Former Temple star Candice Dupree begins coaching career at San Antonio Spurs

While at the airport following the 2022 NBA Scouting Combine in Chicago, Candice Dupree received a text message from San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Mitch Johnson asking about her future plans.

After completing the NBA Assistant Coaches Program, Dupree hoped to latch on with a staff at Summer League. And Johnson had already done his homework on the former Temple star, including a chat with former Spurs assistant Becky Hammon, now the Las Vegas Aces coach.

“Well, if you want to rock with us, you can,” Johnson told Dupree.

That ignited Dupree’s coaching career, following 16 years as a player in the WNBA and overseas before retiring in 2021. She is nearing the end of her second season as a Spurs player development coach, working under the legendary Gregg Popovich, who’s building for the future with a young roster and generational superstar Victor Wembanyama.

She will be behind the bench when the Spurs take on the 76ers Sunday in San Antonio, another opportunity for her to see her individualized work with players carry over to game action.

“From what you taught them on Day 1 [to] the end of the season, and seeing how much they’ve grown as players,” Dupree told The Inquirer by phone earlier this week, “that part is probably the most fun aspect for me.”

Dupree’s responsibilities range from helping create scouting reports, to being the point person for players who go between the Spurs and the G League affiliate 80 miles away in Austin. But she spends hours on the court for personal workouts, sharpening players’ skills and ways to best utilize them within the team’s concepts. With point guard Tre Jones, for instance, the staff has emphasized not taking floaters early in the shot clock, and not so far from the rim that they are essentially pull-up jumpers. Like many NBA teams, the Spurs are focused on generating shots at the rim or beyond the three-point arc.

“It’s pounding that piece into the ground,” Dupree said. “You either have to get all the way to the rim and finish, or finish through contact, or get fouled and shoot free throws. And we’re also going to work on your spot-up threes, threes in the corner. If somebody drives, spacing off of that drive and being able to catch and shoot.

“He’s grown tremendously in that area. … He’s one of the best finishers that we have on the team.”

Dupree said she aims to keep those workouts productive yet high energy. She will recruit video coordinators to get on the floor to offer live contact, and playfully trash-talk her players. Then, she will tap them on the head and sincerely ask, “How are you doing?”

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“I’m talking about the mental piece,” Dupree said. " … We’ll sit and we’ll chat and they vent. I think they know that trust factor is there. The stuff that they share with me isn’t going to go anywhere else. I try to give them as much advice as I can, based off of my own experiences.”

Being on San Antonio’s staff also has given Dupree an up-close view of the “super-structured” way in which Popovich operates daily, and how he makes philosophical and strategic decisions during meetings. She is amazed by the bountiful resources at the NBA level compared to her experience as a player, noting “there’s somebody for everything” on staff. She is immersed in the wild fanfare and instant impact of the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama, calling the 20-year-old “very receptive, very coachable, just a great guy to work with.”

That also means she was on the other side of Joel Embiid’s 70-point game against the Spurs in January.

“He just kept knocking down little jumpers from the free-throw line,” Dupree recalled. " … The next thing you know, he’s got 60-something points.”

Dupree acknowledges she was not prepared for the grind of an 82-game NBA season, and the extensive travel that accompanies it. Her mother helps take care of her 6-year-old twin daughters when she is on the road. And when Dupree is at home, she will work on post-workout film and scouting remotely so she can pick them up from school, make them dinner, and put them to bed.

That is all under consideration as Dupree charts how she hopes to progress through this career path. Her ultimate goal is to be a head coach, though she is not yet sure what level or league she wants to pursue. But she is grateful for Johnson’s text message nearly two years ago that launched her transition to this side of the game, and all the behind-the-scenes learning since then.

She also feels a burst of connection to Philly whenever an NBA colleague — including Kyle Lowry while with the Miami Heat earlier this season — sends a photo message from Temple’s facility, where teams often hold practice or shootaround, and Dupree is still prominently displayed on a wall just outside the gym.

“They’re just like, ‘Legend!’” Dupree said with a chuckle. “And I’m like, ‘Get out of here.’”