A School ‘United’ Around A Basketball Team
When Versace coached and appeared as an NBA analyst on TNT and NBC Chicago, he was known for his flashy suits and a hairstyle that the L.A. Times once described as “George Washington’s powdered wig.”
Versace does not look like that now. He was dressed in a black jacket, black hat, workout pants and sunglasses as he munched down eggs over hard and hash browns at the Little Goat in the West Loop during an interview. Versace, who in the past few years had both of his knees replaced, also walked gingerly but he boasted that he recently started playing tennis again.
But once he started talking about basketball, Versace became his old fiery self. Versace is a basketball junkie. His iPad includes an app called Synergy, which broadcasts every college and pro game imaginable. He watches it religiously as well as theScore program that shows detailed stats from professional hoops affairs.
Versace left his position with the Grizzlies in 2005 but he has stayed close to the game. He occasionally attends practices and games at Marquette University to consult head coach Buzz Williams. He appears at coaching clinics throughout the country and recently spent 45 days advising Hall of Famer Rollie Massimino, the head coach at Northwood University in West Palm Beach, Fla. since 2006.
Versace admits he was a skilled tactician on the bench but said luck also had a great deal to do with his success and rise in the coaching game.
He met the late Chuck Daly, who would hire him to be an assistant coach of the Detroit Pistons, at a coaching clinic in Cleveland. Versace was in his dorm room when Daly, then the head coach at the University of Pennsylvania, walked in and said “I guess we’re bunkmates.”
Later that day, Versace started reading the book “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler only to look over and realize Daly was reading the same thing.
“We had the same interest in books, and that started a longtime friendship,” said Versace, who would become Daly’s top assistant before becoming the Pacers’ head coach.