Byron Antom Scott (photo ©Trifilara) was born in Ogden, Utah, USA on March 28, 1961.

Byron Scott played for the Arizona State University and turned pro in 1983, becoming the fourth overall pick, selected the San Diego Clippers. Immediately after the draft Scott was involved in a trade that caused great interest because he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for a player in his prime such as Norm Nixon.

Byron Scott played with the Lakers for a decade, helping them to win three NBA titles in 1985, 1987 and 1988 scoring even more than 20 points per game in a team where there were big stars such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and James Worthy so his contribution was sometimes overshadowed. His absence was felt in the NBA Finals 1989, when he got injured just before game 1.

In 1993 Byron Scott went to the Indiana Pacers, in 1995 to the Vancouver Grizzlies. The following year he returned to the Los Angeles Lakers but his best years had passed and his role was more like of a mentor to the young players of the team that was being built, first of all Kobe Bryant, just picked in the draft.

In 1997 Byron Scott went to play in the Greek league with Panathinaikos Athens winning the national title. At the end of that season Scott retired from his professional player activity.

In 1998 Byron Scott began a new coaching career as an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings. In 2000 Scott became head coach of the New Jersey Nets, which he led to two consecutive NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003. The following season the team’s performance was a bit disappointing and Scott was fired after a few months even if their record was still positive.

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In 2005 Byron Scott became head coach of the New Orleans Hornets but he had problems in the first two seasons because many home games had to be played in Oklahoma City after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

In the 2007/2008 season the excellent Hornets results led Byron Scott to be elected coach of the year in the NBA. After another good season though there was a bad championship start in 2009 and Scott was fired.

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In 2010 Byron Scott became head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers with the very difficult task of rebuilding a team abandoned by LeBron James that went from fighting for the title to fighting not to beat all negative records for losses. This is inevitably a long-term task.

Byron Scott has opened a nonprofit organization, The Byron Scott Children’s Fund, to raise funds that are donated to various children’s charities because he had so much in life so to him it’s important to give something back to his community.