SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 Al Biancani tells a story about Mike Bibby.<\/p>\n
It dates back to the 2000s. Biancani was the strength and conditioning coach for the Sacramento Kings then with Bibby, the steady, never-rattled point-guard floor leader. Bibby could not throttle down after games or practices, Biancani recalled. The former Arizona Wildcats star could not ease off the gas despite having already sweated through his jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always kept working, wanting to lift weights or to take more shots late at night when everyone was gone, and I\u2019d have to tell him, \u2018Hey Mike. You\u2019ve gotta take a break.\u2019\u201d Biancani said. \u201cHe\u2019s not wired like that. He doesn\u2019t slow down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently, Biancani watched Bibby in his new element, leading a practice in his role as the first-year head coach of the Sacramento State Hornets. Bibby\u2019s first call upon landing this gig was to Biancani, who is now Sac State\u2019s strength coach. The two have been close for nearly 25 years. \u201cHe\u2019s like a son to me,\u201d Biancani said.<\/p>\n
\n People are also reading\u2026\n <\/p>\n
\u201cMike hasn\u2019t changed,\u201d Biancani said. \u201cLook at him. Look at his face, and you can see how involved he is, how much he cares. He\u2019s still a competitor, and if you\u2019re not a competitor, you don\u2019t belong in this business. You can\u2019t be a sissy playing basketball, and you can\u2019t be a sissy and play for Mike Bibby.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sacramento State head coach Mike Bibby calls to players during a game between Sac State and Presbyterian at Hornet Pavilion in Sacramento, Calif., on Nov. 16, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hannah Ruhoff, The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
Bibby is 47 now, still youthful looking, still with the same spirit that made him a beloved Kings player. Bibby receives rousing ovations when he attends Kings games, and his image is shown on the big screen at Golden 1 Center. His body is thicker than it was when he logged 14 NBA seasons, including from 2001-08 for the best teams in the Kings\u2019 time in Sacramento, because the work ethic hasn\u2019t stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike\u2019s still lifting,\u201d Biancani said. \u201cHe thinks he still looks great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oh, and there\u2019s the hair. Biancani and Bibby have roasted each other since the start of their union.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told Mike, \u2018Hey dog, you\u2019ve got a little salt in that pepper on top,\u2019\u201d said Biancani, who has, as Bibby knows well, no hair to be salt or pepper.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m showing my age,\u201d Bibby said.<\/p>\n
Bibby acknowledged that the switch from playmaker \u2014 the leader of Team Dime \u2014 to first-time collegiate coach pulling together all these players \u2014 now called \u201cthe maestro\u201d \u2014 does take a toll. And losses for the 4-5\u00a0Hornets take their toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love winning,\u201d Bibby said. \u201cAlways have. That\u2019s what we want to do here: learn the game, play it the right way, compete and win. I\u2019m disappointed with some of our losses, but I knew it wasn\u2019t going to all come quick. I scheduled tough games so we can learn \u2014 UCLA, Cal and (Dec. 2 against) Baylor. If you bow down without effort, I have a problem with that. As long as we put in the effort, and if we lose, I\u2019m OK with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elevating a down program<\/p>\n
Bibby\u2019s burden is different now. As a guard, Bibby ran the team, set up teammates for buckets and took the big shots. He was hard on himself in defeat during his playing career, fretting over details.<\/p>\n
Now, Bibby carries the burden of trying to elevate a Hornets program that has enjoyed just two winning seasons since Sacramento State moved up to NCAA Division I status in 1991. He vowed to teach players how to play the game as he did \u2014 focus on details and fundamentals. That includes spacing on offense, setting screens, executing the pick-and-roll, where to be and where to go.<\/p>\n
Bibby said he is trying to create habits with repetition in practice, and he runs his players hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve all responded,\u201d Hornets guard Mikey Williams said. \u201cCoach Bibby knows what he\u2019s doing, and we\u2019re all learning the game. It\u2019s great to have a coach like this. We\u2019re all excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sacramento State head coach Mike Bibby talks to his players during a game between Sac State and Presbyterian at Hornet Pavilion in Sacramento on Nov. 16, 2025.<\/p>\n
Hannah Ruhoff, The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
Said Hornets guard Jayden Teat, \u201cI mean, that\u2019s a legend right there. Who doesn\u2019t know the name Mike Bibby? This is an experience none of us will forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018He runs the show\u2019<\/p>\n
Bibby has the attention of his players. When he speaks, they stop and listen, including in practice, where Bibby is prone to stop the action and show exactly where a screen is supposed to be set and where the shooter is supposed to go.<\/p>\n
He also lets his coaches coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have an ego that won\u2019t allow our coaches to teach and talk, too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen coach talks, it\u2019s dead silence,\u201d said Zach Chappell, the Hornets basketball assistant general manager and the lone holdover from last season\u2019s coaching-management staff. Chappell is a Sacramento-raised product who played for the Hornets. He was \u201ca huge Mike Bibby fan\u201d growing up.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone listens when Mike talks out here,\u201d Chappell said during a recent practice. \u201cWe call him \u2018The maestro.\u2019 He runs the show. And anything a player has gone through, or where they want to go, Mike\u2019s been there and done all of it. He makes it all simple in teaching the game how it\u2019s supposed to be played. He has 14 new players from 14 different places, and that\u2019s not easy, but we\u2019re getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He takes losses hard. The Hornets are 4-5 after Saturday night\u2019s loss to Pacific. Bibby has acknowledged players for good plays, and he will rip them for sluggish efforts.<\/p>\n
