Winning back-to-back BBL Coach of the Year awards - With Mick Bett - Ep. 55 - Hoopsfix.com

Winning back-to-back BBL Coach of the Year awards – With Mick Bett – Ep. 55

For Episode 55 of the Hoopsfix Podcast, we sit down with two-time BBL Coach of the Year and the first player in English basketball history to play for, and then coach the England National team, Mick Bett.


Bett, now a coach in Canada at Ridley College prep program and basketball commentator, is a multiple national-title winner as a player, 1983 Commonwealth games gold medalist, with 43 caps for his country as a player, along with two-time BBL Coach of the Year (in his first two seasons in the pros!) along with 6 caps for England as Head Coach.

Note – the internet was particularly bad on this call and the mic at my end was not selected correctly as the input so the audio and video quality leaves a lot to be desired; hopefully should be better on the next one!

In this 90 minute episode, hear from Mick on:

  • How he first got into playing basketball as a 12 year old
  • Growing up with Paul Stimpson and him being the bar he was measuring himself against
  • Starting out at Crystal Palace programme and it being his first exposure to a pathway
  • Playing in the London league coming up and how strong it was
  • Going to university at Borough Road before making the jump to the US for a year
  • The Crystal Palace dynasty
  • The greatness of Alton Byrd
  • When Jimmy Guymon was coaching and had to step in as a player for one game
  • Playing under Danny Palmer
  • The legendary 2OT game of Crystal Palace against Maccabi Tel Aviv at the WICB Junior tournament
  • Steve Bucknall and his talent growing up
  • His favourite memories with the National Team
  • Going up against the likes of Charles Barkley and Karl Malone ahead of the World University Games
  • England beating Turkey two times out of three in 1986
  • The British pathway and kids wanting to pursue college basketball
  • How much British basketball misses Kevin Cadle
  • The transition from playing to coaching
  • Winning BBL Coach of the Year award in his first two seasons in the pros
  • Being a basketball commentator and some of his top memories
  • A story of a young Michael Olowokandi
  • His all-time great British players
  • The WICB tournament
  • His 1987 title with BCP and the upset of Kingston in the Play-off final
  • Memories of international hoops legend Nik Galis
  • The best player he’s ever coached
  • And much, much more! 
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