How to Become a Basketball Coach Ultimate Guide

What Degree Do You Need to Become a Professional Basketball Coach?

In this article, we will tell you how to become a basketball coach. Even if you don’t have a basketball career, becoming a professional basketball coach is possible. You can get a degree or not. Some degrees can be helpful in coachwork, for example, a degree in sports medicine or psychology. We recommend taking Sport Management Worldwide courses for starters, which a well-known agent created. You can find other reliable courses and get knowledge there. This will help you to understand many principles of the league`s functioning. It is a great course about the principles of the existence and development of many sports: Soccer, volleyball, baseball, and basketball. The lecturers are the top managers in chosen directions. You need to choose Basketball general management and scouting course.

How Much Does a Basketball Coach Make a Year?

In October 2020, the average annual pay for a Basketball Coach in the United States was $42,573 a year. The majority of Basketball Coaches’ salaries currently range between $31,000 to $48,500 across the United States. Average base salary is $21.43 per hour. The coaches get the highest salary in Atlanta — $26.33 per hour. 45% of Basketball coaches in the USA think their salaries are enough for their living area. It is an average salary for assistant coaches, physical training coaches, etc.

How to Become a Basketball Coach With no Experience

First, why do you want to become a coach? It’s essential to give an honest answer yourself. It is not easy. It requires discipline and constant work on yourself. It will be difficult for a lazy and apathetic person to achieve something. Moreover, if you look at it as a way to cut down on easy money, it wouldn’t work. You need to know how to become a high school basketball coach. Then, it would help if you achieved something on high school or college teams to get a contract with a large amount of money.

Secondly, are you ready to spend most of your free time on training? This includes self-study through books, DVD reviews, articles, blogs, seminars, and training. It would help if you were ready to volunteer for the first time for free for the experience. A Few people can refuse free help. The main thing is to start «to integrate yourself into the system».

Thirdly, where to start? You need to apply your knowledge, practice it, and gain experience. It is even more important to ask another, more experienced person for advice. Becoming an assistant coach is an ideal option that will allow you to become stronger in understanding and feeling the training process on your own. Knowing that only practice makes you understand what works and what does not is imperative. Even if it is work with children, it’ll be helpful for you.

Get Started

Watch many basketball games to familiarize yourself with the game. You’ll have to study the game like a coach to become a coach. Your body should be in good condition. That’s why you also need to know how to improve reaction time. From a coaching perspective, college and high school basketball will be the best levels to study. You need to know how to become a college basketball coach. NBA teams tend to rely on the actions and decisions of individual players. Coaches tend to have less of an impact on the game compared to high school or college teams. The college and high school seasons run from November to March. The NBA season runs from October to May. You’ll probably notice that coaches are usually on their feet, yelling at players and making calls. Good coaches are usually active and rarely sit down during the game. Becoming a basketball coach is very complicated.

How Usual Basketball Coach Course Goes?

This is an eight-week online course about league managing, coaching, and building relationships with players. This course doesn’t give you a job, but a ticket to a baseball game where you can catch the ball. The main emphasis will be on communication with people. Learning how to introduce yourself, collect all the necessary information, and write a professional CV will be necessary. These pieces of knowledge are essential to be hired. All over the world, professionals are valued for their work.

This can be your best investment. You will get a lot of information you need. For example, the basic document regulating the NBA: has 500 pages to study. After reading this document and this article, you will know how to become an NBA coach

How can I reach the professional level?

It’s a bit more complicated because there is a big gap between professional and amateur basketball. There is no smooth transition from level to level. It would help if you caught your chance. For example: after successful work in a children’s professional team, you can get invited into the senior team. Be more proactive, go to the head coach and offer your help for the experience.

What Role Can I Play on a Large Team?

Actually, the coaching staff includes coaches with different specializations. The head assistant coach and other assistants are people on both sides of the head coach in training and games. Scouts and video coordinators are specialists who analyze teams and players. Their work includes studying video materials, diagrams, and combinations. They must work with statistics and analyze the opponent’s tactics, players, weaknesses/strengths, etc. An individual training coach is a specialist who also participates in the training process. He additionally works on individual elements of technique with players who need development. Physical training coaches work on players’ strength, functional screening, recovery after injuries and loads, and injury prevention.

You can get a scout or physical training job, become an assistant coach and head coach. You will get a lot of knowledge from every new position! Furthermore, an assistant coach of an NBA team can easily become the head coach of an NCAA team. If you succeed in NCAA, you can become the head coach of an NBA team. Some players from NCAA can recommend you when they become NBA players. It would help if you worked on your authority and professionalism. All in all, you need to work on yourself day by day. If you feel passionate about coaching, it’s a job for you! Continue reading this article to learn how to be a basketball coach.

What Will You Learn From NBA Season Rulebook?

– Mechanisms of work of the league. It describes almost everything. For example, salary lists, conditions for players and coaches, basketball signing schemes, and team management in different situations. Now NBA does not work at a loss. They have rich teams, such as New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers, and “small market” organizations, such as Milwaukee Bucks. There is less population, respectively, and fans in Milwaukee. What do they do in this situation? There is a special rule in Revenue sharing: all the money goes to the general treasury of the NBA. At the end of the season, it is distributed between all organizations in percentage ratio.

