Frank Vogel was just the coach the Pacers needed in 2011, and he remains a unique, valuable talent today.
Larry Brown, Rick Carlisle, Larry Bird. Those are three of the names now below Pacers coach Frank Vogel’s on one meaningful list.
Vogel is not yet five seasons on the job, but he’s already jumped those memorable names in the history books to now have the most wins in franchise NBA history.
The team’s 93-86 victory Friday night of the Cleveland Cavaliers, sans LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, was win No. 191 — one more than Larry Brown.
“It means a lot,” Vogel said days leading up win 191. “Just to be mentioned in the company of those coaches is very humbling. But I feel like that, right now, is really the furthest thing from my mind. Our focus is just on getting this year’s team into the playoffs.”
Vogel (and his staff) have done a terrific job this season under difficult circumstances. The team’s star, Paul George, suffered a compound fracture in the offseason and has not played a game this year. The Pacers have had players (10) miss more combined games (182) than any other team in the Association. In turn, they’ve used 12 different starting lineups and until February, struggled to find consistency.
Finally, in February, everyone but George returned and they won seven of nine games — good enough to put them in the playoffs as the 8-seed.
“He motivates us,” George Hill said of Vogel. “He’s a great, young coach who’s always eager to learn. He holds us accountable, and also knows when to get on us. He’s meant a lot to this organization already from what we’ve built and he’s the focal point of how we all start.
“You see what you get. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything.”
Vogel took over for his mentor, Jim O’Brien, in January, 2011. He promised tough basketball and a team that would make the playoffs. That they did, and has continued to do in all four seasons under Vogel. Should the good play continue through April, he could make it 5-for-5.
Only after that, he says, will he take the time to be reflective on the past five years and now being the Pacers’ all-time leader in NBA wins.
“In the summertime, we’ll look back and reflect on that,” Vogel said. “I understand all the great players that we’ve had here, the great front office and the job that they’ve done. And, the job that the assistant coaches have done. I’ve had great support there, too.”
Coach Vogel with his two daughters at a playoff press conference.
191-134 (.588). That’s the record beside his name, for now. But he has only coached one true full season: Last season.
He took over on an interim basis in 2011 for the final 38 games. The next year, the lockout happened and 66 games were played. The next year, one of their final games was canceled, in Boston, because of marathon bombing.
Then, there was last year. 56-26. Coached the Eastern Conference All-Star team. Attained their preseason goal of the No. 1 seed. Reached the conference finals.
But then, the unexpected happened and yet the Pacers have powered through it.
The backbone of the team, David West, says Vogel’s optimism is one of the biggest things he’s picked up on and appreciated since signing with the team in 2011.
“His unwavering optimism and belief in the guys as individuals,” he explained to me. “It doesn’t matter how well you played or how bad you played, he doesn’t waver on his belief and trust in how well you can, when everything is right and you’re playing at your best, how good you can be. That hasn’t changed. That’s been a mainstay of his — the ability to keep guys afloat, keep them engaged in the fight.”
Vogel has previously said that he’s not optimistic, but realistic. Call it what you want, but Vogel, 41, has an incredible knack to find a thread in the mess to grab hold of.
“Even in moments where you’re just like, ‘Damn, it’s just bad, bad, bad,’ he’s going to find good in it,” West explained, “and then be able to bring the rest of the guys along and prevent us from having that though that the skies falling.”
West, in fact, tries to bring that same positive outlook when he’s coaching his AAU kids.
“Stole that from his playbook,” he said with a short smile. “It just doesn’t do any good, if a guy’s not playing well, I don’t think it’s productive to pull him down even further. I’ve learned that from him.
“He does something for guys. And a lot of guys aren’t used to it because that’s not something that a lot of coaches have so I think that makes him unique in that regard.”
Of the 12 men to ever lead the team in the NBA, Vogel now has the most wins. It’s unlikely that anyone ever tops Slick Leonard’s 529 win total spanning over 11 seasons.
But Vogel, who signed a multi-year extension with the Pacers before the season, would love to be the guy.
“I want to coach here forever,” Vogel told VigilantSports.com in August.
Vogel has 191 wins not even five full seasons under his belt. It’s a special feat for a guy that has incredible belief in his guys.
That’s fitting, because it took an incredible belief in himself back in 1994, where went from being a starter at Juanita College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania to being an eager, soak-it-all-in student manager for Rick Pitino at the University of Kentucky.
The rest is history.
