NBA colleagues recall Flip's sharing nature

Three days before his team meets the Timberwolves in the NBA season opener, Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Mark Madsen learned midway through Sunday's practice that his friend and former coach Flip Saunders had died at age 60.

Madsen played for Saunders on the Wolves team that reached the 2004 Western Conference semifinals against the Lakers, the team with whom Madsen began his playing career and now is an assistant to Byron Scott.

Even among the opposition, Sunday's news hit hard.

"I couldn't believe it, no one could believe it," Madsen said by phone. "Whether people knew him or not, it was a reflective day for everyone at the Lakers facility. It was a day of loss. But it was also a day of celebration for a great life, a great person, a great human being."

Those who knew him, played for him and loved him remembered Saunders on Sunday as a lifelong coach and part-time magician who attracted people no matter where he went.

"He was almost like a pied-piper kind of person," said Trey Schwab — a former Marquette assistant coach who worked with Saunders collegiately at Tulsa in the 1980s and professionally in the CBA and with the Timberwolves in the 1980s and '90s — to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "If you were mad at him, you couldn't stay mad at him for very long."

Madsen won't forget that 2003-04 season, which he calls "one of, if not, the most memorable and fun years I've had playing at a professional level." And this from a guy who was part of the Lakers' 2001 and 2002 NBA championship teams.

"I didn't ask him," Madsen said. "He just called me and said, 'Hey, I want to come by your camp, I want to speak to the kids.' And he came. He was shooting threes with the kids. He was showing them basketball tricks, spinning the ball on one finger, moving it around his back. The kids absolutely loved it."

Chicago Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg — a member of that 2004 Wolves team — won't forget that playoff run to the Western finals. He won't forget moments away from the court, on plane flights, times he said Sunday helped him to decide he, too, wanted to coach first at Iowa State and now with the Bulls.

"We'd be flying home from a road trip and he'd come down and sit next to me and talk to you," Hoiberg said. "It's something I used with my players in college, something that I'll use as long as I'm on this side of things."

Hoiberg had just finished leading Bulls practice Sunday when he learned of Saunders' death.

"To hear the news was a shock," he said. "I'm still in shock. It's so sad."

"We all have been blessed by your wonderful life, Coach Flip," Wolves forward Shabazz Muhammad tweeted. "You will be deeply missed. Rest in peace."

Washington All-Star guard John Wall remembered a man who coached him in his rookie season with the Wizards.

"Coach Saunders guided me in this league," Wall tweeted. "He believed in me and taught me what it takes to be a good player and a better man. RIP Coach."

Milwaukee second-year forward Jabari Parker recalled Saunders' three seasons coaching Detroit, where he won 64, 53 and 59 games but never reached the NBA Finals.

"Rest in Paradise Flip," Parker tweeted. "You were my favorite coach when I rooted for the Pistons as a shorty."

"I mean, he really broke it," Dutcher said Sunday. "He got knocked out and when he fell, he sprained his ankle, too. And so it's an afternoon game and how are we going to play without him? He showed up and said, 'Coach, I'm good to go,' and I said, 'Flip, you can hardly walk.'