HOUSTON – His health dramatically better than a night earlier when he was forced to leave the sidelines because of dizziness and dehydration, head coach Steve Clifford fully anticipated the playful razzing that his Orlando Magic players gave him at the team’s light practice on Saturday.
What the 58-year-old Clifford didn’t expect, however, was the ``stern lecture’’ that he got from some of the best friends he’s had in the coaching profession over the last 20 years while working at the NBA level. Clifford said on Saturday that a lingering cold and a lack of food intake prior to Friday’s game led to the dizziness that he experienced – something his coaching buddies scolded him about profusely.
``I’d say the best (conversation) that I got was a stern lecture from Stan (Van Gundy) last night, and Jeff (Van Gundy) also, and (Tom Thibodeau), too,’’ said Clifford, referring to the medical distress that forced him off the sidelines in the third quarter of the Magic’s 132-118 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night. ``Those three guys, and Patrick (Ewing), all my guys, they weren’t like … well, not `Hope you feel better.’ It was more like, `C’mon man, you’re not 51 anymore.’
``It’s amazing how (the NBA) is a small league with only 30 teams and you get to know guys well and we all go through the same things,’’ added Clifford, who noted that he received messages from dozens of fellow NBA coaches. ``There are definitely great people in the NBA.’’
Clifford, who twice had to take time away from coaching because of medical conditions while working previously for the Charlotte Hornets, was back with the team on Saturday after being diagnosed with dehydration and being fully cleared by medical professionals to resume his normal coaching duties. Clifford was given an IV and an echocardiogram test at Minnesota’s Target Center not long after leaving the sidelines, and later he was sent to Hennapin County Medical Center for further testing. He said on Saturday that he felt significantly better after receiving the IV and he thinks he likely could have avoided the hospital visit if he hadn’t had a prior history of heart trouble. (In 2013, Clifford had two stents inserted to open arterial blockages, and he returned to the sidelines after missing just two games).
``I’ve been sick for a couple of days, I just couldn’t eat (on Friday), so looking back on it, I hadn’t eaten anything, and I started to get dizzy,’’ recalled Clifford, who will be on the sidelines on Sunday when the Magic (28-35) face the Houston Rockets with no restrictions. ``I talked to (Head Athletic Trainer) Ernest (Eugene) and it started getting badder and badder. But once I got an IV and stuff, I felt a lot better – even last night.’’
For the Magic, it was a relief for them to see their head coach of the past two seasons back at practice on Saturday after wondering what had happened to him mid-game on Friday night. Tyrone Corbin, a former NBA player, a two-time head coach and now an assistant again, guided Orlando to the win on Friday night in one of the team’s best wire-to-wire performances of the season.
Clifford, a basketball lifer who has worked at the NBA level for 20 years, was an assistant coach in Orlando from 2007-12 when the Magic reached the playoffs five straight years. While working under then-Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy, Clifford directed a Magic defense that was a driving force on the squad reaching the 2009 NBA Finals and the 2010 East Finals.
After spending the 2012-13 season as an assistant coach under Mike Brown and Mike D’Antoni with the Los Angeles Lakers, Clifford landed his first head coaching job at the NBA level with Charlotte in 2013. In five seasons in Charlotte, Clifford made the Hornets a winner almost immediately and guided that franchise to two playoff appearances.
Clifford returned to Orlando prior to last season and got the Magic into the playoffs for the first time since 2012. Clifford’s Magic went 22-9 down the stretch and 42-40 for the franchise’s first winning record since the 2011-12 season. This season, he’s kept the team afloat and the Magic in playoff position despite a rash of injuries that has hit several key players, including Jonathan Isaac (left knee sprain) and Al-Farouq Aminu (left knee surgery).
Several players called and sent concerned text messages to Clifford about his well-being late Friday night. Once they knew Clifford – who forward Aaron Gordon referred to as ``really, the heart and soul (of the Magic)’’ – was feeling better and recovered, they started mildly razzing him on Saturday.
``I texted him last night and he said he was cool because it was just dehydration and he acted like nothing ever happened and he was right back at practice,’’ veteran point guard D.J. Augustin said after the Magic wrapped up a light workout at the University of Houston on Saturday. ``I was kind of joking with him and was like, `Dang, coach, you’re fresh out of the hospital … you could have given us a day off.’ But it was good to see him back and see him back like he normally is.’’
Added center Nikola Vucevic: ``We’ll wait for the right time (to get onto him more). We’re just glad it’s all good, a hydration issue, nothing serious and he’s all good to go.’’
Joked Clifford: ``They more made fun of me today when then saw that I was OK, which is fair. I feel good and a lot better than last night.’’
Clifford said his dizziness had no relation to the incident that he went through during the 2017-18 season while working for the Hornets. He was forced to miss 21 games during that season after he suffered severe headaches brought on by sleep deprivation and stress. To keep that from happening again, Clifford said he has mostly stuck to his ban on watching game film or other basketball games at night, save for Ewing’s Georgetown University Hoyas.
``The sleep thing is fine,’’ said Clifford, who noted that he was forced to change not only the way he works, but the way he lives day to day. ``That was so significant that no matter what, I sleep. Going through that whole ordeal, it was a process to train myself to sleep more again. I feel totally different now and I make sure that I sleep now.’’
Though clearly ill, Clifford said he had no indication that he wouldn’t be able to finish the game until about halfway through the third period. Vucevic said when Clifford yelled at him at halftime, he thought everything with his coach was ``normal.’’
``I don’t think I yelled; I spoke firmly,’’ Clifford joked. ``I haven’t felt good for a couple of days. But I just couldn’t eat for a couple of days. I grabbed lunch and I couldn’t eat (because of lack of appetite) and then, all of a sudden, you start thinking about the game, and what happened was I was just dehydrated. Even before I went to the hospital, after a few minutes of the IV, I felt better. I just think that I was so dehydrated.’’
Magic players Terrence Ross and Markelle Fultz, who had 16 and 24 points in Friday’s win respectively, weren’t surprised that their coach tried to tough it out in the game despite his lingering illness. Clifford’s toughness and old-school, no-nonsense approach to basketball seeps into the team’s culture and has made them more resilient, they said.
``He has a lot of grit to him and he has a passion for winning,’’ said Ross, who has had the best two years of his NBA career while playing for Clifford in Orlando. ``When your coach has that kind of passion, it definitely sets in with your team.’’
Added Fultz, who finished one point short of his career high on Friday: ``That’s why (Clifford) is a great coach – he pushes you to be the best player that you could be.’’
Clifford said Friday’s incident has helped to remind him that he needs to take better care of himself to make sure he doesn’t get in a similar situation again. This time around, he stressed, was nowhere nearly as painful or scary as his two previous heart-related incidents, but he wants to do everything in his power to avoid getting in that position again.
``I have to take better care of myself overall, just being better hydrated and making sure that you do that,’’ he said. ``I wasn’t concerned (on Friday) night because it was nothing like the heart issue. When I had the heart issues, that was different, scary and a lot of pain.
``(On Friday), I was just so dizzy and light-headed and when I thought back on it, I hadn’t eaten anything all day and it made sense to me,’’ he added. ``I wasn’t that concerned (Friday) night at all.’’
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