The rich always share with the poor, which is crucial. This is necessary to develop basketball. Teams of “small market” could be unprofitable before, but now the situation has changed. For example, Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis, where basketball is not the most popular sport. For some time, the team was unprofitable, but now the situation has stabilized. The funds from the sale of beer, T-shirts, and TV broadcasts, i.e., all the money earned on basketball, are collected into the general treasury.

How Does NBA Team Budget Works?

44% of the received amount is divided into 30 organizations. It is the ceiling of the player’s salary in each organization. For example, when Russian billionaire Prokhorov bought Brooklyn Nets, he wanted to buy all the best players. He couldn’t do it because of certain formulas for calculating wages. It can be different from soccer when sheiks buy the best players for some teams. All organizations have the same total budget.

Of course, stars like LeBron James have high salaries. He receives 30 million dollars a year and sponsorship contracts. But on average, they all have their salary ceiling. If one player gets a higher salary, other players will get lower salaries. If a team has ambitions to win a championship, the best players will be able to play with lower salaries. A team with no ambitions for the playoff should pay higher salaries for the best players. The worse team in the regular season has a higher chance of getting the first draft pick the next year. LeBron is estimated to earn about 100 million dollars per year. Derrick Rose has signed a lifetime contract for 150 million dollars. The minimum salary of the rookies after the NBA draft is $600 000 a year. A rookie usually signs a contract for three years. Then the team can prolong the contract with him for another year. In this case, the player gets his three million dollars guaranteed. After 3.5 years in the League, the minimum contract of the player will be four million a year. The NBA also has a veteran minimum, which starts from three million. If a basketball player has played in the league for 5-6 years, he will earn three million dollars a year or more.

NBA Pension

When a basketball player turns 50 and has played in the league for five years, he will receive a pension of $ 50,000 per year for the rest of his life. Players who have completes their professional careers will never be poor. For 50 000 dollars, a person can rent a house and live a decent life. Moreover, the pension increases if a player has a successful career or wins titles.

Scouting in Basketball

This is one of the main sections. You will be provided scout reports of many NBA organizations from Michael Jordan`s time to our years. The most important thing is understanding whether this basketball player suits your team. You will learn how to read and write reports. The report should begin with a description of the player’s physiology. It would help if you started writing a report with the following parameters: defender 6.5 feet, broad shoulders, body length, with potential for physical growth.

The General Manager takes the Scouting report when he has not seen the player. That’s why it is necessary to describe all the strengths and weaknesses, give statistical analysis for the last couple of years, and provide general information. All in all, you need to watch about five matches to create an opinion of the player. If a basketball player is going to sign a contract, he must watch his game live. It is also worth seeing him in the training process and the behavior of the team. It is vital to find a common language with people to learn all the information about the player In the scout’s work. Especially about his negative qualities. It is necessary to call his friends and to school to collect all possible information. A player with a bad reputation will not get into the NBA. Unless he is as talented as LeBron James.

How to Choose The Right Basketball Player?

As a result, NBA is a league of medium players that fit the system. The player must have excellent human qualities, and he must be able to behave in the locker room and strive for training and growth. Furthermore, if a player does not have certain qualities, he will relax after his first contract. There are many examples of this. Michael Beesley is a problem guy. He was prophesied to have a great future. He is a very talented player. But he had problems with drugs. Now he plays in China. There is such a concept as basketball IQ. For example, Chicago Bulls have about 100 combinations of attack development. The player should have a high basketball IQ to remember all of these and use them when needed.

It is necessary to pay attention to biological data and effectiveness. The main indicator of effectiveness is points for possession and “points for possession+assist”. For example, the Spanish national team. The main star of the Spaniards is Sergio Rodriguez. He is one of the most effective players in the Euroleague. He has a good indicator, “Points for Possession+Assist”. If he takes part in the attack, 76% of them will end up effectively. There is a formula for counting the number of possessions on the court, how much a player throws, and how much he throws from his possessions. A formula is used to calculate the number of points for possession. They also calculate how many points are thrown due to mistakes of a certain player.

How Basketball Scout Works?

Each NBA club has one or two International Scouts. Plus, a Scout who attends the NBA games. This is the most difficult job! He almost does not sleep, constantly on the road. Scout goes to matches with every opponent of the team. He goes to the game and records the combinations. There must be a crazy concentration and perception of the game. After the game, he should send the report to the video coordinator.

There are also scouts, tracking the players who have already been playing in the NBA, College Scouts: 1-2 people. Some analysts watch the games as well. They can go to tournaments. All people in the front office are looking for new players. All general manager assistants also do scouting. Each NBA club has at least five scouts.

Era of New Basketball Coaches

All these figures were not counted in the 90’s. Basketball has changed. There are few big players like Shaq or Yao. Nowadays, basketball is the era of defenders. The big player must run fast, jump high, and be mobile enough to play against small players. If a big player throws well, it is an essential quality.

All throws are divided by efficiency. The most effective throw is from paint, then the free throw, a three-point throw from the corner, and a simple three-point and middle throw. Many coaches do not allow players to throw from the middle zone because it could be more effective. As a result, you first need to prevent an opponent’s player from the paint without making a foul and prevent the three-point throw. If you still let your opponent’s player make a middle throw from five meters — it’s much better than any other throw.

Basketball players have ideal conditions for recovery: baroque chambers, cryocameras, pools with different water temperatures, saunas, and steam rooms. The recovery room is like a research institute. The season is tough for players. That’s why only the best players reach the NBA. We are dealing with elite material. An ordinary person will not survive it.