Henry Bibby

Charles Henry Bibby (born November 24, 1949 in Franklinton, North Carolina) is a former professional basketball player and current assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Playing career

As a starting point guard in college, Bibby led the UCLA Bruins to three NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships.

In the 1972 NBA Draft, Bibby was drafted by the New York Knicks and played for the team for two and a half seasons, which included an NBA title in 1973. That team featured eight future Hall-of-Famers—Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, Earl Monroe and Jerry Lucas, as well as future NBA coaching legend Phil Jackson and the team's then-coach, Red Holzman.

Bibby spent nine overall seasons in the NBA, and is mostly known for his time with the Philadelphia 76ers. He was a part of the 1977 and 1980 Sixers teams that made the NBA Finals but eventually lost both times.

Coaching career

Bibby started his coaching career in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) and won two championships in 1982 and 1989.

He coached the Winnipeg Thunder.

In 1996, he was named coach of the men's basketball team at the University of Southern California (USC), and kept that position for nine seasons. Bibby had an overall won-loss record of 131-111 at USC. He led his 1997, 2001 and 2002 teams to the NCAA tournament, including a final "Elite Eight" appearance in 2001, but was fired after four games into his ninth season.

On April 7, 2005, he was named Head Coach of the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), replacing interim coaches Karleen Thompson and Ryan Weisenberg. However, only 28 games into the season, he was replaced by his Assistant Coach, Joe Bryant.

On January 17, 2006, Bibby was hired by the Philadelphia 76ers as an assistant coach on Maurice Cheeks' staff for the remainder of the 2005-2006 season.

Bibby is the brother of Jim Bibby, a former Major League Baseball pitcher. His son Mike Bibby plays for the Atlanta Hawks.

Trivia

Having won an NCAA Championship his final year with UCLA in 1972 and an NBA title with the Knicks in 1973, Bibby is only one of four players in basketball history to win an NCAA championship and an NBA Championship back-to-back, the others being Bill Russell (University of San Francisco 1956, Boston Celtics 1957), Magic Johnson (Michigan State University 1979, Los Angeles Lakers 1980) and Billy Thompson (University of Louisville 1986, Los Angeles Lakers 1987)

External links

* [http://www.nba.com/coachfile/henry_bibby/index.html?nav=page Henry Bibby coach profile]