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Sam Mitchell (basketball)

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Sam Mitchell
Mitchell with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2014
Personal information
Born (1963-09-02) September 2, 1963 (age 61)
Columbus, Georgia, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Listed weight210 lb (95 kg)
Career information
High schoolColumbus (Columbus, Georgia)
CollegeMercer (1981–1985)
NBA draft1985: 3rd round, 54th overall pick
Selected by the Houston Rockets
Playing career1985–2002
PositionSmall forward
Number42, 5
Coaching career2002–2019
Career history
As player:
1985–1986Wisconsin Flyers
1986Tampa Bay Flash
1986–1987Rapid City Thrillers
1987–1989Montpellier
1989–1992Minnesota Timberwolves
1992–1995Indiana Pacers
1995–2002Minnesota Timberwolves
As coach:
2002–2004Milwaukee Bucks (assistant)
2004–2008Toronto Raptors
2010–2012New Jersey Nets (assistant)
2014–2015Minnesota Timberwolves (assistant)
2015–2016Minnesota Timberwolves (interim)
2018–2019Memphis (assistant)
Career highlights and awards
As player:

As coach:

Career NBA statistics
Points8,636 (8.7 ppg)
Rebounds3,711 (3.7 rpg)
Assists1,089 (1.1 apg)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference

Samuel E. Mitchell Jr. (born September 2, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. Playing at small forward, Mitchell's 18-year professional basketball career spanned three decades, and was most notable for his ten seasons with the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves, whom he also coached as an interim for the 2015–16 season. Mitchell coached for the Toronto Raptors from 2004 to 2008 as well, winning Coach of the Year Award in 2007.

Mitchell has since worked as an analyst for TSN, NBA TV, and works as a talk show co-host/analyst on SiriusXM NBA Radio.

Early years

[edit]

Mitchell graduated from Columbus High School in 1981. He spent the next four years playing college basketball at Mercer University (1981–85), and scored nearly 2,000 points, becoming the leading scorer in Bears history. He led the team to both the regular-season and postseason Trans American Atlantic Conference championships in 1985. Averaging 25 points and 8.2 rebounds per game as a senior, Mitchell led the Bears to just their second NCAA tournament in team history in 1985; they would not return for nearly 30 years, until the 2014 tournament.

Mitchell had enlisted in the Army during his junior year, and at the conclusion of the 1985 NCAA tournament he went to boot camp at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He left one month later when he was drafted by the Houston Rockets with the 7th pick of the 3rd round (54th overall) in the 1985 NBA draft. However, he was cut during final cuts and joined the Wisconsin Flyers of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA).

Unhappy in the CBA, Mitchell quit the team midway through the season to return home to Georgia, where a former professor hired him a special education teacher for the remainder of the school year. With his summer off, he tried out for the U.S. Basketball League, and joined the Tampa Bay Flash, who he helped lead to the league title. He rejoined the Rockets for training camp afterwards, but was once again cut and joined the CBA, splitting the season between the Wisconsin Flyers and Rapid City Thrillers. He then joined the French LNB Pro A team of Montpellier Basket (coached by Pierre Galle) for the end of the 1987–88 and the whole 1988–89 season.

Success overseas led to a renewed interest from the NBA, and Mitchell earned a contract with the newly formed Minnesota Timberwolves. He spent three years in Minnesota, before being traded to the Indiana Pacers. While having a smaller role with the Pacers than he did with the Timberwolves, Mitchell did help Indiana reach the Eastern Conference Finals in 1994–95. Following that season, he returned to Minnesota. Future All-Star Kevin Garnett was drafted by the Timberwolves out of high school that year, and Mitchell has been credited with helping Garnett's development. Mitchell retired from the league following the 2001–02 season.

Coaching career

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Mitchell returned to the NBA almost immediately after his retirement as an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks for two seasons until 2004. He then briefly became a part of the expansion Charlotte Bobcats as their top assistant coach.[1]

Mitchell moved on to the Toronto Raptors when he was named as the sixth head coach in Raptors history after incumbent Kevin O'Neill was fired.

