Byron Scott

Byron Antom Scott (born March 28, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player and head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

As a player, Scott won three NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers during their Showtime era in the 1980s.

He was Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 1980 and First-team All-Pac-10 in 1983.

He averaged 17.5 points per game in his career for the Sun Devils.

He left after his junior year, entering the 1983 NBA draft.

Selected by the San Diego Clippers in the first round, with the fourth pick of the 1983 NBA draft, Scott was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1983 in exchange for Norm Nixon.

During his playing career, Scott suited up for the Lakers, Indiana Pacers and Vancouver Grizzlies.

Scott was a key player for the Lakers during the Showtime era, being a starter alongside Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and A.C. Green.

He played for the Lakers for 10 consecutive seasons (1983–1993).

As a rookie, Scott was a member of the 1984 all-rookie team, averaging 10.6 PPG in 22 MPG.

He led the NBA in three-point field goal percentage (.433) in 1984–85.

He was the Lakers' starting shooting guard from 1984 until 1993.

During that time he was on three NBA championship teams (1985, 1987, 1988).

In 1987–88, Scott enjoyed his best season, leading the NBA champion Lakers in scoring, averaging a career-best 21.7 ppg, and in steals (1.91 spg).

Scott was released by the Lakers after the 1992–93 season and signed a free-agent contract with the Pacers.

In Game 1 of the Pacers' first-round playoff matchup against the Orlando Magic, Scott hit the game-winning three-point shot with 2.4 seconds left.

The Pacers would go on to sweep the Magic and eventually advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in franchise history.

Scott was left unprotected by the Pacers in the 1995 NBA expansion draft and was selected by the Vancouver Grizzlies, where he played one season.

In 1996–97, the last year of Scott's playing career in the NBA, he went back to the Lakers and proved to be a valuable mentor for a team featuring Shaquille O'Neal, Eddie Jones, Nick Van Exel and 18-year-old rookie Kobe Bryant (Scott would be Bryant's coach on the Lakers towards the end of the latter's career).

In the summer of 1997, Scott signed with the Greek Basket League team Panathinaikos for the 1997–98 season.

That season, he played with Panathinaikos in both the FIBA Saporta Cup (known then as the FIBA EuroCup), Europe's second-tier level competition after the top-tier EuroLeague, and the Greek Basket League.

In the Saporta Cup's 1997–98 season, he averaged 13.4 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.1 steals, in 25.6 minutes per game, in 17 games played.

Scott helped to lead his team to the Greek Basket League championship with his scoring in many crucial games.

In the Greek Basket League's 1997–98 season, he averaged 17.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.3 steals per game, in 33.7 minutes per game, in 34 games played.

After one season with the Greek Basket League champions, Scott retired from playing professional basketball, and began his coaching career.

Scott began his NBA coaching career in 1998 as an assistant with the Sacramento Kings under Rick Adelman.

He served as an advance scout that looked at game plans on offense alongside work in the perimeter.

On June 27, 2000, Scott was hired to coach the New Jersey Nets after being offered the job the previous day by general manager Rod Thorn.

He was hired to replace Don Casey, who had been fired on April 26 after coaching the team since last March.

Scott was considered for the Indiana Pacers job prior to reaching with Thorn, who himself had been hired recently to try and turn over a team that had missed the playoffs in five of the past six seasons while having had twelve head coaches in 23 seasons as an NBA franchise; the day that Scott was hired was right before the 2000 NBA draft, for which the Nets had the first overall pick.

His team performed poorly in his first year, winning just 26 games with new draft pick Kenyon Martin.

Stephen Jackson made an impression as a first-year player having come from the CBA and foreign leagues that year but was not retained.

Years later, Jackson called Scott the "worst communicator for young guys".

However, the team would improve in dividends in the 2001–02 season with the arrival of Jason Kidd in a trade that sent Stephon Marbury to the Phoenix Suns.

Kidd and the Nets won 52 games, a franchise record.

In the process, they won their first Atlantic Division crown and were the number one seed.

He was named the NBA Coach of the Year with the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) in 2008.

Scott grew up in Inglewood, California, and played at Morningside High School, in the shadow of what was then the Lakers' home arena, The Forum.

He played college basketball at Arizona State University for three years and had a successful career with the Sun Devils.

In 2011, his No. 11 was retired by the Arizona State Sun Devils.