Green is Sam Vincent’s color.
It’s the color he wore all four years at Michigan State, where he earned Big Ten Scoring Champion honors in 1985. Vincent was a two-time All-American and three-time All-Big Ten selection. It’s also the color of the Boston Celtics, where he won an NBA title as a rookie in 1986.
These days he’s usually in blue and white, as head coach of Made By Ball, a Johannesburg-based team in the Basketball Africa League (BAL), but he’ll always be a Spartan at heart.
The Lansing native was named to Michigan State’s Athletic Hall of Fame Monday, a year after serving as Grand Marshal at the Spartans’ 2024 Homecoming.
2x All-American, 1985 B1G scoring champion, 3x All-B1G, NBA Champion.
— Michigan State Men's Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) June 30, 2025
Lansing native Sam Vincent has been selected for the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame 🏆 pic.twitter.com/bKqBfWMaT8
Vincent spent seven seasons as a point guard in the NBA, playing for the Celtics, Seattle SuperSonics, Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic. Vincent retired in 1992. He was part of a storied Celtics team that had starters Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge. Vincent and the late Bill Walton were strong bench players.
In 1981 while playing at Eastern High School in Lansing, Vincent earned the state of Michigan’s inaugural “Mr. Basketball” award, given to the best senior male basketball player.
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Following his time in the NBA, his passion for basketball took the form of coaching internationally. Vincent held coaching positions in South Africa, Europe, China, Greece, the Netherlands and Nigeria. In 2004, he led the Nigerian women’s basketball team to Olympic gold in Athens.
Vincent brought his coaching talents stateside in 2006, serving on the Dallas Mavericks’ staff before becoming coach of the Charlotte Bobcats for the 2007 season. In 2022, Vincent became coach of Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida, but opted to leave the program for his current position with Made By Ball.
“Basketball has grown so much in South Africa since the last time I was there,” Vincent said to ESPN in February. “The players are better; the coaches are better. Of course, there's an amazing opportunity now with the BAL to showcase all this amazing talent.”