Thunder coach Mark Daigneault found out game planning isn't so easy with new baby involved
Mark Daigneault is a planner.
It’s part of the gig as an NBA head coach.
Still, the Thunder coach’s planning chops were put to the test late in the regular season as his team pushed for a spot in the postseason and his wife neared her due date with the couple’s second child. Oh, add to the mix that her team, OU women's gymnastics, was headed to nationals, and there were a lot of moving parts.
Scheming to slow Brandon Ingram?
Figuring out how to contain Karl-Anthony Towns?
It wasn’t the only game planning Daigneault was doing in April.
Saturday when the Thunder formally introduced its newest draftees, Cason Wallace and Keyontae Johnson, Daigneault talked for the first time about the circumstances surrounding the birth of his daughter. It definitely wasn’t as easy as waiting for his wife's labor to begin.
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For starters, Ashley Kerr was likely to be Fort Worth, Texas, for the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships. She is a volunteer assistant with the Sooners, and as the two-time defending national champs who spent much of the season ranked No. 1, they were expecting to make nationals.
So, Daigneault and Kerr started making plans with her obstetrician.
“We had an OB in town that connected us with an OB in Texas, in Fort Worth,” Daigneault said.
If needed, the obstetrician in Fort Worth would take over Kerr’s care and deliver the baby.
But that wasn’t the only variable involved ― Daigneault wasn’t sure where he’d be.
The Thunder came out of the All-Star Break with a good chance of making the postseason, but in the supremely competitive Western Conference, seeding was going to come down to the final days of the regular season. Sometimes, the Thunder was solidly in one of the final playoff spots. Other times, it slipped into will-they-or-won’t-they range for the play-in.
“If we didn’t make the play-in, I would have been there with her,” Daigneault said going to Fort Worth. “And then if she went into labor, we would have done it down there.”
Clarity was sure to come with the Thunder’s last regular-season game on April 9, but on April 7, it secured a play-in spot.
The Sooners had already clinched their spot in nationals the next week, which is when the play-in tournament started. Daigneault knew he wasn't going to be able to go with Kerr to Fort Worth.
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Time for a new plan.
“Once we made the play-in, her mom flew in,” Daigneault said.
Kerr and her mom headed to Fort Worth with the Sooners while Daigneault and the Thunder headed to New Orleans for a play-in game. His game was the night before her national semifinals. Had the Thunder lost and the Sooners advanced, Daigneault’s plan was to head to Fort Worth as soon as possible.
But OKC won.
New plan.
Daigneault and the Thunder went directly from New Orleans to Minneapolis, where they would play the Timberwolves in another play-in game. When the Sooners secured a spot in the finals, Daigneault was watching on TV from Minnesota.
The next night, the Timberwolves beat the Thunder and ended OKC’s season.
Daigneault and the team flew home, and he hoped he might be able to get from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth the next day for the gymnastics finals.
“My head hit the pillow at 3:30” in the morning, Daigneault said, “then I got a call at 4:30.”
Kerr’s water had broken, and she called to tell Daigneault that she was headed to the hospital.
New plan.
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“All right,” he remembers telling her, “I’m gonna brush my teeth and shower and change.”
Kerr’s labor with their first baby, son AJ, had been long ― “It took forever,” Daigneault said ― but Kerr told him not to waste any time.
“This is different,” he remembers her saying. “You gotta get down here.”
New plan.
“So, I just hopped in the car, went down there,” he said.
Daigneault made it but barely.
“She started pushing as soon as I got there,” he said.
“She called me at 4:30, and she delivered at, like, 8:59. It was fast.”
So was Daigneault.
Even though he and Kerr planned for pretty much every scenario, he adjusted quickly when necessary. Read the situation. React accordingly. In Daigneault's world, sometimes that means subbing out the starters or playing a smaller lineup, but earlier this spring, it meant hightailing it to Texas in the middle of the night on an hour of sleep for one of the most important moments of his life.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder coach Mark Daigneault's game-planning tested in April
