasons as head coach of the Golden State Warriors, Musselman was an assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies under Mike Fratello from 2004 to 2006.
Sacramento Kings (2006–2007) On June 2, 2006, Musselman was named head coach of the Sacramento Kings, replacing Rick Adelman. Four months into the job, on October 21, 2006, Musselman was cited for DUI in Sacramento. At the time, Musselman said, "Alcohol has never been a big part of my life. I don't allow it in my house. My sons have never seen me take a sip of anything." According to , a sports columnist for The Sacramento Bee, "[Musselman] drinks so infrequently, in fact, that he can count the number of beers he consumes per month."
In the first month of the season (November 2006) with Musselman at the helm, the Kings went 8–5. But the team slumped in December and January, posting a 10–21 record before going 7–6 in February 2007. The Kings finished 33–49 on the season.
Musselman was fired by Sacramento President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie on April 20, 2007.
NBA D-League (2010–2012) On August 11, 2010, Musselman was named head coach of the NBA Development League's Reno Bighorns. Under his watch, several players, including Marcus Landry, Jeremy Lin, Courtney Fortson, Donald Sloan and Hassan Whiteside were called up to the NBA and the Bighorns finished 34–16 and first in the D-League Western Conference.
Musselman was named head coach of the Los Angeles D-Fenders on August 18, 2011. Sports Illustrated called Musselman one of the "best teachers" in the D-League. During the 2011–12 season, he guided the team to a 38–12 record, the best mark in league history. The D-Fenders, who finished with the best defensive FG percentage in the league, advanced to the D-League finals before losing to the Austin Toros, in a three-game series. In April 2012, Musselman was named the 2011–12 D-League Coach of the Year. A month later, in May 2012, the D-Fenders were named the 2011–12 NBA D-League Development Champion, which recognizes "the team that best embodies the NBA D-League's goals of developing NBA basketball talent via call-ups and assignments."
Arizona State assistant (2012–2014) On August 30, 2012, Andy Katz reported on ESPN.com's College Basketball Nation Blog that Arizona State University was in talks to hire Musselman as an assistant coach on Herb Sendek's staff. On September 2, 2012, Katz confirmed Musselman's hiring, describing it as a "bold move" and a "coup" for Sendek.
Former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy predicted that Musselman will be an excellent recruiter "because of his competitive nature and what he has to sell. This is a guy who can tell kids exactly what it takes to play in the NBA."
Fifteen games into Arizona State's 2012–13 season, ESPN's Andy Katz wrote that "It's hard to ignore the difference [guard Jahii] Carson and assistant coach Eric Musselman are making at Arizona State." According to Katz, "The Sun Devils were painful to watch last season. Now, ASU has multiple options and while it still grinds out wins (see OT game in the 50s to beat Utah), the Sun Devils are 2–0 in the Pac-12 and 13–2 heading to the Oregon schools." On January 9, 2013, ESPN's Jason King wrote that "adding former NBA head coach Eric Musselman...to his staff has also been a huge plus for Sendek and his players." Quoted in King's story, Arizona State center Jordan Bachynski said, "When [Musselman and Greer] speak, guys listen, just because they have that credibility from being in the league. The way they approach the game … it's no BS. They say, 'This is how it's done. If you don't like it, you're not going to play.'"
In a radio interview after the 2012–13 season, Arizona State athletic director Steve Patterson said, "I think Eric's going to have opportunities to look at head coaching jobs. He's a very qualified coach. He did a great job, I think, teaching and working here."
In a March 26, 2013, post on the ESPN Los Angeles UCLA blog, Peter Yoon described Musselman as one of the "best under-the-radar candidates out there."
In May 2013, he was promoted to associate head coach. Musselman resigned from Sendek's staff in April 2014.
In two seasons with the Sun Devils, Musselman helped ASU to the NIT Tournament in 2013 and the NCAA tournament in 2014. The team went 21–12 in both seasons.
LSU assistant (2014–2015) Following the 2013–14 season, Musselman was a candidate for the head coaching position at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of South Florida and Oregon State University.
In June 2014, Musselman became associate head coach at LSU under Johnny Jones. In Musselman's one season with the Tigers, LSU went 22–10 and reached the NCAA tournament, losing to North Carolina State, 66–65, in the first round.
Nevada (2015–19) On March 25, 2015, the University of Nevada, Reno hired Musselman as head coach for the Nevada Wolf Pack team.
In early March 2016, Bleacher Report named Musselman the Mountain West Coach of the Year after guiding the Wolf Pack to an 18–12 record, a 9-win improvement over the previous season. The team's winning percentage jumped from 31 to 60, which ranked as the 11th best improvement nationally.
Following the 2015–16 season, Nevada was invited to play in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), winning its first three games to improve its season record to 21–12 and advance to the CBI championship series vs Morehead State. According to Chris Murray, a reporter who covered the team for the Reno Gazette-Journal, "No coach in Nevada basketball history has done a better job of getting everything out of the talent on the roster. It might be the best coaching job in Wolf Pack hoops history."
Nevada's 2016 recruiting class was ranked as the 35th best in the nation by 247Sports.
Musselman's 2016–17 Wolf Pack team went 14–4 in conference play to win the Mountain West regular season title. The team also won the 2017 MWC postseason tournament championship to earn a bid in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Nevada finished 28–7 overall for the season, tied for the second-most wins in school history.