NBA All-Star Norman Powell has surprise reunion with first basketball coach originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Norman Powell was on the road to success.
Part of his basketball education was learned, not on the court, but in the car. It was during road trips to games that he and his coach Stacy Dooley would talk fundamentals, crack jokes and develop a bond.
It was also where a pact was made. Powell was in the passenger seat of Dooley’s car when his journey to the NBA officially began.
“You’re my coach now,” Powell told him. “I’m serious about this. We have to start doing training and stuff now. So, since you’re my coach, it’s kind of your job now.”
A job that Dooley accepted.
“I said, ’You know what? You’re right,” Dooley recalled. “I said, ‘We’ll go ahead and do this.’ I said, ‘If you’re serious about it, I’m going to be serious about it, as well.’ That’s when it kind of took off.”
It was a long road ahead, but it took Powell from his hometown of San Diego to UCLA and then to the NBA, where he just completed the first All-Star season of his career with the Miami Heat. And the entire way, Powell said Dooley was not just his coach, but his mentor and father figure.
“He saw something in me,” Powell said when he and Dooley had a surprise reunion on NBC’s “Launching Legends.” “Potential, or just a kid with a single-parent household that he related to. But he really took me under his wing and helped me every step of the way.”
‘I don’t want to let this family down’
The first step in their basketball relationship had been gaining the trust of Powell’s mother Sharon.
Dooley was coaching at the Boys & Girls Club in San Diego when a 12-year-old Powell joined his team.
“My first impression of Norman was he was a really quiet guy, but he was super serious,” Dooley said. “At 12 years old, he had a ton of energy. I mean, he could run for days.”
He became Powell’s first basketball coach.
“And since that day,” Powell said, “[Dooley] has always been a big brother, mentor for me.”
As Powell’s talent became evident, Dooley suggested he play club ball against older competition. For that he would need Sharon’s permission.
“She mulled it over a little bit, and she eventually agreed to doing it,” he said. “But there were some stipulations involved.”
One of which, he said, was when driving to practice, Sharon did not want older children in the car with her young and impressionable son. He agreed.
“I took him to our first practice, and it was just me and him,” Dooley said. “And when I came back, she was waiting there and she saw that it was just Norman coming out of my car that went a long way with her. We established some trust at that point.”
With Dooley still in his 20s at the time, he said it was the first time someone put that kind of trust in him.
“I took that as a badge of honor,” he said. “And I’m like, you know what? I don’t want to let this family down.”
He never did.
“He wasn’t just one of those coaches that wanted to use a player for their talents, to get ahead,” Powell said. “He actually, really cared.
“He was always there. If my mom needed help. If I needed help with anything. He was a sounding board, for me … He took a lot of time just being there for me, coaching me, teaching me, life lessons on and off the court.”
Having bonded with Powell, and earned the trust of his mother, Dooley said he felt a sense of responsibility.
“He kind of started to fill that dad void for me and role,” Powell said.
With that came some tough love.
The first example of that may have been having Powell compete against older players.
“He let me practice with the older guys, and I think that really helped me develop my skill and understanding of basketball and what it was going to take to be really good,” Powell said.
Dooley described himself as a serious coach and a no-nonsense guy, attributes that helped him build a rapport with Powell, who was serious about basketball from a young age.
“’I’m tough on you right now, but it’s for your benefit,” he’d tell Powell. “So, don’t take anything I say personal. And then I would finish it off with a joke.”
The jokes would continue on their car rides during travel ball, with Powell saying the humor lightened the mood in between games.
“It would be random stuff,” Dooley said. “Basically, things I would observe on the street, different people. I’m a people watcher.”
‘That kind of validates the trips’
He watched as Powell developed into an NBA prospect, winning a state title at Lincoln High School and going on to play at UCLA for four years.
“As time went by, I was like, ‘You know what? This is actually going to happen,'” Dooley said.
Powell was drafted in the second round of the 2015 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks and traded to the Toronto Raptors. He spent five-plus seasons with the Raptors, helping to lead the team to its first championship in 2019.
“Wow, that was really amazing,” Dooley said. “So, it’s already a little surreal seeing someone you know, that you’re close to, on TV playing professional basketball. And then when it got to a point where they’re in a NBA championship run.”
Three teams and six seasons later, at the age of 32, Powell became a first-time NBA All-Star.
Dooley was at All-Star Weekend to celebrate the latest accomplishment in Powell’s career.
“Super thankful for your part in it and being the first coach to coach me, take me under your wing, show me right from wrong, be hard on me in every single drill, trying to bring the best out of me,” Powell said to Dooley on “Launching Legends.” “So many different memories that we’ve had … All the different jokes and things that have happened with our road trips. But I’m super grateful for you. I wouldn’t be where I’m at if it wasn’t for your time and dedication and sacrifice.”
And for being behind the wheel on his long road to success.
“That kind of validates the trips and the jokes and the tough love and everything,” Dooley said. “That’s pretty amazing.”