Dallas Mavericks BHM: From Teaching Math to Teaching Hall of Famers, the Story of Melvin Hunt

In my third and final installment of my Black History Month Series, I chat with Dallas Mavericks Assistant Coach, Melvin Hunt, on his journey to the NBA.

“I’m on my way to the plane,” Hunt said when I asked him over the phone what he was up to after he had called. The Mavericks were about to board their team plane to Atlanta when Hunt gave me a call for this story.

“How much time do you need?” Hunt said.

I responded with, “probably like 15 minutes would be good.”

“How about this. Let’s wait until we get to Atlanta and you call me around 7PM?” Hunt proposed.

After the day goes by and seven o’clock rolls around, I gave Hunt a call and the rest is history. After laughs about his past jobs and stories about the players he had coached, we spent over an hour on the phone together in what would be one of my favorite pieces I have done.

This is the story of Melvin Hunt, the Lead Assistant Coach to Rick Carlisle and the Dallas Mavericks.

“I grew up in Tallulah, Louisiana” Melvin Hunt said when I asked him about his upbringing.

“Very quickly we moved to Flint, Michigan. A lot of my formative years were in Michigan,” Hunt said “Loved it. I was there during the 70’s and 80’s. It was a time when Michigan was booming. It was like the hub a lot of business and the factories were great.”

Hunt and his parents loved living in the booming Flint, Michigan, but as most know, things started to take an economic dive in the 80’s. Hunt said his family made the decision to leave Flint before everything truly dried up and they moved back to Louisiana when he was in 8th grade.

Even though it was going from a big city back to a smaller town, he says it was “one of the best things to ever happen to him.”

Hunt would go on to play high school basketball where he would be recruited nationally for college. It was then that he decided to become a Baylor Bear and attend Baylor University from 1987-1991.

It was at Baylor that he would form lifelong bonds that would impact the rest of his life.

“Dennie Lindsey, the Utah Jazz General Manager, was my roommate and David Wesley, who is my best friend and does television for the Pelicans, was my other backcourt mate…All three of us are NBA guys off the same team out of Baylor,” Hunt said.

“I actually taught Math back home in Louisiana for a short while. 7th and 8th grade mathematics.” -Hunt

Hunt said that hardly anyone knows that about their friendship, but more importantly, Hunt met his wife at Baylor when he was a senior and she was a freshman.

After a few attempts to play professional basketball didn’t work out, Hunt went to Grambling for graduate school. Back in Louisiana, Hunt wasn’t teaching basketball to hall of famers quiet yet, instead it was 7th and 8th graders.

“I actually taught Math back home in Louisiana for a short while. 7th and 8th grade mathematics…I have really been blessed to do a lot of different things,” Hunt said.

After not being able to find a job back at Grambling, Hunt decided to come back to Waco for his masters at Baylor. He started working for Baylor as an academic advisor for four years where he started to do basketball stuff on the side.

“I was a high school basketball referee for four or five years in the Waco area. Loved it and had chance to start doing college games. I was getting to the point to make the jump from high school. I had been praying about it. I was helping coach AAU teams. I had a women’s team I was help coaching.”

“What did you not coach?” I laughingly said.

“It goes deeper than that. I had little bitty kids like 4th and 5th graders. I just wanted to be around the game.” Hunt said. “I knew that God was calling me to coach and to use it as a platform.”

But there was one thing he didn’t want to risk…his marriage.

The world of coaching can be strenuous and hard at times for families as it takes up so much time.

“I didn’t think my wife wanted me to coach,” Hunt said. “Finally, one day during March Madness, Billy Packer was doing the game and I would say something about the game. Then Billy Packer would say the same thing.”

His wife would go on to make a joke about why Melvin wasn’t already coaching and the rest is history. After getting her approval, Hunt went down to the Final Four in Houston (crazy it was in Houston right?) where he would re-connect with some of his old coaching friends. Before too long, Hunt was already coaching.

“I ended up coaching high school at Temple High School in Temple, Texas”

Hunt, while teaching keyboarding of all things, absolutely loved being able to pour into the high school kids at Temple High School. But that would only last a year as the guy who had recruited him at Baylor, Danny Kaspar, had a position open for him in San Antonio on his staff at Incarnate Word.

