{"id":1908627,"date":"2026-04-29T09:30:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1908627"},"modified":"2026-04-29T09:30:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:30:35","slug":"for-j-b-bickerstaff-and-jamahl-mosley-being-family-doesnt-matter-during-nba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1908627","title":{"rendered":"For J.B. Bickerstaff and Jamahl Mosley, being \u2018family\u2019 doesn\u2019t matter during NBA playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It all began at Grg\u2019s in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

Tim Grgurich, the longtime assistant coach renowned inside NBA circles<\/a> but almost anonymous outside them, and who is generally credited with creating the NBA\u2019s modern, year-round player development culture, was holding his annual summer development camp in Las Vegas. At the Grg Camp, NBA players from every team came to get better. With Grg, there was no agenda. But Grg\u2019s camps didn\u2019t just help players reach the next level; they also served as a pipeline for up-and-coming coaches, all looking to find their footing and their place among their peers.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where J.B. Bickerstaff and Jamahl Mosley really became friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we hit Vegas, we would go to dinners,\u201d Mosley recalled last week.<\/p>\n

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\u201cRight from then, it was, you\u2019re around each other a little bit. And you go out a couple times, and it might have been the first or second year of Vegas camp. Once we connected and started hanging out, it was a real thing. And then it was just constant conversations, talking to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

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They were part of a group of young coaches seeking entry into the NBA coaching fraternity, looking to run a team someday. David Fizdale, Lloyd Pierce, David Vanterpool, J.J. Outlaw, Phil Handy, Darvin Ham. All young, all grinding, day after day, hoping to become the next Mike Brown, who\u2019d been mentored by Grgurich during his rise up to getting NBA head coaching gigs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all broke down drills,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cWe all did one-on-one with the guys. We did all, like, all the sweat equity we could possibly build, is what we were doing there, to help young guys get better, and to teach the game. He and I, just personality-(wise), just fit, just matched. And we just continued to grow our relationship. Now, our families vacation together. Our wives are good friends. His kids call me Uncle J.B.; my kids call him Uncle Jamahl. We\u2019re family at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Normally, though, you don\u2019t compete against your family at work, knowing that if you succeed, it may cost your family member their job. But for the second time in three years, that\u2019s where Bickerstaff and Mosley, both 47, are now, with their teams facing each other in the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Bickerstaff is trying to continue the Pistons\u2019 incredible metamorphosis from the league\u2019s laughingstock two years ago to one of the favorites to win it all, after a 60-22 regular season that gave Detroit the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Mosley, in his fifth season as head coach in Orlando, is dealing with the expectations of trying to break through in the postseason after losing in the first round two straight years. It\u2019s no secret around the league that Mosley\u2019s future in Orlando is up in the air, a situation that would change significantly if the eighth-seeded Magic can pull off the upset over Detroit.<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s no contact between them during the series, a mutually agreed-upon choice. They FaceTimed each other the day before Game 1 but won\u2019t talk again until after the series ends.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen it\u2019s done, it\u2019s done,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cAfter our Game 7 (in 2024, when Bickerstaff\u2019s Cavaliers beat Mosley\u2019s Magic) in Cleveland, hugged it out, said \u2018I love you, go do your thing against Boston, you\u2019re my guy.\u2019 That\u2019s it. That\u2019s what it turns into. We\u2019re in a dogfight, we\u2019re gonna be mad at each other, we\u2019re gonna try to beat the other person. The business we\u2019re in causes that competitive nature to kick in, no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, as Bernie Bickerstaff, J.B.\u2019s father and the longtime NBA coach and executive, put it last week: \u201cThey genuinely care about each other\u2019s success. Like, if Jamahl\u2019s having a hard time, (J.B.)\u2019s gonna call him. When you play basketball, you play against your best friends. Or, like the (Thompson) twins playing against each other<\/a>. Once you step off the line, you\u2019re good. But you\u2019re not going to go, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s my brother; I\u2019m gonna let him kick my ass.’\u201d<\/p>\n

