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Sam Vincent (basketball)

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Sam Vincent
APR
TitleDefensive coach
LeagueBasketball Africa League
Personal information
Born (1963-05-18) May 18, 1963 (age 63)
Lansing, Michigan, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
High schoolEastern (Lansing, Michigan)
CollegeMichigan State (1981–1985)
NBA draft1985: 1st round, 20th overall pick
Drafted byBoston Celtics
Playing career1985–1994
PositionPoint guard
Number11, 14
Coaching career1999–Present
Career history
Playing
1985–1987Boston Celtics
1987–1988Seattle SuperSonics
1988–1989Chicago Bulls
1989–1992Orlando Magic
1993–1994Aris
Coaching
1999–2000Gymnastikos S. Larissas
2000–2001EiffelTowers Den Bosch
2001–2003Mobile Revelers
2004–2005Nigeria (women)
2005–2006Fort Worth Flyers
2006Nigeria (men)
2006–2007Dallas Mavericks (assistant)
2007–2008Charlotte Bobcats
2008–2009Anaheim Arsenal
2014–2016Manama Club
2017–2018Nigeria (women)
2022–2025Beacon College
2025MBB
2025Libya (men)
2025–presentAPR (defensive coach)
Career highlights
Career NBA statistics
Points3,106 (7.8 ppg)
Assists1,543 (3.9 apg)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata
Medals
As coach in Women's basketball
Representing BERJAYA Nigeria
AfroBasket Women
Gold medal – first place 2005 AfroBasket for Women team
Gold medal – first place 2017 AfroBasket for Women team

James Samuel Vincent (born May 18, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player, and coach. He currently works as a defensive coach for MBB of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). Vincent was Mr. Basketball of Michigan in 1981, before playing with Michigan State, and turned professional after four years of college basketball. He became an NBA champion in 1986 with the Boston Celtics. Vincent began a coaching career in Europe after his retirement.

Playing career

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Vincent won the State of Michigan "Mr. Basketball" award in 1981, the first year the award was given. 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 Johnson at Everett High School.

A 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) point guard, Vincent followed in the footsteps of his older brother Jay Vincent, attending Michigan State University and earning Sporting News All-America honors in 1985. After graduating from college, he was selected by the Boston Celtics with the twentieth pick of the 1985 NBA draft. He played two seasons for the Celtics, winning an NBA Championship ring as a reserve in 1986, before joining the Seattle SuperSonics, who promptly traded him to the Chicago Bulls for Sedale Threatt. After one-and-a-half solid seasons with the Bulls, he was selected by the Orlando Magic in the 1989 NBA expansion draft, and he finished his NBA career with the Magic in 1992. His 1990–1991 NBA Hoops basketball card has gained fame due to having Michael Jordan in view wearing a #12 jersey, instead of his normal #23. Vincent scored 3,106 points and tallied 1,543 assists during his seven-year tenure in the league.

Shortly after retiring, Vincent worked at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Walt Disney World. During the late 1990s, he coached basketball in South Africa, and he has also coached in Greece, Netherlands, Nigeria, and the NBA Developmental League; he went to the league finals in the NBADL twice, winning once. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, he led the Nigerian women's basketball team to a 68–64 victory over South Korea, which was the first ever victory by an African nation in an Olympic women's basketball contest.

Coaching career

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He was coach of the Fort Worth Flyers in the 2005–06 season. Shortly after coaching the Nigeria men's team to the second round of the 2006 FIBA World Championship (including a shocking upset of traditional power Serbia and Montenegro), he was hired as an assistant coach by the Dallas Mavericks.

On May 25, 2007, Vincent was introduced as the new head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats of the NBA.[1] On April 26, 2008, Vincent was relieved of his head coaching duties.[2] Later that year, Vincent was named the head coach of the Anaheim Arsenal of the NBA Development League.

Nigerian national team

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Vincent assumed coaching the D'Tigress at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He led the team to a 68–64 victory over South Korea, the victory was the first victory by an African side in the women's basketball event in the Olympics. In 2005, Vincent led the Nigerian women's basketball team to their second African tournament victory, in the FIBA African Basketball Championship (later re-named AfroBasket). In 2017 he was announced to be coaching the team for the 2017 AfroBasket,[3] eventually leading them to another gold medal, with a perfect, undefeated record in the Bamako, Mali tournament. The team clinched their third Afrobasket title by defeating Senegal 65–48 in the final and consequently qualified for the 2018 FIBA women's basketball World cup in Spain.[4]

Vincent had his appointment as head coach of the Nigeria Women's Basketball Team terminated by the Nigeria Basketball Federation on Thursday, August 2 while the team was preparing for the 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup.[5]

Vincent was appointed as head coach of the Bahrain national basketball team, replacing Serbian coach Darko Ruso. This was after having coached the Riffa, Manama and Al-Ahli Manama clubs.[6]

In September 2022, Vincent was named the first head coach of the men's team at Beacon College, a liberal arts school in Central Florida.[7]

