Former Blazer Buckner enjoys life as an NBA assistant coach | Newsradio 1230 on/99.3 FM | Hopkinsvilles news leaders

Nowadays, life is good for the former basketball star of the University Heights Academy Greg Buckner, who has just finished its 13th year as an NBA CO trainer.

Buckner, who was all-access performers at Clemson before playing 10 seasons in the NBA with the Dallas Mavericks, Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves, spent the 2024-25 season with the Milwakeee Bucks.

According to Buckner, injuries to several important players have had an impact on the team, which in the first round of the playoffs lost to Indiana Pacers in five games.

Coaching was not always Buckner's ambition after he retired as a player after the 2008/09 season. He joined the Aau coach and trained his son, the sons of his brothers and his stepson. Soon a coaching option knocked on his door.

Buckner was at Houston five seasons before he came to the Grizzlies staff for two seasons. He was an assistant to Cleveland and joined head coach JB Bickerstaff and achieved his first coaching victory in 2021. He joined the Bucks staff before last season.

Before he got into the coaching, Buckner returned his hometown and founded the Gbuck League in the then Walnut Street Center. It was a league that combined life skills and basketball.

The league lasted for years and Buckner said that several success stories came from the program.

Buckner is not the only local player who has joined the coaching ranks. The former trainer of the Hopkinsville High School, Chris Crutchfield coach in Omaha and trained his team at the NCAA tournament in spring. Buckner said he and Crutchfield stay in touch.

Name, picture and similarity have become a problem, especially in College basketball. Buckner said he thinks Nil violated the relationships that players do during college.

Buckner grew up in Hopkinsville and said that it is important for younger players to find a mentor who led them while chasing their college and professional dreams.

From now on, Buckner said that he was under contract to continue to be a co -trainer at the Bucks for the next season. But he says that he finally wants to become head coach in the NBA and may later return to coaching coaching level at college in life.

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