17 'Masterminds' Who Run Sports Right Now
Mastermind (mas-ter-mahynd) noun. A person who originates or is primarily responsible for the execution of a particular idea, project or the like.
Pat Riley is one of the most notorious masterminds in sports, is he not? Over the years as an NBA player, coach and executive, Riley has won at every level. He has assembled championship teams with a competitive and unwavering drive to win. Spike Lee once called his acquisition of LeBron James in 2010 a "pure Corleone gangster move."
Bill Parcells, Scotty Bowman and others have gained similar reputations over the years, but who are the great masterminds still doing business in sports today? Who are the up-and-comers quickly building up that persona?
The following coaches, executives and, yes, even one player, have garnered fame not just for their success—though many of them have it—but also for their innovative practices, creativity, unique dedication to perfection or some other notable trait.
It's tough to tell, of course, who really is a true "mastermind," and who merely has that reputation, but overall success helps in terms of legitimizing the label.
Whose genius is helping navigate sports today? Get ready for a Riley vs. Phil Jackson showdown.
Brad Stevens
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Just because a coach is young doesn't mean he's not a budding mastermind.
As a college basketball coach, Brad Stevens led Butler to two consecutive appearances in the national championship game.
In 2011, Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle called him a "mild-mannered mastermind" and wrote, "He uses advanced data and statistical analysis to determine opponents' tendencies but has the personality to reach his players individually and collectively."
Stevens took over as the Boston Celtics head coach in 2013, working under respected general manager Danny Ainge. Since then, the Celts have steadily improved (25-57 in 2013-14 to 48-34 in 2015-16) and set about building a championship team.
In April, Jackie MacMullan of ESPN.com wrote, "Brad Stevens still hasn't won a single NBA playoff series, yet he is already regarded as a coach whisperer, a superior tactician with the unruffled demeanor of a grizzled graybeard."
Steve Yzerman
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Like Brad Stevens, Steve Yzerman is a young mastermind on the rise.
The longtime Detroit Red Wings captain and current general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning has assembled a contender in Florida and pulled off some genius moves to do it.
In 2014, Chris Peters of CBS Sports wrote Yzerman "is marching to his own beat" and added, "There's no model but his own and the grand vision of what his club can be is starting to come to fruition."
He acquired future All-Star goaltender Ben Bishop via trade in 2013, kept young left winger Jonathan Drouin despite a trade demand and managed to hang on to franchise center Steve Stamkos—for a hometown discount, no less—despite the lure of free agency in 2016.
On his acquisition of three solid defensemen in a single year, Yzerman's former coach—and hockey mastermind in his own right—Scotty Bowman said, "So to get three defensemen that can play in your top four on your team that goes to the Final, that's pretty well impossible," per Cristina Ledra of Sporting News.
Tyronn Lue
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Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue might be a surprise on this list, but consider this:
Ken Berger of CBS Sports reported Lue actually said to LeBron James in a huddle, "Shut the [expletive] up. I got this." For real.
Lue made several strategic decisions in the NBA Finals—switching LeBron James to Draymond Green, for example—that helped the Cavs outlast the Golden State Warriors.
Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com wrote:
"Lue showed why the Cavs thought it necessary to make a coaching change. He was willing to alter the Cavs style and in the process unlocked their potential as a version of the Warriors—playing with joy, getting out in transition, hitting 3-pointers at a high rate, playing with a smaller lineup and, most importantly, getting players to believe.
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Lue left no doubt about who is in charge in Cleveland—no small feat—and in all likelihood, that led to a title.
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Chip Kelly
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San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly certainly had the reputation of an offensive mastermind in 2012—does he still?
Kelly had great success at Oregon—46-7 in four years and wins in the Rose and Fiesta Bowls—before making the jump to the NFL to coach the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013.
In 2012, Mike Tanier of Sports on Earth wrote, "Kelly is an offensive mastermind. He is the guru of the modern college spread option."
Kelly had significant influence over personnel moves in Philadelphia and made several eye-popping ones—trading for injury-plagued quarterback Sam Bradford and shipping off running back LeSean McCoy, for example.
