A Quote by Kelvin Sampson
I didn't want to end my coaching career as an assistant in the NBA.
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Everyone knows Jordan as a winner, and that's what I want to be known as at the end of my playing career. Someone who's won multiple NBA Championships and has made a difference in the NBA.
One thing that the coaching staff and the assistant coaches did a really good job of working me on was shaping myself into an NBA guard.
I didn't realize the difference between coaching college and coaching the NBA. It's a totally different animal.
You look at the assistant coaches under [Pat Riley] that played and they have become prosperous within this game. It triples all the way down from the assistant players to the coaches. Patrick Ewing went into coaching as well as myself.
I've always found myself watching the NBA game more, even when I was coaching college. So I'll probably gravitate toward doing something in the NBA.
I've had the privilege of coaching the best basketball team in the history of the world, and that's the USA national team. I've had a chance to coach them for eight years. If you were to ask me if I could end my career only coaching one team for the rest of my coaching career, I don't think it could get better than that, especially with the players that I've had during those eight years. When you've coached at that level, you know, you've coached those players, it's pretty hard to say, I would rather coach anybody else.
We have to move the meter in sports in Africa, especially basketball. With the growth of the NBA globally, we have to figure out more ways to develop facilities, coaching, leagues, and youth development in Africa. The talent is incredible. Especially physically. How do we get the youth to start playing at an early age just like in soccer? The future is bright. We now have an NBA office in Africa, we have legends and Hall of Famers, we have African assistant coaches, front office members, and some prominent African players over the last 10 years. So we must plan well for the next 10.
I thought 2013 was the end of my coaching career.
I went away to college, and when I came back and was coaching at Pitt, if they would've offered me a 25-year contract to be the assistant coach, I would've taken it so fast. It was ideal. I was coaching one neighborhood over from where I grew up.
I think I've got an outstanding defensive assistant staff that's really going to help us have consistent, strong defenses. And offensively, we have an excellent staff. We've got some younger guys on offense, but that's what I coach and have my entire coaching career.
The Energy job was probably the key. It kind of transitioned me back into the States. It gave me a link to the NBA. And I got to make some contacts and meet some players and get players set up and learn the NBA game and terminology and coaching those type of players. It was certainly a huge, huge key to getting to the NBA.
My first assistant-coaching job in football was at William & Mary in 1961.
I love coaching and not just coaching because it's about winning football games, but coaching because you have an opportunity to impact young men and people and that's what I want to do.
I'd been coaching since the end of my playing career, first with England's Under 21s, then Manchester United, and finally, in Spain with Valencia.
I just want to keep getting better. People used to ask me - when I was winning in the D-League - why I wasn't in the NBA, and I'd tell them, 'I just want to learn and get better.' I figured it'd happen one day, and if it didn't, I really enjoyed my time coaching anyways.
Coaching in the NBA is a tough trick.
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