NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Michael Curry and Jerry Stackhouse are a lot alike. Perhaps that’s why the two gravitated toward each other and became good friends – first as former standouts in the NBA and then as coaches in the years since.
“We have both always been big gym guys or what I would consider to be gym rats,” Curry said. “We’re always in the gym and we’ve always had the young guys and college and high school guys we were working out with.
“That’s just kind of where were always joined together doing the same thing.”
Curry began his professional playing career in 1990 and became an NBA regular from 1996-2005. He became teammates with Stackhouse, now entering his third season as Vanderbilt’s head coach, in 1999 in Detroit.
When Curry hung up his sneakers he picked up a whistle and began what is now a long coaching career that has including being the head coach of the Detroit Pistons and at Florida Atlantic University.
Now the duo is reunited in Nashville.
“We’ve always both talked about college coaching, as well as pro coaching, and for us we’ve always considered it the same – it’s coaching basketball,” Curry said. “Once I got back into basketball and coaching (after a few years off), Stackhouse and I talked after last season and he had some opportunities and now things were thought made for good timing for us working together and if it made sense we would do it. Excited to do it.”
Curry went 39-43 in his only season as head coach of the Detroit Pistons and then 39-84 in four seasons at Florida Atlantic – improving win totals there in all but one season. He returned to the coaching ranks last season as an assistant with Georgia.
His decision to arrive in Nashville was one perhaps founded in friendship but also partly fueled by faith in the head coach.
“When you’re competitive and you’re a gym rat you’re going to stay in the gym and you’re going to stay in the film room and you’re going to try to figure out a way to have success,” Curry said. “I don’t think it’s a magic formula or anything, I just think that it’s a situation in which he loves to compete and he loves to win whether he’s working on his individual game or working on teaching others. I think it all goes together.
“He’s enjoyed that. He’s had success with a lot of the guys that he has been coaching from his grassroots basketball to some of the young guys that have made it to the pros now. I think it’s all a challenge for him that he enjoys. I think that’s why he has a lot of success with it.”
Moving forward into the 2021-22 season, Curry won’t necessarily be focused on coaching one position group within the Vandy roster. He noted that Stackhouse often speaks of position-less basketball and so guiding the Commodores is a collaborative effort from all coaches and staff.
And on those nights when Vanderbilt takes the court inside Memorial Gymnasium the new assistant looks forward to guiding his new team to victory with his own unique contributions.
“We see the game the same way. We both have a strong personalties, but our personalities have always meshed well together,” Curry said. “This is a great opportunity for both of us because I think I can see some things in game and I can help him. Having been a head coach on both levels I always know as an assistant when to inject ideas and when not to. I think that’s a big part of being an assistant.”
— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.
