by Vin Baker
And then there was basketball.
I still love the game and believe that I have something to offer beyond coaching at the youth level or playing in alumni events, and I sense that I may not be the only one who feels that way. I’ve been getting more opportunities to consult with NBA teams, speaking to young players about financial issues and substance abuse. It’s one thing for the coach or GM to stand up and talk to kids about these issues; it’s quite another when they hear it from me. I can tell them that the money won’t last forever, I can tell them that it is possible to go broke. I can look a nineteen-year-old rookie in the eye and say, “Son, I know you think you don’t have a problem with weed, but I was the same way. And look where it got me.”
Maybe they listen, maybe they don’t. But I think the message resonates more coming from someone who has lived through it.
I like being around the game. I like teaching. And I think I’m pretty good at it. Which is why, in May 2016, I took a leave of absence from Starbucks. My consulting work had become more time consuming, and the NBA had just offered me a spot in its mentoring program for young, aspiring coaches. Basically, this was an opportunity—with the backing of the league—to hone my coaching skills in an effort to become more appealing as a candidate for a full-time job in the NBA. Shortly thereafter I got a call from the Milwaukee Bucks, who again asked me to coach their summer-league team in Las Vegas. I accepted the offer. Whether this would lead to a full-time position with the organization was difficult to say; I had received strong evaluations through the mentoring program and good feedback around the league. There were opportunities for coaching, player development, front office work, and broadcasting with any number of teams. I was open to all possibilities.
When I first made the decision to leave Starbucks, I did so with a bit of trepidation and guilt, but after speaking with Howard Schultz and realizing that I had his full support (“You belong in basketball, Vinnie”), I felt confident and peaceful. I wasn’t turning my back on Howard or the company that practically saved my life. I was doing what I was meant to do, what I love to do, and what Starbucks helped make possible. If things didn’t work out, Howard promised, I could always go back. Now was the right time to take a chance, in part because I could begin accessing my NBA pension, which would seriously lessen the financial anxiety and risk associated with changing career paths. You see, I’m not reckless—not anymore. I’m just passionate.
When summer league ended, I had a conversation with Peter Feigin, the president of the Milwaukee Bucks. He knew I was disappointed at not being offered a full-time coaching position.
“Don’t worry, Vin,” he said. “We have a plan for you.”
Sure enough, in late September, I was offered a position as a television analyst with Fox Sports Wisconsin, a broadcast partner of the Bucks. My job was to offer pregame and postgame perspective for a select number of home games. It was an opportunity to be part of a professional broadcast team; equally important, it was a chance to get back in the arena on a regular basis, to let people know that I hadn’t dropped off the face of the planet. I was healthy and happy. I was eager to work. And I was home, back in Milwaukee, where my professional career had begun.
One day in December I was sitting courtside at the Bucks’ beautiful new training facility at North Sixth Street and West Juneau Avenue, watching the team run through practice, when I spotted a familiar figure walking toward me. Tall and lean, with a glistening, shaved head and expressive eyes, Kevin Garnett looked almost exactly as he had when we were teammates on the US Olympic team so many years earlier. Kevin had retired after the 2015–16 season following a long and illustrious NBA career, and he was now in the process of getting a consulting business off the ground. He had come to Milwaukee to speak with some of the team’s younger players.
I couldn’t tell if he saw me. It had been years since we had spoken, maybe as much as a decade. He walked all the way to the end of the gym, leaned against a wall, and watched practice with the same focus and intensity that had marked his playing career. I decided to walk over and say hello. As I got closer, I could see Kevin’s eyes widening. And then he smiled.
“What’s up, Kev?” I said. “How you been?”
Kevin shook his head in disbelief. “Holy shit, bro. I swear to God, I thought you were a ghost. Like, ‘Am I looking at the ghost of Vin Baker?’”
“Nah, man. It’s really me.”
“You look good,” he said.
“Thanks. I feel good.”
