After retiring as a player, Deion Sanders worked as an NFL pundit before making the transition to coaching. He began by coaching his sons in high school in 2017, and then moved to the college ranks in 2020. And the success he’s had has inspired future NBA Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony.
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While speaking on his podcast, 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony and the Kid Mero, the former NBA star and his guests praised Sanders for seamlessly handling the transition to coaching.
What Coach Prime is doing as the head coach of the No. 16 Colorado Buffaloes is impressive. However, it was his lesser-known work at the high school level that really struck a chord with the former Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks player.
“I don’t think [Deion Sanders] gets enough credit for what he did in high school. Like on the high school level. Like we see it now but the grind of him going back, after an illustrious career and all of that. To go lock in, to your kids, for me that was like ‘oh, s***, I wanna coach my kids, I gotta go really train my kids.’ Because I know, I got the blueprint. I felt like, I could relate to that, because I had to do the same thing.”
Carmelo was also impressed by how Sanders coached his kids, Shedeur and Shilo, both of whom will be entering the NFL Draft in April. So much so that he also started working with his son Kiyan Anthony.
Carmelo inspired by Coach Prime
While he was still working at the NFL Network as an analyst, Sanders dipped his toes in coaching. He began by coaching his own team, Prime Prep Academy, but after several controversies, the program was shut down. However, he didn’t let that faze him.
Instead of going back to his cushy pundit job, he took a step back. In 2017, he joined the Trinity Christian High School coaching staff as the offensive coordinator — not even the head coach — to work with his sons. All three of them (Shedeur, Shilo and Deion Jr.) were on the team’s roster that year.
Jackson State hired Sanders as their head coach a few years later. After turning that program around, he then moved on to coach the Colorado Buffaloes, where he is enjoying the most success he’s had since his playing career.
Someone as confident as Sanders was able to swallow his pride and take an OC job in high school to get himself back on track and stay close to his kids. This has inspired Carmelo to do the same.
Videos of ‘Melo training or giving his son, Kiyan, basketball pointers have been common for some time. But he really “locked in” when he got his son on his AAU squad, ‘Team Melo’. While he’s not the official head coach, no doubt it allowed him to be more present throughout his son’s hoops journey.
Kiyan had recently committed to play college basketball at Syracuse, his father’s alma mater.
