Joseph S. Spinks (born June 20, 1972) is an American-Dutch retired

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player and coach. He played eight seasons for ABC Amsterdam in the Netherlands and is considered one of the best players to have played in the Eredivisie. Spinks also was head coach and assistant coach for Amsterdam for two years. Spink's nickname during his playing career was "The Bull".

College career

Spinks played for Cambell from 1990 to 1994, and helped the Fighting Camels to their first-ever NCAA tournament berth in 1994. In 2010, he was inducted into the Campbell Sports Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Spinks started his career in 1994 with

Södertälje BBK Södertälje Basketbollklubb, shortly SBBK, is a Swedish basketball club based in Södertälje. The city is located in Eastern Södermanland, 34 km south of Stockholm. Its men's team plays in the Swedish Basketball League (SBL) and has won ...

of the Swedish Basketligan. In the following season, he played with

Namika Lahti Namika Lahti was a basketball club based in Lahti, Finland. The club played in the Korisliiga, the top Finnish championship league. The club was established in 1898 in Vyborg and moved to Lahti in 1947. In 2015, the club was dissolved, after econom ...

in the Finnish

Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total o ...

. In 1996, Spinks had the opportunity to play work out for the

Miami Heat The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The club plays its home games at FT ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

(NBA), however, after a torn

achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's '' Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Pele ...

. After stints in Belgium and Portugal, he arrived to the Amsterdam Astronauts in 1998. He would stay on the team for 12 seasons, becoming a star player and helping the team win as much as six Dutch national championships. Spinks retired from playing at age 33 due to a knee injury.

Coaching career

In 2006, Spinks took over as interim head coach of the Amsterdam Astronauts and guided them to the league semifinals. In the following two years, he was an assistant coach on the Amsterdam team that won two more Eredivisie titles. Spinks returned with his family to the United States in 2009.

Honors

Professional

Astronauts Amsterdam *6× Dutch Championship (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008) *2×

Dutch Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

(2004, 2006) *2× DBL Most Valuable Player (2000, 2003) *4× All-DBL Team (2000, 2001, 2003, 2004) *

DBL Playoffs MVP The DBL Play-offs MVP is an annual Dutch Basketball League The Dutch Basketball League (DBL), formerly the Eredivisie, was the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands, run by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (FEB). Since 202 ...

(2005) *FEB Cup MVP (2003) *2×

DBL All-Star The Dutch Basketball League All-Star Gala was a yearly basketball event in the Netherlands, organised by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (FEB). During the event the yearly All-Star Game was played, which included the best players of a given DB ...

(2000, 2001)

College

* Big South Conference Player of the Year (1994) * Big South Conference Rookie of the Year (1991) * 3× First Team All-Big South Conference (1992, 1993, 1994) * Second Team All-Big South Conference (1991) *

Campbell University Campbell University is a private Baptist university in Buies Creek, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (Southern Baptist Convention). Southern Baptist ConventionColleges and Universities sbc.n ...

Hall of Fame (2010)

Personal

Spinks is married to Dawn Gibson and has a son, Jonathan. Spinks is a Christian.

References

External links

Eurobasket profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spinks, Joe 1972 births Living people Amsterdam Basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Belgium American expatriate basketball people in Finland American expatriate basketball people in the Netherlands American expatriate basketball people in Portugal American expatriate basketball people in Sweden American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from North Carolina Basketball players from North Carolina Campbell Fighting Camels basketball players Dutch Basketball League players High school basketball coaches in the United States Namika Lahti players People from Asheboro, North Carolina Small forwards Södertälje Kings players