NBA PM: Livingston Mourns Legendary Coach

Livingston Mourns Loss of Legendary Coach

Back in October, former Peoria Manual High School head coach Wayne McClain passed away at the age of 60. He was, without question, one of the greatest coaches in Illinois high school history and meant a whole lot to Peoria basketball players, including Golden State Warriors guard Shaun Livingston.

“It really hit us in our hearts as a community in the Central Illinois area,” Livingston said. “His legacy and everything he meant to the game, to the high school game and just basketball in general… He was the godfather of Peoria basketball.”

For those outside of Peoria basketball, that might not sound like much until one considers just how successful the Peoria Manual program was under McClain. After serving as an assistant coach for 18 years there, McClain took over as head coach in 1994 immediately following a state championship that would ultimately prove to be the first of four consecutive AA Illinois State titles. In other words, McClain’s first three years as a head coach resulted in hardware for the school he represented. The rest of his head coaching career there was defined by that early success.

Livingston didn’t play for Manual until 2003, the year following McClain’s move to Champaign, where he became an assistant coach at the University of Illinois, but McClain still spent time around the team and everybody who played with Livingston in 2003 and 2004—both championship seasons—all understood and appreciated the man’s legacy.

“He’s from those parts so everyone already knows him as far as being from the area. They can relate to him because they know that he knows what he’s talking about because he is well connected among those parts,” Livingston said.

“Another factor was just the respect he commanded. There was a lot lacking in the respect department during our youth so because he was able to command that respect and just communicate and get across his message, that became the key to earning our respect.”

As many high school coaches have learned in their times working with kids from rough areas, earning that respect can be challenging, but that wasn’t the case with Coach McClain.

“He did it with his consistency, his discipline and the way he just connected with his players and how he just demanded everything from him,” Livingston said. “He was like a father to all the kids that he coached growing up in those rough communities and rough parts of the city. He got them all to buy in and he really let their talent shine because we had a lot of talent, but just like everywhere kids get into trouble and fell out and didn’t make it. He was able to connect the bridge.”

And even though Livingston never got to play under McClain officially, Livingston always hoped he’d end up at Peoria Manual to share in the winning tradition the legendary head coach established.

“It was my dream,” Livingston said. “He had already left by the time I got into high school, but growing up watching those teams win state? That was what I always wanted to do. They inspired me and they were my role models. They really inspired me to be great and gave us the confidence coming from a small town to really compete on a national stage because they were able to set the table.”

And Livingston did, of course, represent his city quite well by proving talented enough to forgo college and go directly to the NBA. He was the fourth pick of the 2004 Draft, and while injuries certainly derailed him from a future as a superstar, there’s no question that he’s the best player to ever come out of Peoria Manual.

McClain was arguably the best coach Peoria Manual ever had, and Livingston and the rest of the Peoria community will need a long time to completely get over the loss of their legend.

Ty Lawson Says Team Still With Coach Brian Shaw

It hasn’t been an easy year for the Denver Nuggets, who are two games under .500 and currently dealing with one of the nastiest cases of inconsistency in the NBA. Some nights they look pretty good, other nights they’re a train wreck.

Point guard Ty Lawson, like everybody else, is exhausted by the up-and-down.

“It’s been an emotional roller coaster,” Lawson told Sports Illustrated. “We started out losing six of the first seven, and we’re thinking we might be in the lottery, then we win seven of eight. We were playing well, and then we have a four-game skid.”

The only way to fix it, he says, is to be consistent on the end of the court that lends itself more to consistency.

“It’s about defense. When we lock in on D, it all flows over,” Lawson said. “When we force jump shots, we are a totally different team. I put it on me to come out with energy. We can’t allow too many points in the paint or threes, and we have to keep teams off the free throw line.”

Head coach Brian Shaw has taken a great deal of the blame for the slow start to the season, but according to Shaw’s starting point guard, Shaw hasn’t lost the locker room.

“At the end of the day, Brian just wants to win,” he said. “We are all trying to figure out a winning formula. We all want to bring a championship to Denver. We want to run, but we have to have a little bit of both. In the playoffs, we have to slow it down. We have to execute in the half court. I like both styles. And we are versatile with our players. I like half-court basketball. You can hit them with action, decide where you want to go. I never played like this before.”

Lawson, through the team’s struggles, is having a career-year as a distributor, averaging a career-high 10.3 APG, the third best average in the NBA. He says he’s made a concerted effort to improve in that regard, and that it’s helped him be a better all-around player.

“I’m being more aggressive,” he said. “We have great shooting. When I’m out there, teams have to take notice of guys like Arron [Afflalo] stretching the floor. And I want to get people involved early first quarter. I want to try to get seven or eight assists early, then in the second or third quarter get myself going. Last year I thought I was getting myself going too early for us to win games. I also notice that CP [Chris Paul] does that a lot. He will get Blake [Griffin] and DeAndre Jordan going early. It works.”

Only 1.5 games out of the playoff picture in the Western Conference, the Nuggets have plenty of time to turn things around, and if that does happen it’s a safe bet that Lawson will be at the head of the surge. Soon, he hopes, the rest of the team will get healthy and have just as eye-opening of a season as he’s having.