Once a key piece of the New York Nets, and then the New York Nets once they made their move to the NBA, Al Skinner has continued to pursue his passion for the game and is doing what he can to instill it into the up and coming players in today’s game.
While it may not feel like it, it was over 40 years ago that Skinner was just a young player coming up through the game in Mount Vernon, New York.
As the years went on, his talent began to shine and before long he was receiving interest from schools all around the area. He wound up with U-Mass, a team that had future NBA legend Julius Erving on the roster at the time.
Skinner, who was on the freshman team his first season, was tasked with trying to fill the void that was left by Erving’s departure to the professional level, but as he tells Nothin’ But Nets, this big responsibility wasn’t something that caused him any concern.
“There was really no additional pressure, it was just motivation for me to be the best player that I could be. I was comfortable with who I was and he raised the bar and it gave me something to work towards,” Skinner said.
The void left by Erving was a big one, but the Minutemen didn’t seem to miss a beat. He closed off his collegiate career with two consecutive Yankee Conference championships. as well as earning an All-American Honorable Mention.
As his college career came to a close, Skinner began contemplating his options for the next level. He knew that he had the accomplishments to get picked, but he wasn’t sure where he stood in the eyes of professional teams.
As luck would have it, he had a couple of options on the board after getting selected by the Boston Celtics in the NBA Draft and the New York Nets of the ABA Draft.
“The NBA Draft had more rounds then than they do now, but I was pleased to be drafted, you would hope to be because that’s the first step in achieving your goal. It was satisfying in that way, but you realized how much more challenging it was going to be once the games got started.”
Though had years of rich history on their side even by that point, Skinner ultimately chose to head to the ABA to play for the Nets. There were other factors in play, but being able to reunite with one of his former college teammates was a big part of the decision for Skinner.
“One reason that I went there was because Julius was playing with the Nets, but it was also just because I thought that there would be more of an opportunity there. The Celtics had a very veteran team and I didn’t think there’d be much movement there, along with the fact that they had drafted someone else at my position.”
Before the games even started, Skinner had to a big adjustment to make in his transition from the NCAA to the ABA.
“The most challenging thing was getting used to the red, white and blue basketball. Once I got comfortable with it, it really served as a shooting tool for me because you could see the rotation and see how it worked for me. I really enjoyed playing with it.”
Skinner was able to carve out a role in the Nets rotation and was through the help of his one-time college teammate that he was able to get acclimated to the lifestyle of being a professional player.
“Julius was potentially the most exciting player in the game as far as how he conducted himself and how he played. You knew that you would be playing in front of a full house and it was the best scenario for me to be in because it forced me to be focused on a daily basis.”
When his second year rolled around Skinner took a big step forward and it paid off for the team as they captured the final championship in ABA history, an accomplishment that still stands as the last title in franchise history.
“Winning the championship was my greatest memory in a Nets uniform. We won in Game 6, but David Thompson was having a great game and we were struggling and I remember coming back to the huddle saying that we don’t want to go back to Denver because we hadn’t had a lot of success there.”
He continued, “We just kind of locked in and started defending and it was just a great feeling to play like there was no tomorrow and end up winning. I hadn’t won a national championship in high school or college or even a county championship, so to win my first “national” title was tremendous.”
Coming off the heels of their big win, the Nets were hit with big news. The ABA and NBA had finally come to terms on a merger agreement, which meant Skinner would be making the move to the NBA just a few years after being drafted by the Celtics.
“We were all excited about it. We were going into the league as ABA champions so we were confident that we could compete at a high level, so everyone was energized at the fact of allowing us as ABA champion to go into the NBA and establish ourselves as the top team.”
Unfortunately due to the terms of the agreement and the large buy-in fee that ABA owners had to pay, the Nets were forced to strip most of the major parts that made them such a successful team. Four of the top five scorers from the team were moved and a once-strong championship team were now in the cellar of the NBA.
“It was very disappointing because we didn’t get to represent ourselves as defending champions. We were not the team that had won it all or had success and created buzz, it was disappointing for everyone involved because there was tremendous excitement and expectations for us.”
