Antoine "Ton" Boot (born October 16, 1940) is a Dutch retired professional basketball coach and player. Boot is viewed as one of the best Dutch coaches ever, because of his 14 national titles in the Netherlands. The Dutch newspaper ''

De Volkskrant ''de Volkskrant'' (; ''The People's Paper'') is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium-sized c ...

'' named him the best Dutch sports coach of the 20th century.

Playing career

In 1958 Boot won his first Dutch championship with DED Amsterdam. After that he won the national title another four times, in 1961, 1964 and 1965 with The Wolves Amsterdam and five years later with Blue Stars. In December 1959, Boot scored 53 points in a game against Monark, which was the all-time scoring record in the Dutch Basketball League until 1979, when Tony Parker Sr. scored 63 points. In his career Boot also played for the Dutch national basketball team. He played his first game on April 1, 1959. He has eventually played 148 games for the Dutch national team.

Personal life

He married basketball player Jenny Boot-Tigelaar on 20 September 1967.

Coaching career

Boot started his coaching career in 1978 with EBBC Den Bosch, and immediately won three titles. After a less successful year with

Parker Leiden ZZ Leiden Basketball, also known as Zorg en Zekerheid Leiden, is a basketball club based in Leiden, Netherlands. The club plays in the BNXT League, the domestic first tier league. Their home games are played at Vijf Meihal, which has 2,000 seat ...

he returned to Den Bosch, where he won two championships once again. In 1985 Boot left for

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

. With Den Helder, Boot won four straight championships. After that he left for Belgium to coach Oostende, in 1995 he won the Ethias League. In 1998 Boot became coach of

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) ...

and he did win another four titles. In 2004 Boot won his last title, with the MPC Capitals from

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

. In 2007, he retired. Boot was the head coach of the Dutch national team in 1981.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boot, Ton 1940 births Living people BC Oostende coaches Dutch basketball coaches Dutch men's basketball players Dutch Basketball League players Basketball players from Amsterdam Donar (basketball club) coaches Heroes Den Bosch coaches Zorg en Zekerheid Leiden coaches Amsterdam Basketball coaches BV Den Helder coaches