Being a coach is not just about what happens on the field of play. There are many people they have to listen to off the court, and they may not always make decisions that please the fanbase. Since they are the ones standing in the technical area, they are often the first to be villainized. Monty Williams knows that experience well, having been both widely liked and heavily criticized at different points in his career.
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Williams played in the NBA for nine seasons with five different teams. He never stood out, but he was a decent role player who earned enough respect to hang around. It’s these types of players who oftentimes become head coaches following their playing careers.
Williams joined the San Antonio Spurs coaching staff in 2005, two years after hanging up his boots. He won a championship with them in his first season, and was then hired by the Portland Trail Blazers as an assistant. After that, he was hired as a head coach by the New Orleans Hornets. It was then that Williams realized just how much being a head coach can take over your life.
“It just becomes a part of your life,” he shared on the Run Your Race podcast. “Some of it is survival. I would imagine a lot of it is insecurity. And if you’re not careful, it just becomes who you are.”
Williams threw himself into coaching with the Hornets, but after five seasons he was let go and moved into assistant roles with the Philadelphia 76ers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. That wasn’t the end of his head-coaching journey, however. In 2019, he was hired by the Phoenix Suns, won Coach of the Year in 2021, and led the team to the NBA Finals.
Monty Williams opens up about the weight of being an NBA head coach and how quickly the job can pull you into survival mode.
“I was just working to stay in it…Some of it is survival, some of it is insecurity and if you’re not careful, it just becomes who you are.” – Monty… pic.twitter.com/r97FTDYyYi
— Zach Brandon (@MVP_Mindset) November 30, 2025
It was the crowning moment of his career. Williams and the Suns never reached those heights again, and in 2023 he was let go. He then signed with the Detroit Pistons and, in his first season, oversaw a brutal 28-game losing streak before being fired in the first year of a five-year deal.
Today, Williams is coaching high school basketball. And when he looks back on his time as an NBA head coach, he is not particularly bitter about how things ended.
“Not all of it’s bad. Some of that work ethic and some of the sacrifices allow you to be a part of the league, make teams, get certain jobs, and become a head coach. That’s a part of it,” Williams shared. “But if I had to be totally honest, there’s so much of it that I didn’t compartmentalize in a proper way.”
As a head coach, Williams holds a 381–404 record. Whether he ever returns to the NBA is anyone’s guess. For now, he seems content to slow things down and stay away from the relentless grind that comes with coaching at the professional level.