Eight games into the next season, Skinner was hit with another surprise; this one a bit tougher to deal with than the news of the ABA/NBA merger. After three-plus seasons with the Nets, the team had traded him to the Pistons.
“It was the first time I had been traded and it was a little disappointing, but I was going to a good team and I started to realize it was a business, even though I had begun to realize that a few years earlier with everything that had went on with the move to the NBA.”
Though the Pistons had done decently well throughout his year with the team, he knew where he belonged. He signed with the Nets in the offseason and was ready to return to the place where he started his career.
“It was an easy choice because the coach was still there. I really appreciated him and he knew what I could bring to the table, and I wanted to help reestablish what we had a few years earlier. A lot of pieces had moved, but it was still the same New Jersey Nets and I wanted to help them get back to where they were.”
While he had high hopes, this second stint didn’t last nearly as long as the first. Just 23 games into his contract he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers and was once again able to link back up with his former college teammate.
“That second trade was easy because I was going to Philly and was able to play with Julius yet again. I knew that they had a championship caliber team, it was a lot easier because i was familiar with the area and the Sixers.”
After a year and a half in Philadelphia, Skinner made the decision to jump overseas and play in Spain, a decision that he reflects upon fondly.
“It turned out to be a very positive one because we won a national championship there and I don’t think they’ve won one since. It was very satisfying because they didn’t expect to win and we were able to rise to the occasion and do that. I take a great amount of pride in that.”
Though he was just 28 years old at the conclusion of the season, Skinner decided to put an end to his playing career.
“I was happy that he won a championship, but I wasn’t happy playing in Europe. The money wasn’t that significant that it was going to improve my lifestyle and I might have been spoiled from playing in the NBA, but I knew that if I wasn’t happy, I wasn’t going to do well. I decided to do something else and since I had good coaching throughout my career, I thought I had something to offer to young players.”
Within no time, Skinner was brought on as an assistant coach at Marist and although he only spent a couple of seasons with the school, they served as a crash course in coaching at the collegiate level.
“The most challenging thing is recruiting and recognizing talent at that level, figuring out who is going to maximize their talent at a particular level. I had played in the NBA and Europe and seen some of the best players in the world, but I was coaching at a level I didn’t even compete at in college.”
He moved on to Rhode Island and after spending four years as an assistant he was promoted to head coach.
“I had always embraced being an assistant and I was always trying to learn. I try to incorporate little things from everyone and being a head coach was clearly the next step and I needed an opportunity to be able to show my talent and I needed a stage that I could realistically compete at.”
Taking over a team that had been through four head coaches in the previous eight seasons, Skinner was able to provide some stability for the Rams. He spent nine years with the school and wound up with the second most wins in school history, along with two appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
He felt it was time for a new challenge and with that, he moved on to Boston College to try to bring some new energy into a stagnating program.
“My contract at Rhode Island had run out and even though I was the second all-time winningest coach, I was upset that wasn’t embraced a bit more. Even with that disappointment I didn’t plan on going to pick up and go anywhere, but Boston College offered an opportunity in an area that I was comfortable in and I thought it was a perfect situation for me.”
Though the Celtics had received most of the major media attention in Boston, Skinner had them talking about the Eagles before long. In his fourth year with the school, he led the team to 27 wins, a regular season and post-season conference championship and was named National Coach of the Year.
“It was very unexpected and in that situation, it’s a team reward rather than a coaching reward because we had made tremendous strides. We went from last place to first place in a matter of a year and won the Big East Tournament and it spoke to the amount of progress that we had made and we were rewarded for it.”
Going from six wins to 27 over the course of two years was a big step forward for the program and it set the tone for the development that the team had in Skinner’s 13 years with the school.
“We really stayed true to who we were and we worked with young men to help them get better, they adhered to everything it took to be successful. We take credit in recognizing individuals who may have been overlooked but we felt had the talent to compete at that level. I tell my staff that this is like a puzzle and we have to figure out how it fits together, we can’t paint a picture because we don’t have all the colors at our disposal and we can’t just paint with broad strokes.”
Despite his success with the school and him winning the most games in school history, Skinner was fired from Boston College at the conclusion of the 2010 season, a move that blindsided him more than even the trade from the Nets so many years back.
