Jazz Assistant Coach Mike Wells Recalls Time Spent With Hall Of Fame Inductee

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz have one of the largest and most rapidly changing coaching staffs in the NBA. Quin Snyder has taken a modern approach of hiring several specialty coaches to work with his players in smaller groups, rather than having a smaller coaching staff with a more singular voice.

As a result of the size of his staff, Snyder’s coaches are often getting poached for serve in larger roles for other organizations, or simply go unnoticed by the public in a sea of faces.

One of those faces belongs to assistant coach Mike Wells who has been with the team since 2014. Wells was one of Snyder’s first coaching hires when he joined the Jazz and has been with the team ever since. Though Utah is where Wells calls home now, it’s far from his first stop on the NBA circuit.

.@utahjazz Assistant Coach @CoachMWells started his career as an intern with the @HoustonRockets in 1994. In his #CoachesStories, he discusses the opportunity to work under @hoophall Head Coach Rudy Tomjanovich & how he always strives to be the best Assistant Coach he can be. pic.twitter.com/gOT3AFGchV

— NBA Coaches Assoc. (@NBA_Coaches) April 16, 2020

In a conversation with the NBA Coaches Association, Wells recalls his first job in the NBA working as a video coordinator with the Houston Rockets. Wells worked under former University of Utah, and current Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen on his first NBA stop.

“Jim is the guy who took me under his wing,” Wells recalls, “He showed me what we needed to do. At that point in 1994, everything was just going from VHS.”

Though it may have been a coincidence, Wells, the Rockets, and their Finals opponent helped move the NBA from the age of tape decks to a more modern digital era.

“We had our first computer that year in ’95, us and the Orlando Magic,” Wells recalled, “We both make it to the finals, it was really because of [Shaquille O’Neal] and [Hakeem Olajuwon], but we make it to the finals, the rest of the league goes digital, we got hired, and the rest is history.”

While Wells has now been in the league for 25 years, he still remembers his first job in the NBA working under recently inducted Hall of Fame coach Rudy Tomjanovich.

“One of the things Rudy told me was you can never really have a bad day,” Wells said, “If you have a bad day and you project that onto a player yo might lose his respect or he might not know how to take you.”

That advice has stayed with Wells, from his time as an intern with the NBA champion Rockets to his time working under Snyder with the Jazz.

Mike Wells who will join the Jazz staff worked his way up from assistant video coordinator to assistant coach at Houston while DL was there.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) June 17, 2014

“We have a very special group,” Wells said, “Quin has been amazing to work for, the organization from the top down has been amazing.”

As for what’s next, Wells is just enjoying the moment.

“I feel like I’m in the role I’m pretty good at,” Wells said “I feel like I can help coaches, I can help our players. I know what needs to be done. I don’t know what the road is ahead, I’m just trying to be a really good assistant coach, and where that leads me to, I’ll take it when it comes.”