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He has their backs at all times
Mess with the Kings, deal with team head of security Joe Nolan.
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Joe Nolan, right, clears the way for Rick Adelman on Tuesday night at Arco Arena. Wherever the Kings go, so goes the team's head of security.
Joe Nolan was hit in the head by a cowbell once.
His friends will tell you he never knew the difference, that it was better him than one of the Kings players just a few feet away.
Nolan is the Kings' head of team security, whose job it is to buffer his NBA bunch from any potential dangers. His job has taken a high-profile turn in light of Friday's Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers melee that involved fans and resulted in 143 games worth of player suspensions.
"I was hit in the head because a lady didn't know how the bell worked," Nolan said. "She apologized, but it shows you how close we are to the fans. They're right there."
Nolan is always within striking distance of the Kings. He attends practices. He's on hand for shoot-arounds. For home and away games, he's seated next to the bench. During timeouts, he stands just outside the huddle and scans the crowd, studying faces, sensing moods and trying to keep a pulse on rising tempers.
A thick-bodied sort who looks every bit the part of bouncer with a game-face to match, Nolan escorts players off the Arco Arena floor during home halftime interviews for national television. He provides safety-net clearing for coach Rick Adelman on his way to postgame media interviews.
On the road, Nolan is the first off the team bus, the first into team hotels, the first line of defense for crowds that gather at 3 in the morning just for a glimpse. During road games especially, Nolan hears everything - the taunts, the barbs, the verbal jabs about performance or family, anything to strike a nerve.
"These guys put up with a lot of stuff," Nolan said. "What the fans want is for you to acknowledge them. I try to tell the players to tune them out."
If things get real bad, Nolan doesn't approach the antagonist. He doesn't even talk to him. He notifies arena security.
"I'm always looking around," he said. "I don't trust anyone. These players and coaches, they need to be able to focus on the game. I watch the hands (of fans) more than anything. You never know what they might have."
Nolan was a football star at Armijo High School in Vallejo and an offensive tackle on a Portland State team that reached the Division II national championship game in 1987. He paid his way through college doing security gigs. He later worked Pacific-10 Conference athletic events.
Nolan spent four years as the director of Arco Arena operations, overseeing engineering, utility, janitorial and landscaping departments. At the end of the 2000-01 season, he was hired to provide full-time team security after former Kings guard Jason Williams engaged in verbal confrontations with fans on the road.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the NBA made it mandatory that all teams provide a full-time security man.
"I have a rapport with the players here; I understand them, and they understand me," Nolan said.
Like everyone associated with the NBA, Nolan was disturbed by the events in Detroit. He said team security people like himself aren't allowed to step onto the floor to break up a skirmish. However, he did say if he was in a similar situation with a Kings player laying on the scorer's table - like Indiana's Ron Artest did in Detroit - he would have worked his way behind the scorer's table and demanded the player follow him to safer confines.
During a 2002 preseason game at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Nolan was quick on the scene when Kings guard Doug Christie and the Lakers' Rick Fox tangled. After the players were ejected, Nolan escorted Christie toward the exit tunnel. When they were pelted by debris, Nolan pointed out the culprits to arena security. When Fox raced around the back tunnel to ambush Christie, Nolan was there as a human buffer.
"I have first-hand experience with Joe Nolan, so we have a special type of relationship," Christie said. "He's always there. Whenever someone approaches you, they want something, negative or positive." Said Nolan of the Christie-Fox fracas: "Back then, that sort of thing was unprecedented. I told Doug the other day that we're done with history now. They have that in Detroit."
He has their backs at all times
Mess with the Kings, deal with team head of security Joe Nolan.
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Joe Nolan, right, clears the way for Rick Adelman on Tuesday night at Arco Arena. Wherever the Kings go, so goes the team's head of security.
Joe Nolan was hit in the head by a cowbell once.
His friends will tell you he never knew the difference, that it was better him than one of the Kings players just a few feet away.
Nolan is the Kings' head of team security, whose job it is to buffer his NBA bunch from any potential dangers. His job has taken a high-profile turn in light of Friday's Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers melee that involved fans and resulted in 143 games worth of player suspensions.
"I was hit in the head because a lady didn't know how the bell worked," Nolan said. "She apologized, but it shows you how close we are to the fans. They're right there."
Nolan is always within striking distance of the Kings. He attends practices. He's on hand for shoot-arounds. For home and away games, he's seated next to the bench. During timeouts, he stands just outside the huddle and scans the crowd, studying faces, sensing moods and trying to keep a pulse on rising tempers.
A thick-bodied sort who looks every bit the part of bouncer with a game-face to match, Nolan escorts players off the Arco Arena floor during home halftime interviews for national television. He provides safety-net clearing for coach Rick Adelman on his way to postgame media interviews.
On the road, Nolan is the first off the team bus, the first into team hotels, the first line of defense for crowds that gather at 3 in the morning just for a glimpse. During road games especially, Nolan hears everything - the taunts, the barbs, the verbal jabs about performance or family, anything to strike a nerve.
"These guys put up with a lot of stuff," Nolan said. "What the fans want is for you to acknowledge them. I try to tell the players to tune them out."
If things get real bad, Nolan doesn't approach the antagonist. He doesn't even talk to him. He notifies arena security.
"I'm always looking around," he said. "I don't trust anyone. These players and coaches, they need to be able to focus on the game. I watch the hands (of fans) more than anything. You never know what they might have."
Nolan was a football star at Armijo High School in Vallejo and an offensive tackle on a Portland State team that reached the Division II national championship game in 1987. He paid his way through college doing security gigs. He later worked Pacific-10 Conference athletic events.
Nolan spent four years as the director of Arco Arena operations, overseeing engineering, utility, janitorial and landscaping departments. At the end of the 2000-01 season, he was hired to provide full-time team security after former Kings guard Jason Williams engaged in verbal confrontations with fans on the road.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the NBA made it mandatory that all teams provide a full-time security man.
"I have a rapport with the players here; I understand them, and they understand me," Nolan said.
Like everyone associated with the NBA, Nolan was disturbed by the events in Detroit. He said team security people like himself aren't allowed to step onto the floor to break up a skirmish. However, he did say if he was in a similar situation with a Kings player laying on the scorer's table - like Indiana's Ron Artest did in Detroit - he would have worked his way behind the scorer's table and demanded the player follow him to safer confines.
During a 2002 preseason game at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Nolan was quick on the scene when Kings guard Doug Christie and the Lakers' Rick Fox tangled. After the players were ejected, Nolan escorted Christie toward the exit tunnel. When they were pelted by debris, Nolan pointed out the culprits to arena security. When Fox raced around the back tunnel to ambush Christie, Nolan was there as a human buffer.
"I have first-hand experience with Joe Nolan, so we have a special type of relationship," Christie said. "He's always there. Whenever someone approaches you, they want something, negative or positive." Said Nolan of the Christie-Fox fracas: "Back then, that sort of thing was unprecedented. I told Doug the other day that we're done with history now. They have that in Detroit."
