For the past few years, God Shammgod — the New York playground legend who is your favorite hooper’s favorite hooper — has been coaching in Dallas, working with a couple of players who have some of the best handles in the game.
“I love Kyrie [Irving], you know what I mean?” Shammgod said while discussing his new book, “Word of God.” “I know his whole family, so I knew him since he was young. Luka Doncic, of course, Luka’s like amazing.”
Now is in Orlando, helping teach his dribbling wizardry — the man has a crossover named after him — and coaching up a young and promising Magic team stacked with All-NBA level talent such as Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. It’s a team a lot of pundits (*raises hand*) project to make a leap up to the top three of the East — if there is a team poised to make an Indiana-style run this season, it’s the Magic.
Shammgod sees that.
“Paolo and Franz and them, they’re coming into their own right now,” Shammgod told NBC Sports “They’re at the right age where they still young, but they, they young enough to dare. Dare to be great. And I, I believe like Paolo and Franz is going to be great, but Desmond Bane, Jalen Suggs, Anthony Black, we got Tyus Jones. Now we got, we got so many great players.
“And they all right. And I feel like right now they all are ready to make their mark. So I’m just happy and honored to be a part of it.”
Orlando was a .500 team last season, not a bad record considering both Banchero and Wagner missed considerable time with matching oblique strains. The Magic had the second-best defense in the NBA and that propelled them into the No. 7 seed and the playoffs, but they couldn’t get by the Celtics (who still had a healthy Jayson Tatum at that point). The focus of Jeff Weltman and the rest of the Magic front office this summer was to upgrade the offense. Part of that involved adding guards like Bane and Jones, but also bringing Shammgod and his wisdom onto the staff.
It wasn’t just the players that drew Shammgod to Dallas, it was their coach, Jamahl Mosley. As quickly becomes evident when reading “Word of God,” Shammgod has great stories and connections with people across the NBA, and Mosley is one that goes way back.
“I knew him when we both was teenagers, because when I was a freshman at Providence, he visited Providence. So that’s full circle,” Shammgod said of Mosley. “Like for me and him coaching at Dallas together, he just got such a great passion and such.
“He’s so about the work. You know what I’m saying? There’s not too many people I could say, that’s all about the work. Like, forget all the accolades, forget all that stuff. Like, he’s all about the work and all about winning and all about pouring into the kids. And I think that’s what me and him share in common the most.”
It’s that connection that the players relate to and get them to buy in, whether it’s Shammgod improving their handles or Mosley with the bigger picture themes.
This season, when the Magic come into the spotlight and we see Banchero flashing a new dribbling move, or Wagner breaking ankles on the way to the rim, just remember that Shammgod, with his legendary handles, is coaching them now and they are finding a new flow.