“You have to ask the person that made the decision because I was unaware that they were unhappy with what I had done. I had anticipated working there and I was looking long-term, we were returning a strong team that I felt that would be able to compete for an ACC Championship.”
He went on, “I was looking forward to the future, we were competing we had great recruiting classes and people were excited, so I was not aware that the administration was unhappy. Even when I left, I was told that they would go in a different direction and I didn’t even realize that there was more than one direction. I should have been made aware.”
With his dismissal, he was able to take a bit of a step away from any official position in basketball for the first time in over three decades. Though he wasn’t on a coaching staff, he wasn’t able to get away from the game for long.
“What happened was that all my assistants were working at the time and during those few years, I probably watched more basketball by visiting them and evaluating them then I had in years. I was still involved and busy, but I just wasn’t coaching my own team. Everyone was still in a radius that I could still reach out to, so it made it fun for me and I enjoyed it.”
The time away from an official position was refreshing, but he couldn’t stay away for too long. One of his former assistants, Tim O’Shea, reached out and extended an offer to bring him into the fold as an assistant at Bryant University.
“Tim O’Shea was the head coach there and I had been going down there once a week anyways and it turned out that he had an opening and he asked if I wanted to come on board and since I was going out there so often, I felt that I might as well get my gas paid for. I told him that I was there to help him and help enhance the situation and he didn’t have to worry about looking over his shoulder and it worked well.”
As he got acclimated back into the game, Skinner made the jump to a new opportunity. Kennesaw State, a program that had won a combined 31 games in the five years prior, reached out and he knew that it was the chance that he had been looking for.
“It’s important for me to be comfortable and like my environment. I had known the AD from the time at BC and he had an appreciation for the way that I did my job, so it was important to work for someone that I was going to be comfortable with. When I came on a visit to see the school, I had no idea what the place was like. I was taken back, it’s a beautiful school and the environment for the students to live in is very good, the facilities are something that you could sell and I looked at it and thought that I could make it work.”
Even with the program’s historical lack of success, Skinner went undeterred and confidently believes that he can build a winner.
“When I came here, I told them, ‘Don’t bring me here if you don’t want to win.’ I don’t know what happened previously and I didn’t worry about what happened previously with the program, but I didn’t concern myself once I was happy. I’ve only known success and there was no reason to think otherwise.”
After improving on the win total from the program’s previous year, Skinner looks set to build another winner like he has at each of the other stops in his coaching career.
Starting with his ABA Championship with the New York Nets, Al Skinner has only known winning throughout his career and if his track record is any indicator, he’ll be able to succeed at Kennesaw State.
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Quick Questions
Why #30?
#32 was really popular in high school with Jim Brown, OJ and Julius, so I didn’t want to go over with that so 30 just appeared for me. There was no real significance.
Who was your favorite player growing up?
I didn’t really have a favorite player, I didn’t really watch the game that closely. My favorite athlete other than Julius Erving though, was Willie Mays.
What is your favorite restaurant in the New York/New Jersey area?
I love diners, but what I probably miss most is White Castle.
If you could go back in time and tell yourself something that you’ve learned as a coach that would help your playing career, what would it be?
I’d probably tell myself to spend a little more time being a better shooter. I worked so hard on my ball-handling that I didn’t spend enough time as a shooter.
What is your take on the professional eligibility rules?
It is what it is. I just think that the more time an individual can play at the collegiate level he’s just going to enhance his ability at the professional ranks. I don’t think staying in college hurts anyone. I don’t have a problem with the rule, it’s probably better for college basketball because going back to when I played, UCLA won all the time because they maintained the best talent with the guys staying in school for four years.
We’ve seen a big transformation over the years in the game of basketball, what do you think is the next big change?
I have no idea, I bring no creativity to that aspect. I still believe that three-point shooting has enhanced the game, in order to win you need to have front-court players that can get the job done. You have to be able to rebound the basketball and you can have perimeter players that can shoot the ball, but it’s not something that you can generally rely on. Golden State is a very unique team because not everyone can play that way and win.