After much prayers alongside his wife, the Hunt family moved to San Antonio….for just five months.

Five months later, his old friend Dennis Lindsey and Carroll Dawson (former GM of the Houston Rockets) called about Hunt taking a low-level job with the Rockets. This was Hunt’s opportunity.

“Next thing you know I am the assistant video coordinator for the Houston Rockets,” Hunt said.

“Working under Rudy Tomjanovich was the best guy ever for an entry-level guy. Wanted me to grow, not afraid to let me grow, he let all his employers touch everything,” Hunt said. “We were all cross trained.”

Hunt was there for five years, but he said it was more like 12 years. Tomjanovich ran a ship that allowed everyone to learn everything. Hunt said we spent time helping recruit free agents, going through the contract signing process and more.

He even became an international scout where he helped bring in arguably the most famous international player to ever play in the NBA.

"“I was in China when we drafted Yao Ming. I was always in China,” Hunt said about his scouting time in Houston. This was the pre-Tracy McGrady days in Houston. “Steve Francis, Mobley, Yao, Eddie Griffin, Maurice Taylor…we were the young upstart team,” Hunt said."

Jeff Van Gundy was eventually brought in and the system changed. Hunt respected Van Gundy, but decided to go with Tomjanovich to the Los Angeles Lakers for a year.

“One year with the Lakers was eye-opening. I learned a lot about the NBA I didn’t know about. My time with Kobe and the Lakers was eye-opening,” Hunt said.

“When we had Kobe the year in LA, he was brash, aloof, but he had never been a leader by himself. During that time we were there he had to grow and change and he knew it.”

During that short time with the Lakers, Hunt and Bryant grew close. In Bryant’s last trip to Dallas in 2016, they shared a moment he will never forget.

“Kobe’s last trip to the Mavericks, we still talk obviously, but I have a great picture of he and I walking off the court and I am palming the back of his head. It is a great picture.” Hunt said.

“We were reminiscing. He was basically telling me that this is it. He was ready to call it quits. He was basically telling me then that he was ready on his own terms.”

Hunt says it was the first time he was seeing Kobe starting to let his guard down. He was finally starting to let people see behind the curtain.

“I remember getting home that night and telling my wife, ‘Kobe has come to peace, he has come to terms with where he is and I think he is ready to walk away from it’.”

A short time after that, Bryant would announce his retirement at season’s end.

After Los Angeles, Hunt would head to Cleveland as an assistant coach where he would really started to gain some notoriety around the league.

"“Cleveland, we had so much success. We were always on television and it gave me a lot of notoriety,” Hunt said. “We had arguably the best player [LeBron James] in the world for five years. Pouring into him as a young player was priceless. Having just coached Kobe for a year and getting him the following year was great and good timing for him.”"

After his years in Cleveland, Hunt would head to Denver where he would get the unique opportunity to fill in as interim head coach for the last 23 games of the 2014-15 season. Hunt said that this gave him the confidence as a coach and that God gave him a quick glimpse of what it was like to be a head coach.

Now, Hunt is in his second season as Lead Assistant Coach where he feels like Carlisle is putting the final touches on him as he prepares to be a head coach again one day.

“Rick is putting the final schlacking on and polishing me off as a coach and a leader. It’s getting me ready for one day when it is my day to be a head coach,” Hunt said.

MUST READ: Seth Curry, Quinn Cook Reunite the Duke Backcourt in Dallas

So what’s it like coaching under Rick Carlisle?

“Rick is a modern-day renaissance man,” Hunt said.

Hunt started off by praising Carlisle for his intelligence. From playing the piano to flying airplanes, Carlisle is just a different breed. But no matter the intelligence, Rick is as personal as they come. Hunt liked to describe it as “we have great talks and sometimes basketball comes up.”

Hunt raved about the closeness of the staff under Carlisle and gave an example of their relationship. “We had one of greatest conversations as a staff talking basketball. Next thing you know, Rick was drawing up a schematic on the whiteboard of the farm he grew up on,” Hunt said.