A few minutes later, Jason Kidd walked over. We all hugged. The three of us had been teammates on the 2000 Olympic team. A lifetime ago.
“Look at you two,” Jason said with a laugh. “Like old times.”
That’s the way it’s been—a slow and organic resurrection, with one opportunity leading to another. In February, my broadcasting duties ended and I took an assistant coaching position with the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League. It’s an apprenticeship through the league’s mentoring program, and it could lead to a full-time coaching job down the road. I love being back in the game, working with young players in practice. In some ways, I have more energy now than I did when I was a player. I see things differently—on and off the court—and I want to share that vision, that experience, with others.
I don’t know where the journey will take me next, but I have faith. I can feel in my bones that this is the right thing to do. I believe in my heart that basketball will provide a platform for not only taking care of my family and teaching the game I love, but also serving God and my community. Where this will all lead, I have no idea. But I feel good. I feel strong. After years of wandering aimlessly, so lost I thought I’d never find my way, this feels like the next righteous step on a sturdy and meaningful path.
Acknowledgments
This is the place where I get to thank some of the people who not only made it possible for me to tell my life story but helped me have a life worth living.
My wife, Shawnee Baker, and our children, Vin Jr., Sanai, Kameron, and Aria.
My father, Pastor James Baker, and my mother, Jean Baker. And my brother, James, who passed away before I came along.
My grandmother Ada Richardson, and my uncles, Leroy Richardson and Robert Lee Baker. And my “partner in Christ,” the Reverend O’Brien.
My father-in-law, Rich Pagan, and my mother-in-law, Linda Pagan.
Howard Schultz, who believed in me when almost no one else did, and who expected even more from me than I did from myself; Sheri Schultz, Jordan Schultz, Addi Schultz, and the entire Starbucks family, including Dan Pitasky, Scott Pitasky, and Peter Torrebiarte.
Dr. Calvin Butts and everyone at Abyssinian Baptist Church.
From the basketball world, past and present: Michael Jordan (who believed in me enough to give me my own signature shoe), Gary Payton, George Karl, Butch Carter, Mike Bond, Paul Spence, Rory Sparrow, Charlie Rosenzweig, Charles Smith, James Dolan, Artie Bayes, and the entire staff of the New York Knicks.
Special thanks to the Milwaukee Bucks for their support then and now, including Jason Kidd, Greg Foster, Peter Feigin, and Mike McCarthy, and the entire coaching staff.
Bishop T. D. Jakes, an inspiration in so many ways.
R. J., Meegan, and Olivia Bunch.
All of my extended family on both sides: the Bakers and the Richardsons.
Full Gospel Tabernacle Church, which nurtured me as a boy and continues to nurture me even now.
Old Saybrook High School and the University of Hartford.
My cousins, June and Diane Stallings. Ron and Gina Moye. Larry, Jay, and Donna Gillman. Deacon and Deaconess Jeffries. Bishop and Laurie Burgess. Jabarri Reynolds and Randye Rand.
Terry and David Bussie. Rogers Healy and Charli. Coach Girg.
And finally, to the people who helped make this book possible: my agent, Frank Weimann; my co-author, Joe Layden; our editor, Tracy Sherrod; and everyone at Amistad Press and HarperCollins.
About the Author
Vin
Baker spent thirteen years in the NBA, including four as an all-star. A graduate of the University of Hartford, where he remains the school’s career leader in points and rebounds, he won a gold medal playing for the US Olympic team in 2000 and was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks as the eighth pick in the 1993 NBA draft. He is an assistant pastor and youth minister in his hometown of Old Saybrook, Connecticut. He also works as a consultant for the New York Knicks and is a member of the Professional Basketball Alumni Association. Baker lives in Old Saybrook with his family.
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Copyright
god and starbucks. Copyright © 2017 by Vin Baker. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
first edition
Cover design by Milan Bozic
Cover photograph © Otto Greule Jr./Getty Images
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition JULY 2017 ISBN: 978-0-06-249683-6
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-249681-2
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