An NBA champion and former Florida player is now the head coach of Polk State College in Winter Haven.
St. Peterburg native and former Florida player Marreese Speights is now the head coach of the local college and will officially start June 1, according to a press release. Speights played for the Philadelphia Sixers, Memphis Grizzlies, Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers, Orlando Magic and Golden State Warriors — a team he won a championship with in 2015 thanks to Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, though Speights was very valuable with his defensive post presence, rebounding and scoring a basket on occasion.
“Being from St. Petersburg, I spent a lot of time playing in Polk County,” Speights said. “In 2023, I coached my team to a postgraduate championship in Polk State’s gymnasium. When I used to play in that area, Polk County teams always played with grit and toughness and we’re going to bring that to Polk State. I felt like Polk was where I was supposed to be. I’m excited to be part of something bigger than me,” Speights said in a press release.
Speights has always been an important piece a part of something bigger than him. And it all started at Florida when he helped his team win a second straight national championship in 2007 thanks to guys like Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer. As a sophomore, though, he was a terrific player, averaging 14.5 points on 62% shooting, 8.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocks before being selected by the Sixers in the 2008 NBA Draft.
Speights’ experience of the area, knowledge of the game and his vantage points of being a role player and a focal point make a him a good fit for Polk State, which has just one winning season over the last four years.
“We’re incredibly excited to have someone of coach Speights’ stature to oversee our basketball program,” Polk State Athletic Director Randy Lee said. “He’s made a profound impact and has had on-the-court success everywhere he’s been. He has a proven track record of moving athletes on to the next level. This is a big moment for Polk State Athletics.”
Speights had several big moments in the NBA, including helping the Warriors beat the Cavaliers without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, as well as assisting the Warriors to win 73 games in 2016 despite the team blowing a 3-1 lead in a historical 2016 NBA Finals moment.
And under these occasions of triumph and failure, he has learned under some of the greatest college and NBA coaches of all time, including Florida’s Billy Donovan, Mark Jackson, Steve Kerr, Doc Rivers, Lionel Hollins, Doug Collins, Maurice Cheeks, Byron Scott and Frank Vogel.
“Every coach is different, but I learned a lot from those guys,” Speights said. “There are parts of all of them that I have implemented into my coaching style.”
Speights absolutely loves the game, which is why he is a coach today. After his decades-long NBA career and three campaigns in China, Speights founded Speights Academy, which is a postgraduate program in St. Petersburg, while also overseeing the Amateur Athletic Union program, Team Speights. He would embark on his college coaching career at Georgia Southern in the 2023-24 season before serving as the director of player development at the University of South Florida the following year.
This past year, he was the head coach at Northside Christian School in St. Petersburg, leading the Mustangs to the Class 2A state semifinals.
“We’re going to bring the right people to Polk State and make an impact in the community as well,” Speights said. “I want to build a high-character program that works hard and represents Polk State with pride.”
Speights has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Union Institute in Ohio.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk State basketball hires NCAA, NBA champ Marreese Speights as new head coach
Reporting by Robert Magobet, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
