So, my name is Anthony Priamos, I'm a 26 year old coming out of Miami, Florida. Growing up, I was never a great basketball player, I could play, but I was never amazing. On my high school basketball team, I was probably the 12th or 13th man and I played around a minute or two a game.. I didn't mind.. because sitting on the bench actually helped me truly understand the game of basketball. At the age of 18 I actually enrolled to attend Florida State to study Journalism but my idea of what I wanted to be in the future changed as I met Leonard Hamilton, the coach of the Florida State Seminoles. He actually took me under his wing when I showed him my knowledge of the game and made me an assistant head coach.. well not really, more like an assistant to the assistant, but I was still observing and giving my opinion. By the time I was 24 and had graduated with my degree in journalism he offered me the assistant coaching position, which to be honest seemed a hell of a lot better than journalism. I went on as assistant coach of the Seminoles until 2010, when I got a shock call from Coach Hamilton telling me that he had gotten me an interview with another team and I should go. That began what I saw as my journey to the top of the basketball world.
September 2nd, 2010 - Tulsa, Oklahoma
Coach Hamilton handed me a ticket to Tulsa, Oklahoma and I understood that I had an interview with the managers of the NBA D-League team, the Tulsa 66ers. I've watched the D-League a lot, and there are truly some hidden gems in there. As I arrived at the airport in Tulsa, the at the time coach of the 66ers, Nate Tibbetts picked me up and drove me to the Tulsa Convention Center. He was telling me on the way there that he admired how young I was an the drive that I had for coaching. He also ended up telling me that he accepted a job coaching a team in Italy and because of that he actually scouted out coaching talent for the 66ers for himself. Coach Tibbetts said that he believes the D-League should not only be for developing young playing talent, but also young coaching talent and for that reason when he heard that Coach Hamilton proposed the idea of me as a coach, he was quite interested. Coach Tibbetts took me to the Convention Center and I talked with both him and Oklahoma City Thunder and Tulsa 66ers owner Clayton Bennett. We all instantly clicked and when I told Clayton the idea's I had for the team, he was quite intrigued and actually offered me the head coaching job himself. I obviously accepted, this is my stepping stone to coaching in the NBA, this is Anthony Priamos signing off, or should I say, Coach Priamos.
