Byron Antom Scott (born March 28, 1961 in Ogden, Utah) is a former National Basketball Association player and current head coach of the NBA's New Orleans Hornets. He attended Arizona State University. He was well-known as a player for the Los Angeles Lakers. Scott grew up in Inglewood, California and played at Morningside High School, in the shadow of what was then the Lakers' home arena, The Forum.

Professional basketball career

NBA

Selected by the San Diego Clippers with the 4th pick of the 1983 NBA Draft, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1983 in exchange for Norm Nixon. During his playing career, Scott suited up for the Lakers, Indiana Pacers and Vancouver Grizzlies. Scott was a key player for the Lakers during the Showtime era, being a starter alongside Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He played for the Lakers for 10 consecutive seasons (1983-1993). During that time he won 3 NBA championships (1985, 1987, 1988). As a rookie, he was a member of the 1984 all-rookie team, averaging 10.6 PPG in 22 MPG. He led the NBA in three-point field goal percentage (.433) in 1984-85. 1987-88 was his best season, leading the world champion Lakers in scoring, averaging a career-best 21.7 ppg, and in steals (1.91 spg). Although he was an excellent player and an integral part of one of the greatest teams in NBA history, Byron Scott was never selected to play in the NBA All-Star game. He was the Lakers' starting shooting guard from 1984 until 1993. In 1996-97, the last year of Scott's playing career, he went back to the Lakers and proved to be a valuable mentor for a team led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. During his playing days he was known to be one of the best shooters and dunkers in the NBA.

Europe

In the summer of 1997 Scott signed with the Greek League team Panathinaikos for the 1997-1998 season. Byron Scott was finals MVP, but this was a quite easy championship to win, as Panathinakos' main rival, Olympiacos had already lost focus on the basketball department (and begun the football team's domestic dynasty), having won 5 championships in a row, and the first three-peat (Championship, Cup, Euroleague) ever to be achieved by a Greek team.

Coaching

Byron Scott began his NBA coaching career in 1998, when he began the first of two seasons as an assistant with the Sacramento Kings. He specialized in teaching perimeter shooting during his tenure with the Kings and helped to lead the team to an excellent three-point shooting percentage during a pair of playoff seasons.

In 2000, Scott took over a struggling New Jersey Nets team. His team performed poorly in his first year, but he was able to build a nucleus for a winning franchise. The next season, Scott led New Jersey to a franchise record 52 wins, their first Atlantic division crown, and an appearance in the NBA Finals. After a loss to the LA Lakers in the championship series, Scott guided his team to another successful year during the 2002-03 campaign. For the second year in a row, his Nets reached the NBA Finals, but lost. During the 2003-04 season, New Jersey performed poorly early in the season, and Scott was fired.

Scott has been the head coach of the New Orleans Hornets since 2005. In the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons, he guided the team to a pair of competitive, but sub .500 seasons. However, he was coaching in imperfect circumstances, coaching a team that played most of its home games in Oklahoma City because of the impact of Hurricane Katrina.

In the 2007-08 season, Scott had his first winning season as the Hornets head coach. They had a winning percentage of .683 with a record of 56-26. They became Southwest Division champions and finished 2nd overall in the Western Conference. The Hornets clinched the Southwest Division title in their win over the Los Angeles Clippers. The Hornets had a 30-11 home record and a 26-15 road record and clinched the second seed in the Western Conference Playoffs. The Hornets won their first round series against the Dallas Mavericks, posting a 4-1 record for the series. They would go on to face the defending Champion San Antonio Spurs in the conference semifinals. An unusual trend of home court blow outs would mark the series until the deciding game 7 when the veteran Spurs would pull out a gutsy 91-82 win on the Hornets rowdy home court. The win marked the 100th playoff victory for Spurs coach, Greg Popovich.

Byron Scott was named the head coach of the 2008 Western Conference All-Star team, and a few months after, he was awarded the 2007-2008 NBA coach of the year award. Due to his success the Hornets awarded Scott with a two year extension.

Personal life

The Inglewood, California raised Scott has an equally impressive record off the court. His non-profit organization, The Byron Scott Children’s Fund, has raised more than $3 million over the past decade, with the proceeds going to various children’s charities. Scott continued to broaden his résumé this season when he served as a studio analyst for ABC’s NBA telecasts.

Scott and his wife, Anita, have three children, Thomas, LonDen and DaRon.

Coaching record

|- | align="left" |NJN | align="left" |2000–01 |82||26||56||.317|| align="center" |6th in Atlantic||—||—||— | align="center" |Missed Playoffs |- | align="left" |NJN | align="left" |2001–02 |82||52||30||.634|| align="center" |1st in Atlantic||20||11||9 | align="center" |Lost in NBA Finals |- | align="left" |NJN | align="left" |2002–03 |82||49||33||.598|| align="center" |1st in Atlantic||20||14||6 | align="center" |Lost in NBA Finals |- | align="left" |NJN | align="left" |2003–04 |42||22||20||.524|| align="center" |(fired)||—||—||— | align="center" |— |- | align="left" |NOH | align="left" |2004–05 |82||18||64||.220|| align="center" |5th in Southwest||—||—||— | align="center" |Missed Playoffs |- | align="left" |NOH | align="left" |2005–06 |82||38||44||.463|| align="center" |4th in Southwest||—||—||— | align="center" |Missed Playoffs |- | align="left" |NOH | align="left" |2006–07 |82||39||43||.476|| align="center" |4th in Southwest||—||—||— | align="center" |Missed Playoffs |- | align="left" |NOH | align="left" |2007–08 |82||56||26||.683|| align="center" |1st in Southwest||12||7||5 | align="center" |Lost in Conf. Semifinals |- | align="left" |Career | ||616||300||316||.487|| ||52||32||20 |}

External links

• nba.com historical playerfile
• Scott's statistics as a player
• Scott's statistics as a coach

{{Navboxes|list1=

}}