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"When I went to look at the box score I was like, 'Well, maybe I had a good game,'" Donyell Marshall, now an assistant with the G League's Greensboro Swarm and a forward on that 2006-07 Cavaliers team, told ESPN. "Then I looked at the box score and I was like, 'Well, I didn't do anything either.'" "If you'd asked me, 'Do you remember having 30-plus and LeBron being in single digits?' I would have expected to have some kind of memory of it," Drew Gooden, a former Cavaliers forward and now working as an analyst for Washington Wizards broadcasts, told ESPN with a laugh.
FOR MARSHALL, WHO spent parts of three seasons playing alongside James as part of a career that saw him play for eight different teams, his enduring memory of James was of someone who was dedicated to both improving and knowing the history of the game from a very young age. "I played with a lot of superstars, but never one who studied the game from the age he was at the time," Marshall said. "As soon as the game was over, he wanted [to watch] film. "To me, a lot of guys today aren't necessarily students of the game. A lot of guys didn't know the players that played before him, that paved the way for him. He's a guy, though, that knows Oscar Robertson's stats. He knows Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar's] stats. He knows Wilt Chamberlain's stats."
When touching on how older players helped in their player development as young athletes in the league, Barkley praised Karl Malone and Julius Erving for setting him on the right path both on and off the court. For the Nets star, not only did he praise many of his former Sonics teammates, but he also credited them for being responsible for his work ethic. “Kurt Thomas, Donyell Marshall, Andra Griffin … my rookie year. Francisco Elson … Got Wally Szczerbiak. They kind of introduced me to what it means to work as an NBA player. You have an idea in college and high school what it means to work after practice and how to practice hard, but once you get into the league and you got six months of this everyday (for) 82 games, you got to condition your mind and your body and have older dudes that have been through the grind. That definitely helps.”
Tabbed for this role by Kiki VanDeWeghe, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, Boylen began preparation several weeks ago. He’s a veteran of running clinics, having done so in the past for the league in various Basketball Without Borders trips and the like. Boylen’s preparation culminated with training camp-like meetings on Sunday and Monday with the coaching staff, which includes former NBA and WNBA players in the league’s coaches development program plus current G League coaches. Former Bulls Donyell Marshall and Chris Duhon are among that group, as is former Bulls assistant coach Karen Stack Umlauf.
Donyell Marshall, the former UConn and NBA star, is stepping down after five seasons as Central Connecticut State men’s basketball coach. The decision, announced by the school Friday, came at the conclusion of the Blue Devils’ season, which ended with a 5-16 record. Marshall was 40-140 after taking over for retired Howie Dickenman.
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Until Tuesday afternoon, Donyell Marshall hadn't watched Stephen Curry's Monday night tornado of 3-pointers that broke his shared record for the most 3-pointers made in a single NBA game. But he definitely heard about it. "My son texted me when he saw Steph had 10 [3s] at the end of the third," Marshall said from the gym at Central Connecticut State, where he coaches the men's basketball team. "And I thought, OK, yeah, he's gonna get it. I got up to go to the bathroom at about 2 a.m. and looked at my phone and saw he had it."
"I see a player in an amazing zone," Marshall said. "He almost looks like he's playing a playground pick-up game. A lot of these shots are 'heat check' shots. They look almost wild, but he's able to hit them because he works on them."
Jeff Goodman: Donyell Marshall is expected to be the head coach at Central Connecticut State, sources told ESPN.
“I grew up watching Larry Bird when I was growing up in New Hamsphere which is north of Boston and he’s a 6-foot-8 or 6-foot-9 guy who can shoot and has a tremendous work ethic,“ he said. “I always want to work hard like Larry Bird and I want to shoot three-pointers like Larry Bird and I have to work hard evey game with my shooting and my stroke and I once I got into the NBA, (former NBA players) Donyell Marshall and Robert Horry helped me find my niche within the team.“
Rider coach Kevin Baggett is adding some NBA experience to his bench for the upcoming season. The Broncs have hired former NBA veteran and Connecticut star Donyell Marshall as an assistant coach, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed Thursday. The person spoke on a condition of anonymity because the deal is yet to be finalized, but an announcement is expected soon.
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Jon Rothstein: Rider coach Kevin Baggett will hire former NBA and UConn star Donyell Marshall as an assistant, per a source. Official start date is 9/1.
One name that makes sense is former Cavs guard Eric Snow, who was an assistant under Larry Brown at SMU this past season. He doesn't have vast coaching experience, but he seems like he'd be a Brown-type guy. He's disciplined, hard-working and no-nonsense. Snow, a Canton native, played for the Cavs from 2004-08. The Cavs could keep one of the holdovers from Coach Byron Scott's staff — Jamahl Mosley or Nate Tibbetts — or perhaps Canton Charge coach Alex Jensen. One former player who likely called Brown is ex-Cavs forward Donyell Marshall, who is living in the Cleveland area. He coached in the NBA Development League two years ago.
"My thing is, why say these things now?" said Donyell Marshall, one of the team leaders from 2002-03. "You don't need to be making people assume. You're messing up situations for other people. Now, instead of Fred (Hoiberg, coach of Iowa State) focusing on the NCAA tournament or whatever, he's got to deal with that (crap)."
Carlesimo left and never turned back. “I think there’s a lot of truth in that (Carlesimo’s style is more suited for the college game),” said Donyell Marshall, who played under Carlesimo on three different NBA teams. “But P.J. and I are too good of friends for me to throw him under the bus.
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