Bibby said he does not sleep well after games, even victories, because he pores over box scores and game film, recognizing a forced pass or a breakdown on defense. Nothing irks him more than a lack of effort.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sacramento State head coach Mike Bibby talks to players during the season-opening game at Hornet Pavilion on Nov. 4, 2025.<\/p>\n
Paul Kitagaki Jr., The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
\u201cMike will text us at 5 in the morning to go over ideas, so we know he\u2019s not sleeping,\u201d Chappell said.<\/p>\n
Give back to the region<\/p>\n
Bibby gave up sleep and pursued the Sac State job for several seasons, reaching out to Hornets athletic director Mark Orr and school president Luke Wood to inquire about the role. He attended Sac State football games in 2024 to get a feel for the place, to chat it up with Orr and Wood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing wasn\u2019t right before, but it is now, and I\u2019m excited,\u201d Bibby said.<\/p>\n
Bibby said he is moved by the support from Kings fans, including those who wear Kings jersey No. 10 in overflow crowd settings inside new Hornet Pavilion. He said he has taken selfies with fans who reminded him that he held them as a baby some 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t that cool?\u201d Bibby said.<\/p>\n
The Bibby name has piqued interest in a program that didn\u2019t always move the needle over the decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here because of Bibby, and because we\u2019ve been waiting for a good team here for years,\u201d said longtime Hornets fan John Campbell during a recent game. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be one of those fans who asked for an autograph, but he signed. What a thrill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bibby said he feels an obligation to boost the Hornets, to give Sacramento a winner, and to give back to a region that has given him so much.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to let the city down,\u201d Bibby said.<\/p>\n
Orr said the Hornets didn\u2019t hire Bibby because he was a Kings star, but noted that \u201cwas the cherry on top. He\u2019s a Kings legend who knows this sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orr, during a recent home game, said he was impressed with the new-look Hornets and the crowds. He admitted that he is a bit star-struck himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked over at Mike, and it was a surreal moment,\u201d Orr said. \u201cI was thinking, \u2018Man, look at that. That\u2019s Mike Bibby coaching our basketball team. I mean, who doesn\u2019t love that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bibby\u2019s rock: His mother<\/p>\n
Bibby sought out his mother, Virginia Bibby, before the opening tip of Sac State\u2019s home opener on Nov. 4. She eased down the stands and gave her son a warm embrace behind the team bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so happy and proud of Mike because this is exactly what he wanted to do,\u201d Virginia Bibby said at the half of that game, a 103-79 victory over Dominican University. Hornets players signed the game ball and presented it to their coach after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Mike was a boy, he wrote an essay to his English teacher and said he dreamed of playing in the NBA,\u201d Virginia Bibby said. \u201cHe did. Then he wanted to coach, and here he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Virginia Bibby said she used to drive from Phoenix to Sacramento dozens of times when her son played for the Kings. Her son insisted she fly, on his dollar, but she liked to drive and to think. Now she flies to Hornets games. Back home in Arizona, she watches Bibby\u2019s and wife Darcy\u2019s youngest child, Nylah Bibby, compete as a high school volleyball star. Nylah has committed to Bibby’s alma mater, UA.<\/p>\n
She also smiled talking about the view of her son and grandson on the same bench again. Bibby coached his only son, Michael, at Shadow Mountain High School in Arizona when that program was a national prep powerhouse. Michael is now coaching with his father after playing overseas professionally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will say that it\u2019s much easier watching Mike coach than watching him play because it\u2019s not as stressful,\u201d Virginia Bibby said. \u201cBut Mike curses more now than he did as a player. Michael doesn\u2019t curse at all. I just know that this is Mike\u2019s dream, and this is his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bibby said being involved in his children\u2019s lives was important to him. His father, Henry Bibby, played college basketball at UCLA and in the NBA and coached in college and the NBA, but father and son didn\u2019t see a lot of each other. Bibby said he is indebted to his mother for her love and loyalty to him and to his children.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like I hated my dad or anything, but he wasn\u2019t around, and I grew up without him,\u201d Bibby said. \u201cHe was coaching, away from the family. I always told myself that I\u2019m going to do my best to be there for my kids, no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bibby said he and his father are in regular contact. He invited his father to come to Sac State to talk to the players before the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told the guys that \u2018this has to be your life,\u2019\u201d Bibby said.<\/p>\n
Insights from Brad Miller, Shaq, Doug Christie<\/p>\n
Basketball has been Bibby\u2019s life since he first handled a ball as a little boy, wearing a jersey so big it draped over his skinny frame.<\/p>\n
He was a prep All-American at Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, where he led a state-championship team in 1996. He led the Arizona Wildcats to the NCAA championship in 1997 and was the No. 2 pick in the 1998 NBA draft, selected by the Vancouver Grizzlies. Bibby, 6-foot-2, logged 14 seasons. His best run was with the Kings during the Rick Adelman-coached era of the early 2000s, when he averaged 17.6 points and 5.5 assists. He retired from the NBA in 2012.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mike Bibby cuts a piece of net after the Wildcats defeated Kentucky in the 1997 NCAA Tournament championship game, giving the program its first and only title.<\/p>\n
David Sanders, Arizona Daily Star 1997<\/p>\n
Bibby got into coaching at Shadow Mountain High, first to help his son\u2019s prep team as an assistant. He became head coach at the urging of Michael Warren, the school\u2019s athletic director, and he coached five state championship teams.<\/p>\n
Bibby and Warren became so close that Bibby hired him months ago to become his director of basketball operations at Sac State. Warren came up with the title of \u201cThe maestro\u201d for Bibby, having watched him orchestrate things for years.<\/p>\n
Bibby served as an assistant coach for the Puerto Rican National Team, summer league teams for Cleveland and Memphis, and in the NBA G League.<\/p>\n
Bibby said he sometimes peeks at old clips of some of his best plays, none bigger than his Game 5 winner against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2002 Western Conference finals that put the Kings on the cusp of reaching the NBA Finals. It remains the biggest play in the franchise\u2019s 41-year history in California. Bibby said he is still pained at how the Kings lost that series. He does not watch the Robert Horry game-winner that turned the series for the Lakers, or the fateful Game 7 when the Lakers won in overtime behind Shaquille O\u2019Neal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t watch some of those Lakers games,\u201d Bibby said. \u201cI refuse to watch. If I know it\u2019s coming up, I\u2019ll turn the TV off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Time heals, and relationships remained. In the 2000s, Bibby could not have imagined ever working alongside Shaq in any capacity. As fate would have it, Shaq is Sac State\u2019s general manager, a volunteer position as a favor to an old friend.<\/p>\n
Bibby\u2019s first signing with the Hornets was Shaq\u2019s son, Shaqir O\u2019Neal, a 6-foot-8 forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the GM because Mike needed me, and Mike is good people,\u201d O\u2019Neal said.<\/p>\n
Brad Miller is another former NBA big man who is with Bibby today because of their years of friendship. Miller was the center-forward for the Kings for a stretch when Bibby was there. Miller is an advisor to Bibby and the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike and I always got along, always talked basketball, and we have the same kind of high basketball IQ that you need,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWhen Mike got this job, I told him I\u2019ll come check him out. He said they don\u2019t have money to pay me, and I told him that\u2019s OK. I want to help, and I\u2019m coming out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love what he\u2019s doing here. Mike\u2019s doing a great job of teaching the game. There will be some lows, because it\u2019s basketball, but there will be a lot of highs. It\u2019ll happen. We\u2019ve already seen some of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bibby didn\u2019t expect to be a coach when he played for the Kings, though he had some \u201cmaestro\u201d to him then, too, in orchestrating practices and games.<\/p>\n
Bibby\u2019s backcourt mate with the Kings was Doug Christie, now the Kings head coach. Christie said he watched Bibby \u201cfrom afar\u201d when Bibby was a prep coach. But Christie didn\u2019t see Bibby becoming a head coach in college when they played together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am surprised,\u201d Christie said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure that I ever saw him coaching, but at the same time, he knows the game. He understands the game, and all the things that equate to coaching. So it surprises me, but it doesn\u2019t surprise me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christie added, \u201cWe\u2019ve talked some schematics more than anything, offensive and defensive stuff, like how the players today are different from when we played, and how to manage that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018The good life\u2019<\/p>\n
Bibby said he\u2019s living \u201cthe good life.\u201d He has accomplished all of his goals with more to accomplish, such as someday getting Sac State into the NCAA Tournament. He married his teenage sweetheart, and they had four kids. They are even grandparents now.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad my first grandchild in August, and when we call, we say, \u2018Hey, put the baby on!\u2019\u201d Bibby said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Bibby added, \u201cI pushed myself at every stop. I wanted to be a good high school player and worked at it. I wanted to do well in college. I wanted to get drafted. There are only about 4,500 players who have ever made it to the NBA, so I\u2019m proud of that. It\u2019s not easy. None of it is very easy. You have to work at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bibby looks like he can still play. But he rarely picks up a ball and shoots. He used to work himself to the point of exhaustion as a player with extra shots and extra weight lifting. He now works himself to the point of fatigue in breaking down film. He also stresses about making sure his players are taken care of, including paying for haircuts and meals. He and the Hornets had a Thanksgiving gathering.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Mike,\u201d said Biancani, the team\u2019s strength coach. \u201cHe\u2019s a good man. He\u2019s loyal. He cares. He works his ass off.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t shoot anymore,\u201d Bibby said. \u201cI don\u2019t even workout with the guys here in practice. I let the coaches run the floor with the players. I don\u2019t want to get all sweaty for the rest of the day, so I\u2019ll let the kids here get sweaty, and I\u2019ll just stand on the side and teach the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sacramento Bee Staff Writer Chris Biderman contributed to this story.<\/p>\n
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