I’m crying right now. I loved Eddie Sutton. He and my father could have been brothers. My father’s life and some of his challenges mirrored those of Eddie Sutton. There is a place in my heart for Eddie Sutton which is very special.
It wasn’t just the fact he was the best basketball coach I’ve ever observed. It had more to do with how after Eddie Sutton’s fall from grace at Kentucky he didn’t give up. Instead, he became a better man and a better coach. A better human.
The same journey my father had to travel in mid-life.
There was a human element in Eddie Sutton which transcended Bedlam for me. I’m an OU guy, but quite frankly I came to respect and love Eddie Sutton more than any coach who’s ever coached football or basketball at OU.
Abe Lemons once told me, ” Eddie Sutton is the toughest son of a bitch I’ve ever coached against and I hated him at times when I was at Texas. But if I had a son and wanted him to learn about basketball and life…I’d send him to that son of a bitch Eddie Sutton. Sutton would make him a better man.”
So the first year the Thunder are here…by sheer luck my son and I had seats on the floor the night the Detroit Pistons came to town. Lo an behold… Eddie and Patsy Sutton with some of their grandchildren were next to our seats. I pushed my son aside and said, “I’m sitting next to Coach Sutton.”
So we start talking hoops and were at times interrupted by several of his former players from O State who came by to greet Coach. So as we were winding down our conversation as tip got near I said, ” Coach Sutton…Abe Lemons and I had a talk about you and he said you were the biggest son of a bitch he ever came across as a coach.”
Patsy Sutton then kind of gives me this WTF look. So I then quickly finished the story about Abe Lemons sending his son if he had one to Coach Sutton. Eddie started laughing and put his around me. It’s something I’ll always treasure.
The biggest mistake Sam Presti made wasn’t the Harden trade. No…the biggest mistake Presti made was not hiring Eddie Sutton to be Russell Westbrook’s life and basketball mentor for at least five years.
The notion of Russell Westbrook with Eddie Sutton is one which would have changed the way all of this went down in Oklahoma City. Eddie would have put an end to all that babysitting bullshit nonsense with both Russell and Kevin.
I’m not talking head coach at that point for Coach Sutton, but more along the lines of what Mo Cheeks tried to do with Russell. Don’t take that as a diss of Maurice Cheeks because I love him almost as much as I love Eddie Sutton. But there was an edge, yet a genuine human warmth with Eddie Sutton which I think would have resonated with Russell Westbrook as a young man.
In fact…I’m almost certain Russell Westbrook would have come to regard Coach Sutton as a second father of sorts. Not a doubt in my mind Russell would have fallen in love with Eddie Sutton the man. Just like I did.
I hope people in Oklahoma today realize what a great coach and person Eddie Sutton was beyond just the wins. He was a bona fide legend as a coach, a father, and a man.
Thank you, Coach Sutton. You made a difference for me and I wasn’t even one of your players.
I want to add another thing or two on here. People don’t realize what a great job Eddie Sutton did at both Arkansas and O State. O State was a hoops graveyard before Coach Sutton came back to Stillwater. Arkansas wasn’t much either before Eddie and Nolan as well.
Not trying to be snarky here on Coach Sutton’s obit, but since his departure from Stillwater the program has won ‘one’ NCAA Tournament basketball game. ONE…as in one. While the football school down the road got to an Elite 8 with Jeff Capel and a Final Four with Lon Kruger while producing three different NPOTY winners in Blake, Buddy, and Trey. Mike Holder as an AD has had virtually nothing to do with basketball success at O State. As in nothing.
Mike Holder will be front and center in my Netflix story The Mullet King. You can bet your ass on that one.
What Eddie Sutton did at O State to me rivals what the U.S. hockey team did in 1980. Well…almost.
Ask Bill Self if you doubt me. Ask Bill Self why he stayed at Kansas.
Below is Coach being honored with his great ’78 Arkansas Final Four team with the triplets of Moncrief, Delph, and Brewer. If you don’t know who those three were then you should be reading the Daily Thunder while contemplating what color underwear Darius Bazely is wearing today.