On February 4, 2025, Vincent was announced as the new head coach of South African club MBB of the Basketball Africa League (BAL).[8][9] Former Magic player Pat Burke took over the position as head men's basketball coach and director of athletics at Beacon in March 2025.[10] MBB was eliminated in the group phase of the BAL, following a 2–4 record. On June 4, Vincent joined Rwandan team APR as a defensive coach ahead of the 2025 BAL playoffs, while also expressing his intention to stay on as MBB's head coach.[11]

Libyan national team

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For the 2025 FIBA AfroBasket, he became head coach for Team Libya.[12]

Personal

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Vincent has kids, who have the South African nationality.[9]

Career playing statistics

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Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
 †  Won an NBA championship

NBA

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Source[13]

Regular season

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1985–86† Boston 57 0 7.6 .364 .250 .929 .8 1.2 .3 .1 3.2
1986–87 Boston 46 5 8.1 .441 – .927 .6 1.3 .3 .0 3.7
1987–88 Seattle 43 0 12.7 .474 .385 .767 1.1 3.2 .5 .1 4.5
Chicago 29 27 32.9 .447 .375 .925 3.6 8.4 1.2 .4 13.0
1988–89 Chicago 70 56 24.3 .484 .118 .822 2.7 4.8 .8 .1 9.4
1989–90 Orlando 63 45 26.3 .457 .071 .879 3.1 5.6 1.0 .3 11.2
1990–91 Orlando 49 17 19.9 .431 .158 .825 2.2 4.0 .6 .1 8.3
1991–92 Orlando 39 18 22.7 .430 .077 .846 2.6 3.8 .9 .1 10.5
Career 396 168 19.0 .449 .182 .863 2.1 3.9 .7 .2 7.8

Playoffs

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1986† Boston 9 0 4.6 .286 .000 1.000 .8 .6 .2 .0 2.4
1987 Boston 17 0 8.3 .411 .500 .771 .7 1.1 .2 .1 4.4
1988 Chicago 10 10 25.1 .373 .000 .800 1.9 4.4 .8 .1 10.2
1989 Chicago 16 0 7.1 .303 .000 .750 .5 1.2 .2 .1 1.8
Career 52 10 10.5 .361 .125 .795 .9 1.7 .3 .1 4.4

Head coaching record

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NBA

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Legend
Regular season G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win–loss %
Playoffs PG Playoff games PW Playoff wins PL Playoff losses PW–L % Playoff win–loss %
Team Year G W L W–L% Finish PG PW PL PW–L% Result
Charlotte 2007–08 82 32 50 .390 4th in Southeast — — — — Missed Playoffs
Career 82 32 50 .390 — — — —

College

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Record table
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Beacon College NaviGators (men) () (2022–2023)
2022–23 Beacon College 0–5[14] Unaffiliated (Developmental Season)
Beacon College Blazers (men) () (2023–Present)
2023–24 Beacon College 10–6[15] USCAA Division I Independent
Total: 10–11 (.476)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

References

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  1. ^ Charlotte Bobcats (May 25, 2007). "Bobcats New Era Begins With Vincent". Charlotte Bobcats. Archived from the original on March 7, 2009.
  2. ^ Bobcats fire Sam Vincent; is Brown interested?
  3. ^ "D'Tigresses Coach Vincent names preliminary squad for FIBA Women's AfroBasket 2017". brila.net. July 28, 2017.
  4. ^ "Sam Vincent|: Beating the Odds". This Day. September 9, 2017.
  5. ^ "BREAKING: Nigeria D'Tigress Head Coach Sam Vincent fired! | BWB". www.basketballwithinborders.com. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
  6. ^ "Former NBA player Sam Vincent signed as coach of Bahrain's national basketball team | TOB". www.timeoutbahrain.com. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  7. ^ "Faculty and Staff Archive".
  8. ^ MBB Basketball [@mbb_basketball]; (February 4, 2025). "MBB welcomes Sam Vincent! Sam Vincent, a former NBA champion and well established international coach with incredible impact over many years, is joining Team MBB as head coach for BAL Season 5! Sam has a deep love for our country and continent, and is ready to bring his invaluable experience and passion for the game to our players and team. GHIV US Everything you've got Coach! Let's go! #iTeamYaseDladleni #GHIVUS #MadeByBall" – via Instagram.
  9. ^ a b "South Africa's MBB appoint former Mavs coach Sam Vincent for BAL". ESPN.com. February 5, 2025. Retrieved March 27, 2025.
  10. ^ "Burke Appointed as Athletics Director". beaconcollege.edu. March 2025.
  11. ^ "MBB coach Vincent joins Rwanda's APR for BAL playoffs". ESPN.com. June 4, 2025. Retrieved June 6, 2025.
  12. ^ Libya | 2025 FIBA AfroBasket, FIBA. Retrieved August 2025.
  13. ^ "Sam Vincent NBA stats". Basketball Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved March 26, 2026.
  14. ^ "Beacon College 2022–23 Men's Basketball Game Log" – via Google Sheets.
  15. ^ "Beacon Men's Basketball 2023–24 Game Log" – via Google Docs.
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