Reaching the Top

John Hammond Helps Assemble Pistons Third NBA Championship Team

On June 15, 2004, many Greenville College alumni and friends throughout the nation and around the world saw a familiar face on stage during the trophy presentation at the 2004 NBA Finals. After 28 years of coaching and administrative experience at the high school, collegiate, and professional basketball levels, John Hammond '76 reached the pinnacle of professional basketball success in his third year as vice president of basketball operations for the NBA Champion Detroit Pistons. This interview with Hammond was conducted two weeks after the Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games for their first NBA championship since 1990.

It has to feel great to be a champion. Is this the first championship in your basketball career?

This is my first time to be associated with something like this and especially something of this magnitude. So many of my friends have done these sorts of things, but I've never really been in that sort of a position. I've always looked at those guys and said, “Boy, it must feel really great to be a champion,” and this is my first experience to have that feeling. Not only do I have that experience, but I have it on the highest level possible.

What were some of the key factors contributing to the Pistons finish in 2004?

When something like this happens, you need some breaks along the way, and you kind of create your own breaks too along the way. To win a championship, I think that you have to be playing right at the right time of the year, playing your best at the right time of the year. [We] didn't know if we were a championship team or not, but I think when we acquired Rasheed Wallace in a trade, we looked at our team in a little different light, a little different manner, and when he came on board, we did become a better team.

Tell me about your relationship with Joe Dumars, the Detroit Pistons president of basketball operations. How do you and he work together?

My relationship with Joe started when I was an assistant coach here while he was playing. [I] had a very good relationship with him at that time. When they hired him as president of basketball operations here with the Pistons, he invited me to come on board and work with him.

I can't think of a better work situation to be in. All the things that people thought about Joe as a player, the respect that he earned as a player, the fact that the Sportsmanship Award in the NBA is named after Joe Dumars, kind of tells about who and what he is in this league.

We kind of laugh a little bit and say that I sweat all the small stuff, and Joe sweats all the big stuff. He gives me a lot of freedom in the job, and includes me in every decision. We discuss everything that's being done within the organization, and it's a really a great work situation to have an opportunity to work for someone and with someone that you respect that much. Joe has businesses outside the Detroit Piston organization, and I basically have an opportunity to run the day-to-day operations of the team. That's what I mean by sweating the small stuff. Obviously, every major decision that is made Joe has his fingerprint on that and is responsible for that decision. He'll always include me in those decisions.

What are some of your day-to-day responsibilities within the organization?

I basically serve as a liaison between all kinds of different factions. I serve as a liaison between our front office and the coaches – Larry Brown and his staff. I serve as a liaison between the front office and the players, a liaison between the agents of the players and our organization. I serve as a liaison between the NBA office and our organization. We have a separate practice facility away from the Palace where we play, and so I serve as a liaison between the Palace Sports Entertainment organization and our team to a certain extent.

Why did you leave the NBA in 1999 and return to the collegiate level at the University of Missouri ?

I had worked in the NBA for 10 years, and when I left the NBA and went back to the collegiate level to work with [Missouri head coach] Quin [Snyder], I knew my best opportunity to be a head coach was going to be at the collegiate level. So Quin and I talked about that, and he said “Hey come back here, work with me, I'll name you associate head coach, and you'll be in the position to be a college head coach within a year, two or three.” That was the vision I had when I left [Detroit].

Joe Dumars came to the University of Missouri to see a game that year. At that time, he was just a short time away from being announced as president of the Pistons. He said, “Look, when I'm named president, at some point I want you to come back and work with me. I want you to plan on doing that.” My visions changed a little bit, knowing there's an opportunity to come back and work with him.

When I left the NBA, I left looking for a leadership role. Joe gives me a lot of freedom, and he gives me a lot of leadership responsibilities. I have real satisfaction, professional satisfaction in doing this job.

What did your experience at Greenville contribute to your life? Who were some of the key people that really influenced your life?

There is no doubt in my mind that without Greenville College , I would not be sitting here where I am. I know that – 100 percent. I think that attending a small Christian college was the right place for me. I come to Greenville College , I'm there for just a matter of a couple of months, and my roommate was killed on the basketball court – Scott Burgess. Everyone on that campus took me under their wing – from every college professor all the way up to the president of the college at that time, Orley Herron. From that point on, Greenville could have turned out to be one of the worst experiences in my life, but [it] turned out to be probably one of the greatest experiences of my life.

The people that have had the biggest influence in my life are people that have been givers. If I try to emulate someone or someone's life, I try to emulate people that I've been around that I would consider givers. People like Ish Smith and John Strahl are givers. John Strahl was a giver his entire life. I look at a guy like Ish still working with the FCA, still saying, “How can I help? What can I do for others?” I hate to kind of mention names like that because there are others at Greenville that were big influences on my life, but those two in particular were just guys that obviously you can tell what kind of influences they are they were because they still are today.

How did you end up at Greenville College ?

I got in a bad accident my senior year in high school. I was on a buddy's motorcycle, I got hit by a car, and so I missed my senior year of basketball. Scott Burgess was going to Greenville , and he and I started looking at Greenville together. So I went to Greenville to get a college education because I wanted to be a coach, and two, I wanted to try to play.

[Scott and I] go there together. I lose Scott, [the Burgesses] lose Scott, and I lost my mom and dad not too long after that. My daughter is Lauren Shay Hammond, named after Shay Burgess. They are like my mother and father. They are Lauren, my daughter's, grandparents. She knows them as Papa Jay and Grandma Shay. The whole Greenville experience, from the experience of going there with Scott, to losing Scott, to bringing Jay and Shay Burgess into my life the way that they are, to the people I was involved with, it was the right place.