Nate McMillan's wife was growing suspicious. Where could he possibly be going so early in the morning? The SuperSonics' practice didn't begin until 11, and he was leaving home nearly three hours ahead of that.
"Where'd you go?" she asked one day after he returned home.
McMillan had indeed gone to practice. But he had gone on his own terms, which is to say he got there well ahead of the required arrival time. He upheld that personal standard during his 12-year playing career with Seattle and he upholds it now as the Pacers' coach - not just for himself, but for the players and other members of his basketball staff.
Tardiness can be a vexing issue for NBA coaches. It's important to be on time, every coach would agree, but how far down the road do you want to go to police it? Is it worth fining or benching a player who is three minutes late to practice or the plane? Do you leave a star player behind if he's two minutes late for the team bus to the arena on game night? How many free passes do you allow before you crack down?
McMillan leaves no doubt about his approach. He had his version of basketball's 10 commandments posted on a board in the hallway leading to the Pacers' locker room after taking over as head coach before the 2016-17 season. No. 1 on that list: Be on time. He's enforced it whenever necessary, and he lives it throughout each day.
"I've always been early," he said. "I was always in there early as a player, and as a coach, too. I like to take my time to get myself ready for games. I like to take my time to get myself ready for whatever it is I'm doing. I get to the airport two hours early. Then I can make some phone calls. I can read the paper.
"I don't have to be OJ Simpson."
In other words he doesn't have to run through airports, as Simpson once did in television commercials for Hertz rental cars. McMillan doesn't have to rush through other routines, either. He is supposed to meet with the media at 5:15 (for 7 p.m. starts) before home games. It's not a situation that calls for a deadline. Five minutes later wouldn't bother anyone. But he's always on time, walking through the double-doors from the locker room into the hallway like clockwork.
While McMillan's manner of working the clock to make life less stressful might simply be his nature, his demands on others have a more practical application. He believes slacking off on a relatively small issue such as arrival times can lead to problems with timing and execution on the court if allowed to fester. If it's OK to be a few minutes late for the bus, it can become OK to be a few seconds late to make a cut, set a screen or give weakside help on defense. If it's OK to be late for practice, other schedules can become disrupted.
Photo Credit: Mark Montieth
Tardiness, many believe, is a gateway violation that can lead to more serious offenses that have a greater impact on winning.
"Absolutely," former Pacers president Donnie Walsh said. "Your discipline starts with that. If you let that go you're going to have problems in other areas."
Never-late Nate hasn't had many problems with the Pacers. Tyreke Evans was fined and suspended for a game in October for being late to practice, a violation that became publicly known, but that's been far more the exception than the rule. The players are on board with the coach's demands, preferring the risk of a fine to a virus that can infect other areas.
"It goes with every aspect of what we do," co-captain Thad Young said. "We have a set schedule of when we do things. Guys need to be at the training table at a certain time, guys need to be out here shooting at a certain time, guys need to be in the weight room at a certain time.
"It's a big sign of respect, also. It's not just respect for the coaches, it's for each and every individual. We have to keep that implemented in our system because it creates a lot of structure in what we do."
Young is one of the more mature and responsible players in the NBA, but he's had his brushes with tardiness. In fact, he missed the bus for his first Summer League game as a rookie with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2007. It was a simple mix-up; the bus was loading on the opposite side of the hotel from where it had dropped off the players after practice that morning and he didn't realize it in time. He wound up catching a ride with the general manager and made it to the arena before the rest of the team.
Still, he was fined $1,000.
"I was like, 'Damn, I haven't even got a paycheck yet!'" he recalled.
Another time he was five minutes late to practice in Philadelphia because the roads were slick from a sudden snowfall. Coach Mo Cheeks gave him a chance to shoot free throws to win the fine money back, but teammate Sam Dalembert stepped in for him to shoot and pay the fine money if necessary.
Dan Burke has been on the Pacers' basketball staff since 1997, so he's seen how six different head coaches handle the tardiness issue. All of them have been generally understanding that a player can have an occasional mishap, particularly if there's a semi-valid excuse such as bad roads or a problem at home. The difference is how big of a deal they want to make it.
"Every coach talks about it," Burke said. "Some follow through and some don't. Some choose to look the other way. It's a simple concept of respect for your teammates and professionalism. Everything we do is timing. Even defensively on the weakside, we talk about getting there early. Early helps.
"I tell my daughter if she's five minutes early she's probably 10 minutes late. There's a strong carryover to everything you do in life. It's not that hard."
One of the most famous Pacers tardiness stories involves Travis Best and Dale Davis. They were walking on the tarmac toward the team plane for an exhibition game in Nashville, Tenn. in 1997, at the start of Larry Bird's coaching reign. The announced departure time was 3 p.m., so they were in no hurry. But at 2:50 the stairs went up and the plane took off without them.
"Me and Dale we were on time, I have to go on record," Best says. "But I guess we needed to get there a little sooner.
"We thought we had another 10 minutes. We didn't think much of it. It was an odd thing to see the team pull the stairs up and pull off. Me and Dale, we put our tail between our legs and had to buy our own ticket."
Actually, Davis picked up the tab for Best's commercial airline ticket and they caught a flight to Nashville, via Atlanta. Bird went the extra step of instructing media relations director David Benner to notify the Indianapolis Star's beat writer about the mishap and to make Best available for an apology.
In order to help establish a standard, Bird had made examples of two important players.
"If you don't treat it seriously right away, then the players aren't going to treat it seriously," said Walsh, who hired Bird to coach the Pacers. "He let everyone know, these are the rules."
"We got it," Best said. "It never happened again. We understood what we were trying to accomplish. Point taken."
It would be difficult to argue the Pacers wouldn't have won 56 games that season or reached the NBA Finals in 2000 if Bird had waited another minute and let Best and Davis board the plane that day. But he at least eliminated one potential problem quickly.
And, all these years later, it's not a bad memory for anyone.
"It was funny to see all the guys looking at you through the porthole windows and laughing at you," Best said.
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Mark Montieth's book on the formation and groundbreaking seasons of the Pacers, "Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis," is available in bookstores throughout Indiana and on Amazon.com.
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