William Clifford Musselman (September 13, 1940 – May 5, 2000) was an American basketball coach in the NCAA, the ABA, the WBA, the CBA, and the NBA.
In 1971–72, he led the Gophers to an 18–7 record and their first Big Ten Championship in 53 years with a roster featuring Dave Winfield, Jim Brewer, Bobby Nix, Keith Young, Clyde Turner, Corky Taylor, and Ron Behagen.
Witte was seriously injured, taken off the court on a stretcher and hospitalized with injuries, including to an eye, that negatively impacted his basketball career.
Still, critics claimed he had stirred his players into a frenzy before the game that night and encouraged overly aggressive play.
[4] On July 28, 1975, Musselman left the college ranks to join the pro game when he was hired to coach the San Diego Sails of the American Basketball Association.
According to the book Obsession, by Bill Heller, Musselman signed a three-year contract worth more than $135,000, considerably more than the $23,000 salary he had received at the University of Minnesota.
A week after the ABA's San Diego franchise folded on November 11, 1975, Musselman was hired to coach the league's Virginia Squires.
In the book Obsession, by Bill Heller, Musselman said, "I found the players [in Virginia] were talking more about the [team's] financial troubles than basketball.
Led by Randy Ayers and Gus Bailey, Reno lost to Herb Brown's Tucson Gunners, four games to three, in the 1979 championship.
He was derisively called "Musclehead" by WWWE sports radio host Pete Franklin who was a vociferous critic of how Stepien was operating the Cavaliers.
[5] On March 8, 1982, Stepien fired Chuck Daly, who was 9–32 as coach of the Cavs, and replaced him on an interim basis with Musselman, then the team's director of player personnel.
The following season, Musselman moved a few miles up the Florida Gulf Coast to St. Petersburg, where he was hired to coach the expansion Tampa Bay Thrillers of the CBA.
On June 19, 1987, Musselman jumped to the Albany (NY) Patroons for the 1987–88 CBA season, guiding the Pats to a remarkable 48–6 record and his fourth consecutive league title.
Musselman highlighted his style of doggedly exploiting the other team's weaknesses when on a February 4, 1990 game against the Golden State Warriors, he called the same play all game in an attempt to get coach Don Nelson to double-team journeyman big man Randy Breuer in his matchup against lighter defenders Manute Bol and Jim Petersen in order to free up guards Pooh Richardson and Tony Campbell.
Musselman's 1997 South Alabama team went 23–7 and nearly upset eventual champion Arizona in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
On October 8, 1997, after two successful seasons as head coach at the University of South Alabama, Musselman returned to the NBA as an assistant with the Portland Trail Blazers, under Mike Dunleavy Sr.
During his stint as coach of the ABA's Virginia Squires, Musselman "antagonized so-called problem players ... and docile ones," according to a January 3, 1981, article in The New York Times.
Musselman claimed "the only time I yell is before a game and at halftime," explaining that his passion helps players give "maximum effort every second."
In Charley Walters' December 23, 2012, column in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Scott Brooks is quoted as saying, "One of the things I've taken from [Bill Musselman] is doing it every day, being consistent and never changing—always stick with what you do.
A number of Musselman's former assistant coaches and players went on to coach in the NBA, including Sidney Lowe (Minnesota Timberwolves), Tyrone Corbin (Utah Jazz), Tom Thibodeau (Minnesota Timberwolves), Scott Brooks (Oklahoma City Thunder), Sam Mitchell (Toronto Raptors), and his son Eric Musselman (Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors).
Musselman, who had served as head coach during the game after Mike Dunleavy was ejected, collapsed after leaving the arena.
In April 2000, he was diagnosed with primary systemic amyloidosis, a disease that produces an abnormal protein that collects in tissues and interferes with the function of organs.
The Trail Blazers used Musselman as an inspiration for their 2000 playoff run, which ended in the Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.