What he did: It hasn't happened often — perhaps never — but Bob Reinhart made the jump from a high school basketball head coach to assistant NBA bench coach to head college coach. And he did it all in Atlanta.
Reinhart is not a Georgia native, but is from Dale, Ind., where great basketball players grow like corn. He was a star high school player along with Roger Kaiser, who would also make his name known among basketball circles in Georgia. While Kaiser went to Georgia Tech and became an All-American, Reinhart headed to the Kentucky Wesleyan College for one quarter before going to the University of Indiana in January 1958, where he played for the legendary Branch McCracken. Reinhart spent most of his time coming off the Hoosiers bench but became a student of the game there and took his first high school coaching job in Oakland City, Ind., where he stayed three years.
One day he received a call from his old friend Kaiser, who was the head coach at Decatur High School, and he packed up and headed south. Reinhart was Kaiser's assistant for four years before taking over as the head coach, winning three state championships in a 14-year span, which included a 57-game winning streak. In his time at Decatur, the Bulldogs made the state's final eight in the playoffs eight times and final four six times.
Reinhart, a disciplinarian with a tremendous offensive mind, became a household name in Atlanta and every summer worked Mike Fratello’s Hawks camp. In 1984, Reinhart was asked by Fratello to be one of his assistants. Suddenly he was coaching such stars as Dominique Wilkins, Doc Rivers, Dan Roundfield, Tree Rollins, Randy Wittman and Kevin Willis. Reinhart, at 5-foot-11, likes to kid that he was the tallest coach on the Fratello staff, which included the undersized Brendan Suhr and Ron Rothstein.
He remained with the Hawks for two seasons before in 1985 taking the head coach job at Georgia State, a program coming off a 2-26 season. With the Panthers, he won 10 games his first season and then in the 1990-91 season won a memorable Trans America Athletic Conference (now Atlantic Sun) tournament. Entering the tourney 13-14, the Panthers beat Stetson, Texas-San Antonio and Arkansas-Little Rock for the first time in school history to earn the school’s first NCAA tournament bid. The Panthers lost 117-76 to Arkansas and coach Nolan Richardson in the first round which was played at the Omni, but Reinhart had put GSU on the map.
At GSU, Reinhart was 107-148 and is the all-time leading coach in wins and years at the school (nine seasons). He was fired after going 13-14 after the 1993 season and was replaced by Carter Wilson, his assistant at Georgia State and former player and assistant at Decatur.
Reinhart then went back to the NBA in 1993 as a scout, starting with Kevin Loughery and Miami, then Jerry Sloan and Utah, Doc Rivers and the Celtics, Milwaukee and Golden State.
Where he lives: Reinhart, now 77, lives in Morningside with his wife, Jane, of 57 years. He has two children, Kelly and Bobby, and four grandchildren. Bobby on one of his state championship teams at Decatur. Raising his family in the Lakeside-DeKalb High School district, Reinhart always has been very well-liked in the community and likes to talk about the many years he would take his family on vacation with the family of first Atlanta Hawks coach Richie Guerin.
What he does now: Since 2007, Reinhart has been a scout for the Miami Heat and has two NBA championship rings. It is a six-month job. Among the college conferences he scouts are the SEC and ACC. He was recently inducted into the Decatur Sports Wall of Honor.
On playing for Branch McCracken: "It was during the Walt Bellamy era at Indiana and what an experience. I played a limited number of minutes, but I can't tell you how much I learned from that man.''
On coaching at Decatur: "We had so much community support when I coached and you couldn't find a seat at our games for a long time. I think what I remember most about coaching there was the parental support we had. Everyone was on the same page.''
On working for Mike Fratello: "I really think I was the first high school coach to go straight to an NBA team and work on the bench. Mike was unquestionably the best X's and O's guy I have ever seen. He was amazing on the bench. And now he has become the best analyst in the game.''
On his best Fratello story: "We were in Detroit for a game and they had a fan behind the bench that would scream and yell funny things at us. Everybody put up with him and one time, all us coaches were standing in a huddle for a timeout and we came out of it and the guy yelled at Mike, 'Sit down, Tattoo.' Mike took it well.''
On leaving for Georgia State: "I was offered the job, and my wife couldn't understand why I would go. The No. 1 thing was about my retirement, and it led to a lot of money for me for retirement because of the years I had in the school system. But the other thing was, I didn't like being in the third seat. I don't think I was a very good assistant. I wanted to call the shots.''
On taking the Panthers to the NCAAs: "You have to understand where we were when I got there. There were so many teams that wanted to play us for their homecoming game, and I just told my secretary to ask for $50,000 and we would come and play anyone for homecoming, and I would also bring the queen. When we went to the Big Dance, people don't realize how hard it was beating those three teams in the conference tournament. They had all beaten us twice during the regular season, and Arkansas-Little Rock was a team the school had never ever beaten before.''
On NCAA game against Arkansas: "Bobby Cremins called us the greatest sports story in Atlanta. We played them close in the first half until we hit the two 15-point minutes. But what was funny was we got $60,000 in transportation money to go to the game at the Omni, and I gave each of the kids a MARTA token to get to the game. It was great.''
On working in the same franchise with LeBron James: "I was never close with him and when he came to Miami, he knew the situation wasn't handled the best way. But what most people don't realize is the amount of work he does in the community. What he contributes to people off the court is incredible. I am very thankful I have two rings. My wife always likes to say I have never had a job in my life.''
On his best Dominique Wilkins story: "We played 18 or 20 games one season in New Orleans because the Omni was being redone, and we were playing the Celtics. And Dennis Johnson came up to Dominique and told him he was going to hold him to 20 points. Nique didn't bat an eye and looked at him and said, 'Which half?'''
On Wilkins' game: "People don't realize how hard he worked before and after practice. Dominique was not a very good shooter when he came into the league, but when he finished up, you had to respect his perimeter game.''
On Tree Rollins: "He loved life, but when he put on the uniform, he was a worker.''
On Doc Rivers: "I can't enough superlatives about Doc. He was a 100 percent guy.''
On Randy Wittman: "A true professional. He wasn't as vocal as Doc, but was a true team player and a very cerebral guy.''
On Dan Roundfield: "He was a different type of guy, sometimes hard to coach and could be a bit difficult. But the effort was always there, and he was one of the best.''
On Kevin Willis: "He played more than 20 years in the league and what a competitor, night in and night out. He might have had small hands and small feet, but he became some kind of player.''
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