Joseph S. Spinks (born June 20, 1972) is an American-Dutch retired basketball player and coach. He played eight seasons for

ABC Amsterdam Amsterdam Basketball was a Dutch professional basketball club from the city of Amsterdam, established in 1995 and dissolved in 2011. The club won the Dutch championship seven times and the Dutch Cup five times. History Early years (1995–1997) ...

in the Netherlands and is considered one of the best players to have played in the Eredivisie. Spinks also was head coach and assistant coach for Amsterdam for two years. Spink's nickname during his playing career was "The Bull".

College career

Spinks played for Cambell from 1990 to 1994, and helped the Fighting Camels to their first-ever NCAA tournament berth in 1994. In 2010, he was inducted into the Campbell Sports Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Spinks started his career in 1994 with Södertälje BBK of the Swedish

Basketligan Svenska Basketligan, or the Swedish Basketball League (SBL), is the premier league for professional basketball in Sweden. The league was originally established in 1992 as Basketligan and was known as that prior to the season of 2006–07, but whe ...

. In the following season, he played with

Namika Lahti Namika Lahti was a basketball club based in Lahti, Finland. The club played in the Korisliiga, the top Finnish championship league. The club was established in 1898 in Vyborg and moved to Lahti in 1947. In 2015, the club was dissolved, after e ...

in the Finnish Korisliiga. In 1996, Spinks had the opportunity to play work out for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA), however, after a torn achilles. After stints in Belgium and Portugal, he arrived to the

Amsterdam Astronauts Amsterdam Basketball was a Dutch professional basketball club from the city of Amsterdam, established in 1995 and dissolved in 2011. The club won the Dutch championship seven times and the Dutch Cup five times. History Early years (1995–1997) ...

in 1998. He would stay on the team for 12 seasons, becoming a star player and helping the team win as much as six Dutch national championships. Spinks retired from playing at age 33 due to a knee injury.

Coaching career

In 2006, Spinks took over as interim head coach of the

and guided them to the league semifinals. In the following two years, he was an assistant coach on the Amsterdam team that won two more Eredivisie titles. Spinks returned with his family to the United States in 2009.

Honors

Professional

Astronauts Amsterdam *6× Dutch Championship (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008) *2× Dutch Cup (2004, 2006) *2×

DBL Most Valuable Player The Dutch Basketball League Most Valuable Player Award is an annual award given to the most valuable player in the Netherlands, Dutch highest professional basketball league. The award is given after the regular season and was first handed out in 19 ...

(2000, 2003) *4×

All-DBL Team The Dutch Basketball League (DBL) All-Star Team, also known as All-DBL Team, is a team constituted by the main players in a season of the Dutch Basketball League, the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands. This team is based on ...

(2000, 2001, 2003, 2004) * DBL Playoffs MVP(2005) *FEB Cup MVP (2003) *2×

DBL All-Star The Dutch Basketball League All-Star Gala was a yearly basketball event in the Netherlands, organised by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (FEB). During the event the yearly All-Star Game was played, which included the best players of a given ...

(2000, 2001)

College

* Big South Conference Player of the Year (1994) *

Big South Conference The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...

Rookie of the Year (1991) * 3× First Team All-Big South Conference (1992, 1993, 1994) * Second Team All-Big South Conference (1991) * Campbell University Hall of Fame (2010)

Personal

Spinks is married to Dawn Gibson and has a son, Jonathan. Spinks is a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

References

External links

Eurobasket profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spinks, Joe 1972 births Living people Amsterdam Basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Belgium American expatriate basketball people in Finland American expatriate basketball people in the Netherlands American expatriate basketball people in Portugal American expatriate basketball people in Sweden American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from North Carolina Basketball players from North Carolina Campbell Fighting Camels basketball players Dutch Basketball League players High school basketball coaches in the United States Namika Lahti players People from Asheboro, North Carolina Small forwards Södertälje Kings players