Former NBA player and head coach Butch Carter will be one of the featured speakers when the University of Maine basketball programs host a coaches clinic Saturday, Nov. 2, on the Orono campus.
Other speakers will include noted skills instructor Ganon Baker and author Nathan Whitaker, an expert in team building.
“We’ve got some really high-profile people coming to speak at this clinic, and we hope coaches in the state recognize that this is a great opportunity,” UMaine men’s basketball coach Richard Barron said. “These are people who we as coaches here at Maine are going to learn a lot from. I hope the rest of the coaching community gets out and watches as well.”
Carter played five years for the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers, and became head coach of the Toronto Raptors midway through the 1997-98 season. He guided the Raptors to the first playoff appearance in franchise history in 2000 while becoming the first coach in NBA history to take a team from fewer than 20 wins to the playoffs in less than two years.
Carter gained a reputation for being a trendsetter in player development and became one of the first pro coaches to embrace statistical modeling — or analytics — in the player evaluation process.
Baker has worked in skill development from the middle-school ranks to the WNBA and NBA, aiding the likes of such superstars as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Maya Moore and Skylar Diggins. He’s also produced more than 70 top-selling instructional DVDs and regularly is featured at major basketball coaching clinics around the country.
Whitaker worked in the player personnel departments of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, earning a Super Bowl ring with the Bucs in 2002. More recently he’s been a prolific author who also speaks publicly on topics including teamwork, leadership and sports management.
Also participating will be the coaching staffs from the University Maine and McGill University in Montreal.
UMaine hosts McGill in a Nov. 3 exhibition doubleheader at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, starting with the men’s game at noon.
To register or for more information on the coaching clinic, visit goblackbears.com.
