Press Conference Transcript: Van Chancellor Called Upon To Lead U.S. At 2004 Olympic Games

June 10, 2003

 
Jim Tooley, USA Basketball Executive Director
Opening Statement: It was my pleasure to be here (in Houston) to announce Van Chancellor as the 2002 USA World Championship Team head coach. And throughout the year of 2002, I spent a great deal of time with Van, both at out training camp and at the World Championship in China. I learned a lot about him first hand. I admire his leadership, his preparation, his commitment, his interaction with the players, coaches, our staff, fans, opponents, everyone. He led the team to a perfect 9-0 record and brought home the gold medal. He did a magnificent job and was named USA Basketball's 2002 (National) Coach of the Year. And what I remember most, not just about 2002 and my time with Van, in my ten years with USA Basketball, my most memorable moment was Van's post game speech after we won the gold medal. He was so passionate and sincere and it was quite obvious that it meant a great deal to him to represent the United States. That makes today's announcement all the more special. Because Van to us at USA Basketball is more than a great coach. He's a great teacher, a loving family man and he's absolutely a tremendous ambassador. Not only for our sport, but for our country as well. So I'm very pleased today to announce Van Chancellor as USA Basketball's head coach for the 2004 U.S. Women's Olympic Team.

Van Chancellor, 2004 U.S. Women's Olympic Basketball Team / Houston Comets head coach
Opening Statement: I'm trying awfully hard ... I promised myself that I wouldn't become too emotional (choking back tears), but you know I really feel like God's really blessed my life. My cup's really running over today. When Jim was talking about representing your country, I don't know of anything that could be any greater than coaching a team that's representing your country in the Olympics. I feel so blessed for that. I want everyone to know what an honor this is for me and how much I do appreciate it. I want to thank Renee' (Brown) and Val (Ackerman), Jim (Tooley), and everybody at USA Basketball and the (USA Basketball) Executive Committee for selecting me.

It is such an honor. I'd like to thank Leslie Alexander (owner, Houston Comets) and Carroll Dawson (Houston Comets Executive Vice President of Basketball) for giving me this job. Without this job I would never be the Olympic coach. I'd like to thank all the Comet players for winning those championships because without these rings, I know I wouldn't be the Olympic coach. I'd like to thank the USA players who went to China and won the gold medal. Because I also think that if we didn't win the gold medal, I probably wouldn't be up here right now, so I do appreciate them. I have my family here with me. It's a special moment when you can have your family, your wife of 40 years, grandchildren, children, everybody. Different people here and I do sincerely appreciate it. To Kevin and Scottie and Herald, I sincerely appreciate what all you've done to help us reach this moment right here. I appreciate it a great deal. For anybody who's played a part in this, thank you. There'll never be a greater moment in a coach's life than when you're named the Olympic coach.

Renee' Brown, USA Basketball Vice President for Senior Women / Chair, USA Basketball Women's Senior National Team Committee / WNBA Vice President of Player Personnel
Opening Statement: I'd like to talk about a few things as the chairperson of the committee. The process of naming Van Chancellor as the head coach of the Olympic Team was very, very easy. We have a tremendous amount of confidence in Van. He went to the World Championship and did a great job. Jim summed it up well, there were so many special moments and special times that Van shared with all of us. But I think one of the key things that we were looking for is a coach that was not only a coach and a teacher, but a motivator. And Van is all of that. He got the team to play in crucial times. During the World Championship, we had two really close games against Australia (semifinals) and Russia (gold medal game). I know in the last two minutes of a game, that's what coaching is all about. Van would call a time out down there and you could tell that those players believed in everything that he said. Against Australia we were able to pull it out and in the gold medal game, even when we didn't have our top, top players competing at their (normal) level, they just couldn't put the ball in the basket. But we had other players Van could go to who did just that. I know, speaking for all of the selection committee, when it came time to name the Olympic coach we knew, without a doubt, that it was going to be Van Chancellor. And I know, without a doubt, he will go and give it all. I think Jim said something that is very important, Van is a great ambassador for our country, ambassador for women's basketball and I am very proud as the chair to be here before you today to announce Van as the Olympic head coach.

I would also like to cover our training. We plan on naming up to nine players as a core group this summer. At this point we do not know who we are, but we are working on that. Once we name the core group, we plan on conducting a six-week training camp (broken up into three two-week periods) between February and April. We are still trying to work out the timing, but Carol Callan (USA Basketball Assistant Executive Director, Women's Programs), Jim and I will sit down and see what works best for the team. We'd like to do some training domestically and also internationally to give Van and the team time to get together, learn the plays and grow together as a team. That's really what the plan is, but we're still looking at it. And then during the training, we'll bring in some additional players to try to fill out the roster, which will be 12 players. So between February and April we hope to have that done.

And then we're off. The Opening Ceremonies are August 13. What we plan to do is take the team over there ready to play the Olympics.

Sitting here looking at Van, Jim mentioned something earlier about Van's speech (after the gold medal game). I've been a part of USA Basketball, I was with the ‘96 Olympic Team, I was on the Committee for the 2000 Games, and to sit here and tell you that to me, there could be no better person out there who can coach this team than Van Chancellor. Thank you very much.

Q: Take us back to when you first started coaching high school in Mississippi, did you ever think you would be coaching the Olympic Team?
Chancellor:In 1966, I started out coaching at Noxapater High School, I taught five math classes, I made $4,800 a year - total. I never dreamed one day I'd be coaching this team. I wasn't even thinking about whether there was an Olympics or not, I was just trying to survive. We had Johnny at that time, he was a baby, and we were just trying to make ends meet.

