This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Quin Snyder had crawled out of basketball obscurity — off of a coach's couch, out of the D-League and back onto an NBA bench —when he decided to disappear again. It was 2012, and the coach had finished a season as an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers when he announced he was leaving for a club he called "the Lakers of Europe."
He had his doubts.
"It was scary on some level, you know?" Snyder recalled this week. "You're looking at your career and asking yourself, 'Are you going to make it back?' "
But as he prepared to see his old boss again, European coaching legend and San Antonio Spurs assistant Ettore Messina, on Friday, Snyder credited the time he spent coaching for CSKA Moscow with preparing him for life as an NBA head coach and giving him one of his most precious personal relationships.
"That time with him really opened my eyes," Snyder said. "… [And] I came out of it with one of the closest friends that I'll have for the remainder of my life."
Before the two had met, Messina had been given a glimpse inside of Snyder's mind. Messina was coaching in Madrid when someone came to him with a paper Snyder had written analyzing the pick-and-roll.
"We needed a NASA scientist to understand all the nuances of his pick-and-roll game," Messina recalled this week with a laugh.
And when the two met in Los Angeles at the start of the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, Snyder realized, too, that Messina had a keen mind for the game they both loved and a friendship grew. The two assistants lived near each other in L.A. and talked as they rode together to games. When Messina brought his family from Madrid to Los Angeles, Snyder's wife, Amy, homeschooled his son for two months. The two coaches traveled the country, breaking down film and dissecting the game's minutia with Kobe Bryant.
At the end of that season, Messina asked to be let out of his contract so he could return to Moscow, where he had previously worked as the head coach. This time, he asked his new friend to join him.
Snyder viewed the opportunity as a chance for adventure and growth, both personally and professionally, but he had some reservations about moving his family 6,000 miles with a year-old child and a baby on the way.
His respect for Messina and a phone call to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich helped him decide.
"I remember what Pop said," Snyder recalled. "He said, 'Be amazed. Just go over there and open your eyes and be amazed every day.' "
Messina called it a "bold decision" for an American coach. "But he is an accomplished person," he said. "He's always shown a great ability to adapt to different circumstances."
In Russia, Snyder watched how Messina managed practices, studied how he exploited match ups and patterned his substitutions. They talked often about what might work in the U.S.
"We have a lot of stuff that we do [with the Jazz] that we've borrowed," Snyder said. "It may look novel. It's not. Someone's just doing it in a different country, on a different continent."
At CSKA, Snyder said he found "as good an organization as there is in the basketball worldwide." And as the club worked its way to a third-place finish in the Euroleague that season, Snyder picked up tricks from top clubs such as Barcelona, Madrid and Tel Aviv as he moved across the continent.
On Monday night in San Antonio, with their teams preparing to face off the next evening, Snyder and Messina met for dinner, steering clear of Russian cuisine. During his time in Moscow, Snyder endured a meal of what he described as "meat Jell-O" with former Kansas star Sasha Kaun — and worse.
"I ate some sort of empanada in Krasnoyarsk," Snyder said. "It wasn't chicken. … I asked Sasha Kaun about it and he just shook his head. I paid for it."
The memories make Messina chuckle: "If you talk to some experts, they might tell you that they love the Russian cuisine. Both Quin and, let's say, we were fair but not excited."
As they ate, Snyder said, the talk focused mostly on their families. But, inevitably, basketball finds a way into conversations.
"Basketball-wise, he is surely one of the most brilliant minds I've met in my life," Messina said. "We enjoy talking about basketball and life. When you talk basketball with him, you pick his brain, he always gives you something interesting."
Snyder feels the same way about Messina. Asked if the 57-year-old Italian can be a head coach in the NBA someday, Snyder was certain of it.
"Absolutely," he said. "He's a great leader and obviously one of the most intelligent coaches and people that I've been around. … There's no doubt in my mind."
That won't change how Snyder feels about his friend.
"He introduced me to another culture of basketball and mentored me through it," the Jazz coach said. "I'm always going to be his assistant in my mind."
Twitter: @aaronfalk —
Jazz vs. Spurs
At Vivint SmartHome Arena
Tipoff • Friday, 7 p.m. TV • ROOT
Radio • 1280 AM, 97.5 FM Records • Jazz 3-2; Spurs 4-1
Last meeting • On Tuesday, George Hill had 13 fourth-quarter points to lead Utah to its first win in San Antonio since 2010.
About the Spurs • Will be missing two-fifths of their starting lineup, as forward Danny Green (left quad strain) and point guard Tony Parker (right knee soreness) will be held out of action. … Forward Kawhi Leonard is coming off a 30-point performance against the Jazz earlier this week. … Center Pau Gasol has seen a significant drop in minutes and scoring in his first season with the Spurs. He's averaging 9.2 points per game after putting up 16.5 last season in Chicago.
About the Jazz • George Hill has been Utah's driving force early in the season, averaging 21.4 points per game. … Jazz coach Quin Snyder says Derrick Favors' minutes restriction is becoming more flexible. After playing 15 minutes Tuesday night, the forward logged a 23-minute shift in Wednesday's win over the Mavericks. … Utah's defense hasn't allowed more than 91 points in any of its past four games.