Byron 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. He attended Arizona State University but left school in his junior year to enter into the NBA.  As a player, he won three NBA championships with the Lakers during their Showtime era in the 1980s.

Scott then became the head coach in the NBA for a few teams. In 2007 while coaching the New Orleans Hornets 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. 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.

Byron Scott is now an ESPN studio analyst and is a frequent guest on shows including The Jump with Rachel Nichols, Sportsnation, and NBA Countdown. Scott can also be seen on Fox Sports West (FS1) performing as an analyst on shows including Undisputed and The Herd.

I got to chat with Byron about fatherhood, his playing and coaching days, his new book Slam-Dunk Success: Leading from Every Position on Life’s Court and more.

Art Eddy: I first want to talk about your time as a player in the NBA. You won three NBA Championships with the Los Angeles Lakers. You and your team beat the Boston Celtics twice and then won one against the Detroit Pistons. I know that all three are special, but out of those three did one mean more than the others?

Byron Scott: Like you said all three are special. No doubt about that. I think for me the first one was during my second year in the league. We beat the Boston Celtics. We never beat the Celtics in a seven game series. When I say we I mean the Los Angeles Lakers. Winning that first one and getting that monkey off the back of Jerry West, Gail Goodrich, Wilt Chamberlain, Happy Hairston and all the other great Laker teams that they had really felt great. We knew that those guys were watching. That first one in Boston against the Celtics probably means the most to me.

AE: You do a great job as an NBA analyst on TV. You have a unique perspective since you were a player and a coach in the NBA. From the time you played to coaching to now, are you happy with the way the game has evolved?

BS: I think the game has totally evolved in a different direction than what it was in the 80’s when I played. The game in the 80’s was much more of an inside out game. You had so many dominant big men in the game at that time. The game now is more of a small man’s game. It brought the guys who are six feet back into existence.

For me to watch the game now it is more of an outside in game. It is really exciting to watch some of these teams like Golden State, San Antonio and the Cavs. It really is an exciting game and an exciting time for the NBA. I am pretty happy with the way the game has evolved. I think right now fans are really excited about basketball. They know that they have some great players in the league that can play this game at a very high level. I enjoy doing the commentating. I enjoy watching the game. I would say that I am pretty happy with the way the game has evolved.

AE: I always hear people say great players do not necessarily make great coaches. You proved those people wrong. How has being a player in the NBA helped your coaching career?

BS: I had an advantage. I had two of the best coaches to ever coach the game coach me when I was playing in Coach Pat Riley and Coach Larry Brown. Both of those guys had conversations with me. For some crazy reason they both told me I would make a great coach one day. Pat Riley told me that when I was 26 years old. I told him that he was crazy. Six years later I am in Indiana playing with Larry Brown, who I admired for so many years, told me that I would make a great coach one day. He asked me about it and told him that I never really thought about it, but that he was the second one to tell me that.

It was something that they saw in me that they felt I would make a great coach. I decided to pursue it and was a coach for fifteen years. It wasn’t by design. It wasn’t anything I was thinking about doing until those two guys put that in my head. I took a lot of my key points and the things I did on a day to day basis from those guys along with Rick Adelman, who I think is one of the most underrated coaches in our league. So I had three of the best coaches to mentor me and show me what they did on a day to day basis. I tried to copy it as much as possible and put my own style into it to make myself as successful as I could be.

AE: You won Coach of the Year during your time as the head coach in New Orleans. Where does that award rank in your many accolades in the NBA?

BS: That is pretty high. The championships were great. Obviously that is the highest point. That is like getting to Mount Rushmore. You can’t get much higher. When you are in your profession and your main objective is to be the very best you can be, winning those championships prove that you have gotten to that point.

Winning Coach of the Year was just really special. I had really special group of guys in New Orleans. They trusted in me from day one in where I told them I think I could take them to where I felt we could get to if they just put in the work. They were able to do that. Coach of the Year is more a team award. If your players don’t play well and do extremely well on that basketball court than you have no chance at getting that. I was really appreciative of the players that I had and the commitment that they had on a day to day basis to go out and play their very best basketball.

AE: I want to also talk about your book that you teamed up with Charles Norris. This is a very unique book. Please talk to me about Slam-Dunk Success: Leading from Every Position on Life’s Court.

BS: Well when we first started to do that and take it to these publications that was the first thing that Kate Hudson, who is at Hachette in New York said ‘I have been looking for a book like this that hasn’t been done.’

It is just crazy how it started. We were just workout partners. One day we were on the mats just stretching and Charlie said that we should write a book. At that time we thought the book was going to be more of a workout book. We went to Charlie’s friend, Todd Smith who used to represent Madonna and Sean Penn. He had much bigger ideas.

Two and a half years later this is where we are. It is really a great story because it does have two arcs to it. The first one being that there are a whole lot of similarities in running a business as it is running a basketball team. That is what Charlie and I found out. We would talk a lot about our perspective fields. I would ask him about certain situations that I was dealing with players. He would ask me about certain situations on how he was dealing with negotiating contracts with other businesses.

The great thing about it is that we both love each other so much as people and trust each other. I would give him my perspective and it didn’t have to do with anything business really. He would give me his perspective that really didn’t have anything to do with basketball. That was what I really wanted. I knew that I could go to coaches and asked them what they think about this or that. Going to him and he was at practice a lot. I allowed him to be in our meetings and film sessions and vice versa when I would be with him on business trips.