Mitchell was named the coach of the month in January 2007 for his effort bringing the Toronto Raptors back to .500 and leading the Atlantic Division. On March 30, 2007, Mitchell got his 100th win as NBA coach when the Raptors defeated the Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center.[2]

Mitchell, who witnessed his team struggle with rebuilding in his first years as coach, also led the Toronto Raptors to their first division title in franchise history as the team won the Atlantic Division in the NBA's Eastern Conference in the 2006–07 season. On April 24, 2007, he was named 2006–07 NBA Coach of the Year.[3] On May 22, 2007 after leading the Raptors to their first playoffs appearance since 2002, and after much speculation, Mitchell was signed to a four-year contract with the Raptors.[4]

On November 25, 2007 Mitchell surpassed Lenny Wilkens for the most wins in team history. Mitchell was the longest reigning head coach of the Toronto Raptors.

On December 3, 2008, after leading the Raptors to a disappointing 8–9 start to the 2008–09 season, Mitchell was relieved of his duties as the team's head coach. Assistant coach Jay Triano took over the position of interim head coach of the Raptors, which later made him the first foreign-born player to coach a team in the NBA.[5] The firing was ridiculed by the TNT Overtime crew because the Raptors were only one game under .500 at the time of the firing. Chris Webber predicted that they would not be "as good under another coach."[6] In fact, the Raptors went 25–40 the rest of the season.

Mitchell was hired as an assistant coach by the New Jersey Nets on July 19, 2010. On December 6, 2011, Nets hired P.J. Carlesimo and Mario Elie as new assistant coaches and Mitchell was reassigned to a scouting position.

On 2012, Sam Mitchell named head coach of USA select to 2012 William Jones Cup in Taiwan and his team finished bronze medal.

On June 16, 2014, Mitchell was hired as an assistant coach by the Minnesota Timberwolves.[7]

On September 11, 2015, Mitchell became the Timberwolves' interim head coach after Flip Saunders had to take a leave of absence to receive treatment after being diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma.[8] On October 25, 2015, Saunders died at age 60. For the rest of the season, Mitchell became the official head coach, although he would still be treated as an interim coach. During his sole season coaching the Timberwolves, he would coach them to the fifth-worst record in the league with a 29–53 record.

On April 13, 2016, Mitchell was relieved of his interim head coaching duties as the coach of the Timberwolves after the last game of the season, allowing them to look for a permanent coach.[9] He would then be replaced by former Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau.

On June 13, 2018, Mitchell was hired by the University of Memphis as assistant coach under Penny Hardaway.[10]

After one year as one of Memphis's assistant coaches, Sam Mitchell left the program.

Media career

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Mitchell has since worked as an analyst on NBA TV.

Mitchell was involved in an incident with co-host Chris Miles during the preseason in October 2024, where Mitchell appeared to take an apparent humorous comment from Miles regarding the two's salary personally and began making remarks about Miles' own pay and properties.[11][12] Mitchell subsequently doxxed the anchor's apparent home address in Florida while Miles attempted to go to commercial.[13][14]

NBA career 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
 *  Led the league

Regular season

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Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1989–90 Minnesota 80 30 30.2 .446 .000 .768 5.8 1.1 .8 .7 12.7
1990–91 Minnesota 82 60 38.1 .441 .000 .775 6.3 1.6 .8 .7 14.6
1991–92 Minnesota 82 63 26.2 .423 .182 .786 5.8 1.1 .6 .5 10.1
1992–93 Indiana 81 1 17.3 .445 .174 .811 3.1 .9 .3 .1 7.2
1993–94 Indiana 75 18 14.5 .458 .000 .745 2.5 .9 .4 .1 4.8
1994–95 Indiana 81 12 17.0 .487 .100 .724 3.0 .8 .5 .2 6.5
1995–96 Minnesota 78 42 27.5 .490 .056 .814 4.3 .9 .6 .3 10.8
1996–97 Minnesota 82 5 25.0 .446 .160 .759 4.0 1.0 .6 .2 9.3
1997–98 Minnesota 81 33 27.6 .464 .349 .832 4.8 1.3 .8 .3 12.3
1998–99 Minnesota 50* 20 26.9 .408 .237 .764 3.6 2.0 .7 .3 11.2
1999–00 Minnesota 66 24 18.6 .447 .237 .764 2.1 1.7 .4 .2 6.5
2000–01 Minnesota 82 4 12.0 .408 .209 .727 1.5 .7 .3 .1 3.5
2001–02 Minnesota 74 10 9.8 .432 .286 .776 1.1 .6 .2 .1 3.3
Career 994 322 22.4 .447 .223 .784 3.7 1.1 .6 .3 8.7

