Alton Byrd

Alton Byrd
Player information
Full name	Joseph Alton Byrd
birthday	November 3, 1957 (62 years and 303 days)
place of birth	San Francisco (CA), USA
size	170 cm
position	Point guard
college	Columbia University
NBA draft	1979 , 186. Pick Boston Celtics
Clubs as active
1975–1979 Columbia Lions ( NCAA ) 1979–1982 Crystal Palace 1982–1987 MIM Livingston 1987–1988 Manchester United 1989–1994 Kingston Kings 1994–1997 Crystal Palace
National team
1991-1993	England

Joseph Alton Byrd (born November 3, 1957 in San Francisco ) is an American-British former basketball player and sports manager. Byrd became a professional player in the UK after studying in his home country , winning numerous championships and individual awards. After his marriage in 1983 to an Englishwoman, Byrd acquired British citizenship in 1984 and eventually became a national player in the English selection at international games. At his club stations, Byrd was also involved in the management of the clubs and, after his active playing career, also worked in the management of the NFL Europe club London Monarchs , before he worked for the Maloof Sports Entertainment Group from 1999 to 2001, where he also worked in management tasks for the NBA club Sacramento Kings noticed. Byrd then worked as a freelance management consultant, among other things .

Career

In 1975 Byrd went from his Californian home to study at Columbia University in New York City , where he played for the college team Lions in the NCAA's Ivy League . Although, as an outstanding high school basketball player, he claimed to have had offers for sports scholarships from 60 US universities, he made a conscious decision to receive a scholarship from a renowned university of the Ivy League in order to receive a solid academic education. The Ivy League basketball teams in general, and the Lions in particular, are not among the top NCAA basketball teams, so Byrd also failed to qualify for a national NCAA finals with the Lions in the following four years . Byrd, however, with 526 assists always led in the team internal all-time list of the Columbia Lions still as the best template donors and in 2008 was in the "Athletics Hall of Fame" ( German Hall of Fame Sports included) of the university. In addition, at the end of his NCAA career, he received the "Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award" for the best college basketball player with a height of less than six feet (the equivalent of just under 1.83 m).  

After his college career, Byrd was selected by the Boston Celtics in 1979 only in the tenth round in the entry draft of the highest endowed professional league NBA. A year earlier, the Celtics had already selected the renowned college player and later NBA champion and Olympic champion Larry Bird in the first round , so that marketing strategists are said to have already thought about marketing “Big Bird and Little Byrd”. But Byrd injured himself in the pre-season and was ultimately not included in the Celtics' seasonal squad. An alumnus of Columbia University, David Dubow, finally brought him to his market research company in London, where Byrd was to play in the Crystal Palace basketball team, supported by Dubow, while training in the company. This team was already one of the leading teams in England and won two other championships with Byrd in the "National Basketball League" in 1980 and 1982 and the cup competition "National Cup" in 1980 and 1981. In the European Cup 1979/80 they reached four in the group stage Victories against, among others, the German representative TuS 04 Leverkusen and only had to admit defeat twice to the multiple winner of this competition, Real Madrid , who made it to the final round. This was the club's best haul in this round of the competition, having conceded three wins and only defeats in the group stage of the competition just three years earlier.

In 1982 Byrd went to Edinburgh , Scotland , where he was hired as player-coach and "general manager" by the David E. Murray sponsored club MIM Livingston. The team, which had previously also been one of the leading teams in Scotland, was able to expand its dominance with Byrd and won the Scottish championships five times from 1983 to 1987 and four times in a row British championships in comparisons with the best English teams. In the 1983/84 European Champion Clubs' Cup, they failed comparatively close to entering the group stage when, after adding up the two-way leg, they were defeated by the eventual finalists FC Barcelona by seven points. According to his own statement, in addition to the interest of the NBA club Indiana Pacers, Byrd received numerous offers to play in the then financially strongest and most successful European league in Italy . But Byrd went to Manchester in 1987, where he played in the newly founded British Basketball League (BBL), which was the only Scottish team to include Byrd's ex-club MIM Livingston. Back in England, Byrd played for the team of the same name, run by the owners of the Manchester United football club . In the first season of the BBL you reached the fourth place in the semi-finals of the play-offs , in which you lost in the "duel of football clubs " to the main round first and former English champions Portsmouth , while Livingston won the final against Portsmouth. The BBL soon turned into a fiasco after four teams signed off for the following season, including finalist Portsmouth. Byrd's own team United was sold and now appeared as the Eagles. Byrd himself concentrated on taking up activity as a stock trader.

