Antoine "Ton" Boot (born October 16, 1940) is a Dutch retired professional

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 ...

coach and player. Boot is viewed as one of the best Dutch coaches ever, because of his 14 national titles in

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The Dutch newspaper '' De Volkskrant'' named him the best Dutch sports coach of the 20th century.

Playing career

In 1958 Boot won his first Dutch championship with DED Amsterdam. After that he won the national title another four times, in 1961, 1964 and 1965 with The Wolves Amsterdam and five years later with Blue Stars. In December 1959, Boot scored 53 points in a game against Monark, which was the all-time scoring record in the Dutch Basketball League until 1979, when Tony Parker Sr. scored 63 points. In his career Boot also played for the

Dutch national basketball team The Netherlands men's national basketball team ( nl, Het Nederlands nationaal basketbalteam) represents the Netherlands in international basketball matches. The national team is governed by Basketball Nederland. The Dutch have reached the Eur ...

. He played his first game on April 1, 1959. He has eventually played 148 games for the Dutch national team.

Personal life

He married basketball player Jenny Boot-Tigelaar on 20 September 1967.

Coaching career

Boot started his coaching career in 1978 with

EBBC Den Bosch Heroes Den Bosch is a Dutch professional basketball club based in 's-Hertogenbosch. The club plays in the BNXT League since 2021 and in the top basketball division in the Netherlands since 1972. Founded as EBBC in 1951, the club had several sponso ...

, and immediately won three titles. After a less successful year with Parker Leiden he returned to Den Bosch, where he won two championships once again. In 1985 Boot left for Den Helder. With Den Helder, Boot won four straight championships. After that he left for

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

to coach Oostende, in 1995 he won the

Ethias League The Pro Basketball League (PBL), was the highest tier level professional basketball league in Belgium for clubs. In 2021, the league was succeeded by the Belgian-Dutch BNXT League. Through 2014, for sponsorship reasons, the league was previously ...

. In 1998 Boot became coach of ABC Amsterdam and he did win another four titles. In 2004 Boot won his last title, with the

MPC Capitals Donar, also known as Donar Groningen, is a professional basketball club based in Groningen, Netherlands. The club competes in the BNXT League and its home arena is MartiniPlaza, which has a seating capacity of 4,350 people. Donar is one o ...

from Groningen. In 2007, he retired. Boot was the head coach of the Dutch national team in 1981.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boot, Ton 1940 births Living people BC Oostende coaches Dutch basketball coaches Dutch men's basketball players Dutch Basketball League players Basketball players from Amsterdam Donar (basketball club) coaches Heroes Den Bosch coaches Zorg en Zekerheid Leiden coaches Amsterdam Basketball coaches BV Den Helder coaches