Hornets Hive Cast – Head Coach Charles Lee | 7/5/24

Hornets Hive Cast – Head Coach Charles Lee | 7/5/24

welcome to the Hornets Hive cast presented by Charlotte ey Ear Nose and Throat Associates the official I ear nose and throat care provider of the Charlotte Hornets here’s your host Sam Farber now let’s welcome the new head coach of the Charlotte Hornets Charles Lee to the Hornet tcast for the first time coach thanks for being here uh thank you so much for having me Sam how does it feel to finally be the head coach of not just any NBA team but the Charlotte Hornets uh it feels so amazing uh obviously that playoff run was a lot of fun and I’m so thankful to Boston for allowing me to have a couple moments to drop in and out of Charlotte in between series but it’s nice to be here fulltime now let’s start things off with what kind of Coach you are for for fans that want to get to know you in other sports sometimes it’s easier to know if you’re in baseball and you were a catcher or the pitching coach it’s kind of easy to know where their expertise was or football offensive defensive coordinator basketball it’s not always clear what the expertise of the coach so how would you describe your style and your focus as you take on this new role yeah well one of the things I think I tried to really highlight about myself during the interview process was that the Hornets were going to get the the best uh well-rounded coach that they possibly could on the market uh I think somebody that’s been around a lot of winning at every level and so understands what are the ingredients that go into having sustained success uh and then I think the other parts of My Player Development background uh there’s a real passion there for just maximizing players skills and abilities and taking a holistic view understanding that it’s not only the stuff that they’re doing on the court but also the weight room the nutrition and you know the community stuff that they’re going to tie themselves to the Carolinas in and uh lastly the ability to build relationships and hold people accountable and I think that through these relationships uh these guys are going to feel uh a genuiness about me uh where I want to see them just be the best people the best basketball players they can be while also trying to win some games at a high level we’re excited to see you get started here and it starts fast the draft already happening this week and then before you know it SU League which you’ve committed from what I understand to coaching why was that important for you to get your hands on players and immediately dive in after just wrapping up a playoff run yeah it was important to me to if I want to create this culture of work that I’m coming off of you know going through a long playoff run but I’m ready to get to work and so it starts with leadership I think all the time so if your leaders uh live a certain way it starts to trickle down to everybody in the organization so it was really important for me to be able to connect with the players uh they get to hear my voice understand terminology and just start to build that foundation for like I said being obsessed with just daily Improvement and hard work Charles Lee the new head coach of the charlot Hornets Our Guest today here on the Hornet tcast your basketball Journey it’s a special one they’re all unique but yours has some real highlights you played professionally overseas you were part of the golden era of Bucknell basketball their NCA tournament wins what was one of your foundational basketball memories coming up as a player or a coach yeah I would just say um winning at every level but seeing what goes into winning at every level so like you brought up Buck now and seeing coming in that this wasn’t you know a mid major Powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination and I had a Parton helping build that into something where now you’re winning NCAA tournament games now you’re getting scholarships and able to go out and get a different caliber player because uh your footprint in college basketball is different and I would say the same thing was for overseas uh you know going to a mid-level German team and helping see that Team all of a sudden Advance into the Eur Challenge and again playing a part and having to build that up and then over the last 10 years I’ve got to work with some phenomenal organizations some great players um some two head coaches and Mike buholzer and Joe Missoula uh but also the assistants like you know when you think of darham and Kenny ainson who just got a job and Taylor Jenkins and uh I can go on and on and on uh but I’ve gotten to learn from those people of how to now build an NBA uh Team a culture a franchise into a champion you were as we said a great player and then you go into the coaching ranks was there any inspiration uh particular coach you had or one that maybe you worked under that you would like to emulate now as you step into the head rle oh there’s so many uh I would say like from being a player and and and getting to work under or getting coached by coach papovich during training camp getting to get coached by coach bud and Coach Brown was on that staff um going overseas seeing a lot of those guys so I would not say there’s one coach that I want to emulate I think the the biggest things that I want to do is just be able to build a culture and build a culture that’s so focused on like daily Improvement competitiveness and togetherness that winning ingredient that you talked about it everyone wants to do it and there’s a certain element of luck I suppose in terms of avoiding injuries and things like that but winning seems to follow you wherever you go and as you mentioned it’s not always going to the