Rewarding Excellence

Stars coach and GM signs multi-year contract extension

By: Ken Rodriguez

This is what it’s like to be Dan Hughes, second-winningest coach in WNBA history and general manager extraordinaire: You’re enjoying a Ringo Starr concert at the Tobin Center, eyes widening as the singer/drummer rocks a black San Antonio Stars t-shirt on stage. Then the phone buzzes and it’s business. You have to step outside, leaving Ringo and his All-Starr Band behind. ...

You’re at practice, preparing for the next game, when news arrives that the grandmother of Stars assistant  Vickie Johnson has died. Plans change on the fly. You assign another assistant to coach the game, discuss funeral arrangements and accompany Johnson on a flight to Louisiana. After grieving with your assistant,  you catch a second flight, rush to the arena and arrive before tipoff. ...

You’re in the locker room in Tulsa, minutes before a game, preparing for your opponent, the Shock. The league office calls. You remove your coaching cap, put on your GM hat and discuss a pressing matter, the clock ticking to tipoff. You resolve the issue, exit the locker room and refocus in a nanosecond. ...

The unexpected comes with the job. Business interrupts pleasure. Death alters practice. Responsibility changes pre-game. There is no way to plan for the sudden twists and abrupt turns of coaching and managing a WNBA team, yet Hughes has navigated the challenges exceptionally well.

As head coach and GM, Hughes has built and guided the Stars into a premier franchise,  In nine seasons as head coach, Hughes has won 146 games and the Stars have advanced to the playoffs seven times and reached the WNBA finals once.  

“For the past decade he’s provided great stability and consistency to the Stars organization and to our community as an excellent coach and leader,” says R.C. Buford, President of Sports Franchises for Spurs Sports & Entertainment.

In Hughes, the Stars have a coach/GM of unprecedented accomplishment and global influence. Hughes remains the only WNBA coach to guide three franchises (San Antonio, Cleveland and Charlotte) to the playoffs. More than 40 of his former players and assistants have coached at the high school, collegiate and professional level. Three are NBA head coaches; two are NBA assistants, including former Stars guard Becky Hammon, the first full-time, salaried woman to serve in that position.

Making history hasn’t been easy. That phone call minutes before tipoff in Tulsa? Hughes remembers taking GM-related calls right before coaching games in Washington, Detroit and New York. “That phone can ring at any time,” he says, and it has.

Business never stops.

“It’s a year-round job,” Hughes says. “When you are coach and GM, it’s 24/7, 365. There’s always something on your plate.”

The call that came when he was rocking to Ringo Starr? Hughes remembers leaving a Paul McCartney concert in Austin to take a basketball call. It should not surprise that Hughes does not vacation. He occasionally takes long weekends with his family -- but even then, he remains on high alert for the unexpected.  

“It could be the league, a trade, a family situation, a signing,” he says. “It could be all kinds of things. Just about anything to deal with the team and people flows through you and priorities could change immediately.”

The worst part of the job is the extended time leading to tipoff. “I hate waiting on a game,” Hughes says. The best part is stepping onto the court. It doesn’t matter if a crisis erupts on his way out of the locker room or if there’s a last minute call. Once Hughes hit the court, every distracting, non-basketball thought vanishes like a vapor.

“That’s the most peaceful time of my day,” he says. “l finally feel home. I feel like that’s where I’m supposed to be.”  

The only thing sweeter? Celebrating a big family moment. On the same day Hughes signs his contract extension -- Tuesday -- his daughter, Sara Bayer, will be giving birth to twin boys in Rockwall. The day before, his son, Bryce, plays for Johnson High against Brandeis.

“I’m very appreciative of the contract extension, but the truth is, on that particular day, my attention will be on becoming a grandfather and hopefully my son had a win the night before,” he says. “I told my wife, ‘Just let them (Sara and Bryce) read about the extension in the paper. Let’s let them be the priority.’ Because on that day, the contract extension will be about third on my list.

“I’m going to turn 60 in the spring and you don’t coach as long as I’ve coached without a great family. You just can’t. My wife has been unbelievable. You don’t have the ability to have these wonderful opportunities without a family that allows you to. I wake up every day being head coach and general manager of the Stars and I like that. I wear that in every facet of life that I walk. But that’s not as important as being a dad or a grandfather.”

, the Spurs had come to gift him with their glory.