Leonard Hamilton hasn’t been as busy in retirement as when he coached the Florida State men’s basketball team. But he’s not slowing down that much.
There are Zoom meetings with basketball coaches across the nation, mentoring opportunities for him to share his experiences as a head coach at Oklahoma State, Miami and FSU. Hamilton is also active in his church and is working to establish an endowed scholarship at FSU, where he coached from 2002-25. He’s still watching plenty of basketball each night. And there’s a documentary in the works, too.
“The last three weeks, I've been exceptionally busy because the ACC and Raycom are doing a documentary on me sometime in February,” Hamilton said. “I've been pretty occupied with that.”
Hamilton has already been back to the Donald L. Tucker Center to watch the Seminoles play, taking in the season opener against Alcorn State. But on Tuesday night he will be on the court as FSU athletics honors him at halftime as the Seminoles (2-1) take on UT Martin (3-0), Hamilton’s alma mater. The game will stream on ACC Network Extra at 7 p.m.
“I'm proud to have represented Florida State,” Hamilton said. “This is a unique atmosphere that we have here. I'm grateful for the support that we had over the years. I'm grateful for the players, the parents who trusted me with their most precious gift, their child, to be a mentor and a surrogate parent for them for three or four years, while they are here at Florida State.
“I'm so grateful, and I'm honored for them to even recognize me in any way, shape or form. But I should be honoring them. I should be thanking them. I really feel I've had a unique, special opportunity for 23 years to be a part of a community that had embraced me and my family.”
Hamilton was a frequent observer at FSU’s practices, at the invitation of new coach Luke Loucks (a point guard on FSU’s teams from 2008-12). The two text often, with Hamilton saying he can see the improvement each time he watches the Seminoles.
Loucks was more of a facilitator and leader on FSU’s teams than a scorer or 3-point shooter. But he has developed his coaching philosophy from influences like Hamilton as well as coaches in the NBA like Steve Kerr and Mike Brown. Spacing out defenses on the court, playing at a fast pace, signing and developing shooters, Loucks thinks he can bring elements of NBA systems he coached in at Golden State and Sacramento to FSU.
Hamilton has seen Loucks evolve from a young man and sees why he is successful in connecting with the Seminoles.
“As a freshman, obviously he was throwing the ball all over the court, hitting cheerleaders and everybody else,” Hamilton said. “But as he gained more experience, he's a great decision maker. He thinks things through. He doesn't rattle easily. He believes in himself, and he believes in the philosophy that he has. And you feel it and you see it. He walks like it, he talks like it. You see him and you feel good that he has a plan.
“I'm so proud of him more than anything else, but the way he mentally approaches the thing, and when he approaches it. He's verbal. His communication with his players is second to none, and he surrounded himself with people who believe in him and who he believes in. They got great chemistry on their staff. He doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. He'll get in the dirty work.”
Hamilton admits he misses being around the players as basketball season starts up. He misses the relationships and loved being a coach. Hamilton has often said he’s in favor of athletes being paid, a point he made again last week, but the challenges of competing as the dollars grew was “stealing the joy for me.”
But he’s also been concerned about the thousands of young men who enter the portal but don’t find a new home. Hamilton estimates roughly 6,000 transfers over the course of five years didn’t get an offer, and he emphasizes the majority are black.
“How is that healthy for the sport?” Hamilton asked, rhetorically.
It’s a question Hamilton has been asking for years. He’s always been focused on making sure his athletes earned college degrees, or returned to school to complete degrees after they played pro basketball, helping ensure they and their families have a future after their days playing basketball have ended.
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