Rio Grande Valley Vipers Break the Mold in Hiring of Head Coach Kevin Burleson
Meet Kevin Burleson.
Burleson is the newly appointed Head Coach of the Houston Rockets Affiliate team of the NBA G League, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
For the first time since the 2013-2014 season, the RGV Vipers have hired a completely new candidate as their Head Coach who was not a part of the coaching staff the season prior.
The Rockets have naturally stuck to the blueprint in the last couple of years. A new Coach would come into town, make a deep run in the playoffs, win a championship and then his first in line assistant would become his successor. The Rockets found great success in this method, winning a D League Western Conference Championship and two championship titles in only four years. Remaining as the only team in the NBA G League with four Championship titles in its sixteen years of existence.
So why Burleson?
“I’ve said this before, he’s an excellent person first, and he’s somebody that we have a lot of confidence in. Being around our staff, our players the community here. That he’s going to do a great job with all of that and when you have good people and put good people in positions to lead, great things flow from that."
Travis Stockbridge Vipers General Manager
For starters, Kevin Burleson comes from a bountiful family of athletes. How bountiful? Try being one of only six sets of brothers who played in the NBA and in the NFL. His younger brother, Nate Burleson was a wide receiver in the NFL and is now currently a co-host covering football for CBS.
As did his sibling, Kevin naturally began to gravitate towards one sport. For him, that sport was basketball. Although he struggled with it at first, his skills naturally caught up with his height and at a young age was already starting to make an impact. Accredited for helping his team at O’Dea High School go undefeated through a 29-game season and winning a state title.
He went on to attend the University of Minnesota and began his professional career overseas shortly after in Germany. Ultimately, working his way to achieve the epitome of any hooper's dream, making it to the NBA, playing one season for the then Charlotte Bobcats back in 2005-2006.
Burleson spent time in the then D league, now G league having played a full season for the Flyers during the 2006-07 season and ultimately finished his playing career in Egypt.
Burelson then went on to begin his coaching career as an assistant coach with the Iowa Wolves for the 2017-2018 season and now as the Head Coach for an NBA G League team he feels like his experience at every level has undoubtedly made it easier for him to relate to his players.
“I’ve been there like, they can’t tell me like, “Oh you’ve never been in the NBA, you don’t know what it’s like playing overseas, you don’t know what it’s like being cut”. Yeah, I’ve been in all the situations, so I let them know what I’ve learned over the years. The dos the don’ts. They can just look at Google and see that I’m not lying to you.”
Kevin Burleson, Head Coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers
Vipers Assistant Coach Jai Steadman remembers Burleson as a young competitive player during his time coaching him with the Fort Worth Flyers D League team. It wasn’t until years later that the two would run into one another at this year’s NBA Summer league at a dinner that Former Vipers Head Coach, Chris Finch was hosting. Even earlier on Steadman still recalls noticing certain characteristics that led him to believe that Burleson could potentially become a coach one day.
“I’ve had players previous that were good players, but nobody listened, but again when Kevin would speak to the team and we’d call plays or we’d be on the road, and in tough situations he’d be pointing and talking and getting us in the right set and right situation. The command, the control, the leadership he had, you just said one day he’s going to be a great coach."
Jai Steadman, Vipers Assistant Coach
“The G League has grown, first as the D League, but it’s grown a lot. You can see now in the NBA that there’s so many coaches, head assistants, head coaches that were in the G League. From Chris Finch to Nick Nurse guys that were here, so a lot of these guys I’ve talked to and I knew, I know I want to be a head coach, I am going to be a head coach, so I knew I had to do something like this. So, when this opportunity came about, I jumped on it.”
Kevin Burleson
Burleson got his first win as Head Coach Friday night against the Birmingham Squadron the Vipers home opener.
Before the game Burleson watched former head coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah receive his championship ring. Drakes anthem "Big Rings" filled the arena as fans watched in awe when the 2021-2022 Championship Banner was raised up to its new home inside the Bert Ogden Arena. With the pressure of a crowd celebrating last year's championship team, Burleson secured his first home win of the 2022-2023 season.
“It’s great, it’s amazing, it’s a blessing. Because you know they played a tough game. Birmingham was a good opponent, so it was going down to the wire, but our guys were resilient, and it was great for fans to get the win here on ring night.”
Burleson's journey has been one with a unique path. Whereas most coaches start in the G league and work their way up to the NBA, Coach Burleson started in the NBA and is now in the NBA G League and does not regret his decision.
Despite this role not always being a part of the vision that he had for himself and his career due to not knowing how it could be achieved, one aspect remained constant.
“I just knew that If I prepared, and I trusted God, I’m gonna get there. My mom always said that you prepare and let God handle the rest."