Sports never sleep, so perhaps it was not at all surprising to see former Palisadian Chip Engelland on the court at Staples Center well before 10 in the morning working with several members of the San Antonio Spurs. Engelland, the Spurs’ shooting coach, was firing off passes and instructions intermittently to the likes of Da’Juan Blair and Tiago Splitter as San Antonio looked to take a commanding 3-0 lead on the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference semifinals. Such is life for Engelland, who has come a long way from his Pacific Palisades days, when he was a 6’4′ shooting guard on the Palisades High basketball team and the City’s leading scorer in 1979. In fact, hearing Engelland speak about his 1979 team, it’s easy to get a sense of just how joyous those days were. ‘All my teammates in ’79, we were called the ‘Champagne Kids,” Engelland recalled with a chuckle. ‘It was a fun group. Paul Assinesi was the starting point guard. Greg Wessel, Jerry Wilson, David Norris, who was an All-League player. All of us came through the Junior League [at the Palisades Recreation Center].’ That 1979 team went 17-4, but the Dolphins suffered a heartbreaking buzzer-beating loss to Crenshaw in the first round of the City playoffs, much like this year’s PaliHi team did. ‘I think some of the successes of Palisadians was traced to the Junior League,’ Engelland said. ‘That league was a trendsetter in junior basketball. It had a lot of John Wooden teachings. We were taught early that we were going to go back and [coach the younger kids].’ As a seventh grader, Engelland learned firsthand about John Wooden teachings when he served as ballboy for UCLA in Wooden’s final season in 1975. Soaking up all of the knowledge he could, Engelland would later develop his own coaching prowess. He played for legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke University, lettering all four years from 1980-83 and serving as team captain his junior year. The Blue Devils reached the Elite 8 in Engelland’s freshman season. PaliHi Coach Jerry Marvin would spend parts of his summers in Hawaii, so Engelland would return from Duke to coach the Palisades High summer league team, which included future NBA star Steve Kerr. Engelland also was familiar with Kerr through Monday night pick-up games at PaliHi during high school. ‘I got to know Steve [during summers] and then when he was with the Chicago Bulls, he asked me to help him. And that was like being the Maytag repairman,’ said Engelland, who then followed Kerr to San Antonio. ‘He let me teach and try things outside the box that when you’re a young coach or teacher, you want to have someone you’re working with allow you to try different things and Steve was wonderful with that.’ To this day, Engelland argues that Kerr ‘ the NBA’s all-time leader in three-point shooting percentage ‘ is the best pure three-point shooter he’s seen, greater than even the likes of Ray Allen and Reggie Miller. ‘Chip had a huge impact on me, helping me get out of slumps and teaching me more than I had ever known about shooting,’ Kerr told the Palisadian-Post by e-mail. ‘He has a great understanding that every person’s shot is different, but that basic principles such as a player’s balance and position of the ball on the hand are critical to developing a consistent shot. ‘But it’s Chip’s personality and communication skills that make him so good. He has an amazing way of keeping things light and funny while at the same time getting his point across in a meaningful way,’ Kerr said. Following his Duke days, Engelland played professionally for nine years, starting in the Philippines and then returning to North America for stints in the Continental Basketball League and the World Basketball League. In 1993, he began working kids and adults alike when he founded ‘Chip Shots,’ primarily focusing on the fundamentals of shooting. There he could pass along something he learned from former PaliHi tennis coach Bud Ware, who was his Junior League basketball coach. ‘Coach Ware always told me to stay close to the basket. Don’t try to develop launching up long shots before you’ve mastered the closer-end shots. You’ve got to have some patience. You don’t have to be a big outside shooter in fourth, fifth and sixth grade. He told me to stay patient when working on my technique. Learn shooting from the basket backwards.’ That message has been passed along to many NBA players, starting with Kerr and then Grant Hill, who recommended Engelland to the Detroit Pistons, leading Engelland to his first NBA job in 1999. When Hill departed for the Orlando Magic, Engelland was right behind him. He continued to build his reputation and was hired by the Denver Nuggets in 2003, when the team used its third overall selection to draft Carmelo Anthony out of Syracuse. That was quite a fun season for the playoff-starved Nuggets, who reached the postseason on the heels of Anthony’s stellar rookie campaign. Kiki Vandeweghe, who had starred at PaliHi and played for four NBA teams from 1980-93, was Denver’s general manager. Though the two were not teammates in high school, Engelland was familiar with Vandeweghe and his family. ‘The Vandeweghe family was very generous in trying to help people,’ Engelland said. ‘They were very good to me.’ Ironically, the same day Engelland was hired, the team brought on Scott Brooks as a fellow assistant. Skip ahead to last Saturday, when Engelland’s Spurs began their Western Conference finals series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are now coached by Brooks. (Kerr has a front-row seat throughout the series as the color analyst for TNT.) The Spurs, who have won four NBA titles since 1999, brought Engelland on board in 2005, months after the third of those titles. In 2007, San Antonio defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in four straight games, delivering Engelland his first championship ring. In that series, Tony Parker earned MVP honors by averaging 24.5 points per game. ‘Tony is the guy that [Chip] has worked with the most,’ Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich told the Post. ‘He’s traveled to France to work with him. He’s the primary reason that Tony’s become a better shooter and makes free throws now.’ Popovich, who first met Engelland while Chip was working with Kerr in San Antonio, recalled hearing about Engelland from several of his peers and jumped at the opportunity to bring him aboard his coaching staff. ‘Chip’s been a fixture and a real building block of our program as far as shooting and general development is concerned,’ Popovich said. ‘The players just love him. They know how intelligent he is but he also has a great sense of humor. He understands when to push and when to leave them alone. He has a lot of fun with the players and they with him.’ Engelland resides year-round in San Antonio with his wife Jessica and two young sons, though he returns to Los Angeles when he can to see his mother, who resides in West Los Angeles.
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