Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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62 JUNE/JULY 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED IRISH IN THE PROS BY ANDREW MENTOCK T here's a questionnaire on UND.com published in February 2003 titled "20 Questions With Chris Quinn." It's from the second half of the former Notre Dame point guard's freshman year. One of the questions he was asked prompted for his life plans after col- lege basketball. For a 19-year-old college basketball player, his answer was cliché but also predictive. "To continue playing basketball somewhere, but if not that then I hope to be coaching basketball on some level," Quinn responded 18 years ago. After playing a reserve role in 2002-03, he started 82 games over the course of his final three seasons with the Fighting Irish. This included a sterling senior year in which he averaged 17.7 points, 6.4 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game on his way to first-team All-Big East honors. After graduating in 2006, Quinn was not selected in the NBA Draft and signed a partially guaranteed contract with the Miami Heat, the reigning champions at the time. Chances were slim he'd earn a ros- ter spot, but he ended up impress- ing at the 2006 NBA Summer League and went on to enjoy a seven-year professional basketball career, which included six seasons in the NBA with two overseas teams mixed in. He played for the Heat through the 2010 season before stints with the New Jersey Nets and the San Anto- nio Spurs. His 241 career NBA games actu- ally rank fifth among former Notre Dame players under longtime head coach Mike Brey, who has been at the helm of the program for more than 20 years. "As an undrafted free agent, you've got to find your way," Quinn said. "You have to work really hard. There are a lot of different character- istics that teams are looking for. Most importantly, you really have to show a certain level of grit and determina- tion because it's not easy. "Most of the players coming into the draft or who go undrafted, in one way or another, were the better or best players on their college team." Quinn finished the 2012-13 season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. After- ward, the only real options for con- tinuing his professional basketball career were overseas. With a wife and two children under the age of 3, life abroad was unappealing. Then another option presented it- self. Chris Collins had recently ac- cepted the head position at North- western, and he reached out to Quinn about coming on as the Wildcats' new director of player development. "It was an introduction into coach- ing," Quinn said. "It was a way for me to get my feet wet and figure out if this was something I wanted to attack and wanting to do when I was done playing. At the time, it just seemed like a really awesome op- portunity to gain some experience." A COACH ON THE RISE A year after accepting the North- western gig, Quinn heard from his old NBA head coach with the Heat, Erik Spoelstra. The franchise had an opening and the young coach jumped at the chance to work in the NBA. His first stop was actually Sioux Falls, S.D., the location of the Heat's D-League (later renamed G-League) affiliate, the Skyforce. There he worked as an assistant coach to Phil Weber. With the Skyforce having lim- ited resources compared to the NBA, Quinn had a hand in everything. He created scouting reports, cut together film, worked with players one-on- one and more. By the start of the 2015-16, Quinn had proven himself and was called to South Beach to sit on the bench near Spoelstra, where he continued to hone his skills as a developer of young talent. Two years later, he was officially promoted to the Heat's di- rector of player development. Thus far, Quinn has garnered sig- nificant praise in this role. During his tenure, the Heat have taken sev- eral unheralded young players like Duncan Robinson, Kendrick Nunn, Derrick Jones Jr. and Chris Silva, and turned them into productive players. "The biggest thing is creating a sus- tainable program for all of our guys, just trying to maximize them and get them to be the best of their ability and the best versions of themselves," he explained. "We create specific plans for each guy. All of it has to be communicated. The good thing is we've had a good track record with our young guys improving and be- ing consistent with our approach." Quinn also played a big part in the development of rookie guard Tyler Herro, who averaged 14.9 points in the 2020 playoffs and helped lead the Heat on a deep postseason run. He became the youngest player to ever start in an NBA Finals game, break- ing the record former Los Angeles Lakers point guard Magic Johnson held for 40 years. "Ever since I did my pre-draft workout here, he was someone that I built a relationship with. I put my trust in him. He trusts me," Herro said of Quinn to Heat.com. "We con- tinue to put work in every single day. We watch the film, jot down notes on what we see. We share it with each Since graduating from Notre Dame, Quinn carved out a seven-year professional basketball career despite going undrafted and is now an assistant coach/director of player development for the Miami Heat. PHOTO COURTESY THE MIAMI HEAT Chris Quinn's Journey From NBA Reserve To Budding Head Coach