Q: With the USA as defending World and Olympic champions, everybody expects you to win. What kind of pressure does that put on you in 2004?
Chancellor: Let me say this. If the same players that went to China go to Athens, Greece ... I wouldn't worry about the pressure. I still believe this about pressures, if you've got the best players, we're going to go do the job. Whether we win a gold or not, my thought has always been this, whether I'm coaching the Comets or coaching high school at Noxapater, or coaching the Olympics, my job is to do the best I can. And when I do that, I'm going to be satisfied. That's all we can do. If we get bad breaks and lose, we lose. If we win, we're going to have a happy time. I don't know of any happier guy when he wins or any worse loser than I am.

Q: Is your international coaching style any different?
Chancellor: Yes, there's a lot that's different. It's a different game, it's a different kind of player. You're trying to work in more players, trying to play more players. It's a little different game. All of them are great players and trying to make sure that you can keep them motivated and letting them understand who the ... like at the end of the game against the Russians ... I told them three weeks ahead of time that if we got into trouble, we were going to Sheryl (Swoopes) and Lisa (Leslie). Trying to convince all WNBA players, all pro players, and that's pretty tough sometimes, but nobody questioned that. We knew, when we got in trouble, where we were going with the ball. That's where we went and they made the plays in the end. And that's what we're going to do if we get in trouble against them in championship game again. If they're on the team, I've got to add that. I'm not the Committee. I don't pick the team. I said IF they're on the team, I'm not taking over Renee's job. I don't have a vote, but if I had a vote they'd be on the team. Let's leave it at that. And a lot of other players, too.

I do feel like this job is such a great joy for me. My wife and I were talking about it. In 1987 we left every security in the world. Every security that you could have, tons of friends. To have it all end up like this ... I would never have made the gamble if it hadn't been for Betty. If she had said, ‘no, I'm not going to move to Houston, Texas' I wouldn't be here. I hate to use a bad English statement here, but if your wife ain't happy, you ain't going to be very happy so I wouldn't have made that move. I want to thank her for that.

Q: How tough was it for you to coach the 2002 USA World Championship Team?
Chancellor: All the games that you play early in the rounds are not as tough, but when you're playing Australia and Russia, the pressure on you to win is great. No doubt about it. The pressure to win the gold medal is unbelievable, but you don't face that until you actually get to the gold medal game. But when you get there, it's all in preparation. And we had great preparation.

Q: Do you expect your players to start hitting you up for a trip to Greece?
Chancellor: One of the problems we have, playing in the WNBA, everybody who's out there and thinks they can make the team, they play us with a vengeance. They come in here and that player's always trying to light me up. This is what happened to me before the World Championship. You're the Olympic coach and if I play well, maybe you'll pick me. Especially if you think you're on the bubble. Not only do they play the Comets, but they play to show me they deserve to be on the team.

Q: You talked about how an emotional an experience it was, coaching the World Championship Team, are you going to bring your home team of EMTs along to Athens?
Chancellor: The emotions of it would be after the Games, if we were able to win. When you go up there and they put the gold medal around your neck, I know that in the Olympics the coach doesn't get one but in the World Championship you do. In my mind I'll still be getting a gold medal mentally and it just doesn't get any better than that. I don't know of any coach that's had a more humble beginning and been named the Olympic coach. I don't know that there's one out there, in my mind I don't know of one. You start out in one of the smallest classifications in Mississippi as a high school coach and you coach there for 14 years. Then you go to college. I was never on the ladder to be the Olympic coach until recently. And yes, that's why it's such an honor, I am thrilled. But the biggest thing is that it's awfully hard to hold your emotions in check when you see your name and you see USA Basketball. You're coaching a team. You're the coach. There's only going to be one (head) coach who will represent your country in Greece, it's hard not to feel emotional about that.

Q: Any thoughts about you and Rudy Tomjanovich (2000 U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball Team head coach), both being an Olympic coach and coming from the same city?
Chancellor: I've thought about that. I've thought that Rudy and I are coaching the Rockets and Comets, we're both Olympic coaches. I'm very honored that Rudy coached and that I'm getting to coach. Anytime you mention Van Chancellor and Rudy T in the same sentence, I'm honored. He's a wonderful human being. No one, no coach in America could have treated me better than Rudy T did when I moved here in 1987. As far as sharing, as far as treating me with respect, as far as being friendly with me, so yes, I'm very honored.

Talk about living the American Dream. They told me, my buddies back in Oxford told me not to use this, but you come back and you have a humble beginning from a cotton field in Mississippi. Then in America you talk about the fact that you can do anything you want to do. If this story doesn't prove that, nothing will. That you start out from a very humble farm in Mississippi and all of a sudden you're the Olympic coach, that's something. That's a long ways.

POST PRACTICE QUOTES:
Sheryl Swoopes, gold medalist, 1996 & 2000 Olympics and 2002 World Championship / Houston Comets
On Chancellor being named the 2004 U.S. Women's Olympic Basketball Team head coach:
"I'm very happy for him, I'm very excited for him. Getting an opportunity to play for him with the Comets the past six years and playing for him at the World Championship, coach is a very good person. Besides that I think he's a very good coach and is very deserving of the honor. I think he'll do a very good job for USA Basketball. I'm excited for him and I'm looking forward to hopefully having the opportunity to play for him in the Olympics."

What are the differences in the pressures with the Olympics or World Championship compared to WNBA pressures?
"It's different from WNBA pressure. But at the same time, getting a World Championship under his belt, getting a little taste of international basketball and international competition, I definitely think he knows what it takes to win. I think he understands the differences between international competition and the WNBA. Basketball is basketball, but at the same time, just getting the opportunity to work with some of Lisa (Leslie), Dawn (Staley) and Tamika Catchings, players like that, you can't ask for a better situation than that. He know's what it's going to take and I know he's going to get the job done."