Playoffs

[edit]
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1993 Indiana 4 0 6.3 .625 – 1.000 .3 .0 .0 .0 3.0
1994 Indiana 15 0 6.6 .346 .000 .750 1.1 .3 .1 .1 1.4
1995 Indiana 17 0 13.1 .359 .000 .786 2.8 .4 .2 .1 4.0
1997 Minnesota 3 0 15.7 .462 – .625 2.3 .3 .3 .3 5.7
1998 Minnesota 5 5 35.4 .448 .214 .895 5.4 1.6 .2 .2 14.4
1999 Minnesota 4 1 32.8 .375 .167 .750 3.5 1.5 .3 .5 10.0
2000 Minnesota 4 0 17.0 .500 .400 1.000 1.8 .5 .0 .3 5.8
2001 Minnesota 4 0 12.5 .200 .000 1.000 1.8 .8 .3 .0 1.5
2002 Minnesota 3 2 11.5 .333 – 1.000 .7 1.0 .3 .3 2.7
Career 59 8 14.5 .398 .207 .813 2.2 .6 .2 .2 4.5

Head coaching record

[edit]
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
Toronto 2004–05 82 33 49 .402 4th in Atlantic — — — — Missed playoffs
Toronto 2005–06 82 27 55 .329 4th in Atlantic — — — — Missed playoffs
Toronto 2006–07 82 47 35 .573 1st in Atlantic 6 2 4 .333 Lost in First Round
Toronto 2007–08 82 41 41 .500 2nd in Atlantic 5 1 4 .200 Lost in First Round
Toronto 2008–09 17 8 9 .471 (fired) — — — — —
Minnesota 2015–16 82 29 53 .354 5th in Northwest — — — — Missed playoffs
Career 427 185 242 .433 11 3 8 .273 —

Personal life

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Mitchell lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, Dawn Session-Mitchell.[15] Mitchell has four children from a previous marriage.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Hussey, Bo (May 26, 2004). "Bobcats Name Sam Mitchell Lead Assistant Coach". NBA.com. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  2. ^ Feschuck, Dave, "Mitchell turns millstone into personal milestone", thestar.com, April 1, 2007, accessed April 1, 2007.
  3. ^ "Sam Mitchell Named 2006-07 Coach of the Year". NBA.com. April 24, 2007. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  4. ^ "NBA coach of the year Mitchell gets new contract". ESPN.com. May 23, 2007. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  5. ^ Mitchell Fired, The Fan 590, December 3, 2008, accessed December 3, 2008.
  6. ^ Dismissal of Sam Mitchell, TNT Overtime crew, Accessed March 11, 2009.
  7. ^ "Wolves Name Sam Mitchell Assistant Coach". NBA.com. June 16, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  8. ^ "Sam Mitchell to Serve as Timberwolves Interim Head Coach". NBA.com. September 11, 2015. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  9. ^ "Minnesota Timberwolves Launch Search for Head Coach and Head of Basketball Operations". NBA.com. April 13, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  10. ^ "Former NBA coach Sam Mitchell joins Memphis Tigers staff". ESPN.com. June 13, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  11. ^ "NBA TV's Sam Mitchell Had Meltdown After Co-Host's Salary Joke in Awkward Segment". SI. October 12, 2024. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  12. ^ "NBA TV Host Sam Mitchell Gets Pissed At Co-Host for Joking About His Salary, Leaks Address". www.complex.com. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  13. ^ "Sam Mitchell doxxes NBA TV co-host after awkward on-air interaction". Minnesota Timberwolves On SI. October 12, 2024. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  14. ^ Dedaj, Paulina (October 12, 2024). "Ex-NBA coach Sam Mitchell doxxes co-host's address on live broadcast over salary joke". Fox News. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  15. ^ Atlanta, Obama and Mitchell, Toronto Sun, December 4, 2008, accessed December 4, 2008.
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