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{“endpoint”:”https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql”}<\/p>\n

Coaching circles are just that \u2014 circles. They often overlap.<\/p>\n

J.B. Bickerstaff had a conventional route to the craft. His father won a championship in Washington in 1978 as an assistant on Dick Motta\u2019s Bullets staff.<\/a> When J.B. Bickerstaff was injured late during his playing career at the University of Minnesota, he knew he\u2019d get into the family business. After a season in Minnesota doing color commentary on Timberwolves\u2019 radio broadcasts, where he got to see pro systems and players up close, J.B. Bickerstaff went to work in Charlotte, on his father\u2019s staff, as an assistant coach. Bernie Bickerstaff also gave Brown his first job in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Mosley played at Colorado, then overseas, before being hired by George Karl in Denver as a scout and assistant.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knew a lot more than I did, because of his dad,\u201d Mosley said of J.B. \u201cHe had been in the industry; I hadn\u2019t been in the industry like that. He actually was a veteran in that regard, because he had seen the ups, the downs, the ins, the outs, the moving, all those things. That\u2019s how I leaned on him. But it was constantly talking about us as assistant coaches, the relationships that we had with players, what that looked like for us, getting better. How we could improve. What does that look like?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Growing up, J.B. Bickerstaff had seen the hours his dad put in, sitting in his office, watching tape. He saw how his father was with everyone, regardless of their station. Bernie Bickerstaff was fair and helpful to any number of people breaking into the business, but he didn\u2019t suffer fools. There was no sugar coating, even for the young assistant who shared his surname.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was best that way,\u201d J.B. Bickerstaff said. \u201cBecause it never looked like he was playing favorites. He would tell me what it was in the moment, so everybody knew \u2014 this is the standard we\u2019re holding ourselves to. And regardless of who you are, I\u2019m going to hold you to that standard. He always knew the right way to balance so that you heard the message. He would be hard on you sometimes, but then sometimes, he\u2019d love you up and let you know when you did a good job. It wasn\u2019t like he was always just going at you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mosley, with Karl, was also starting his climb up the ranks. He and J.B. continually stayed in touch. And J.B. Bickerstaff also had another group of friends, many who\u2019d played at Arizona for the late, great Lute Olsen: Luke Walton, Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye, along with Jesse Mermuys, who\u2019d been director of operations at Arizona before starting his own rise up the NBA assistant ranks. (Mermuys is now in Phoenix as an assistant coach for Jordan Ott.) Walton and Jefferson were fast friends growing up.<\/p>\n

Jefferson also introduced Bickerstaff to another friend of his from school.<\/p>\n

\u201cJ.B. was rehabbing an injury coming out of college, and that\u2019s the same place I\u2019m getting ready for the (2001) draft,\u201d Jefferson, now a lead analyst for ESPN after his 17-year NBA career, recalled last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I meet J.B. \u2026 He\u2019s 22; I\u2019m 21. I don\u2019t know him. We just kind of become friends, kind of hang out. And Luke is still in college. So we start becoming friends, because we\u2019re both just kind of stuck in Phoenix. Fast forward. We\u2019re out at night, and he\u2019s like, \u2018Who\u2019s that girl?\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s Nikki Jones; she played soccer at Arizona. That\u2019s my homie. She\u2019s been my homie for years.\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018Oh.\u2019 Now, they\u2019re married, and they have three kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young coaches got onto the coaching track. Bickerstaff went to Minnesota, then Houston; Mosley went to Cleveland, then Dallas. They started interviewing for head coaching jobs. Bickerstaff got his first shot as the Rockets\u2019 interim coach in 2015 after Houston fired Kevin McHale 11 games into the 2015-16 season.<\/p>\n

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Coaches always talk about \u201cthe 12 inches\u201d \u2014 the distance between an assistant coach\u2019s seat and the head coach\u2019s chair. Those 12 inches are a chasm \u2014 in pay, to be sure. But also in responsibility and pressure, both external and internal. If you want a friend, get a dog. Because almost no one else cares.<\/p>\n