Bill Pennington of the New York Times wrote, "Kelly, whose quirky style and unconventional methods stood out in the mostly homogeneous, restrained fraternity of NFL coaches, brought with him the fast-paced offense he had used at Oregon…"
And yet, Kelly was fired after three seasons and a 26-21 record with the Eagles. Time will tell how things go with his new team, the San Francisco 49ers.
Laura Harvey
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San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon has been called "the mastermind" by espnW, and her fame likely overshadows Laura Harvey's in many circles.
Yet, Harvey is accomplished in women's soccer as a talented manager and executive.
The Seattle Reign general manager and coach has presided over two consecutive first-place seasons in 2014 and 2015. Prior to her move to the NWSL, Harvey led the Arsenal women's team to three straight league titles.
Yes, Harvey has talented players—including U.S. national team members Hope Solo and Megan Rapinoe—but as Graham Hays of espnW.com pointed out:
"But even if Seattle's talent is so superior to the competition as to explain its 29-5-10 record the past two seasons, then surely the person who assembled it deserves a prominent place in the distribution of credit. And if it isn't talent alone, then surely the person who fit the pieces together and devised the strategies by which they so consistently win deserves equal credit. In Seattle's case, of course, it is the same person.
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Harvey was named the NWSL Coach of the Year in 2015, and midfielder Keelin Winters said, "Tactically, Laura is a mastermind," per Hays.
Sean Payton
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New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton has long been dubbed an "offensive mastermind" for his creative play-calling abilities.
When he missed the 2012 season due to a Bountygate suspension, Jeff Darlington of NFL.com called it a "Mike Tyson punch to the gut." Indeed, the team went 7-9 in his absence.
In 2013, Bleacher Report's Ty Schalter wrote, "Though the Denver Broncos have a more balanced, consistent approach, the unique weapons on the Saints roster—and Payton's genius in maximizing them—makes the Saints offense the most dangerous in the NFL."
Consecutive losing seasons in 2014 and 2015 have put Payton in the hot seat, according to Carolina Panthers reporter David Newton (via ESPN.com), but his reputation as a play-caller is still intact.
Rick Pitino
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Duke's Mike Krzyzewski has won a lot of college basketball games, but Louisville head coach Rick Pitino has built more of a reputation as a basketball innovator—something more akin to the great Dean Smith of UNC.
Pitino's teams have been known for full-court defensive pressure and the prioritization of three-pointers.
in 2015, John Feinstein of the Washington Post revealed details about Pitino's outside-the-box mentality and wrote, "Before anyone had taken a three-point shot under the new rule, Pitino had seen the future of the college game."
His teams have been to seven Final Fours and won two national championships (Kentucky in 1996 and Louisville in 2013).
Pitino has faced scandal in recent years, and his future at Louisville is up in the air, but his innovative legacy will live on.
Todd Bowles
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Buddy Ryan—known by many as a mastermind of football defense—died in June.
His sons Rex and Rob, both coaching with the Buffalo Bills, are well known for their defensive intelligence, but it is Rex's successor with the New York Jets who is the rising defensive genius in today's NFL.
Todd Bowles is a former NFL safety, longtime NFL assistant and Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator who became the head coach of the New York Jets in January 2015. Conor Orr of NFL.com called him a "defensive mastermind."
In its first year under Bowles, the Cardinals defense ranked No. 6 in the NFL with the No. 1 run defense. They allowed just 1,351 rushing yards all year, the fewest in team history. Bowles helped turn the Jets around from a 4-12 campaign in 2014 to a 10-6 mark in his first season at the helm.
Ahead of a January matchup in which the Bills defeated the Jets, Bob Glauber of Newsday wrote, "While the coach he's facing on Sunday, former Jets coach Rex Ryan, has the bigger reputation as a great defensive mind, Bowles' imaginative and aggressive schemes are every bit as effective as Ryan's."
Nick Saban
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Alabama head football coach Nick Saban has gained the mastermind reputation in several aspects of the game over the years—defense, recruiting and building a championship program.
