It's not that Cliff Rees is worried about one-upping Clifton "Pop" Herring, who was the basketball coach at Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina, when he famously cut Michael Jordan in the late 1970s. It's just that with Pat Spencer's emergence over the last few weeks as a reserve for the Golden State Warriors, Rees' infamous call to cut the now-6-foot-3 point guard from varsity at Boys' Latin School in Baltimore 12 years ago gets magnified.
Spencer doubled his point production from the regular season to the postseason and has dropped 11 points twice in the playoffs as he and the Warriors look to bounce back from their 3-1 deficit in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals Wednesday.
"Oh man, it was definitely the wrong call," Rees said with a laugh. "The same thing happened to him in lacrosse that year, and me and the lacrosse coach have joked about it for years, like we're definitely the two biggest idiots to coach our sports."
But shunning Spencer, who was a sophomore at the time, from varsity and instead placing him on junior varsity back then didn't exactly prompt a protesting sit-in.
The reality is that, as talented and competitive as he was, Spencer then stood 5-4 and tipped the scales at 120 pounds. He was also an excellent two-sport athlete, balancing lacrosse and hoops.
"We had a really good, senior-heavy team that won 30 games, and I felt like it was better for his development at the time," Rees said. "I wanted him to be in a situation where he was the primary ball handler, where he could do some of everything. Now, in hindsight, yes, he could've played for us."
The following season, Spencer proved just that, averaging 15 points and seven rebounds a game. He increased that to 20 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in his senior season en route to earning all-conference honors.
Former Loyola Maryland guard Jaylin Andrews started as a freshman at Boys' Latin when Spencer was a senior and can vividly recall his mind-boggling intro to the legend that is Pat Spencer.
"I remember I was at a summer league game, and he came down and did a crazy windmill with ease," Andrews said. "I knew right then that he was different. He took me under his wing and taught me a lot about the game and competing and leadership. Pat is just a different animal on the court."
Still, that paled in comparison to Spencer's feats in lacrosse, which turned out to be his collegiate golden ticket, achieving legendary status during his playing days at Loyola Maryland 2016-19. Spencer won the Tewaaraton Award, the highest honor in Division I lacrosse, as a senior and holds the record for most career assists (231).
In 2019, Spencer was picked No. 1 in the inaugural Premier Lacrosse League draft after playing four years in college before deciding to scratch his hoops itch and use his graduate transfer year at Northwestern despite not having played competitively since high school.
"Pat is a basketball player who just happened to be good at lacrosse," Andrews said .
Spencer averaged 10.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists a game for the Wildcats and then had a brief stint overseas before ultimately landing with the Santa Cruz Warriors, the G League affiliate of the Warriors, in July 2022.
In February 2024, he signed a two-way contract with Golden State and made his NBA debut that month against the Denver Nuggets.
To say that Spencer took the road less traveled to his dreams would be putting it mildly.
That said, Rees is not surprised at how it all turned out.
Rees, who played with NBA Hall of Famer David Robinson at the Naval Academy in the 1980s, still maintains that he's "never seen anyone more competitive and determined than Pat."
"If someone were to tell me his story about someone else, I wouldn't believe it," Rees said. "But I'm going to say I'm not surprised that he's made it in the NBA because it's Pat. Anyone who knows him knows what that means, and anyone who knows him knows this is just the beginning."