Carlisle trusts his staff to simply do what their title says they are to do.

Assist…the…coach.

But just because Rick is close with everyone doesn’t mean it makes it easy.

“I’m not going to use the word easy. I would be lying if I used the word easy,” Hunt said as we both shared a laugh.

As I started to think about his time with Nowitzki, James and Bryant, I joked with Hunt that he could form a mean starting five of players he has coached. We both had a fun time as he started to reminisce on his past players.

“I have done it a couple of times,” Hunt said as he admitted to forming the ultimate fantasy team of players that he had previously coached.

“I had Hakeem, I had Barkley at the end of his career. I had Melo before we traded him in Denver. Melo and Chauncey Billups. I have put together like an NBA All-Star, like first team, second team, third team and it’s been hard,” Hunt said. “I had old Shaq in Cleveland.”

“At one point and time I was a trivia question. Who is the only coach in the league to coach LeBron and Kobe?” -Hunt

“At one point and time I was a trivia question. Who is the only coach in the league to coach LeBron and Kobe? It was me until Mike Brown got the Laker job,” Hunt said.

Hunt’s official title with the Mavericks is “Lead Assistant Coach and Defensive Coordinator.” So why does defense mean so much to you?

“Let me set the record straight,” Hunt said. “LeBron James used to tease me at practice when we were in Cleveland. He used to call me Mel D’Antoni.”

Hunt started to explain how this is his title right now, but he is very comfortable on both sides of the ball. As he used to be a point guard in his playing days, Hunt said he has always been used to setting stuff up on the offensive side of the ball. “That is what I was always known for, for what I did offensively,” Hunt said.

As far as defense goes, he credits learning a lot from Hakeem Olajuwon in his early years coaching in Houston.

“I learned a lot just being around Hakeem. Post defense, things that came natural to him a lot of players couldn’t even fathom. Their brains didn’t turn that way.”

Turning the conversation towards Black History Month, is it different being a black coach in the NBA?

"“It is different. There are things when you come to the table. There are perceptions, beliefs, and things you are fighting for as a black coach in the NBA. It just is,” Hunt said."

How have you seen growth in the African-American presence in the NBA?

Hunt’s answer wasn’t centered around numbers, but the experienced that used to be required to get a high level job.

“The experience is sometimes, JKidd had never coached a day in his life. Some of the front office people today, they might not have that formal education…The most recent one is Rob Pelinka becoming the GM of the Lakers. He has never GM’d,” Hunt jokingly said.

“People understanding there is not just one way to acquire a position and pick a leader.”

So what would you tell a young person growing up outside of the African-American culture that would help them understand the African-American culture in this America?

"“First thing is to be open to learn,” Hunt said. “Take that to heart and act as if you have to be open to learn and you will grow so much faster. Just like white people, there is a wide spectrum of black people. I would challenge them to be willing to be open just to see.”"

What about advice you would give to young black men growing up with big dreams?

“Have balance. If you have balance as far as your priorities. That is a dangerous way to do it if you pour everything into something,” Hunt said. “Success isn’t always managed by your title, how high you go or your awards. Sometimes it is by your happiness.”

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In what was one of my favorite things he said, Hunt gave advice that we all can apply to our own lives and our jobs.

“I have never heard a old coach say I wish I had watched more tape. It is always I wish I had spent more time with my family,” Hunt said.

“I love when people ask me how I got started because I always get to tell them it’s because of the grace of God…basketball is my camouflage,” Hunt said. “I had a marketing degree…I wanted to write commercials. I love commercials and I love creativity.”

“God kind of laughs when you tell him what you are going to do.”

“Here I am, a basketball coach.”

You can read the second installment of my ‘Black History Month Series’ HERE on the story of Mavs beat writer, Earl K. Sneed and his unique journey to the NBA.

You can read the first installment HERE on the story of the first black female DJ in NBA history, Ivy Awino.

Next: The Story of Ivy Awino: First Black Female DJ in NBA History

Now, let us all take the words of Ivy Awino, Earl K. Sneed and Melvin Hunt and apply them to our lives.