Early in Bickerstaff\u2019s interim stint in Houston, the Rockets played the Knicks. After the game, he called his father. His mother, Eugenia, was also on speakerphone.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I was telling my dad, I was like, \u2018Man, this s\u2014t is hard,’\u201d he said. \u201cAnd my mom, in the background, said, \u2018Boy, put your big-boy pants on and go to work.\u2019 And that was it. And it was the mindset from that point forward, just do the job that\u2019s in front of you every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n J.B. Bickerstaff and Jamahl Mosley chat on the sideline during a 2022 game. During this Pistons-Magic series, the chatter between the two is minimal. (Ron Schwane \/ Associated Press)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Their peers started breaking through to the big chair, too. The Grizzlies hired Fizdale as head coach in 2016. The Hawks hired Pierce in 2018. Mosley, finally, got his shot in 2021. He was in Mexico with his family when the last round of interviews with the Magic began. His family included the Bickerstaffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, listen, I\u2019ve been turned down nine times, 10 times, from different interviews,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cI was like, I\u2019m going on vacation with my family, like we always do every summer. We\u2019re going to go with the Bickerstaffs, we\u2019re going to go with the Mermuyses, we\u2019re going to go with the Waltons. We\u2019re going to go on our vacation together, because that\u2019s what we do.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think I did one of the interviews with the Magic while I was there. And we were together. \u2026 that\u2019s just how we did things. I was looking back to our kids\u2019 photos. We would go see them at All-Star break when they were in Houston. I\u2019ve got a picture of us looking super young, when we both had hair.\u201d<\/p>\n

They no longer do. Job casualty.<\/p>\n

Bickerstaff is, like his father, stoic on the sideline. He\u2019ll jump his guys when necessary, but his trait is being even-keeled in moments of challenge. There wasn\u2019t a lot of yelling from him in the two days after Orlando came to Little Caesars Arena and out-toughed Detroit in Game 1.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s very calming,\u201d Pistons center Jalen Duren said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy that doesn\u2019t add on extra pressures. He\u2019s a guy that kind of mellows everything out and says, \u2018OK, this is what\u2019s happening, we\u2019re going to deal with it, and we\u2019re going to get through it. And we\u2019re going to learn from it together.\u2019 It\u2019s been great all season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years removed from being fired by the Cavs, Bickerstaff is a finalist for NBA Coach of the Year honors with his team soaring behind emerging superstar Cade Cunningham. Mosley is just trying to survive, despite having his own No. 1 overall pick in forward Paolo Banchero and his role in resurrecting a moribund Orlando franchise over the last five seasons. His Magic have, in the last 10 days, responded to the moment, routing Charlotte in the last Play-In Tournament game before going toe-to-toe with the top-seeded Pistons. But they probably have to finish the job for their coach to keep his.<\/p>\n

During this series, Mosley and Bickerstaff often stand just a few feet apart on the sidelines. But they will not speak with each other. Not now.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of my closest friends,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cAnd this is why us playing this playoff series is hard. He\u2019s one of my closest friends. And we talk all the time. He gives advice. We talk about things \u2014 what\u2019s real, what\u2019s not real, what\u2019s the league like. We talk about all the things that we go through. \u2026 He\u2019s now moved into that realm. When the Houston thing happened, we talked about what\u2019s next moves, and what are you going to do here, and then Cleveland happened<\/a>, and then we\u2019re playing each other in the playoffs. And we didn\u2019t talk. And once it was done, we talked.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnew all the things going on there and the realities of the NBA. We talked. The advice he gives, what he listens to, being supportive, and me supporting him, it\u2019s real. We\u2019re friends and family before any of this basketball stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It all began at Grg\u2019s in the early 2000s. Tim Grgurich, the longtime assistant coach renowned inside NBA circles but almost anonymous outside them, and who is generally credited with creating the NBA\u2019s modern, year-round player development culture, was holding his annual summer development camp in Las Vegas. At the Grg Camp, NBA players from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1908627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1908627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1908627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1908627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1908627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}