Eric Musselman

Eric Musselman (born November 19, 1964) is an American college basketball coach who is the current head men's basketball coach at the University of Arkansas.

He is the former head coach of the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Between head coaching stints at Golden State and Sacramento, Musselman served as an assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies under Mike Fratello.

Saunders, who was recruited by Bill Musselman when Bill was the head coach at the University of Minnesota during the early 1970s, would go on to be one of the winningest coaches in CBA history before moving to the NBA as coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

While Musselman was at USD (1983–87), the Toreros compiled a 77–36 record.

He was a member of the 1986–87 team that compiled a 24–6 record, the best in school history.

The Toreros lost to Auburn University in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 62–61.

Among Musselman's teammates at USD were Scott Thompson, a 7-foot center who was drafted in the fourth round by the Washington Bullets in the 1987 NBA draft, and Mike Whitmarsh, who won a silver medal in beach volleyball at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Musselman was a fifth-round CBA draft choice of the Albany Patroons in 1987.

In the CBA, Musselman posted a 270–122 record (.688), marking the second highest winning percentage in league history behind George Karl, who coached for five seasons in the CBA.

Musselman began his CBA career in 1988 as the general manager of the Rapid City Thrillers, a franchise his father Bill had coached to three consecutive CBA titles during the 1980s.

His first week on the job, he hired Flip Saunders as the team's head coach.

In the 1989–90 season, at age 24, Musselman became the Thrillers head coach.

The following season, Musselman joined his father Bill's staff on the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves as assistant coach making him the youngest front-bench assistant coach in NBA history.

Prior to joining the Thrillers, Musselman worked for the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers as an assistant to General Manager Elgin Baylor and Barry Hecker, the team's director of scouting.

From 1990–1997, Musselman had 24 players called up to the NBA, the highest number in the league during that span.

He holds the distinction of being the only person in CBA history to coach in five league All-Star Games (1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997) and was the first coach in professional basketball history to win 100 games by the age of 28.

When he was 23, Musselman became the youngest coach in CBA history.

Musselman also served as head coach of the Florida Sharks of the United States Basketball League (USBL).

In the summers of 1995 and 1996, he coached the Sharks to a combined 53–3 record (.946, including playoffs) and back-to-back USBL Championships.

Musselman was selected as USBL Coach of the Year in 1996.

He holds the highest winning percentage in league history.

Musselman was an assistant coach for the Orlando Magic from 1998 to 2000 under Chuck Daly and Doc Rivers who would go on to be named NBA Coach of the Year in the 1999-00 season, then also for the Atlanta Hawks from 2000 to 2002 under Lon Kruger.

In 2002, Musselman was named the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, a position he held for two years.

He finished as runner-up to San Antonio's Gregg Popovich in NBA Coach of the Year Award voting in 2002–2003 with 231 points, including 26 first-place votes.

That season, under Musselman's guidance, the Warriors, for the first time in nearly a decade, reached the .500 mark late in the season, holding a record of 30–30 on March 4, 2003.

In Musselman's rookie season, his club finished 38–44, the most wins in more than 10 years.

Despite numerous injuries and the loss of the team's top two players in Gilbert Arenas (signed with Washington) and Antawn Jamison (traded to Dallas), the team still finished 37–45 under his direction during the 2003–2004 season.

In two seasons as head coach in Golden State, Musselman compiled a 75–89 record.

Nevertheless, he was let go after the 2004 season ended when Chris Mullin took over as the team's general manager.

After his two seasons as head coach of the Golden State Warriors, Musselman was an assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies under Mike Fratello from 2004 to 2006.

On June 2, 2006, Musselman was named head coach of the Sacramento Kings, replacing Rick Adelman.

Four months into the job, on October 21, 2006, Musselman was cited for DUI in Sacramento.

He moved to the college coaching ranks in 2012 as an assistant at Arizona State.

From 2014–19, he was the head coach for the Nevada Wolf Pack.

The son of former NBA head coach Bill Musselman, Eric Musselman was a head coach in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) before becoming an assistant coach with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic (under Chuck Daly and Doc Rivers), and Atlanta Hawks (under Lon Kruger).

Musselman grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and San Diego, California, before moving to suburban Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School in Brecksville, a suburb about 15 miles south of Cleveland.

There, he played on the same high school basketball team as former NBA player Scott Roth and former NFL Pro Bowl punter/quarterback Tom Tupa.

Musselman graduated from the University of San Diego, where he played basketball for Jim Brovelli and Hank Egan, both of whom would later work as NBA assistants.

Musselman's .457 winning percentage with Golden State ranks 10th all-time among Warriors coaches, behind Steve Kerr (.709 through 2019–2020), Neil Johnson (.617), Frank McGuire (.613), George Senesky (.551), Bill Sharman (.534), Al Attles (.518), Don Nelson (.487), Mark Jackson (.473) and George Lee (.470).