Sampson’s next address
Kelvin Sampson wants to be a head coach again.
Returning to the NCAA is a long shot, given his current state of exile and a five-year “show cause” tag that requires any potential employer to jump through hoops to hire him as their hoops coach.
Sampson someday coaching in the NBA isn’t nearly so farfetched.
We were all stunned when Indiana hired Sampson fresh off an NCAA investigation at OU. Sampson was saddled with his own personal sanctions which, according to the NCAA, he failed to adhere to while at Indiana. Sampson is now in his first season as an assistant with the NBA Milwaukee Bucks.
Ignore, if you can, the 687 or so illegal contacts that happened under Sampson’s watch at OU and IU. Had Sampson been clean and had there been no NCAA investigation, would it have been so crazy for him to be a candidate at Indiana? The answer is no.
At his core, Sampson is an obsessed basketball coach with high demands of his players, his assistant coaches and himself. He saps as much out of any player as any coach you will find anywhere. Would this demanding style of coaching fly in the pros? Maybe for a coaching veteran bound for the Hall of Fame, but not for a rookie NBA coach.
Sampson had his eye on the NBA before. Sampson said he contemplated becoming the first-ever coach of the Vancouver Grizzlies when general manager and friend Stu Jackson tried to lure him in 1995.
Given the current circumstances, the 53-year-old Sampson returning to Division I college ball is extremely doubtful. However, Sampson giving it the old college try at the NBA level is not a crazy notion.
Will Sampson ever get an NBA opportunity? For the next five years, I’d say there’s a better chance of Sampson getting an NBA offer than there is of him getting an offer at the NCAA Division I level.
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