Del Harris planned to preach. He became a coach who made John Calipari 'feel like a sinner'

What’s that phrase? Man plans, God laughs? Del Harris was going to be a minister.

That was the plan. He has the heart of a saint, got ordained and was going to spend his Sundays preaching from the pulpit. Instead, the basketball court became his sanctuary.

He’s coached high schoolers, college athletes and pros. He’s coached in the country’s most glitzy stadiums and in dingy gyms overseas.

He’s written best-selling books and has received some of the most prestigious awards a common man can earn. This weekend, the Plainfield High School graduate will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Then again, he’s far from a common man. He’s akin to John Wooden in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and China.

To John Calipari, a 2015 Naismith inductee, Harris’ impact — not as a basketball mind, but as a man — is succinct.

“I felt like a sinner being around him,” the Kentucky basketball coach said.

When basketball was king

Harris’ basketball journey began in Plainfield, where he was an all-conference and all-county player before graduating in 1955. He grew up in the halcyon days of high school hoops in Indiana. It was during his junior season that Milan won the state championship. To this day, nearly 70 years later, the ticket stub to that title game is the only one he’s kept.

“Basketball in the 50s, 60s in Indiana, you'd say it was king,” Harris said. “It was a way of life.”

Of all the wins he’s celebrated and all the losses he’s endured, some stick out more than others. Plainfield’s loss to Speedway in the sectional tournament during his senior year still nags at him.

“The sectional was everything to small towns,” he said. “You knew you weren't going to go in and beat the Indianapolis schools at the regional, but you had to win that sectional. If coaches didn't win sectionals, pretty soon they’d wake up Sunday morning and there'd be a bunch of for sale signs in their yard.”

Harris nearly played basketball and baseball for Tony Hinkle at Butler. Had it come to pass, he would have been a part of an iconic group that included names like Bobby Plump and Wally Cox. But two weeks before school started, the coach from Milligan College in Tennessee stopped by and persuaded him to come south. Harris was a three-time All-Conference player in college.

He planned to go to Butler for seminary — those pesky plans again — but his favorite college professor encouraged him to come coach a junior-high basketball team for a year and save money before going back to school. It was a decision that changed his life.

“That year of coaching junior high in a very low-income area was life-changing for so many for those kids,” he said. “We scored over 100 points four times in six minute quarters in junior high. It gave them an identity and confidence that they didn't have before. They ended up with new goals and a new purpose. So did I. I decided that maybe I was supposed to be a coach.”

Del Harris didn't need a whistle

He returned to his Hoosier roots to continue his coaching career — “If I was going to coach, I was going to do it in Indiana, where basketball really mattered” — with stints at Roachdale, Dale and Spencer. He captured that elusive sectional title in 1965. Then, Earlham College came calling. Harris had set a goal to be a coach for a small Christian college. At 27, he achieved it.

He led the Richmond, Indiana, team to 175 wins in nine seasons, winning a trio of conference titles. To this day, he’s the winningest coach in program history.

Avis Stewart was the third member of his family to play for Harris at Earlham. First his cousin made the trip from Marion to Richmond, then his brother, then Avis.

When Stewart was there, Earlham made it to the national tournament and averaged 97 points per game. That sounds mighty impressive, until you hear what kind of numbers the team put up when his cousin was there — they averaged more than 100 points per game without a 3-point line.

Harris implemented his tactics with a cool and calm demeanor. He didn’t wear a whistle during practice. When he spoke, players listened.

“If he wanted you to stop, he would raise his voice a little, not a lot,” Stewart said.

Harris is a family man. Years after leaving Earlham, he returned to Indiana for a special occasion. Stewart’s mom was turning 90, and was having a celebration.

“He could have gone on and forgotten about us at Earlham,” Stewart said. “But he doesn’t. He stays in touch on a regular basis with the players from Earlham. He's all about relationships.”

While at Earlham, Harris spent his summers coaching in Puerto Rico, where he won three national titles facing some of the best and brightest coaches in the world. He caught the attention of Tom Nissalke, who was coaching in the ABA. In 1975, Harris left Earlham to coach the Utah Stars.

It was a sign of things to come. Harris need not apply for jobs. Jobs would come to him.

'Dude, you're a Hall of Famer.'

When the ABA folded, Nissalke became the head coach of the Houston Rockets. Harris followed, and took over as head coach after Nissalke was fired. In 1981, he led the team to the NBA Finals, losing to Larry Bird and the Celtics. Then came Milwaukee, then the Lakers, where Harris was named NBA Coach of the Year. In 1996, a rising star named Kobe Bryant burst onto the scene.

“What no one could have measured at the time was what set Kobe apart,” he said. “It was not his raw skill. In retrospect, it was his will to become the best ever and the courage to pay the price to do it day after day with a rarely-seen focus.”

He spent time with the Mavericks, Bulls and Nets. Today, he’s still involved with the Dallas G-League team.

His international career, while less well-known, is perhaps even more impressive than what he did in the United States. Harris helped the U.S. national team to a bronze medal in the 1998 FIBA World Championship as an assistant coach. In 2004, he became the first foreigner to coach the Chinese national team, which included Yao Ming.

In 2011, John Calipari was asked to coach the Dominican Republic national team. Harris was one of his first calls. Together, they won the bronze medal in the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship and qualified for the 2012 World Olympic qualifier.

“We tried to build basketball (in the Dominican Republic) together,” Calipari said. “The young programs, when you look at where they are right now, Del was a big part of that. I got to learn. At the time, I was saying, ‘Dude, you're a Hall of Famer.’”

Calipari will be one of the people to stand with Harris during his Hall of Fame induction. He has so many stories.

“We're playing in Venezuela,” Calipari said. “The coach of Russia came over and grabbed Del and said, ‘Coach, your book on zone (defense) has done more for my career…’ I mean, it was those kinds of things all the time.”

The other thing Calipari remembers about coaching with Harris? That laugh.

“He thinks he's hysterical. He is funny, but the funniest thing is him laughing at his own stuff,” Calipari said. “That could be a skit on Saturday Night Live. People would be cracking up and crying watching it on TV. No one that I've ever met — no one, not even close — laughs at his own jokes louder than Del Harris. It’s incredible. The joke isn't even funny, and I'm laughing because he's laughing at his own joke.”

Harris is a humble man who considers himself fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time at so many stops along the way. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. In 2015, he received the Sagamore of Wabash, Indiana’s highest honor.

And now, after nearly a decade of waiting, he’ll be enshrined in Springfield.

Harris is reflective these days, thinking about all all the twists and turns along the way. His journey started all those years ago in Indiana, where basketball was king. It’s still going today, and his impact will live on for decades.

“I've been blessed with so much more than I ever deserved or imagined could happen,” he said. “You know, I think I was meant to be a coach.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana native, Lakers coach Del Harris makes basketball hall of fame