In 1989, Byrd moved to London and re-emerged as a player when he joined the Kingston Kings. They had returned to Kingston upon Thames within London's city limits from Glasgow, where they had played as Rangers under the auspices of David Murray . Murray, who as president of the Glasgow Rangers football club now concentrated on football, had withdrawn MIM Livingston from the BBL, which was now playing with eight teams in its third season, after 15 teams at the premiere . The Kings were now the dominant team in the league and won under coach Kevin Cadle in the following three seasons except for the National Cup 1991 all titles of the BBL, which slowly regained ground. Byrd won the BBL's " Most Valuable Player " (MVP) award twice in 1991 and 1992 , which he had already achieved several times in the English and Scottish leagues in the 1980s. In the 1990/91 European Champion Clubs' Cup, they caused a big surprise when they defended a 16-point lead from the first leg against Russian champions CSKA Moscow in the second leg and moved into the final group stage of the top eight teams in who finished seventh after four wins in 14 games. Then Byrd, who had also acquired British citizenship in 1983 after marrying an Englishwoman, was also appointed to the national team, which, however, could not qualify for either the final round or the 1992 Olympic Games .

In 1992 the Kings had to move to a new hall in Guildford and lost the English internationals Alan Cunningham and Colin Irish to league rivals Worthing Bears . The dominance of the team, which now played as Guildford Kings, was broken in the BBL and you could only defend the title in the 1993 National Cup. The Bears, on the other hand, won the play-off semi-finals with a point difference against the Kings after first place in the main round and then also won the title in the play-off final. In the following 1993/94 season, the Kings lost both in the semifinals of the National Cup and in the play-off finals of the championship against the Bears and remained untitled for the first time during the active time of Byrd. Coach Cadle moved to league rivals London Towers , while Byrd took over as player- coach and general manager of the basketball team of his former club Crystal Palace in London, where he had started his career in England. Crystal Palace was eliminated after two seasons at the beginning of the BBL from the league and played in Division One of the NBL, in which, however, in 1995 and 1996 after first place in the regular season, the play-offs of the NBL could also be won. For the 1996/97 season Crystal Palace returned to the BBL under the leadership of Byrd. Here, however, they only achieved five wins this season in 36 games and Byrd ended his active career in January 1997 at the age of 39 and withdrew from the club, whose professional basketball team then teamed up with the local competitor and play-off winner London Towers from coach Cadle was merged.

After leaving Crystal Palace, Byrd became managing director of the NFL Europe club London Monarchs and representative of NFL Europe in England. He tried to revive the franchise , but moves to other stadiums and a name change to England Monarchs remained unsuccessful, so that they were transferred to Germany as " Berlin Thunder ". Byrd then returns to his homeland in California and got a job in the "Maloof Sports and Entertainment Group", which is the owner of the NBA club Sacramento Kings . So after his unsuccessful attempt as a player, Byrd was still part of the NBA 20 years later. After two years he went freelance in 2001 and founded the consulting firm "Clear Focus Marketing" and the "Basketball Performance Institute" in Sacramento , which is dedicated to training and advising basketball players.

Web links

• Joseph Alton Byrd | European Championship for Men's Clubs 1994 - player profile on the websites of FIBA Europa ( English )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Hank Hersch: A Yankee on King Arthur's Court Alton Byrd, once an NBA draft pick, is now the biggest thing in the small world of British basketball. Sports Illustrated , February 24, 1992; accessed June 29, 2013 .  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Clare Martin: The journey of Alton Byrd '79. In: Columbia College - Today, February 2001. Columbia University , February 2001, accessed June 29, 2013 .  
3. ^ Columbia Men's Basketball Career Records - Assists. Columbia University , accessed June 29, 2013 . 
4. ↑ ALTON BYRD. Columbia University , October 2, 2008, accessed June 29, 2013 . 
5. ^ ^{A b c} Chuck Yrigoyen: Ivy League Black History: Alton Byrd. ivy50.com, March 16, 2007, accessed June 29, 2013 .  
6. ↑ Champions Cup 1979-80. Linguasport.com, accessed June 29, 2013 (English / Spanish, competition results). 
7. ↑ Top man on the ball. In: The Glasgow Herald . News.google.com, August 18, 1986, accessed June 29, 2013 (English, repro of the newspaper). 
8. ↑ Champions Cup 1983-84. Linguasport.com, accessed June 29, 2013 (English / Spanish, competition results). 
9. ^ Competition History - British Basketball League BBL. British Basketball League , accessed on June 29, 2013 (English, overview of title winners). 
10. ^ Javier Gancedo: From YMCA to the Towers: London clubs in European competitions. ULEB , February 12, 2013, accessed June 29, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Champions Cup 1990–91. Linguasport.com, accessed June 29, 2013 (English / Spanish, competition results). 
12. ↑ England Basketball: Senior Men - Playoff. England Basketball . Archived from the original on August 13, 2013 ; accessed on July 27, 2020 (English). 
13. ↑ Dwight Chapin: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? / Alton Byrd / An education abroad /. San Francisco Chronicle , November 18, 2001, accessed June 29, 2013 . 
14. ^ Principal / Clear Focus. ( Memento from September 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )