NBA fixture made most of his shots — when he got them
Basketball taught Paul Silas how to be patient.
As a player, he waited 10 years before winning his first championship. As a coach, he waited 15 years for a second chance at running a team. As a father, he waited 20 years before seeing his son get a chance to lead a franchise.
“I always tried to remain positive,” Silas said in 2013, “and I think it usually worked out.”
Silas — who touched the game as a player, coach and president of the National Basketball Players Association — died, his family announced Sunday. Silas, whose son, Stephen Silas, is coach of the Houston Rockets, was 79.
“He combined the knowledge developed over nearly 40 years as an NBA player and coach with an innate understanding of how to mix discipline with his never-ending positivity,” Charlotte Hornets chairman Michael Jordan said. “On or off the court, Paul’s enthusiastic and engaging personality was accompanied by an anecdote for every occasion. He was one of the all-time great people in our game, and he will be missed.”
Silas’ daughter, Paula Silas-Guy, told the New York Times that her father died Saturday night of cardiac arrest. The Boston Globe first reported Silas’ death.
Tributes began arriving quickly. New Orleans had a moment of silence for Silas prior to its game with Phoenix on Sunday, and both Suns coach Monty Williams and Charlotte coach Steve Clifford spoke at length about Silas’ role on their careers.
“For my family, he’s a God. He’s larger than life,” Clifford said.
Silas began his career as a head coach with a three-year stint leading the then-San Diego Clippers starting in 1980. After spending more than a decade as an assistant, he returned to being a head coach and spent time with the Charlotte Hornets, the New Orleans Hornets, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Charlotte Bobcats.
He took four of those teams to the playoffs, winning exactly 400 games — 387 in the regular season, 13 more in the postseason.
Paul Silas waited a long time to get a job after being fired by the San Diego Clippers in 1983, not receiving a head coaching opportunity again until 1999 when Dave Cowens, for whom Silas was an assistant, stepped down in Charlotte after a 4-11 start to the shortened 1998-99 season.
Eventually, Silas would take over in Cleveland. He got there in 2003, the same year the Cavaliers drafted LeBron James.
In time, James would become a champion. It took Paul Silas a few years to get to that level as a player as well.
He was a five-time All-Defensive team selection who averaged 9.4 points and 9.9 rebounds in 16 seasons with the St. Louis and Atlanta Hawks, Phoenix, Boston, Denver and Seattle. Silas won two titles with the Celtics and claimed a third with the SuperSonics. At 36, he was then the NBA’s oldest player when he retired. And as the union president, Silas oversaw a time where rosters grew, salaries rose and benefits improved.
Silas played his college basketball at Creighton, averaging 20.5 points and 21.6 rebounds in three seasons. He was voted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.