Wells' travels have taken him from MV to NBA to Australia

Mike Wells has always loved basketball. Hanging out with his friends on the courts of Mount Vernon, they all dreamed of one day playing in the NBA.

After playing in high school at Mount Vernon and then college at Mount Vernon Nazarene College, Wells figured out that dream probably wasn’t going to come true. But there he got a push from MVNC coach Scott Flemming that ultimately led to being in the highest professional league in the United States, albeit in a different capacity.

“I love basketball. I kind of loved the coaching side of it. It made sense to me,” said Wells. “It was probably coach Scott Flemming when I was over at Mount Vernon Nazarene that was the first guy that was sort of like, ‘Hey, what do you think you’re going to do after college? Maybe you should think about coaching?’ That was the guy that kind of put me on the path.”

That push in the right direction turned into 26 years as an intern, video coordinator and assistant coach for teams like the Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz and Charlotte Hornets.

Wells got the internship with the Rockets while in graduate school at the United States Sports Academy in Mobile, Alabama. A classmate had an internship with the Chicago Bulls and explained that she got it by sending letters to all the NBA and NFL teams. Wells followed her lead and just a few days later, got an offer from the Houston Rockets. The internship was on the business side of the organization, but while there, he struck up a friendship with Jim Boyland, the video coordinator, and started doing things on the basketball side.

“I would do all the intern things for the whole organization during the day and then in the evenings, I’d go over there (the basketball side) and see if he needed any help. One thing led to another, and I was hired as the video coordinator’s assistant to him and a couple years later, I’m the video guy, and a couple years later, I’m an assistant coach. It just kind of snowballed from there,” Wells said.

He spent the next several years learning under Rockets’ head coach Rudy Tomjanovich. That led him to a spot on the Team USA basketball team staff, which played in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. He’s also worked as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, Washington Wizards, Utah Jazz and Charlotte Hornets, as well as in the Division I college ranks at George Mason and South Florida.

Now, his path has headed in another direction — back to the other side of the world. Wells just finished his first year as the head coach for the Adelaide 36ers, an Australian team in the National Basketball League.

Wells had been hired as an assistant coach for the 36ers last year, but things changed not long after he landed in Australia. The head coach was dismissed, and Wells was handed the main coach’s whistle less than two weeks after arriving.

“All of it was sort of a whirlwind, to be honest with you. You just kind of get in the situation, you hit the ground running, and obviously, lean on things you’re comfortable with and you feel like your team can do at a high level,” Wells said. “Then, as you start to go through it, you start to get to know your players, and you start to get to know the league, and you start to adjust. I think myself, and the staff, we adjusted on the fly quite well. I have a way different view of the league and what I need to be prepared for in year two.

“I definitely went over thinking I wanted to be an assistant for one whole year, just to get the lay of the land. Ten days in the ownership group decided to make a change and that’s obviously a good and bad situation. You love the opportunity but just not quite sure what’s going to be coming at me. I loved it. I loved being able to compete at it and try to get the group to function at a high level and, ultimately, trying to get the most wins and playoff spots we could. Ultimately, we fell short of our goal, but we did make it to the playoffs.”

He's now getting started on his second season and feels the lessons he’s learned will help both him and the team.

“(It’s tough) going through being a head coach for the first time. Now you know what’s expected and how many decisions you have to make, how it’s going to be organized. I think I’ll be a much better and different head coach. I’ve got more support from my staff. I’m excited to just get started and see how it goes,” he said. The team opened training camp on Aug. 17.

The second season will also be different for Wells personally as he will be without one of his sons while in Australia. Trenton, a senior in high school, wanted to come back home to the United States and have a true senior season, both in school and on the basketball court. After discussing their options, the family decided to lean on other family members and Trenton will be staying with his grandparents and attending Mount Vernon High School.

“There’s really just no high school basketball (in Australia). He asked can I go home and have a senior year? I get it. You want to give him that deal because he loves basketball and he loves Friday nights,” Wells said. “I don’t know where in Salt Lake City where he could feel comfortable. Why not go to Mount Vernon where you’ve got your grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and people you know that will support you. I feel like it was a really good situation for me, so why wouldn’t I give him that opportunity to chase his dreams?”