We just tried to intertwine each other into our worlds. We found a lot of similarities in running a business and a basketball team. That was the first arc. The second arc is don’t judge a book by its cover. If you see us two together and I always presented it this way when I am presenting to companies when Charlie and I are standing there together. You see this tall, six four, dark handsome guy and then you see Charlie. (Both laugh.) You see Charlie this little Jewish guy. We just have a lot of fun. We have a lot of things in common. The question we would get every day when we first started working out together is why are you guys working out together? When you see certain people together that just doesn’t seem to fit I think our book cover speaks for itself. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Ask that person that second and third question. Get to know the person. Then you can get down to what that root of that person is all about. That is why he and I have such a good relationship.

AE: What were some of the first few thoughts that popped into your mind when you found out that you were going to be a dad?

BS: The first thought was excitement. My oldest son is 34 years old. Then the second thought was that I was scared to death. (Both laugh.) I had never raised a kid. I was 21 years old at the time. I was like oh my God what am I going to do? What if I mess up? There were no handbooks out there on how to raise a son. I tried to remember what my dad did with me and told me.

I am going to do the very best that I can. I am going to love him to death and teach him the right way. It worked out pretty well. My three kids are all great people. That is the first thing. They are all great people. I got three granddaughters now, one from my son and two from my daughter. That was my first thought. I was excited. I love kids. I was so excited to know that my wife at the time was pregnant and we were expecting our first child. I was scared to death ten minutes later because I didn’t have a clue to what I was doing. (Both laugh.)

AE: How do you balance work and family?

BS: The good thing about it is that I had a good family and support system. They understood that my work at that particular time had to come first. I had to be focused especially as a player. I had to keep myself in great condition. I had to get my rest. All those things were pretty well known in my household when I was playing.

It was the same thing when I became a coach. The kids were older so it wasn’t that much different. They were doing their thing and had their own lives. I went to a lot of track meets and basketball games. I understood that there were things that I still had to do to make sure I was ready and prepared as a player and as a coach. My family understood that. It was kind of a way of life. We started that early letting them know that at two o’clock, two-thirty dad is shutting it down for some rest before the game. There was no noise in the house. There were no kids running around. If you were going to have friends over it had to be at a certain time or you had to go to their house. I ate at a certain time. It was just a routine that my kids and my family got used to over the years. It wasn’t anything unusual for them.

That was kind of the way I did my playing career and my coaching career. All of this kind of comes first in regards to work goes and my profession. These are the things that I need you to do to help me be prepared. The family was great about it.

AE: What are some of the core values you look to instill in your kids as they were growing up?

BS: One of my pet peeves with my kids was whenever they wanted something. Anytime they wanted dad to buy them something, it would be dad can we get this? I would always put a question to them. Do you need it or do you want it? There is a big difference. If you need it than it is a different story. If you want it you got to work for it.

They would understand the question after a few years and what I was getting to. More time than not it was I want it. I would say okay what are you willing to do to get it? That would make me give them chores around the house to earn the money. I would say if you earn half of it I would give you the other half. That core value was just to teach them that nothing is free in life. You got to work for everything that you want.

That is the way that my dad had raised me. If you want it you have to go get it. I didn’t want my kids to feel that they were above or better than anybody else. I wanted them to go to public school, not private school. I wanted them to understand that we are very blessed family, but there are still things that you have to work your butt off in order to be successful. That was one of the key values to me that I wanted to instill into my kids. Even to this day and even though they are grown they still remember those values. I thought that was extremely important.

AE: What advice do you have for new dads?

BS: I think the biggest piece of advice that I would give would to just be yourself. Don’t try to be your dad. You can take some of the things that your dad did for you, but be your own person. This is a different world that we live in. Technology is a big part of our lives right now. If you are a dad that is into technology get your son or daughter into it early. If you are a dad that is into sports get your son or daughter into it early.

The one thing that I told my daughter for my granddaughters, I have a five and three year old, I told her that when they hit six Papa is going to take care to two things, martial arts and golf. I will take care of their golf lessons and their martial arts. I want them to be balanced.

So for new dads just be yourself. Love them. The one thing that you want to do is just raise good kids. You want to raise good people. They can be very successful in society. That was my biggest thing. Like I said I am very proud of my three kids who have just done that.

Life of Dad Quick Five

AE: Do you guys have a favorite family movie that you all love to watch together?

BS: Moana. (Both laugh.) Every time my grandkids come over it is Moana. I have watched Moana seven times already. Now I am starting to sing the songs with them. It is getting that crazy.

AE: Do you guys have a favorite song that you all like to sing to or dance to as a family? Is it the Moana soundtrack?

BS: It pretty much is. My granddaughters know every word on every song. Papa gets up and dances with them.

AE: Describe the perfect family vacation.

BS: The perfect family vacation is in the Bahamas. It is a place that we love to go to and it is like our second home. We used to take the kids and now we are waiting for the grandkids to get a little bit older so we can take the whole family to Atlantis. Just enjoy a week there. Then go to Exuma. It is a beautiful island in the Bahamas. Just spend a few days there as well.

AE: Favorite pair of kicks you liked playing in was?

BS: Reebok Pumps.

AE: Best thing about being a grandfather over a dad is?

BS: The best thing about being a grandad is that I can spoil them and then give them back to their mom and dad. (Both laugh.) I don’t have to deal with the other stuff. I can just give them right back to them.

Follow Byron on Twitter at @official_bscott and you can purchase his book by going to his website at officialbyronscott.com.