Daniel Ricardo Manning is an American college basketball coach and retired National Basketball Association player. He most recently served as the men's head coach at Wake Forest. Manning played high school basketball at Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas, college basketball at the University of Kansas, and played in the NBA for 14 years. After retiring from professional basketball Manning became an assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of Kansas. He won the national championship with the Jayhawks in 1988 as a player, and again as an assistant in 2008. He is the all-time leading scorer in Kansas basketball history with 2,951 points. The next closest player to his point total is Nick Collison, who is 854 points behind Manning.
Early life
Manning is the son of Ed Manning, who was a longtime NBA and ABA player and professional and college coach. As a junior at Page High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, Manning averaged 18.8 points and nine rebounds per game, leading the Pirates to a 26–0 record and the state title. When Ed Manning became an assistant coach at the University of Kansas prior to Manning's senior year, the family moved to Lawrence, Kansas and Manning attended Lawrence High School, where as a senior he was named Kansas Player of the Year. While in Lawrence High, Manning played alongside future United States federal judgeSri Srinivasan.
College career
Manning led the Jayhawks to the 1988 NCAA title as a senior, leaving KU as its all-time leading scorer and rebounder. He was also the all-time leading scorer in Big Eight Conference history with 2,951 career points. He won the Wooden, Naismith, and Eastman Awards as the college player of the year in 1988. In Kansas's 83–79 victory over Oklahoma in the 1988 NCAA Final, Manning recorded 31 points, 18 rebounds, 5 steals and 2 blocked shots. For his seemingly single-handed performance in propelling the underdog Jayhawks to the title, as well as KU's unremarkable record going into the NCAA tournament, the 1988 Kansas team was nicknamed "Danny and the Miracles" and Manning was honored as Most Outstanding Player in the tournament. A two-time All-American while at KU, Manning was later named the Big Eight Player of the Decade. Kansas retired his famous #25 in February of 1992. Manning was selected to the last all-amateur USA national basketball team in 1988, which competed at the Summer Olympics against all-professional Soviet and Yugoslavian teams in Seoul, South Korea. The team won the bronze medal, but was viewed as a disappointment, as they had been heavy favorites to win the gold until their loss to the Soviet Union in a semi-final game. Manning failed to score even a single point in that game, and afterward called it "one of the biggest disappointments of my life."
Manning was drafted with the first overall pick by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1988 NBA draft. He played only 26 games as a rookie after a torn anterior cruciate ligament required him to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery, but he returned for the 1989–1990 season. His most productive NBA season was 1992–1993, when he averaged 22.8 points a game for the Clippers and was selected to play in the All-Star Game. He also was selected as an All-Star the following season. On February 24, 1994, Manning was traded to the Atlanta Hawks for Dominique Wilkins and a first-round draft pick. In Los Angeles, he played for head coaches Gene Shue, Don Casey, Mike Schuler, Mack Calvin, Larry Brown, Bob Weiss, and Bill Fitch. In Atlanta, he played for Lenny Wilkins. Manning was a two time NBA All-Star in 1993 and 1994. Continuing knee problems forced Manning to become a part-time player in 1996 after he had undergone two more surgeries. He is still the only player to return to the NBA after three ACL surgeries.
He won the 1997–1998Sixth Man Award, while playing for the Phoenix Suns, as the best reserve player in the NBA, averaging 13.5 points while playing about 26 minutes a game. Manning holds the distinction of being the first NBA player to have returned to play after reconstructive surgeries on both knees. In Phoenix, he played for head coaches Paul Westphal, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Danny Ainge, and Scott Skiles.
Manning was traded to the Orlando Magic along with Pat Garrity and a conditional first-round draft pick for Anfernee Hardaway in 1999, and was subsequently traded to the Milwaukee Bucks with Dale Ellis in exchange for Armen Gilliam and Chris Gatling prior to the start of the 1999–2000 season. He played for George Karl. He spent the final three years of his career with the Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, and Detroit Pistons. In Utah, he provided valuable scoring off the bench. The Jazz, always on the lookout for veteran role players to surround John Stockton and Karl Malone. Averaged 7.4 points per game and 2.6 rebounds as the Jazz qualified for the 2001 NBA Playoffs, where they faced a young and talented Dallas Mavericks team, averaged 10.6 points in the series. Manning played in Utah for Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan. In 2001, Manning headed to Dallas to play for Hall of Fame coach Don Nelson. He finished his NBA career in Detroit playing for head coach Rick Carlisle.
Coaching career
Assistant at Kansas
He announced his retirement from professional basketball in 2003 and served for four years at the University of Kansas as director of student-athlete development and team manager under KU basketball coach Bill Self. Manning was promoted to assistant coach at the end of the 2006–07 season as a replacement for Tim Jankovich who left the Kansas staff to take the position of head coach at Illinois State University. Manning became a key component of the Jayhawks coaching staff, filling vital roles in both recruiting and his work training the team's big men. In his role as KU assistant coach, Manning worked with the Jayhawk big men and earned a reputation as one of the best coaches of big men in the country. He coached 12 NBA draft picks, including eight first round selections. Kansas bigs among those NBA draft picks during his tenure included Wayne i need help-Danny Manning an Wright, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun, Cole Aldrich, twins Marcus Morris and Markieff Morris, Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey. Manning recruited two McDonald's High School All-Americans, including 2010 NBA first-round draft pick and Oklahoman Xavier Henry. He also coached two Academic All-Americans – Cole Aldrich and Tyrel Reed. Aldrich was selected as the 2010 Academic All-America of the Year for men's basketball. He spent a total of nine years on the staff at Kansas.
Tulsa
On April 4, 2012, Manning was officially announced as Tulsa's head coach. In his first year, the Golden Hurricane posted a 17–16 overall record and an 8–8 mark in Conference USA play, finishing fifth in the league's regular season. With the fifth-least-experienced team in the nation in 2012–13 and battling injuries all season, TU advanced to the semifinals of the Conference USA Championship and played in the CBI postseason tournament. Two Hurricane players, James Woodard and D'Andre Wright, were selected to the C-USA All-Freshman Team. Tulsa improved their record to 21–13 in Manning's 2nd year, while going 13 – 3 in Conference play. Tulsa subsequently emerged as the C-USA regular season leader, and won the Conference tournament to advance onto a NCAA tournament berth for the first time since 2003. The Golden Hurricane lost in the second round to the UCLA Bruins 76–59.
Wake Forest
On April 4, 2014, Manning agreed to become the head coach at Wake Forest University. After going 78–111 in six seasons with the Demon Deacons, Manning was fired on April 25, 2020.
Manning is the son of former NBA player, Ed Manning. Manning's own son, Evan, was a walk-on for the men's basketball team at Kansas where he played for four seasons, while his daughter, Taylor, was a member of the Kansas volleyball team. Manning was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on November 23, 2008. In addition to his College Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement, in June 2008 Manning was named to the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame for his early high school career at Page High School in North Carolina. He is also a member of the Lawrence High School Hall of Fame.
