Hughes' Winning Percentage as Coach Tops Free Throw Percentage as Player

LOS ANGELES -- Baron Davis has heard about Kim Hughes' infamous spot in NBA history.

"He was worse than DeAndre Jordan," the guard said of how Hughes, his coach with the Los Angeles Clippers, used to chip paint off the rim.

Davis is right. The career free-throw percentage of Jordan, a Clippers' backup center, is a brutal 36.6 percent, including 34.1 percent this season.

But Hughes was worse. Playing with the Nets, Nuggets and Cavaliers from 1976-81, the journeyman center clanged away at 33.3 percent.

Hughes was 62-of-186 in his career, making him the worst marksman in league history with more than 100 free-throw attempts. However, it must be said Garfield Smith, who went 28-for-93 (30.1 percent) with Boston from 1970-72, probably would have earned that distinction had he been given seven more attempted prayers.

But now Hughes has another claim to fame. Earlier this month, after Mike Dunleavy decided to concentrate solely on general manager duties, he turned the coaching reins over to Hughes, then an assistant. That made Hughes a head man, albeit an interim one, for the first time at 57.

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The 6-foot-11 Hughes moves into a tie with Herb Williams and Bob Lanier for the second-tallest coach in NBA history behind 7-1 Bill Cartwright. With towering men never having had much success on NBA benches, it actually might not be hard for Hughes to do better those other three, who combined to go a mere 80-152.

Hughes is 3-5 since taking over for Dunleavy, a .375 winning percentage that bests his NBA free-throw number. But his Clippers have won three straight heading into Friday's game at Phoenix.

This seems like a loose bunch after a turbulent two-week period earlier this month that saw Dunleavy step down, center Marcus Camby dealt to Portland for guard Steve Blake and forward Travis Outlaw, and forward Drew Gooden acquired from Washington.

Practice was stopped Thursday after Outlaw had bragged he could put the ball through his legs and do a reverse, hook dunk. He failed in two attempts, with Hughes calling it "dismal'' effort.

"That was Travis claiming he could do these things," Hughes said. "I just said, 'No way you make it.' Fortunately, he didn't get hurt. ... We want to go into each game trying to win, but I also want them to have fun. We have banter in practice and stuff I think is refreshing. I think basketball should be fun."

The Clippers (24-33) hardly have had much of that this season. The season was shot after it was announced Jan. 13 that forward Blake Griffin, the NBA's top draft pick, would end up missing all 82 games after surgery was set Jan. 20 on a left kneecap he had broken in the final preseason game.

Knowing Griffin wouldn't be available contributed to the Feb. 16 dispatching of Camby in a money-saving move. That came not long after the Feb. 4 handing of the clipboard from Dunleavy to Hughes.

"I came (to the Clippers practice facility) to see Tony Brown, who wasn't with us on (a road) trip," Hughes said of the assistant coach who recently returned to the team following surgery. "Mike told me to sit down. I had no clue. I was totally shocked (by the resignation).

"I said to him, 'Are you sure?' He said, 'Yeah, it's the right time. I just need to step away.' He said, 'I would like to offer you the position. Would you like it?' I said, 'OK.'"

And, with that, a basketball lifer finally became a head coach. After graduating from Wisconsin as a pre-med major in 1974 and having thought about going to medical school, Hughes ended up instead playing 16 pro seasons, one in the ABA and 10 in Italy in addition to his five in the NBA.

Over the past two decades, Hughes has served as an assistant and an NBA executive. He had a chance to take over as Denver's general manager in 2001, but was content then to remain on the Nuggets' bench and perhaps be a career assistant.

"Things changed two years ago when I coached at New York and got a taste of it," Hughes said of filling in for Dunleavy in a game he missed against the Knicks. "I told some friends and people I would love to be a head coach. If it didn't happen, that was OK. But, after getting a taste of it, 'Yeah, I think I would like to to that.'"

His players say Hughes hasn't changed much even though he has slid over a seat. He's known for being brutally honest but often in a humorous way.

"He's kind of laid back and funny with a great personality," Davis said. "He doesn't take things too seriously."

Following his team's 97-91 win Wednesday over Detroit, Hughes cracked guard Eric Gordon "must not have gotten the memo as early as he needed to" when he hacked Pistons guard Richard Hamilton in the final minute on a three-pointer after being told to quickly use a foul to give. Fortunately for Hughes, Hamilton, usually one of the NBA's top marksman, pulled a Hughes by missing all three free throws to finish 2-of-8 for the game.

"He's a real players' coach and a real hands-on guy," Jordan said of Hughes. "He's going to tell you what's going on. ... He's blunt but it's not always negative. It's constructive criticism. But when he has something good to tell you, he doesn't want you to get too high."

Not that such things have come into play when it comes to Jordan's foul shooting. But what does Hughes tell the big man about his woes?

"He never gets on me for making or missing free throws," Jordan said. "He just wants me to play hard on defense. I could see (Hughes grumbling more) if he was a real high-percentage (shooter). ... Somebody told me his (free-throw-percentage) was worse than mine."

Indeed it was. But Hughes has an explanation.

"When I played in the NBA, I only played with one contact lens. When I went to Europe, my free-throw percentage was somewhere in the 70s," Hughes said of his final nine years in Italy after leaving the NBA. "I had some eye problems that I didn't share with my coaches. ... I had detached retinas and scratched corneas so I had a choice of wearing goggles and wearing the contact or not wearing the contact. I chose the vain, foolish choice of just wearing one contact in which you have binocular vision."

Hughes said one reason he didn't want to wear goggles was because of sweat buildup, but wearing one contact, in his right eye, hampered his depth perception. He said it was too painful to wear a contact in his left eye, but he eventually had laser surgery to correct his eye problems, which is why he said he hit free throws in Europe.

But he clanged away stateside. He said he never revealed his eye problems to reporters for fear word would get out and teams would intentionally foul him.

You'd think teams would have done that simply by looking at the stat sheet. It got so bad for Hughes that, by his final NBA season of 1980-81, he became a master at avoiding going to the foul line.

In one of the most mind-boggling statistical lines in NBA history, Hughes played 331 minutes in 45 games that season with Cleveland, and never shot a free throw. He also that season had a stint with the Nuggets in which he somehow did make one trip to the line, resulting in Hughes finishing the season shooting 1-of-2 in 490 minutes over 53 games.

"I figured out a way to not get fouled because I couldn't see," said Hughes, who had career NBA averages of 2.7 points and 4.7 rebounds, a respectable board average considering he averaged just 16.8 minutes. "By staying weak side and doing tip ins and things like that. And evolving into realizing I couldn't shoot outside of four feet anyway. So just basically be a defensive person."

Not surpringly, Hughes preaches defense to his players. He tells them if they don't help or get back on defense they can "come over and sit by me.''

But Hughes does want his players to get the foul line. In Wednesday's win, they shot a sparkling 22-of-24 (91.7 percent).

Of course, Jordan didn't get to the line that night to mess things and to continue his assault on Hughes' NBA futility mark.

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@hotmail.com or on Twitter @christomasson