Flip Saunders

Philip Daniel "Flip" Saunders (February 23, 1955 – October 25, 2015) was an American basketball player and coach.

During his career, he coached the La Crosse Catbirds, Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, and Washington Wizards.

Saunders was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

He was an All-state basketball player at Cuyahoga Heights High School in suburban Cleveland.

In his senior season, 1973, he was named Ohio's Class A High School Basketball Player of the Year, leading the state in scoring average with 32.0 points per game.

At the University of Minnesota, he started 101 of his 103 career contests and as a senior, teamed with Ray Williams, Mychal Thompson, Kevin McHale, and Osborne Lockhart.

Saunders began his coaching career at Golden Valley Lutheran College where he compiled a 92–13 record, including a perfect 56–0 mark at home, in four seasons.

In 1981, he became an assistant coach at his alma mater, Minnesota, and helped guide the Golden Gophers to the Big Ten championship that season.

After five seasons at Minnesota, he became an assistant coach at the University of Tulsa where he worked for two seasons before heading to the pro ranks.

Saunders became the coach of the Rapid City Thrillers of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) in the 1988–89 season, where future Kings and Warriors head coach Eric Musselman served as the team's general manager.

Musselman's father, Bill Musselman, had recruited Flip when Bill was head coach at the University of Minnesota.

Saunders then later moved to the La Crosse Catbirds for five seasons (1989–94), where he won two CBA Championships, before coaching in 1994–95 with the Sioux Falls Skyforce.

Saunders' impressive CBA tenure included seven consecutive seasons of 30 or more victories, two CBA championships (1990, 1992), two CBA Coach of the Year honors (1989, 1992) and 23 CBA-to-NBA player promotions.

Saunders would leave after seven productive seasons as a head coach in the CBA, where he ranks second with 253 career victories.

He also served as general manager (1991–93) and team president (1991–94) of the Catbirds.

Saunders joined the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA) on May 11, 1995, as general manager, working under his former Minnesota teammate, Kevin McHale.

On December 18, 1995, Saunders was named head coach of the Timberwolves, replacing Bill Blair.

This happened shortly after McHale had taken over the basketball operations for the Timberwolves.

He then added the coaching duties to his GM responsibilities after the team had gotten off to a 6–14 start.

The Timberwolves went 20–42 the rest of the year, but the emergence of young Kevin Garnett as a front-line NBA player was a huge plus over the second half of the season.

He guided with difficulty the Timberwolves to their first-ever playoff berth in the 1996–97 season, his first full season as an NBA head coach.

A year later, he led the Timberwolves to their first-ever winning season.

They went on to a franchise-record 50 victories in 1999–2000 which was duplicated in 2001–2002.

After the Timberwolves' success in the 2003–04 NBA season, in which they won their first (and to date, only) division title and advanced to the Western Conference finals, they struggled in the 2004–05 season.

On February 12, 2005, McHale fired Saunders and named himself head coach for the rest of the season.

McHale was unable to right the ship, and the Wolves finished one game out of the playoffs, the first time they had missed the playoffs in nine years.

Many fans believed that Saunders' firing was unwarranted, citing instead the contract troubles of Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell as the reasons for the team's failure.

However, many also acknowledged that Saunders had coached ten years in Minnesota, and perhaps a new voice was needed.

Saunders replaced Larry Brown as coach of the Detroit Pistons on July 21, 2005.

In his first season in Detroit, Saunders coached the Eastern Conference All-Stars in the 2006 NBA All-Star Game in Houston, Texas, and the Pistons became just the fifth team in NBA history to have four All-Stars in the same season (Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups).

After a 70-point first half performance from the Western Conference All-Stars, Saunders notably played all four Pistons for majority of the second half, to propel a defensive turnaround that allowed the East to overcome a 21-point deficit and win the game.

The Pistons finished 64–18—their best record in franchise history—and the best record in the NBA that season.

The Pistons defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in five games in the first round, and the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games to reach the Eastern Conference finals before losing to the eventual NBA champions Miami Heat.

The following season, despite losing four-time All-Star and four-time Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace to free agency, Saunders led Detroit to a 53–29 record, good for first in the East.

Once again the Pistons were able to reach the Eastern Conference finals, but they were defeated by the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games.

The 2007–08 season saw the Pistons finish with their third-best record in franchise history at 59–23.

Detroit did not finish first in the Eastern Conference as they had the previous two seasons, instead finishing as the second seed for the playoffs.

Saunders did still lead them to the Eastern Conference finals once again, but they lost to the Boston Celtics, who went on to win the NBA Finals that year.

On June 3, 2008, just days after the loss to the Celtics, Saunders was fired as head coach.

Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said the team needed a "new voice".