And now, they have added Jim Boylen, who has been the head coach at the University of Utah for the past four years.

I don’t know much else about the guy other than some (perhaps true) facts listed on his Wikipedia page:

• he was fired from Utah in March after a 13-18 season. (He finished 69-60 in four years.)
• he served under my favorite NCAA college coach Tom Izzo at Michigan State,
• he has spent time as an NBA assistant, for 11 years in Houston and also with Golden State and Milwaukee
• he played college ball at the University of Maine, once finishing secnd to Northeastern’s Reggie Lewis for conference MVP

The University of Maine also happens to be in my hometown so you would think I would know a little more about one of the few basketball players of note who has ever attended the school. But I don’t.

Still … Go Blue.

And since we don’t have any video of Boylen ballin’, here’s another new Pacers assistant doing throwing an alley-oop to Shaq Kobe. In our lockout boredom states of mind the other day, some of us folks were passing around YouTube videos of great dunks. This was on shared by Myles Brown. And as someone who follows the Lakers closer than almost anyone noted after seeing the highlight, “Shaw was one of the best lob throwers.”

Hopefully he can teach a little bit of that to George Hill and Darren Collison.

Just like that, Shaw lost his whole family and was trust into the role of guardian to his sister’s infant daughter. The grief he suffered through and the responsibility of raising his niece forced him to grow up quickly. It molded his character to a degree that, years later when he achieved his life-long dream of winning an NBA title with the Lakers, there was a grim reminder of reality that remained even amongst jubilation.

“I remember looking around the locker room,” said Shaw, “and I saw Shaq’s parents in the locker room spraying champagne. Kobe’s parents. Fisher’s. Rick Fox’s. Robert Horry’s. And I was elated ’cause we won the championship, but then there was a part of me that set in that said my parents deserve to be here to be a part of this, too.”

Brian Shaw has not yet been officially named the new lead assistant coach for the Pacers and Frank Vogel. But he has the job. And more than any assessments of his coaching abilities from Phil Jackson or Kobe Bryant, his life story is what Pacers fans should know about a man who has won three rings as a player and two more as an apprentice to the most accomplished coach in NBA history. (video via Pacers Digest)

(Photo via the Pacers Facebook page)

Frank Vogel was all smiley at yesterday’s press conference that officially welcomed him to Pacer Nation as the franchise’s new head coach. The comments from both him and his boss Larry Bird were quite dull as they are currently prohibited from discussing any of the league’s locked-out players, but there is 12 minutes worth of banter in the video below if you’re into that sort of thing.

The key question regarding this whole hiring process is what took so long?

Management, namely Bird, has continually stated that they wanted to make sure that Vogel could be surrounded by an experienced staff that could serve as a support system. Last year, there were locker room issues even after Frank took the reins, according to Bird. Such behavior must be constrained going forward for the team to make another jump so, before committing to a rookie head coach, Bird apparently felt he had to secure the services of a lead assistant like Brian Shaw, who has spent the last decade in a locker room alongside Kobe Bryant and shared one with Larry Bird as players in the late 80s/early 90s.

Vogel said the wait to get his interim tag removed didn’t bother him. He said Pacers executives kept him informed and were “very respectful” in handling the matter.

“I just think they wanted to make sure I had the best support system available,” Vogel said. “I think they believe in me tremendously. They just wanted to make sure I was in the best position to succeed.”

It has been speculated that longtime Los Angeles Lakers assistant Brian Shaw will be Indiana’s associate head coach. Bird wants to make sure Vogel has a top assistant who has “been through the ringer and been through the league.”

“I wanted to make sure he got an associate head coach who has experience,” Bird said. “We had some locker room issues last year at certain times after Frank took over, and we wanted to make sure we addressed that, not only with the coaches but with the players. We did with the players after the season. We had a lot of conversations about  that. I don’t think we’ll have any problems any more.”

This makes sense.

Vogel strikes me as one of — if not the most — happy-go-lucky coaches in the league. While guys like Gregg Popovich and Stan Van Gundy give very few damns about players’ feelings and guys like Doc Rivers and Mike D’Antoni remain friendly but brutally honest, Vogel seems to be constantly uplifting and preaches a Little Engine That Could mantra. That’s all well and good, but Danny Granger and the other veterans left on this team have been around. They have a pretty good understanding of their team’s standing in this league. They know they’re not the Mavericks, Heat or Bulls. So hearing sugar-coated assessments, at least in public, from a head coach who seems to legitimately think they have the talent to beat a team like Chicago in a playoff series could become tedious. Perhaps Vogel will be more realistic when talking to the press this season, but people don’t usually change their character makeup in their late 30s.

Thus … Brian Shaw.

