Former NBA player Rudy Gay played under Jim Calhoun at UConn, and he spoke about that experience during an appearance on the Out The Mud Podcast. When co-host Tony Allen asked Gay if Calhoun was tough-nosed, he shared that he once got punched for playing poorly.
“He tough as s***,” Gay said. “… This is something now at my older age, like ‘Bro, why I let him do that?’ But it’s like we were in Georgetown. I remember I was like coming back home. It’s like close to home. We were in DC. We were playing and I wasn’t playing good.
“He subbed me out the game,” Gay continued. “He said, ‘Rudy, you playing like s***.’ Boom. Punched me in my stomach, but he took his jacket up so nobody could see it. Boom. So I’m like, ‘This motherf***er just punched me?’ … But I respected him enough.”
Gay added that he expected Calhoun, who won three national titles at UConn (1999, 2004, 2011), to be that aggressive, in-your-face character during games. He added that his former head coach was the complete opposite on matters outside of basketball.
“Off the court, he was like the best person in the world,” Gay stated. “… He was the first player’s coach off the court. On the court, it’s like, ‘Yo, this is my show. Do what I say.’ At 17, I needed that order.”
Calhoun, who retired in 2021, was a polarizing figure in college basketball because of his fiery approach to coaching. While some players took issue with it, Gay did not.
“He was exactly what we needed, ” Gay said. “When you come from not having structure and then like, ‘Yo, you going to do this or it’s going to be consequences.’ It’s like, that’s exactly what I needed to be a better pro.”
Gay played two seasons under Calhoun and averaged 13.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.7 blocks per game. He impressed enough in his time with UConn that the Houston Rockets selected him with the eighth pick in the 2006 NBA Draft.
Gay would never play for the Rockets, though, as he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies just a few weeks later. He justified the Grizzlies’ decision to trade for him instantly, making the All-Rookie First Team in 2007.
The Grizzlies would have hoped for Gay to turn into a star, but he never quite became one. He was a pretty good scorer, though, averaging 19.3 points from 2007-08 to 2016-17.
The NBA championship eluded Gay during his career, but he reckons he would have won it in 2013. He stated during this episode that the Grizzlies would have beaten the Miami Heat in the 2013 NBA Finals if he hadn’t been traded midway through the campaign to the Toronto Raptors.
As good as those Grizzlies teams were, it’s hard to see them beating the Heat when they had LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. We’ll never know for sure, though, what would have happened.
