By David A. F. Sweet
The life of a Division III athlete little resembles that of a Division I counterpart. The D3 player often plays in front of a handful of people in forgettable gyms rather than in state-of-the-art facilities before roaring thousands. Those at small-time colleges often wash their own uniforms; no equipment staff is waiting to clean them like at major universities. And for D3 competitors, studying is more than an occasional pursuit. In fact, that’s the main reason they’re attending college, as a pro career is nearly always out of reach.
Division III athlete and successful NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy is a primary focus of the book — even writing its foreword.
Yet surprisingly and almost counterintuitively, D3 athletes have made a tremendous impact on at least one pro sports league: the NBA. Granted, they’re not executing tomahawk dunks, but they have become successful head coaches, front-office executives and more.
That’s the focus of Pipeline to the Pros, a truly engaging book co-authored by Chicago-area natives Ben Kaplan and Danny Parkins. Published by Triumph Books in Chicago, the authors describe how by working hard, being humble and forgoing any sense of entitlement – all characteristics of D3 athletes – gym rats from Jeff Van Gundy to Tom Thibodeau ascended to the NBA’s most coveted positions.
“One of the recurring themes was that those in D3 who go to NBA, they had to do everything,” Parkins said. “They took nothing for granted.”
One of the more compelling sections involves the Van Gundy brothers, Jeff and Stan. Both Division III players (Nazareth University and SUNY-Brockport, respectively), they became NBA head coaches – Jeff in an era where former players such as Phil Jackson and Jerry Sloan made up the majority of coaches. When Jeff’s Houston Rockets faced Stan’s Miami Heat in the NBA Finals, they became the first D3 athletes to face each other for that esteemed championship.
The authors conducted more than 100 interviews for Pipeline to the Pros.
“What most people don’t understand is that the pain of losing and the joy of winning are no different in the NBA or D3,” Jeff wrote in the book’s foreword.
Former Chicago Bulls coach Thibodeau played D3 basketball at Salem State College. By the time he found a head coaching job in Chicago in 2010, he led his team to the NBA’s best record in his first season. Another D3 veteran — Steve Clifford, who once worked at a boot factory – guided the Orlando Magic and the Miami Heat. As the authors wrote, “The Van Gundys, Thibodeau, and Clifford were not NBA coaches out of central casting. They were selfless scrappers…hard work personified.” None were asked to conduct a GQ cover shoot.
The longest-tenured D3 alum in the NBA is San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, owner of five NBA championships. Though not a D3 athlete, his first coaching job was at Pomona-Pitzer in California, where he learned to build a D3 program at a school that had never won a conference championship. And he has hired many of his fellow D3 student-athletes.
“He was the first NBA leader to view the D3 playing experience as a qualification in and of itself,” the authors wrote. “The connections he maintained to the D3 world allowed him to mine a previously untapped talent pool.”
How did the book come about? Kaplan – who describes himself as a D3 basketball benchwarmer at Amherst College — sent Parkins a text in 2020 about an idea. He had been working with Andrew Olson, a former teammate, about their Amherst experience. Kaplan investigated how prevalent D3 athletes were in the NBA to try to sell their story. Given he only had a few dozen Twitter followers, an agent suggested he find a co-author.
A former WSCR-AM 670 co-host in Chicago, New Trier High School alumnus Danny Parkins got together with his best friend from childhood to write the book.
Best friends with Kaplan since third grade, Parkins – a former WSCR-AM 670 co-host in Chicago and New Trier High School alumnus – was initially skeptical.
“I thought there was no star power attached to it, but then I saw there was a lot,” Parkins said. “Working with Ben seemed too cool of an opportunity to pass up. I didn’t think we’d ever have a chance to collaborate on anything.”
Four years and more than 100 interviews later (“We probably could have talked to 400 people if we both had the time,” Kaplan said) the book appeared in 2024. Both authors agreed Jeff Van Gundy was the key to the project.
“He just personified everything we were going for,” Kaplan said. “We talked to his Dad and people who coached him. Jeff was the first interview for the book.”
Parkins chatted with him three times and then asked if he would write the foreword.
“He said, ‘Yeah, sure,’” Parkins recalled. “It was like asking him to pass the salt of the dinner table. He was glad someone took the time to clearly report on this.”
“At D3, often there’s nobody in the stands. You’re doing it for the passion and loving the game,” says co-author Ben Kaplan, who played basketball at D3 Amherst College.
Today, there is even a D3 player in the NBA: Duncan Robinson of the Miami Heat, who played for a season at Williams College. And Andrew Olson, who Kaplan initially worked on the book with? The Amherst alum is a shooting coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The D3 pipeline marches on, continuing to elevate the world’s most renowned basketball league.
Sporting Life columnist David A. F. Sweet can be reached at dafsweet@aol.com.
