17-year NBA veteran Lindsey Hunter has been named the next boys basketball head coach at Sparta High School in Michigan.
He takes over a program coming off three winning seasons for the retiring Scott Berry. The Spartans went 14-12 in 2024-25 after going 15-9 for two seasons prior to that.
Hunter, 54, was drafted 10th overall in the 1993 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons, where he spent his first seven seasons. He then went to Milwaukee for the 2000-01 campaign, won a title with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2001-02, and spent one season in Toronto before returning the Pistons. In the first of Hunter's five seasons back in Detroit, he won his second title with the 2003-04 Pistons, and he finished his playing career in 2010 after two years with the Chicago Bulls. Hunter finished his career with 7,953 regular season points, which was well inside the top 500 in NBA history at the time of his retirement.
The Mississippi product returned to the NBA in 2012 as a coach under Alvin Gentry for the Phoenix Suns, and he last coached at Mississippi Valley State when he was the head coach from 2019-22.
In the announcement on its official Facebook page, Sparta's athletic program said, "Coach Hunter is passionate about mentoring student-athletes and developing both their skills on the court and their character off it. His commitment to discipline, teamwork, and excellence aligns perfectly with the values we strive to instill in our athletic program. We are confident that Coach Hunter will inspire our students to reach new heights, and we’re thrilled about the future of Sparta Basketball under his leadership."
Sparta is roughly a 180-mile drive from Detroit, where Hunter spent most of his playing career and won his most recent NBA championship.