Sonics’ McMillan has a new attitude

Published 9:00 pm Monday, November 1, 2004

SEATTLE – There was a time last season, amidst the mounting losses and frustration, that Seattle SuperSonics head coach Nate McMillan considered handing in his whistle.

“I did,” he said recently, citing the personal distress that was part of a 37-45 Sonics season, the team’s worst record in 23 years.

Resigning was an unpleasant option, but one McMillan seriously pondered because of differences with the front office about the team’s direction, exasperation over his inability to get certain players to respond to his coaching, and flat-out disappointment with another non-playoff season.

“There were times during the season that I struggled,” he said. “But by the end of the season I knew exactly what I needed to do and where I wanted this team to go.”

After a much-needed summer of rest and rejuvenation, McMillan says he has returned this fall “with a better feel for who I am and what I believe in.” As coaches and players, he went on, “we have to work hard. We have to commit to this job and we have to commit to each other. We have to be unselfish and sacrifice.

“If we do those things and if we work together,” he said, “we have an opportunity to win.”

Yes, McMillan is back, but the irony is that he could still be gone by the end of this season, if not before. He is in the last year of a four-year contract and the Sonics have yet to indicate if they want him back. Everyone at the top, beginning with team owner Howard Schultz and continuing to president Wally Walker and general manager Rick Sund, seems willing to see how the season unfolds before committing one way or the other.

For his part, Sund is vague.

“I don’t comment publicly on (personnel matters),” he said. “I’ve always basically said that whoever our coach is, I’m going to support him and give him all the resources I can for him to succeed. That won’t change and it hasn’t changed. It didn’t change last year or the year before that or even the year when Nate was the interim coach (2000-01). … But the bottom line is that I don’t get into publicly evaluating players and coaches.”

The indecision about McMillan is one of two primary questions hanging over the Sonics this season. The other, of course, is the future of superstar guard Ray Allen, who is also in the last year of his contract. The difference is that Seattle is having periodic talks with Lon Babby, Allen’s agent, about a new deal.

Regarding McMillan, there is only silence.

In the past, he has acknowledged that “the clock is ticking” on his coaching career. He knows that his revered status within the organization – his retired jersey, after all, hangs in the rafters at KeyArena – will not protect his job if he doesn’t win.

“You have to think about that, and I do,” he said. “As I’ve said, I have a year left with the team and I have to try to turn it around. It’s as simple as that. My focus is to get all I can out of these guys. To get them to play together. To get them to commit to each other. If that’s good enough and if we win games, we’ll see what happens.”

Still, his task is tall. The Sonics, who open their season Wednesday night in Los Angeles against the Clippers, are in the competitive Western Conference, where 10 of 14 teams were .500 or better a year ago. Seattle also has one of the youngest squads in the entire league. Of the 14 players on the active and injured rosters, only Ibo Kutluay is not in his 20s (he turned 30 in January). Nine of those 14 players have three years of NBA experience or less.

“These are the players I have,” McMillan said, refusing to duck behind excuses. “I have never gone on the floor and felt like we were going to lose, but I have also never minded the underdog role. I’ve pretty much been in that position all my career. I feel like that if I have five guys, I have to find a way to get them to work together as best as they can to win that game.”

“I want to teach these guys,” he said. “I want them to be better players at the end of the year, whether I am with them or not. I want to see them next year, whether they are here or somewhere else, improving and getting better. Hopefully I will have had something to do with that by teaching them what I know about this game. And that’s my whole goal and approach to this season.”