Saban works under a "process" described by Tony Barnhart of the SEC Network in this way: "The Process is simply Saban's core belief that the willingness to prepare in a methodical, daily basis is the key to success. Saban believes those who focus on the result and not the consistent preparation that is necessary to achieve the result are doomed to be disappointed."
One of Saban's former players, Barrett Jones, said, "[The Process] basically means just focusing on the little things and not getting wrapped up in the big picture. Coach Saban is very adamant about that," per Lars Anderson of Sports on Earth.
Saban has led his teams to five national championships—four with Alabama and one with LSU. He's achieved such a pattern of winning at Alabama that each loss feels monumental, perhaps evidence of some decline. Nope.
Billy Beane
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Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane has risen to fame as part of baseball's Moneyball movement.
Beane had a short baseball career before joining the A's front office in 1990. As GM, he adopted sabermetric strategies rooted in the work of statistician Bill James. Beane has prioritized on-base percentage and ERA in assembling budget rosters, according to Juan Martinez of Oakland North.
The A's have had some success—making the playoffs three straight times from 2012 to 2014 and famously winning 20 consecutive games in 2002.
And yet, no World Series ring yet. Beane once famously said, "My s--t doesn't work in the playoffs," in Michael M. Lewis's book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, per Jon Terbush of The Week.
And so the question becomes, can someone be a mastermind without any rings? In 2012, Jack Blanchat of the Stanford Daily asked the question, "Is Billy Beane a genius or a madman?"
LeBron James
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As one of the few athletes who has risen to mastermind levels during his active playing days, LeBron James certainly seems to have things figured out.
James helped put together the Miami Heat's "Big Three" in 2010, creating a core that combined his talents with those of Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade and yielded four straight NBA Finals appearances and two titles.
Next, James set about bringing a title to his home state with the Cleveland Cavaliers. As the Cavs made big moves like trading for Kevin Love and firing head coach David Blatt, many wondered just how much influence James had in the decision making.
In June, The Ringer's Matt Borcas wrote Cleveland general manager David Griffin needed to "give up his own power and continue to let LeBron pull the strings."
Indeed, Griffin has willfully admitted that James has power. Per Bleacher Report's Ric Bucher, Griffin called James a "basketball savant" and added, "He has the most thorough understanding of X's and O's on the floor and best mind for the game off the floor of any human being I've ever known. Coach, front-office person, anything. It would be crazy for me not to consult with him on what we want to do."
Pep Guardiola
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Football legend Johan Cruyff died in March. David Shonfield of the Irish Examiner called the revolutionary strategist "the Dutch mastermind behind modern football."
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola played under Cruyff for six years at FC Barcelona. Upon Cruyff's death, Guardiola said, "I knew nothing about football until I met Cruyff," per Adriana Garcia of ESPNFC.
For his part, Guardiola has emerged as a coaching star. In his first season at the helm of Barcelona's first team, the club won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League. In 2013, he led his new club Bayern Munich to a Bundesliga title.
Matt Gault of These Football Times wrote, "The Spaniard possesses a fascinating footballing brain. Not only is he naturally intelligent and hard-working, he is relentless in the pursuit of improvement, not once appearing brash or as if he is attempting to cultivate an image of self-importance."
In 2015, Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian called Guardiola a "genius" and wrote, "At Bayern Munich Pep Guardiola has shown tactical acuity and attention to detail without equal..."
Gregg Popovich
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San Antonio Spurs general manager R.C. Buford was named the Basketball Executive of the Year in 2015-16 and, together with his head coach, has made the Spurs into a dynasty.
Gregg Popovich is the longest tenured head coach in any of the big four North American sports. His Spurs have won five NBA titles, and he is a three-time NBA Coach of the Year. In 2015, Pop become the ninth coach in NBA history to win 1,000 games.
Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes explained, "Popovich preached an unselfish style of play built on passing. He plucked international players and others that were overlooked to surround the Big Three of Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili."
And Nate Scott of For the Win contributed, simply, "Popovich is a genius."
