As the new vice president of basketball operations for the Los Angeles Clippers, Kevin Eastman has a lot to deal with. There’s free agency, Donald Sterling and the upcoming season.
And yet, Eastman still thinks about his basketball coach at Haddonfield Memorial High School when he needs to make a decision.
“Dave Wiedeman has been one of the biggest influences for me,” Eastman said. “In all the positions I’ve had, as a head coach in college, assistant coach with the (Boston) Celtics and Clippers and even now as the vice president, I use a lot of what he taught me.”
Eastman grew up in Haddonfield, where he says he loved the safe environment.
“I was able to walk down to the courts at the middle school and shoot some hoops alone,” Eastman said. “That really helped me moving forward and gave me a lot of freedom that allowed me to grow as a player and a person.”
During one of these trips to the courts, Eastman ran into someone he had never seen before. Behind Wedgewood Swim Club, Eastman was shooting baskets when a car pulled up to the courts. A car he didn’t recognize and a man stepped out who he didn’t recognize either. It was the new varsity basketball coach: David Wiedeman.
“I was shocked when I realized who it was,” Eastman said. “As a young kid, I never expected the high school coach to come out to the rec courts to watch kids play, but there he was. That’s a story that has taught me more than anything else during my life.”
The lesson Eastman says he gained was to make the first move — to not sit back and wait for things to come to you, but to reach out and be the initiator.
“He didn’t have to come out to the courts and watch us play,” Eastman says. “He could have waited in the gym for everyone. But, instead, he made the first move, which made us all work harder and have more respect for him.”
Eastman was on the 1972–1973 Haddonfield basketball team that won the state championship. And while he would go on to play basketball for more coaches at Richmond and then at the pro level for a year, Eastman says Wiedeman was always first in his mind.
“I can safely say that I respect every coach I’ve ever had and been around, but Wiedeman was the best,” he said.
Eastman has used the lessons he learned from Wiedeman in the NBA. He cites the Celtics as a prime example of the teachings he learned in the HMHS gym.
“The Celtics championship team is a great example of what I learned from Wiedeman,” he said. “It’s about the connection coaches have with players. I tried to have a personal relationship with the players and with Doc Rivers, too. And that’s what led that team to the championship. Not their ability on the court, but the bonds they forged. And all that comes right from Wiedeman.”
As vice president of the Clippers, Eastman will no longer have the same relationship with the players. His new position will see him play a bigger role in management, but even still, he sees opportunities to use what he learned in Haddonfield.
“What we’re looking at this season is tough. We have a lot on our plates, but we need to simplify things. If we can find some good complimentary players to mesh together, there’s no reason we can’t have another tremendous season.”