most powerful program at any particular level but turning all of them into it what’s that secret sauce that ingredient that you’ve been able to find and tap into and we’ll bring here to Charlotte yeah I would just say that uh you can’t St skip steps and so for us yes we want to win yes we want to uh hopefully eventually be one of the last teams standing uh down the road uh but we can’t skip any steps of how we’re going to get there and I think that there does need to be some luck around the way uh along the way but you create your own luck and so everything that you do every day to help build up it’s going to put us in the best position so we can’t be focused too much on like the big picture it’s all those small things that are going to help us kind of build up into that bigger picture and have sustained success winning followed you into the coaching ranks and you’ve been one of the most successful assistants in the NBA for quite some time and have been in several of these head coaching searches at what point were you convinced that you had what it took to be a head coach I’m sure it was before you got the call here from the Hornets but when did it sink into you that this was a job you could do I would just say over time uh you know I I was I’m very thankful again I can’t mention enough how much of like an opportunity coach coach Bud gave me coach uh Joe Missoula gave me and but learning under those assistants too so like you get to watch two championship caliber coaches and learn from all these assistant coaches and um when I finally got an opportunity to work my way up in the Player Development ranks and you know you start out working with a lot of the rookies and the guys at that point that were in the g-league and you know year by year you got more responsibility your voice grew you started doing drills uh now all of a sudden you’re working with Giannis and you’re working with Chris Middleton and I just think that when those those caliber players you know from being upper echelon All-Star caliber players are now trusting you with their career and you’ve built these strong relationships and your knowledge of the game has grown from all the film you’ve watched and all the scouting reports you’ve done um I think at that point I was like okay I think that we can do this you’re now the guy putting together your own staff and they’re coming from all over the NBA different levels of experience is there a through line something you were looking for a commonality amongst your assistant that you’re bringing here from everywhere now to Charlotte yeah you know Jeff mentioned just the importance of people and so the first and foremost thing that I was looking for were good people uh I think High character quality human beings where it was going to be exciting to go to work with them every day uh because as you know uh the season brings about a lot of ups and downs and I don’t want to ride that roller coaster I want to be surrounded by people that I think that can be even kill and and and we’re going to continue to push each other and enjoy every bit of the process and then the other part was just getting guys that they’re going to teach the game uh we have a young team we have a talented team uh but they need to understand uh what are the little subtleties of the game that we need on both ends of the court and how are we going to help them grow with also the alignment of what does the team need to uh so you know individual um maximization is important but it also needs to be in collaboration with the team goals too you’ve now got two championships under your belt as an assistant coach you take over a team that’s had some struggles in terms of making the playoffs but does have a lot of Talent on it as you evaluate the roster what do you see for you to work with here on the roster for the Charlotte Hornets yeah I see a group that is just really hungry and so when you get a talented group of individuals a hungry group of individuals and I think a coaching staff and a front office and an ownership group that’s really aligned to make sure they have every resource they can to maximize their potential it’s pretty uh exciting about what can all of a sudden be opened and the last one for you the fan base is very hungry as well to experience some playoffs BAS in general and especially some playoff success you’ve been successful everywhere you’ve been what’s your message to the fans that are hoping that you’ll bring that success immediately here to Charlotte yeah I would just say continue to have support for for the Hornets uh I think that we are going to be focused on providing a uh a product that’s going to be exciting for them to want to continue to get behind uh it’s going to be fun it’s going to be together it’s going to be competitive and and we’re looking forward to getting getting going Charles Lee I know it’s been a busy day a busy week for you welcome home welcome welcome to the Queen City and thanks for joining us here on the Hornet livecast thank you Sam appreciate it that does it for this edition of The Hornet livecast remember the hhc is available daily wherever you get your podcast all throughout the NBA season with game previews every game Day reviews every day after and in-depth interviews everywhere in between I’m Sam Farber it’s been a pleasure and a privilege having you along and we’ll talk to you next time right here on the Hornets hicast thank you for listening to the Hornets hivec brought to you by Santa the official Eye Ear Nose and Throat care provider of the Charlotte Hornets for more coverage visit hornets.com [Music]

Hornets Head Coach Charles Lee joins the Hornets Hive Cast with Sam Farber

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