Mike Bibbys basketball experience has been as varied as it has been lengthy. Originally drafted by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 1st round of the 1998 NBA draft, Bibby has been an NBA All-Star on a contending and competitive team, a rookie who had to live up to high expectations and a veteran who bounced from team to team.
While there are some NBA players who have jumped right into coaching in the league without having any prior experience, others have to follow a more traditional path to prowling the sidelines in the greatest basketball league on Earth.
Patrick Ewing has been an assistant coach in the NBA for 14 years, and Bill Laimbeer is a multiple championship-winning coach in the WNBA. Despite those lengthy resumes, no one ever so much as glanced in their directions when handing out NBA head coaching jobs. Bibby wants to coach in the NBA, but only had AAU coaching experience via Team Bibby, which starred his son at its inception.
But a lot can change in 10 years. Today, Bibby is coaching the No. 7 ranked boys basketball team in the nation. A recent article in Bleacher Report chronicles the path to success that he’s undertaken.
THIS TEAM IS A PROBLEM! Shadow Mountain Is HS Basketball Squad Goals! Coached By Mike Bibby!
Shadow Mountain out of Phoenix, AZ and coached by former NBA PG, Mike Bibby, started their season off with a blowout win against Tempe. Shadow is one of the most exciting teams we’ve filmed at Ballislife as they play an extremely fast style of basketball and full court press non stop.
Whoever hired Bibby knew he had the makings of a great coach from very early on.
Shadow Mountain High School hasnt lost to an Arizona team in three years and has won three Arizona 4A state titles in four years. Bibby himself is looking for his third consecutive state title as a head coach.
Shadow Mountain, a small school of less than 1,500 students, plays an uptempo style has them ranked in nationality in points per game, steals, and assists.
Last year, they were the first boys team from Arizona, and the only public school, to compete at the DICK’s Sporting Goods High School Nationals, an end-of-year tournament featuring the best squads in the country vying for a national championship in New York.
All this, despite not having a player taller than 6-foot-5. Theyre severely undersized, especially for a nationally-ranked team.
“We feel like we don’t have anything,” junior guard Jovan Blacksher said in the Bleacher Report piece. “We’ve been doing this for a while. The cameras just weren’t here.”
#1 TEAM Shadow Mountain DANCES AND DESTROYS STATE CHAMP BY 30! Jaelen House DROPS 30! MIKE BIBBY
Shadow Mountain out of Phoenix, AZ and coached by former NBA PG, Mike Bibby, started the 2018 Monteverde Academy Invitational Tournament (M.A.I.T.) off with a blowout win against defending Florida 3A State Champs Westminister Academy(Ft. Lauderdale) led by top sophomore Dudley Blackwell. ASU Commit Jaelen House dropped a clean 30 piece.
Arizona State commit Jaelen House, Bibby’s nephew and son of former NBA player Eddie House, agrees. “It’s been cool for others to get on the bandwagon.”
Team Bibby got the job done on the AAU circuit by winning with largely unheralded kids. That same formula is working on the high school level as well.
