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, it is possible to become a professional basketball coach. 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 were created by a well-known agent. 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 existence and development of many sports: Soccer, volleyball, baseball, basketball. The lecturers are the top managers on 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 Coach 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 very important to give an honest answer to 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 easy money, it wouldn’t work. You need to know how to become a high school basketball coach. Then, you need to achieve 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. You need to be 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, gain an 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, to understand and feel the training process on your own. It is very important to know that only practice makes you understand what works and what does not. Even if it is a work with children, it’ll be helpful for you.

Get Started

Watch a lot of basketball games to familiarize yourself with the game. If you want to become a coach, you’ll have to study the game like a coach. Your body should be in a good condition. That’s why you also need to know how to improve reaction time. College and high school basketball will be the best levels to study from a coaching perspective. That’s why 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 till March. The NBA season runs from October till 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. It will be necessary to learn how to introduce yourself, collect all the necessary information, write a professional CV. These knowledges are very important 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, basic document regulating the NBA: 500 pages to study. After reading this document and this article, you will know how to become an NBA coach 

How can I reach to the professional level?

It’s a bit more complicated because there is a big gap between professional basketball and amateur basketball. There is no smooth transition from level to level. You need to catch 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 need to work with statistics, analyze the opponent’s tactics, players, their 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 coach work on player’s strength, functional screening, recovery after injuries and loads, injury prevention.

You can get a scout or physical training job, then become an assistant coach and then a head coach. You will get a lot of knowledge from every new position! Furthermore, assistant coach of NBA team can easily become the head coach of NCAA team. If you get success in NCAA, you can become a head coach of NBA team. Some players from NCAA can recommend you when they become NBA players. You need to work 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 know 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 scheme and team management in different situations. Now NBA does not work at a loss. They have rich teams, such as New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, as well as “small market” organizations as Milwaukee Bucks.  There is less population, respectively, and fans in Milwaukee. What do they do in this situation? There is a special rule 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 and it is very important. This is necessary in order to develop basketball. Teams of “small market” could be unprofitable before, but now the situation has changed. For example, Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis, a city 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, 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 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 formula for calculating wages. It can’t be the same thing as in soccer when sheiks buy the best players of 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 own salary ceiling. If one player gets a higher salary, other players will get lower salaries. If a team has ambitions to win championship, the best players will be able to play with lower salaries. When team has no ambitions for the playoff, they should pay higher salaries for the best players. The worse team in regular season has higher chance to get the first draft pick the next year. I can say that LeBron is estimated to earn about 100 million dollars per year. Derrick Rose has signed a lifetime contract on 150 million dollars. The minimum salary of the rookies after NBA draft is $600 000 for a year. Rookie usually signs a contract for three years, then 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 been playing 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 he had been playing in the league for five years, he will be receiving 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 will be able to rent a house and live a decent life. Moreover, if a player had a successful career or won titles, the pension increases.

Scouting in Basketball

This is one of the main sections. You will be provided with scout reports of many NBA organizations from Michael Jordan`s time to our years. The most important thing is to understand 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. You should start 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 had not seen the player yet. That’s why it is necessary to describe all the strengths and weaknesses, give statistical analysis for the last couple of years and general information. All in all, you need to watch about 5 matches to create an opinion of the player. If a basketball player is going to sign a contract, it is necessary to watch his game live. It is also worth seeing him in the training process, the behavior in the team. It is very important 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, to school, to collect all possible information. If player has a bad reputation, he will not get into the NBA. Unless he is as talented like 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 very good human qualities, he must be able to behave in the locker room, 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. Player should have high basketball IQ to remember all of these and use them when needed. 

It is necessary to pay attention to physical data, effectiveness. The main indicator of effectiveness is points for possession, as well as “points for possession+assist”. For example, Spanish national team. The main star of Spaniards is Sergio Rodriguez. He is one of the most effective players in Euroleague. He has a good indicator “Points for Possession+Assist”. If he takes part in attack, then 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. 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 of 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. There are also analysts who 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 5 scouts.

Era of New Basketball Coaches 

All these figures were not counted in the 90’s. Basketball has changed, there are not many big players like Shaq or Yao. Nowadays basketball is the era of defenders. The big player must run fast, jump high, be mobile enough to play against small players. If a big player throwing well, it is a very important 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, a simple three-point and middle throw. Many coaches do not allow players to throw from the middle zone, because it is not effective. As a result, the first thing you need to do is 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 to 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, steam rooms. The recovery room is like a research institute. The season is really hard 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.