Former Timberwolves Player Sam Mitchell Shares Coaching Wisdom
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Former Timberwolves player Sam Mitchell has been a head coach in the NBA twice. He says he's learned a lot about the game and leadership along the way.
"The most important thing I've learned probably through all my coaching stops is the relationship with the players," Mitchell said.
His latest stop? The college game at Memphis where Penny Hardaway is the head coach and Mike Miller an assistant.
"It was exciting. Knowing that, I mean, I played against Penny and Mike – they actually have some footage of Penny dunking on me when I played for the Timberwolves – players used to give me a hard time about that," Mitchell said.
He knows the game and learned some of it from his first NBA coach, Bill Musselman.
"If Bill Musselman told me to run through that wall, I would because I trusted that if he points to the spot on that wall, its a soft spot, and he was never going to put me in a situation to fail," Mitchell said.
But this college game is a bit different.
"The thing about college is you can win games, coaching really matters in college because you're not going to have the talent like a Duke or Kentucky, so you gotta figure out how to use the pieces that you have, and then you have to realize that you're coaching 17-year-olds to 21-year-olds," Mitchell said.
But Sam Mitchell says he is still learning the college game.
