Brian Joseph Winters (born March 1, 1952) is an American former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player and coach.

Career

Winters attended academic and athletic powerhouse

Archbishop Molloy High School Archbishop Molloy High School (also called Molloy, Archbishop Molloy, or AMHS) is a co-educational, college preparatory, Catholic school for grades 9-12, located on on 83-53 Manton Street, Briarwood, Queens, New York. It is part of the Roman C ...

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long I ...

, graduating in 1970. He then played collegiately with the University of South Carolina, scoring 1,079 points over his career. While playing for South Carolina, Winters was hampered due to both a severe case of

mononucleosis Infectious mononucleosis (IM, mono), also known as glandular fever, is an infection usually caused by the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). Most people are infected by the virus as children, when the disease produces few or no symptoms. In young adult ...

and a series of knee injuries. He was the 12th pick in the 1974 NBA Draft, taken by the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

. Winters made the

NBA All-Rookie Team The NBA All-Rookie Team is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) honor given since the 1962–63 NBA season to the top rookies during the regular season. Voting is conducted by the NBA head coaches who are not allowed to vote for player ...

with the Lakers before he was traded to the

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...

as part of the deal that brought future Hall of Fame center

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Kareem (alternatively spelled Karim or Kerim) ( ar, کریم) is a common given name and surname of Arabic origin that means "generous", "noble", "honorable". It is also one of the Names of God in Islam in the Quran. Given name Karim * Karim A ...

to the West Coast, which Abdul-Jabbar had demanded. On April 18, 1976, in the first playoff series of his NBA career, Winters scored 33 points and recorded 5 assists in a 107-104 Game 3 loss against the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at Li ...

. On November 30, 1976, Winters scored a career-high 43 points in a 115-106 victory over the Trailblazers. On March 19, 1978, Winters scored 22 points and recorded a career-high 18 assists in a 117-106 victory against the

Washington Bullets The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays ...

. He had a productive nine-year career that included two appearances in the

NBA All-Star Game The National Basketball Association All-Star Game is a basketball exhibition game hosted every February by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and showcases 24 of the league's star players. It is the featured event of NBA All-Star Weekend, a ...

and six in the playoffs, and was a fan-favorite during the years that the Bucks struggled through immediately following the aforementioned Abdul-Jabbar trade. Winters averaged 16.2 points and 4.1 assists over his career, with his best years coming from 1975-76 to 1979-80, when he averaged 18.7 points. 4.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game. His game declined in the 1982-83 season, however, when he shot a career-worst 43 percent in the field, after which he retired at 31 years of age. The Bucks organization retired his number 32 on Oct. 28, 1983, he was the third player in franchise history to be honored with a jersey retirement. In a 2005 interview, Chicago Bulls superstar

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...

singled out Winters as the best "pure shooter" in history, claiming that "he had the most beautiful stroke of all the people whom

e could E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plura ...

think of." After retiring from the NBA, Winters became an assistant coach for two years under legendary coach

Pete Carril Peter Joseph Carril (July 10, 1930 – August 15, 2022) was an American basketball coach. He is best known as head coach of Princeton University for 30 years and for his use of the "Princeton offense". He also coached at Lehigh University an ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

. From there, he moved on to become an assistant coach under Hall of Famer

Lenny Wilkens Leonard Randolph Wilkens (born October 28, 1937) is an American former basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been inducted three times into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, first in 1989 as ...

with the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

for 7 years and

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Sou ...

for two more. Next he was the inaugural coach for the

Vancouver Grizzlies The Vancouver Grizzlies were a Canadian professional basketball team based in Vancouver. They were part of the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was established in 1995, along w ...

for a year and a half. Later Winters coached with the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

and

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

. He was formerly the head coach of the WNBA's

Indiana Fever The Indiana Fever are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded before the 2000 season began. The team is owned ...

, leading them to their first ever consecutive-year playoff appearances. On October 26, 2007, Winters option wasn't picked up by the Indiana Fever, ending his four-year tenure with the club. He compiled a 78–58 record in the regular season to go with a 5–7

playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

record. He was a scout for the Indiana Pacers for several seasons until he was let go during the NBA lockout in August 2011. He spent the 2012–13 season as an assistant coach with the

Charlotte Bobcats Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populou ...

. Winters has been a talent scout for the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first esta ...

since 2014. He played a role in convincing the Pacers to draft Myles Turner.

Head coaching record

NBA

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Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

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WNBA

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NBA career statistics

Regular season

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L.A. Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

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Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

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, 78 , , – , , 34.8 , , .498 , , – , , .847 , , 3.0 , , 4.3 , , 1.5 , , 0.4 , , 19.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 80 , , – , , 34.4 , , .463 , , – , , .840 , , 3.1 , , 4.9 , , 1.6 , , 0.3 , , 19.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 79 , , – , , 32.6 , , .493 , , – , , .856 , , 2.2 , , 4.8 , , 1.1 , , 0.5 , , 19.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 80 , , – , , 32.8 , , .479 , , .373 , , .860 , , 2.8 , , 4.5 , , 1.3 , , 0.4 , , 16.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

, 69 , , – , , 25.7 , , .475 , , .353 , , .869 , , 2.0 , , 3.3 , , 1.0 , , 0.1 , , 11.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

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, 57 , , 12 , , 23.9 , , .434 , , .324 , , .859 , , 1.9 , , 2.7 , , 0.8 , , 0.1 , , 10.6 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 650 , , 25 , , 30.7 , , .475 , , .363 , , .842 , , 2.6 , , 4.1 , , 1.2 , , 0.3 , , 16.2 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", All-Star , 2 , , 1 , , 15.0 , , .417 , , – , , – , , 3.0 , , 1.0 , , 0.5 , , 0.0 , , 5.0

Playoffs

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1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

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, 3, , –, , 42.0, , .629, , –, , .800, , 2.3, , 5.0, , 1.7, , 0.7, , 27.3 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

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, 9, , –, , 33.9, , .497, , –, , .741, , 3.3, , 6.4, , 1.3, , 0.9, , 20.4 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

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, 7, , –, , 38.3, , .460, , .429, , 1.000, , 3.0, , 5.3, , 1.6, , 0.0, , 15.9 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

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, 7, , –, , 25.9, , .459, , .333, , .750, , 3.3, , 3.1, , 1.4, , 0.1, , 10.0 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 6, , –, , 38.7, , .494, , .500, , .833, , 2.5, , 4.7, , 1.3, , 0.2, , 16.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 1983 , style="text-align:left;",

, 9, , –, , 26.7, , .429, , .273, , .824, , 2.4, , 3.6, , 0.7, , 0.4, , 9.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 41 , , – , , 33.0 , , .490 , , .396 , , .808 , , 2.9 , , 4.7 , , 1.3 , , 0.4 , , 15.5

References

External links

BasketballReference.com: Brian Winters (as NBA coach)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winters, Brian 1952 births Living people American basketball scouts American expatriate basketball people in Canada American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players American women's basketball coaches Archbishop Molloy High School alumni Atlanta Hawks assistant coaches Basketball coaches from New York (state) Charlotte Bobcats assistant coaches Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coaches Denver Nuggets assistant coaches Golden State Warriors assistant coaches Golden State Warriors head coaches Indiana Fever coaches Indiana Pacers scouts Los Angeles Lakers draft picks Los Angeles Lakers players Milwaukee Bucks players National Basketball Association All-Stars National Basketball Association players with retired numbers Princeton Tigers men's basketball coaches Shooting guards Small forwards South Carolina Gamecocks men's basketball players Sportspeople from Queens, New York Basketball players from New York City Vancouver Grizzlies head coaches