He'd had one college head coaching job and did well, guiding a remote program to a turnaround. Then he got his first NBA head coaching job well past age 40, coming in as an early season replacement with a losing team with most of its top players out injured and on the way to the draft lottery.
Sound familiar?
And then the San Antonio Spurs under rookie coach Gregg Popovich lost 47 of their last 64 games and finished the season with the third poorest record in the NBA. And won the lucky ball in the NBA lottery and were able to draft Tim Duncan.