Sam Mitchell

This article is about the basketball player. For the asteroid, see (2624) Samitchell .

Sam Mitchell

Samuel E. Mitchell Jr. (born September 2, 1963 in Columbus , Georgia ) is a retired American basketball coach and player. He was head coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2015-16 season .

Career

Mitchell was selected after his successful college season at Mercer University in the 1985 NBA draft in 54th place by the Houston Rockets . However, he first played in the lower class CBA and in France. In 1989 he was engaged in the Expansion Draft by the newly formed Minnesota Timberwolves . Between 1989 and 2002 he was himself a player with the Minnesota Timberwolves (1989-1992, 1995-2002) and Indiana Pacers (1992-1995) active.

Coaching career

After his playing career, Mitchell initially worked as an assistant coach at the Milwaukee Bucks before he became the coach of the Toronto Raptors in 2004. Under Mitchell's direction, the Raptors won their first division title of the Atlantic Division in the 2006/07 season . After regular time he was awarded the NBA Coach of the Year Award . After a poor start to the 2008-09 season, Mitchell was released from the Raptors. During the 2010/11 season he was employed as an assistant coach for the New Jersey Nets . In 2014 he returned to Minnesota as an assistant coach.

On October 24, 2015, the Minnesota Timberwolves announced that Sam Mitchell would look after the Timberwolves for the 2015/16 season as head coach Flip Saunders would miss the season due to cancer. A day later, Saunders died of cancer at the age of 60. Mitchell led the Timberwolves to 29 wins this season and thus clearly missed the playoffs. He was replaced by Tom Thibodeau at the end of the season .

Web links

• Sam Mitchell - NBA.com Trainer Profile