He’s a former player and can talk to the guys about what it actually takes to battle in the NBA playoffs. He can talk about his days winning rings with Kobe and Shaq. He can talk about the Shaw/Shaq Redemption. He can talk about what it was like playing with the best SF of all time — ya know, the same guy who also happens to be the boss of everyone employed by the franchise. And he can tell them what it was like playing for the Heat, back when the recent expansion team’s “big three” wasn’t LeBron, Dwyane and Bosh, but Rice, Seikaly and Bimbo.

What it comes down to is that some NBA players, particularly young ones, which Indiana has in droves, are prone to be motivated by the positive reinforcement we are likely to see from the always-chipper Vogel. Others respond better to the “been there, done that” demeanor of a former player who has, like Lt. Col. Frank Slade, been around, ya know.

In putting the two together, Bird hopes he has created a good balance.

Person, as Pacers fans have experienced first-hand, was one of the premier shooters of his generation, and so it is no wonder that when he was brought in last season as a special assistant, he did not disappoint. The beginning of his Laker tenure, however, is an interesting study in interpersonal relations.

Person knew that as a newcomer last season, he couldn’t simply walk in and tell players what they needed to work on. So at first he would simply observe during practice. Then, when he thought he could help, he would gently ask permission to voice his opinion.

Person carried himself this way at the advice of former Pacers President Donnie Walsh.

“I told him, ‘Chuck, I’ll tell you what you do. You go in there and don’t tell them anything as to what they should do because they just won the championship. You should just sit there and watch these guys for a while, because they’re really good. … You learn from them and then once you feel comfortable, you can add what you know,’” Walsh said.

In such a fashion, he made sure to not, in the words of fellow Laker assistant Brian Shaw, “overstep any of his boundaries.” Slowly but surely, Person was able to endear himself to the team, and as time passed, Jackson began to entrust more and more duties to him. This progression eventually culminated with the Lakers hiring him for the entire 2009-2010 season. Quite a turnaround for someone who was initially brought in to work just during training camp.

His biggest contribution to the team began in December 2009 after Bryant fractured his right index finger. Bryant had started to trust Person, and so when he offered pointers on how to adapt his shooting form due to the injury, he fully embraced Person’s advice.

Out of this came a one-on-one partnership with Bryant to improve his mechanics. The results were successful. By the end of the season, Kobe had increased his free-throw percentage to a career-high 88% — despite what should have been a devastating impediment to his shooting ability.

Bryant has relished their time working together.

“He has the same kind of attention to detail that I have. I enjoy being around that. I enjoy talking to him about it. I spend a considerable amount of time shooting with him and working on different things and just strategically how he sees the whole puzzle, not just pieces of the puzzle; he sees the whole thing as I do. It’s important for me to have another set of eyes that I can communicate with and kind of work on things with.

“He’s just a great Southern dude, man.”

All this being said, Person’s coaching skills are not restricted to just offense; he also aides players in improving their game on the defensive end of the court — even power forwards and centers. Last season, for instance, Person was one of the coaches who assisted pivot man Andrew Bynum develop as a player.

This has earned him the praise of Jackson.

“Chuck has an analytical eye,” said Jackson. “He’s always seeking answers and looking for reasons, so that blends in well with the kind of process we like to go through. I can give him something we need to work on defensively and he’ll come in with some exercises and things we have to do, and he works really well with our post players even though Chuck was one of the great outside shooters in the game.”

Furthermore, Person’s coaching success is not only a function of his basketball knowledge, but his ability to communicate well with today’s NBA players. Unlike some coaches and players, Person is very upfront, not hesitating to tell players what they need to do to improve.

Because of this, Portland Trailblazers Head Coach Nate McMillan has long-known that Chuck would make a good coach.

“I thought he was a coach when he played and I had the opportunity to work with him then … I just feel that the things that he brought to the floor, his communication skills with players not only players but the stars, he will approach any guy and work with him. You saw times last year when he and Kobe were communicating during the playoffs. Chuck is just that type of guy that will pull a guy to the side, star or best player [included], and talk to them about what they need to do and won’t be afraid or intimidated by that player.”

Even more remarkable, however, is the fact that Person has managed to stay humble despite his coaching success. With regards to his feat of helping improve the game of one of the the best players in NBA history, he notes with an air of humility that, “Kobe was a great player before I came and he’s going to be a great player after I leave.” Likewise, he hesitates to even take credit for what he has taught the star, adding that “all the things I told Kobe are things Jerry West told me.”

Indeed, such is this former Pacer — brilliant on the court, but just as inspiring as a teacher and as a person.

Jay Ganatra is a contributor to 8 Points, 9 Seconds who is currently studying accounting at the University of Florida. You can reach Jay at jay.ganatra@ufl.edu.