He was the Jazz's resident philosopher. Maybe that's because he had all that time to think.
Gordon Chiesa, the team's longtime assistant coach, rises daily at 4:15 a.m. to work out. On game nights he doesn't get to bed until after midnight. Still, he rises at the same time the next day.
"I've been blessed, in that I don't need a lot of sleep," says Chiesa.
Which should serve him well again this week. Chiesa was scheduled to catch a plane this morning for China, where he will be working in a basketball camp. He spent the early part of the weekend cleaning out his office and preparing for a move back to his home state of New Jersey. After 16 years with the Jazz, he was hired Thursday as the Nets' top assistant coach.
None of which is likely to interfere with his workouts.
"Every day, six days a week, I work out at 5 a.m." Chiesa says. "Including tomorrow morning."
It gives him, in his own words, "a lot of time to think about basketball" — not to mention family, the greenhouse effect, conspiracy theories, black holes, urban renewal, the perfect cucumber dill sauce, Nelson Mandela, Billy Crystal and most any other subject.
"I try to live my life like the 24-second clock is on," he says.
Along the way, Chiesa developed a reputation as a sort of Aristotle in sneakers. The media loves him. Of the Jazz's four on-floor coaches, Chiesa was easily the most quotable — as long as it didn't involve controversy or contradiction. Otherwise, ask him about LeBron James or Kevin Garnett; he'll fill up your notebook. But you can also elicit an educated opinion on health care, relationships, nutrition, education. He reads newspapers, magazines and books — the latter at a 2-1 ratio between basketball and non-fiction. His favorite non-hoops book: "Long Walk to Freedom" by Mandela.
"He's my personal hero," says Chiesa.
He also sees at least one movie a week. "When Harry Met Sally," the relationship classic starring Crystal and Meg Ryan, is his favorite. Which makes sense. In Chiesa's world, whether it's marriage, handling the media, or coaching, it's all about communication. His philosophy on getting along with players is simple: even multimillionaire athletes want to be understood.
"I don't look at them as millionaires. I look at them as people. They need to feel their worth and they will play much better for you. We spend much time on technical skills of people but little on the people skills. It's backward."
There is more to Chiesa, of course. Much more. For instance:
He's a health fanatic. "You can't put a price on your health," he says.
Aside from the pre-dawn workouts, he eats carefully, drinks plenty of water and watches his weight. That wasn't the case in the early 1980s, when he was 15 pounds heavier, because he was "not conscious of nutrition." Who is at 30?
He was fired after less than a year as the head coach at Providence College, where he had the misfortune to follow Rick Pitino's Final Four team.
"Politics," says Chiesa.
He held one job seven months, another for 16 years.
"What I learned from that is just resiliency. Everywhere I've coached, I've tried to do the right thing. I try to use commonly common sense." (In pro sports! Who would have imagined?)
He truly loves Salt Lake, despite being a native of New Jersey. "I have two homes, one in the West, in Salt Lake City — forever — and one in the East right now."
He wants to write a screenplay. "A love story that involves life in the NBA," he tells a writer, "and I'll include you in it. You can play yourself. I want to write some sort of love story that includes a basketball player. There will also be a coach, a referee and it will have a happy ending, because I've been a coach for 32 years and it's been a wonderful run."
He is the all-time assist leader at St. Thomas Aquinas College.
Which raises the inevitable comparison to John Stockton.
"I rate a distant millionth," says Chiesa. "Remember, coaches learn from the players, too."
No false humility there.
Just commonly common sense.
E-mail: rock@desnews.com