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Mavs assistant Sean Sweeney’s rise from college professor to Jason Kidd’s defensive czar

Sweeney’s upcoming interview for the Hornets’ head coach opening is just the start.

Years before he became one of the most central figures in the Mavericks’ defensive transformation, Sean Sweeney stood at the front of a Brooklyn Nets film session as the focus of an expletive-filled Kevin Garnett outburst.

No, the ire wasn’t directed at Sweeney, who in his first year as an NBA assistant made up for his lack of big-league look and experience with confident, diligent acumen.

Rather, Garnett wasn’t happy with teammates who chatted while paying little attention to Sweeney’s report.

The gist of the Future Hall of Famer’s demand: Shut the [expletive] up and listen to Sweeney because he knows what he’s talking about.

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What a turning point in Sweeney’s winding, unheralded, skyrocketing coaching career.

The 37-year-old former Division III point guard who’s had stops at the smallest of college programs, but made a habit of building relationships with the biggest of basketball names, has become the energetic, focused orchestrator of the Mavericks’ defensive turn this year as coach Jason Kidd’s most loyal, consistent, organized assistant.

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Those with the Mavericks and in Sweeney’s extensive coaching network say his defensive adjustments to flummox the Suns and future Hall of Fame point guard Chris Paul in Game 3 of this second round series and his upcoming interview for the Charlotte Hornets’ head coach opening is just the start.

“He knows what he’s doing. He studies like no other. He’s always prepared for everything, in the box, outside the box,” Kidd said. “When we had that situation in Brooklyn, he gained the respect of one of the Top 75 players, and when he was validated with Kevin saying that, that was kind of the going-forward moment for him because now he knows everyone will listen.”

How many in the NBA started their career coaching an AAU team in east St. Paul, Minn. — while still playing college ball — and then taking an assistant role at a local junior college before graduating?

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Or made the jump from University of Evansville’s director of operations — czar of booster functions, travel logistics and summer camps — to his first college assistant job with start-up Academy of the Arts in San Francisco?

Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Sean Sweeney yells from the bench as guard Josh Green (8)...
Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Sean Sweeney yells from the bench as guard Josh Green (8) defends against Utah Jazz guard Mike Conley (11) during the first half in Game 5 of a NBA first round playoff series at American Airlines Center on Monday, April 25, 2022, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

Or worked up from an entry-level video staffer to a straight-shooting helping hand to a rookie head coach who’d finished his Hall of Fame playing career less than two weeks earlier and needed to fill a mid-season assistant hole?

Yes, Sweeney is unique.

Sweeney lived in five cities in his first four years coaching. At one point, he drove 31 hours to move from San Francisco back to his St. Paul home before heading to become the University of Northern Iowa’s video coordinator.

He stopped only for a 45-minute nap “somewhere in Nebraska.”

“It’s, like, the longest state of all time,” Sweeney said. “Just forever.”

At each stop, bosses knew Sweeney’s NBA goal, no matter how non-existent the pipeline from his first job, Anoka-Ramsey Community College assistant, may have been.

Thanks to a connection through a software company during his stint with Northern Iowa, Sweeney landed in Brooklyn’s video room in December 2011 and less than two seasons later, connected with new head coach Kidd.

As Kidd tried to navigate the player-to-coach transition, Sweeney asked him questions that seemed basic at the time — but belied his meticulous organization and aptitude.

What kind of offense did Kidd want to run? How about a defensive scheme? What did he want to establish overall? Kidd initially kept Sweeney on his video staff and then promoted him to an assistant role mid-season. A year later, Sweeney followed Kidd to the Bucks.

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“He’s got tremendous loyalty,” longtime college coach Tom Crean said. “In this day and age where there’s a lot more independent contractors in the coaching business, Sean is as far away from that as I could imagine someone being.”

Kidd assigned Sweeney to Giannis Antetokounmpo in his pod-style assistant delegation, and in the offseasons, Sweeney worked out the future MVP two to four times a day.

Anywhere.

They spent months in Antetokounmpo’s native Greece.

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Stints in Los Angeles.

New York “for a quick minute.”

Andorra for a few weeks while Antetokounmpo visited his brother, Thanisis.

Zagreb, Croatia, while Antetokounmpo played for his national team.

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But most of Sweeney’s coaching trips aren’t so exotic.

He’s a Notre Dame football season-ticket holder — and spends each offseason at his house in South Bend, Ind.— and travels to away games before NBA training camps start each fall.

Sweeney plans around road games to meet with local college and pro coaches — Leonard Hamilton at Florida State, for example, and Crean at Georgia.

“A lot of us have hobbies, whether it’s swimming, golfing, whatever,” former University of Evansville coach Marty Simmons said. “I think his hobby is just getting better as a basketball coach.”

Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Sean Sweeney talks to the team as Dallas Mavericks forward...
Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Sean Sweeney talks to the team as Dallas Mavericks forward Maxi Kleber (42) and Dallas Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson (13) defend Utah Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic (44) on a play during the fourth quarter of game 4 of an NBA first-round playoff game at Vivint Arena on Friday, April 21, 2021, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Utah Jazz defeated the Dallas Mavericks 100-99 to even the series 2-2.(Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)

When in-person contact stopped at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Sweeney started to organize conference calls with dozens of other coaches.

He’d send out a list of three to five topics they’d cover each Friday — ball-screen defense, situational time management, you name it — and lead a roundtable-type discussion to share perspectives.

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Kidd attended. So did Crean, Jason Terry, Tim Grgurich and several local coaches from Sweeney’s past stops.

Minutes after each session, he’d send out his note for reinforcement.

“He’s even got, like, impeccable handwriting,” Crean said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Want statistical proof of Sweeney’s ascent?

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The Mavericks ranked 21st in defensive rating (112.3 points per 100 possessions) last season under former coach Rick Carlisle’s staff.

This year — with the same core of the rotation — Dallas’ defense rose to No. 7 overall (109.1) and enjoyed a 5.5-week stretch as the league’s second-best unit (103.4) between the team’s early January recovery from COVID-19 and the mid-February trade deadline that altered the scheme with Kristaps Porzingis’ frontcourt departure.

In that span, Sweeney recorded a 3-1 record as acting head coach with Kidd in COVID-19 protocol.

After stifling the Utah Jazz and All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert in the first round of this postseason, Sweeney’s unit appeared no match for the Suns in Games 1 and 2 of the conference semifinals.

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Dallas allowed 120-plus points in consecutive games for the first time this season, and Paul and Devin Booker looked in championship-level rhythm.

Until Sweeney made rotation, schematic and full-court press tweaks for a Game 3 victory Friday in which the Mavericks held Finals-favorite Phoenix to a season-low 94 points and below 50% shooting for the first time this postseason.

Sweeney is active in running drills and workouts, playing point guard, facilitating offensive sets, whacking players with the pad and challenging those in his pod to the point they joke he’s gunning for Defensive Player of the Year recognition in warm-ups.

He’s also enthusiastic in communicating expectations and identifying emotions.

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Perhaps that’s to be expected from a former psychology student who earned a prestigious grant at St. Thomas University to study the science behind motivation, Evansville’s one-time “Coaching Basketball” professor in the kinesiology department and the nonfiction author of 101 Plays Of the Play-Offs.

Since last fall, Sweeney has held nighttime workouts and film sessions with second-year guard Josh Green. He clips extra film of Green’s plays and of veteran players to mimic and scout. He ran point guard to replicate the Utah Jazz’s plays when Green needed to drill post defense in the first round.

In return, Green has become a regular part of the Mavericks’ rotation and nicknamed sub-6-foot Sweeney “Mini Brine,” after former power forward and strawberry blond lookalike Brian Scalabrine.

Dallas Mavericks guard Josh Green (8) shoots in front of Dallas Mavericks assistant coach...
Dallas Mavericks guard Josh Green (8) shoots in front of Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Sean Sweeney during warmups before Game 3 against the Utah Jazz of an NBA first-round playoff game at Vivint Arena on Friday, April 21, 2021, in Salt Lake City, Utah.(Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)
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The Mavericks’ best have ribbed Sweeney, too.

Jalen Brunson mocks his no-step, no-momentum half-court shooting technique: “It’s weird and disturbing how he makes that.”

After Sweeney charged in to break up the Hassan Whiteside vs. All The Mavs scuffle in the first round, Luka Doncic joked about Sweeney’s force: “Nobody saw him because he’s tiny … but I saw he was in the middle, oh yeah.”

Sweeney dishes it right back — for example, by grading Reggie Bullock’s defense in Game 1 against the Phoenix Suns a “J-minus” and recommending summer school.

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Consider the quips proof of mutual respect and comfortability with their first-year defensive coordinator.

No talking over Sweeney’s credentials now.

Sean Sweeney’s coaching history

YearPlaceTitle
2006-07Anoka-Ramsey Community CollegeAsst. coach
2007-09University of EvansvilleDirector of operations
2009-10Academy of the Art UniversityAsst. coach
2010-11University of Northern IowaVideo coordinator
2011-13Brooklyn NetsVideo coordinator
2013-14Brooklyn NetsAsst. coach
2014-18Milwaukee BucksAsst. coach
2018-21Detroit PistonsAsst. coach
2021-presentDallas MavericksAsst. coach
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