Of course, Popovich did have the good fortune to get Tim Duncan in the 1997 NBA draft.
Pop himself said, "I've been here a long time and I've had good players. That's the formula," per Ben Golliver of SI.com.
Bill Belichick
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During his 16 years at the helm of the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick's team has played in six Super Bowls and won four of them. The head coach—a disciple of another legendary mastermind, Bill Parcells—has been lauded for his strategic powers.
Nicholas Dawidoff of the New Yorker wrote, "To other coaches he is The Master, a brilliant tactician and motivator whose commitment to victory is absolute. Patriot games are beautiful Harvard Business School-like case studies of how to win at football."
However, after alleged cheating scandals Spygate and Deflategate, his ethics have also come into question.
In 2015, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe wrote:
"Stand around the Super Bowl media center for a few hours, and speak on the phone to a few former NFL players, coaches and executives, and you'll hear plenty of adjectives to describe Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Genius. Mastermind. Historian. Brilliant. Innovator. Student of the game. Detail-oriented. Future Hall of Famer. Dynasty builder. And, yes, there's one more. Cheater.
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Perhaps Belichick is the perfect person to represent the concept of an evil mastermind in sports. Perhaps.
Theo Epstein
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Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein is a disciple of baseball's sabermetric movement. In 2002, at just 28 years of age, he became the youngest general manager in MLB history when the Boston Red Sox hired him shortly after bringing baseball statistician Bill James on board as a senior advisor.
Epstein presided over Boston's historic 2004 World Series title—the team's first in 86 years.
In 2011, he left Boston for the Chicago Cubs and set about the business of erasing another, longer, World Series drought.
After several years of mindfully assembling an arsenal of young talent, Epstein—along with manager Joe Maddon—has finally got the Cubs on the brink of breaking their own curse. The team is 53-35 at the All-Star break, seven games up on the second-place St. Louis Cardinals and the World Series favorite according to Oddsshark.
Harvey Araton of the New York Times called Epstein a "miracle worker" and a "magician."
Phil Jackson
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Currently the president of the New York Knicks, Phil Jackson won two NBA titles as a player and an astonishing 11 as a coach.
He worked with longtime assistant coach Tex Winter to implement the triangle offense into his championship teams in Chicago and Los Angeles. He earned the nickname "Zen Master" through his belief in practices such as visualization and meditation. Kobe Bryant called him "the greatest coach in any profession. Ever," per Ian Begley of ESPN.com.
Not long after the Knicks hired Jackson in 2014, San Antonio Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said, "Phil knows how to build teams. He'll be terrific. We're are all chasing what he built and developed. I don't think he needs anyone's help," per Marc Berman of the New York Post.
And yet, Jackson has yet to secure a title as an executive in New York. The Knicks made some big offseason moves with the acquisitions of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, so, TBD on that.
Pat Riley
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Pat Riley, on the other hand, is a man who has won at all levels.
In 2010, famed New York Knicks fan Spike Lee told Bleacher Report's Howard Beck (then with the New York Times), "These guys get in front of Pat Riley, and he shows them those rings and they lose their mind. Pat Riley gets people in his spell, and it's, 'Whatever you want to do, Coach.'"
Indeed, Riley does have quite the NBA resume—champion player, champion coach and champion executive.
In all, the Hall of Famer has racked up nine NBA titles and a 1,210-694 (.636) career head coaching record.
He has been the president of the Miami Heat since 1995. In that time, he has assembled impressive rosters, three of which yielded championships. He traded for Alonzo Mourning—the Heat's first All-Star—in 1995. He drafted Dwyane Wade and later brought Shaquille O'Neal over to form the core of a 2006 championship team. And then, the big one. He oversaw the move to bring Chris Bosh and LeBron James to Miami in 2010.
Lee also said in 2010, of the James decision, per Beck, "This is nothing but a pure Corleone gangster move."
Wade chose to depart Miami in free agency after 13 seasons with the team, to the surprise of some, but given Riley's track record, it's hard not to believe the man's got a plan B.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
