NBA Doesn’t Seem Out of Montgomery’s League

With his intellectual approach and his wardrobe of earth-tone suits, Mike Montgomery has been the understated epitome of Stanford basketball for 18 years.

But perhaps the silver Porsche Boxster he drove around Palo Alto should have been a hint that the NBA wouldn’t be an outlandish destination for Montgomery, a coach who built a basketball powerhouse at one of the nation’s most academically demanding universities but never broke through for a national title.

Though many outsiders were stunned, friends were not as surprised to learn that Montgomery was negotiating the details of a multimillion-dollar deal Thursday to become coach of the Golden State Warriors; the team has scheduled a news conference today.

“He’s talked more about the NBA in the last two years than I’ve ever heard him in his life,” said Oklahoma Coach Kelvin Sampson, a longtime friend who was an assistant with Montgomery under George Karl for the U.S. team of NBA players that competed in the 2002 World Championships.

“He was intrigued from that day,” Sampson said. “He likes coaching basketball. He talked a lot to George Karl and to Gregg Popovich [the San Antonio Spur coach who also assisted Karl]. I think he likes the idea you don’t have to worry about anything but coaching basketball.

“We’ve talked about it, but I didn’t think he’d do it.”

Stanford officials did not plan to comment until the Warriors had made a formal announcement on a replacement for fired coach Eric Musselman. (The Warriors named Rod Higgins to replace Garry St. Jean as general manager Thursday.)

However, Montgomery met with the Stanford team Wednesday and his departure is being treated as fait accompli by those with ties to the program.

“It’s a tremendous loss, but Mike Montgomery has put everything in place for Stanford to continue to be a national power,” said Mark Madsen of the Minnesota Timberwolves, a former Cardinal player who spoke to Montgomery on Thursday morning.

Madsen predicted his former coach would do well in the NBA.

“Mike Montgomery, because of the way he approaches the game on a philosophical level and on a level of understanding the game, I think he’ll be very successful,” Madsen said. “I think the sky is the limit for that organization.”

Few doubt Montgomery’s skills as a tactical coach and teacher of the game. Those are the very qualities that are drawing him to test his abilities at the highest level, friends said.

But because so many other college coaches have failed to make the transition to the NBA -- and particularly because Montgomery has spent almost two decades at Stanford, where player conduct is almost a non-issue -- some wonder how he will fare with NBA athletes.

Madsen said that wouldn’t be a problem.

“Coach Montgomery brings an ability to communicate with players,” he said. “Nowadays, to be able to relate to players in this NBA is a very important skill to have. Coach Montgomery, I think, is going to do a tremendous job of that.”

With the Warriors, Montgomery is poised to inherit a fairly young team led by Jason Richardson, in his third NBA season after playing only two seasons at Michigan State. Mike Dunleavy Jr., a former Duke player, is a near prototype of a Stanford player. Only veteran Nick Van Exel has a reputation for being difficult.

At the same time, Montgomery will be shedding some of the special circumstances at Stanford that made his job so challenging and his success so extraordinary.

Stanford’s academic requirements for basketball players exceed even those at Duke. And in recent years, Montgomery finally had begun to lose players early to the NBA, meaning that he had to find more and more who would fit Stanford’s profile to replace them.

Jason Collins, Casey Jacobsen and Nick Borchardt left with eligibility remaining. And this season, in a decision that seemed to catch Montgomery by surprise, junior Josh Childress made himself available for the NBA draft.

That is a blow to a team that would have been a national championship contender again after being upset in the second round of the NCAA tournament this year, ending a 30-2 season in which the Cardinal started 26-0 and was ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Montgomery had a record of 393-167 at Stanford and guided the Cardinal to the 1998 Final Four, but he fell far short of the national championship he said Stanford had a legitimate chance to win this season.

“I’m positive it was a tough decision,” said Nebraska Coach Barry Collier, a former assistant to Montgomery who remains a close friend. “I just think the NBA is the best basketball on the planet. Being what it is, the highest level of basketball, would be intriguing to anybody in coaching. Mike’s accomplished a great deal at Stanford, and he’s always sought a challenge. I think it has to do with seeing if your stuff will work at the next level. In this case, he doesn’t even have to move.”

That, of course, is the beauty of it. His home is in Menlo Park near the Stanford campus, not far from Oakland.

“He’s very excited,” Madsen said. “I hope that commute -- I hope the traffic isn’t too bad.”

To replace Montgomery, Stanford probably would turn to a former Montgomery assistant such as Nevada Coach Trent Johnson, a bright young prospect after his team’s run to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.

Gonzaga Coach Mark Few’s name also is being mentioned prominently, though he lacks the experience of recruiting under the distinctive requirements at Stanford.

Another former assistant who could be a candidate is Rice Coach Willis Wilson. Possible candidates on the current staff are former Stanford player Eric Reveno and former Pepperdine coach Tony Fuller.

Montgomery’s departure is perhaps more surprising because some believed when he turned down an opportunity to be considered for the UCLA job last year he was signaling his intent to stay at Stanford.

But it appears the NBA offered a more intriguing challenge -- and more money -- than UCLA could. By remaining at Stanford last season, Montgomery also qualified for a package of university benefits that included retirement health coverage.

Ben Howland, the coach UCLA eventually hired, praised Montgomery and the Cardinal program.

“He’s a [potential] Hall of Fame coach who really transformed that program from what at one time was a lower-level Pac-10 program into one of the top programs, year in and year out,” Howland said.

“The thing I appreciate is, he was a great coach who did everything with class and integrity.”

Adam Keefe, a former NBA player who became one of Montgomery’s first nationally prominent recruits when he signed with the Cardinal in 1988, lauded him as well.

“When he got there, there was no Stanford basketball, other than in name only,” Keefe said. “Now it’s a legitimate national program in the same sentence with Duke, Kansas or North Carolina. That’s what everybody needs to focus on.

“Just from a selfish standpoint, it’s hard for anyone associated with the school to see such a great coach leave.”

After 18 years, Montgomery was as much a fixture at Stanford as the famously quirky springy floor of Maples Pavilion.

That, too, will be gone next season with renovation of the arena.

Blaine Taylor, a former assistant now at Old Dominion, knows the Stanford landscape has changed.

“It will be odd to walk in Maples and not see Mike standing there,” he said.

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Times staff writer Jerry Crowe contributed to this report from Minneapolis.