It’s a 12-hour ride from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, to Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island. It’s a road not many have traveled, but Shawn Swords, the associate head coach of the Long Island Nets, is one of them.
Swords is in his second year with the Nets G League affiliate, having risen from an assistant last season under Mfon Udofia to the No. 2 job under Udofia in Long Island this season and with Udofia missing several games recently due to personal reasons, to acting head coach. He’s a key part of the development regimen that has already helped Jalen Wilson and Noah Clowney join the rotation in Brooklyn and is working on Dariq Whitehead.
After Whitehead’s 18-point outburst vs. the Chicago Bulls, Swords said he was happy to see his 20-year-old charge hit shots, but more happy — as he said “pleased” — with another aspect of his game.
“I think he did some good things and in the NBA where he hadn’t shown that yet,” Swords told NetsDaily’s Scott Mitchell last week. “And quite frankly, things that he hadn’t shown in the G League until the game before against the Raptors.
“It was nice to see him make shots, but what I was more happy with — pleased with — was there were bursts of good defense where he picked up full court and was trying to get after it with the ball, which is what Brooklyn is preaching. I think I was more impressed with that.”.
That commentary is typical of Swords, dispassionate and more concerned about mental toughness than flash, as Doug Smith of his hometown Toronto Star reported last month.
“I don’t want to sound like an old-school coach, but toughness is a little bit gone out of the game,” he told Smith. “The skill level is off the charts … everybody can do just about every skill and it’s really fun to see.
“But that toughness, and that edge to set a good screen or to fight for a rebound, I don’t think that’s a skill that’s necessarily in every player. I try to preach that on a daily basis.”
Indeed, Smith reported his mantra is simple; Do what you do all the time to make yourself invaluable. Much like Jordi Fernandez’s mantra of getting one percent better every day.
The roots of Swords philosophy goes back a quarter century to his time with the Canadian national team. There, he was a teammate of Steve Nash and played under Jay Triano, who together led Canada to a 5-2 record in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Swords didn’t play taat big of a role, but again as Smith reported, he found a role.
“With the national team, with Jay, it was: What do I need to do to help the team win?” Swords said. “Is it sit on the bench and cheer my ass off the whole time? Then I’ll do that. If it’s go in and play defense on a really good player, do that. If it’s be a ball-mover on offence, then do that.
“That’s what I try to tell players. That’s something that’s not a skill to teach players; it’s more of the mental aspect of it.”
After playing for Team Canada (now, of course, coached by Fernandez), he spent 10 years overseas playing in England, Italy and France. In 2007, as he was thinking of retiring, the athletic director of his alma mater, Laurentian University, called and offered him the job of head coach where he stayed for 15 years while still keeping in touch with his teammates, one of whom was in position to help him and pointed him south from Sudbury to Uniondale
“He was looking for new experiences and I helped him get to the Nets because I know he adds a lot of value, He’s a good friend and teammate, but he has the skill, knowledge and nuance to coach anywhere.” Steve Nash told Smith last month in explaining why despite Swords’ experience at an obscure Canadian college he felt comfortable recommend him. .
After taking a leave of absence from Laurentian in the Summer of 2022 to work with Brooklyn, he was hired as a Long Island assistant. Nash didn’t survive. Swords did.
So far, so good. He’s now a big part of the Nets development team and although Long Island has had a rough time on the scoreboard, now 2-10 and loser of seven straight, young Nets like Whitehead and Jacky Cui plus former NBA players A.J. Lawson, Killian Hayes and Kendall Brown have shown promise.
Swords already has a great record of development in women’s basketball. His daughters [Syla and Savannah](https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516590&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestar.com%2Fsports%2Folympics-and-paralympics%2Fnext-generation-strives-to-make-canadas-womens-basketball-team-for-paris-olympics%2Farticle_640394c6-ef3a-5586-84e6-e25ea93b118a.html&referrer=sbnation.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.netsdaily.com%2F2024%2F12%2F9%2F24317563%2Ffor-shawn-swords-long-island-nets-no-2-the-road-to-coaching-success-is-long) are both top Canadian players. Syla was the youngest member of the women’s Olympic team in Paris. She was a five-star recruit at Long Island Lutheran and is now a top player at the University of Michigan.
The 50-year-old now looks like he’ll be the next Canadian coach to make the move to the NBA coaching ranks. As Smith notes, coaches like players will be found if they are good, even at a Canadian university 700 miles north of New York.
“We don’t boast about it, we don’t talk about it too much, (but) I think around the world we’re known as a hard-working team and our coaches are hard-working,” Swords said. “I think we could use more Canadians involved in pro basketball.”