Chris Finch

Chris Finch
Player information
Full name	Christopher Finch
birthday	November 6, 1969
place of birth	Cambridge (OH), USA
size	194 cm
position	Point guard
college	Franklin & Marshall
Clubs as active
1988–1992 F&M Diplomats ( NCAA Div III) 1992–1998 Sheffield Sharks
Clubs as coaches
1996–2003 Sheffield Sharks 2003–2004 Gießen 46ers 2004–2007 Euphony Bree 2006–2012 Great Britain 2007–2009 Dexia Mons-Hainaut 2009–2011 Rio Grande Valley Vipers Since 2011 Houston Rockets ( AC ) 0000 0

Chris Finch (born November 6, 1969 in Cambridge , Ohio ) is an American basketball coach . After studying in his home country, he played as a professional in the British Basketball League , before continuing his career as a coach and finally returning to his home country via stations in Europe, including the German first division club Gießen 46ers. As coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Finch won the 2010 championship of the NBA Development League (D-League) and received the "Dennis Johnson Coach of the Year Award" as coach of the year in the NBA Development League. In 2011 he moved to the Houston Rockets as assistant coaching coach for Kevin McHale in the top-endowed professional league NBA . Also was the first coach Finch since the re-establishment of the British national team , the 2006 on the occasion of the awarding of the 2012 Olympics to London from the three national teams of Great Britain was formed. After the 2012 Olympic tournament, Finch resigned from this position.

Career

Player (1988 to 1998)

Finch studied at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania . There he played for the college team Diplomats in the NCAA Division III, which is an insignificant division for people who aspire to a professional athletic career. Within this sporting inferior division, however, Finch was one of the best players and twice in 1991 and 1992 among the best players in the country as " All-American ". Finch won four conference titles in his playing days and reached the final game of the national NCAA division III finals with the team in 1991. In 2002 he was inducted into the "Athletic Hall of Fame" ( German  sports hall of fame ) of his " Alma mater ".

Although Finch had only played at one Division III college, he then began a professional career in 1992 that led him to the Sharks of Sheffield in the British Basketball League (BBL). With the Sharks he won the regular season and the BBL Cup in 1995. His teammate Roger Huggins was named " Most Valuable Player " in the league. In 1996 he also took over the position of coach and acted as a player coach . In his last season as a player, he won the league cup "BBL Trophy" in 1998.

Trainer in Europe (1996 to 2012)

Finch, who had also acted as coach of the Sharks since 1996, finally moved to the sidelines after winning the league cup in 1998 and ended his career as a player. In the 1998/99 season they were again first in the table after the regular season, but lost the semi-final game in the play-offs against eventual champions London Towers . The "small final" for third place was won against the Manchester Giants , trained by Nick Nurse , against whom the semi-final series in the BBL Trophy league cup competition had been lost. Finch was named BBL Trainer of the Year in 1999. The cup competition could be won in 1999 and 2000. In 2001 and 2002, the team, which included Finch compatriot Nate Reinking , lost the final game of the play-offs against the Leicester Riders and the Chester Jets the following year . In the 2002/03 season they ended the regular season again as the first in the table, but lost the semi-finals of the play-offs against eventual champions Scottish Rocks . Finch was again named Trainer of the Year for the BBL.

For the 2003/04 season Finch moved to Germany to the 46ers from Gießen in the basketball league . In the 2003/04 basketball league , which was enlarged by two teams , the team, which had narrowly missed the play-offs for the championship in the previous season, got off to a bad start to the season and only won five of the first 18 games of the season. Finch was replaced as coach by Armin Andres and the Giessen club benefited from the insolvency of two other teams when they were relegated at the end of the season. For the 2004/05 season Finch moved to the club "Euphony" from Bree in the Belgian Ethias League . For the team he signed Brian Lynch , who had already played under him in Giessen, and immediately won the club's first and only championship in 2005. This success could not be continued in the following two years, although players like the later two-fold Basketball Bundesliga MVP Julius Jenkins were committed.

After Finch had lost the final series of the championship against Telindus Oostende in five games with Bree in 2007 , he switched to league rivals Dexia from Mons . Since he had also taken over the fate of the re-established British national team , which was formed in 2006 on the occasion of the 2012 Olympic Games in the British capital, London, from the three national teams of the three associations in Great Britain without Northern Ireland , he concentrated a number of British national players in the team here of the club. In addition to his former teammate Roger Huggins and Nate Reinking, whom he had already looked after in Sheffield, he also brought in Mike Lenzly and Andrew Sullivan . While they lost the semi-final series against Spirou BC Charleroi in the national championship , they reached the final against the Latvian club BK Barons Rīga in the European club competition FIBA EuroCup 2007/08 . However, this one lost just under one point, which prevented the first Belgian title win in a European club competition. In the following season you reached the play-off final series in the national championship, which was smoothly lost to the defending champion Spirou BC.

As national coach of the British selection, Finch brought his former competitor from the BBL Nick Nurse as assistant coach . Finch was able to lead the team into the circle of the best European selection teams for the European Championship finals in 2009 and 2011 . In both finals, however, you were eliminated in the preliminary round. The same thing happened at the 2012 Olympic tournament , for which you were automatically qualified as a host. After four defeats at the beginning, they only won the final preliminary round game against China and were eliminated after the preliminary round.

Trainer in the United States (since 2009)

After losing the championship final series in Belgium in 2009, Finch moved back to his home country as a club coach and took over the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the NBA Development League (D-League). Right away, he was able to lead the team, founded in 2007, to their first play-off participation in the D-League, which the team successfully ended by winning the championship. In his debut season in the D-League, Finch was named Coach of the Year with the “Dennis Johnson Coach of the Year Award” 2010. In the following season, the defending champion again reached the final series of the championship, which was lost to the Iowa Energy coached by Nick Nurse . Finch had to give his national team assistant Nurse the award as coach of the year. Subsequently, Finch moved in 2011 to the coaching staff of the NBA club Houston Rockets and became assistant to Kevin McHale . Nick Nurse was his successor as coach of the Vipers .

Web links

• NBA.com: Chris Finch - Coach profile at the Houston Rockets on the websites of the NBA ( English )
• Great Britain basketball | Official Website: Chris Finch - Head Coach - Profile on the websites of the British Association (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Franklin & Marshall Athletics: F&M Basketball All-Americans. Franklin & Marshall College , accessed May 18, 2013 (list of the individually awarded basketball players of the F&M Diplomats). 
2. ^ Franklin & Marshall Athletics: Hall of Fame - Christopher Finch '92. Franklin & Marshall College , accessed May 18, 2013 (English, Hall of Fame entry). 
3. ↑ coach / HISTORY: Finch, Chris. Gießen 46ers , accessed on May 18, 2013 (trainer profile in the Gießen 46ers archive). 
4. ↑ Seasons / HISTORY: Season review 2003/2004 - new name and many bankruptcies. Gießen 46ers , accessed on May 18, 2013 (season review in the Gießen 46ers archive). 
5. ↑ Barons Edge Dexia In Thriller To Win EuroCup Title. FIBA Europa , April 22, 2008, accessed on May 18, 2013 (English, match report).