RABAT, Morocco – The game of basketball has taken NBA champion Sam Vincent all over the world. Now the former NBA journeyman is trying to coach his South African team to a championship in Africa.
The former guard won a championship with Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics and shared the backcourt with Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls during a seven-year career. A former Charlotte Bobcats head coach, Vincent also had stints as coach in the NBA G League, at Beacon College (Fla.), with the Dallas Mavericks as an assistant, as a head coach in professional leagues in Greece and the Netherlands, and with the South Africa and Nigeria’s men and women national teams.
Vincent, 62, is currently in Kigali, Rwanda, coaching Johannesburg’s Made By Ballers in the Basketball Africa League’s Nile Conference action.
“It gives me a global perspective,” Vincent, who lives in Orlando, told Andscape while attending BAL games in Rabat in April. “I love the United States of America, but that’s not the only country in the world. There’s a lot of beautiful places and there’s a lot of amazing cultures. And on any given day I might be talking to somebody in Mykonos, Athens, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, East Lansing (Mich.). So, I appreciate the friendships that I have all around the world.”
There is not an American coach with more extensive coaching experience in Africa than Vincent.
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Vincent was first connected to coaching in South Africa by former Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Reggie Williams, who had connections to Africa while working for the Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex. Vincent first coached in Africa by leading the South African men’s national team to ninth place at the 2003 FIBA Africa Championship.
He coached the Nigerian women’s basketball team during the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, leading D’Tigress to a win against South Korea, which was the first victory by an African women’s basketball team in Olympic history.
Vincent coached the Nigerian men’s national team to an upset over Serbia & Montenegro in the 2006 FIBA World Championship. He also coached the Nigerian women’s basketball team during the 2005 FIBA Africa Championship and during the 2017 FIBA Africa Championship.
On Feb. 4, Vincent returned to coaching in Africa to lead Made By Ball (MBB) in Johannesburg. The team qualified for the NBA-run BAL for the first time this season. MBB was formed in 2010 by a group of current and former basketball players in hopes of celebrating their love of the game while continuing to compete at a high level despite limited professional opportunities.
MBB entered Thursday’s game against Rwanda APR in third place in the Nile Conference with a 1-2 record with three games remaining. MBB’s roster primarily includes South Africans as well as two Americans in former Nevada-Las Vegas guard Jovan Mooring, former Middle Tennessee guard Teafale Lenard Jr., and former Long Island University guard Robinson Opong Odoch, who is Ugandan. MBB must finish in the top two of the four-team conference to earn a spot in BAL playoffs in Pretoria, South Africa.
Vincent has been impressed by the growth of basketball in Africa over the last 25 years and what he has seen in the BAL in its fifth season while led by league president Amadou Fall.
“African basketball has gotten more competitive,” Vincent said. “The players are better, stronger, faster. There is a real space for NBA-level players, not just from the NBA but from places all over the world. It’s a great meeting ground for the game being able to grow. …
“The league is going to explode and take off. It’s ready for explosion. You got great players. You got great cities. You got great management now. And after five years, Amadou has had a chance to really figure it out to see the left and the right. I think it’s going to be a great league.”
Vincent is proud of his NBA playing days, but said coaching all over the world has been life-changing for him.
“When I looked back at my opportunity to coach on four different continents, coach in the Olympics, get to the quarterfinals of the world championships in Tokyo and then make it back to coach full circle with an NBA product, I’m kind of proud of my coaching career,” Vincent said. “It hasn’t been the traditional line, but it’s had good level players. I even had a chance to do some collegiate stuff. I’ve had a chance to touch every area of coaching. So, I’m really excited about it.”