A former star of US basketball has spoken about his love of the sport and how his shot at coaching with some of the kingdom’s leading clubs has reinvigorated his passion for the game.
The ex-National Basketball Association (NBA) ace and now highly-respected coach Sam Vincent, who played alongside some of the game’s greats including Michael Jordan and Larry Bird, has recently guided Riffa to glory and wants to assist more local youngsters to pick up the ball and dribble their way to success.
“I love Bahrain,” said Coach Vincent. “I have had some of my best basketball moments in this country … and some of my worst as well! I’m passionate about coaching and I so enjoy working with the players in Bahrain.”
The 56-year-old, who is currently relaxing with his family in Orlando in the US sunshine state of Florida, ended the season on a high note with his team winning the Khalifa bin Salman Cup after beating the reigning Zain Bahrain Basketball League champions Muharraq 76 to 61.
The NBA star has told GulfWeekly that he is already looking forward to next season which will kick off on August 1 with the traditional Bahrain Super Cup where the two top teams will face off yet again.
The Zain Bahrain Basketball League will then commence the following week and run until March 2020 alongside the Khalifa bin Salman Cup.
Vincent has coached all over the world including in the Olympics, the NBA, the NBA Minor League and with several teams in Europe as well. His Bahrain adventure has also included spells at Al Ahli Club and Manama. He led the Manama team to a third-place finish in the 35th GCC Clubs Basketball Championship in Kuwait City and helped them win league titles too.
Vincent is also well known for staging corporate workshops and basketball clinics at schools in the kingdom to further develop young players and hopefully build the stars of tomorrow as part of his Global Coach Academy.
He recently hosted a friendly Bahrain Basketball All Stars Day with aluminum giants Alba after the conclusion of a Leadership and Basketball Camp for Youngsters.
“The All Stars Day was a chance to recognise some of the top players from the Bahrain professional league for a friendly competition against the US Navy All Stars,” said Vincent, who is also the director of sports operations at CES Academy, a college sports preparatory academy for young men and women from Grades 7 to 12.
“I’m happy with the growth of basketball in Bahrain and the players are getting better and the teams are improving.
“I hope to share my experiences as a professional player and coach to benefit others as my aim is to continue coaching and helping players achieve their dreams.
“My advice to any aspiring player is to work very hard, be passionate about improving, have confidence in yourself and your dreams and never believe you can’t improve.”
These were the very words he lived by during the pursuit of his own hoop dreams.
Vincent grew up in Lansing, Michigan and started playing the game at the age of seven, with the hopes of following in the footsteps of his brother Jay, a 6’7” tall forward who played at Michigan State University where he teamed up with the legendary Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson Jr and Greg Kelser to win the 1979 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament. Magic Johnson went on to international acclaim and played for the Los Angeles Lakers for 13 seasons.
“I started playing because of Jay and also because of Magic Johnson,” said Vincent, a formidable 6’2” tall point guard. They were great players and I was very close to them. My parents were also very supportive and all of my brothers helped me to develop as a player.
“What I love about basketball is the opportunity to compete as a group of players that are working together as a team to achieve a goal.”
Vincent won the State of Michigan ‘Mr Basketball’ Award in 1981. He attended Lansing’s Eastern High School, where he scored 61 points in one game as a senior, breaking the previous city scoring record of 54 set by Magic at Everett High School.
After graduating from college, Vincent was selected by the Boston Celtics with the 20th pick of the 1985 NBA draft.
He played two seasons for the Celtics, winning an NBA Championship ring as a reserve in 1986. “We won the NBA Championship in my rookie season and I was proud to represent the Celtics,” added Vincent.
He then joined the Seattle Super Sonics, who promptly traded him to the Chicago Bulls where he played alongside Michael Jordan. After one-and-a-half solid seasons with the Bulls, he was selected by the Orlando Magic in the 1989 NBA expansion draft where he remained until the end of his NBA career in 1992. He scored 3,106 points and tallied 1,543 assists during his seven-year tenure in the league.
Vincent then set out to coach and develop players internationally, allowing basketball to be his form of universal language.
He worked at Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Walt Disney World and during the late 1990s, and later coached basketball in South Africa. He also coached in Greece, Netherlands, Nigeria, Jamaiaca, China and Senegal.
He led the Nigerian women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, to a 68–64 victory over South Korea at the 2004 Summer Olympics, which was the first-ever victory by an African nation in an Olympic women’s basketball contest.
In 2005, he led the Nigerian Women Basketball team to their second tournament victory in the FIBA African Basketball Championship (Afrobasket).
He was coach of the Fort Worth Flyers in the 2005–06 seasons and he also was hired as an assistant coach by the Dallas Mavericks after helping Nigeria’s men team to the second round of the 2006 FIBA World Championship.
In 2007, Vincent was introduced as the new head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats of the NBA and in 2008 he was named the head coach of the Anaheim Arsenal of the NBA Development League.
Vincent returned as the D’Tigress team’s head coach in 2017 and guided them to a 100 per cent performance in the 2017 FIBA African women’s basketball tournament Afrobasket in Mali.
The team clinched their third Afrobasket title by defeating Senegal by 65–48 points in the final and consequently qualifying for the FIBA women’s basketball World cup in Spain.
In Bahrain his court wisdom and knowledge continues to inspire. Riffa’s team captain, Abdulrahman Tareq Ghali explained: “I first met Coach Vincent when I was playing with Al Ahli Club years ago and he was coaching there,” said the 30-year-old centre and power forward from Hamad Town.
“He is a great coach - strict and dedicated. We would train with him twice-a-day and also a couple of hours before each game. When he puts his mind to achieving something then nothing can stop him.
“He told me that he believed in us and that this game was no joke. He takes it seriously and is very passionate about it. We won the Cup and our next step is the league title. We will follow him anywhere!”
