Another long practice has ended, and players are finishing interviews or lifting weights or climbing into the cars, speeding away from the Furtado Center.

But Dwane Casey still is in the gym.

Luke Ridnour is asking for extra work on his jumper. Or maybe Mateen Cleaves wants more drills. Or Damien Wilkins. Or Robert Swift.

And after they leave, Casey stays in his office looking at tape of the next opponent, looking for an edge, something he might have missed the first 50 times he looked at that same tape.

"Case is the most prepared coach, day in and day out, that I've ever been around," Sonics assistant Dean Demopoulos said. "Painstakingly so. He's dedicated to his work and to his craft. The franchise that takes the opportunity to give him a job is going to get one of the finest coaches in the country."

Casey's only opportunities to be an NBA coach always have come through tragedies, a death or illness in head coach Nate McMillan's family. Last night, for the third time in his 11 seasons in Seattle, Casey coached the Sonics. McMillan flew home to North Carolina on Sunday to be with his mother, Jeannette Tyson, who died later that night.

He will miss tonight's game at Sacramento and may miss Saturday's home game against Charlotte.

"I don't enjoy taking over under these circumstances," Casey said before the Sonics' 103-84 loss to San Antonio. "It's no fun when it's under trying circumstances. This isn't what I want to do. I'd much rather be sitting here as the new head coach, taking over a new team."

In this dare-to-dream season, when the Sonics are leading the Northwest Division with a 30-13 record, Casey, 47, who has been McMillan's associate head coach for the past four years, still dreams about the next head-coaching vacancy and the chance that might be his.

Two seasons ago he was a finalist for the Toronto Raptors' job. He lost out to Kevin O'Neill, who barely made it through one tumultuous 33-win season. O'Neill's successor, Sam Mitchell, is nine games below .500 this season.

Casey was the better choice for both jobs.

"He'll do fine wherever he goes," Demopoulos said. "There are a lot of coaches who haven't made a name for themselves as head coaches simply because they haven't gotten the opportunity.

"But you can look around the league at guys and see some guys who you thought would never get the opportunity and did and took advantage of it and have done very, very good jobs.

"There are guys who haven't played in this league, who have worked their way up the coaching ranks, who have worked on their craft for years and years and have transferred it to the highest of levels."

The trend is to recycle coaches — Rudy Tomjanovich with the Lakers, Jim O'Brien in Philadelphia, Doc Rivers in Boston, Mike Dunleavy with the Clippers, even former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery with Golden State.

Casey, however, takes heart at the successes of the exceptions — Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, Stan Van Gundy in Miami, Lawrence Frank in New Jersey.

"Whoever hires Dwane will be getting a guy who is very, very well prepared," Demopoulos said. "A guy who understands human beings and how they work. And understands the dynamics of leadership."

Casey should have been interviewed in Denver and Memphis. The New York Knicks, instead of going all gooey over Phil Jackson, should look at Casey.

"He's just waiting, and it's up to somebody else to pull the trigger," said San Antonio guard Brent Barry, a Sonic for five years. "I don't know when it's going to happen, but he's always mentioned as a guy who's going to make a good head coach in the league one day.

"And I know, for Coach Casey, he doesn't want to be thought of as one of those guys who was always going to make a good coach one day and then doesn't get the chance. Who knows when the opportunity will come? But he's out there and people know about him."

Casey remains a teacher. You get the feeling he would stay in the gym as long as there was one last player willing to drill.

"He's always been really good with the younger players, developing work ethic with the younger guys," Barry said. "I remember my first year, he was always with Rashard Lewis. Always getting Rashard to get some extra shots up.

"He would always pull the younger guys aside and make sure they understood the work it was going to take to make it. I remember him talking with Shammond Williams and explaining some of the things Gary (Payton) would do.

"He always seems to tug on the strings of the young guys like Luke, and he always gets their ear."

With his good friend grieving in North Carolina, with his star, Ray Allen, at home with the flu, Dwane Casey got an opportunity to be a head coach last night.

But he has earned the right to do much more. All he needs is the same chance Popovich and Van Gundy already were given.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com