Larry McKenzie retires from coaching, cites desire to spend more time with family, and changing game due to NIL, players building social media brand

[BleedGopher]

per STrib:

Larry McKenzie found himself at a pinch point.

One of the most successful high school basketball coaches in state history, he was getting older — entering the "fourth quarter" of his life, as he put it — and felt that the game he loved, what he called his ministry, was passing him by.

So, on Monday, McKenzie retired as coach of the boys' basketball team at Minneapolis North, capping a 24-year head coaching career that included six state championships with stops at North, Minneapolis Henry and Holy Angels.
He said he wanted flexibility to spend time with his children, his granddaughters and his mother, who are spread across the country. But he also felt that the game had changed.

"It is moving from what for me was a team sport to more of an individual sport pretending to be a team sport," McKenzie said. "Especially now with name, image and likeness — and it's coming to high school — it's really more about building your social media brand, getting likes, trying to get paid and those kind of things. To me that's just challenging in terms of being in the locker room and being who I am."

North High's Hall of Fame coach, Larry McKenzie, retiring after six Minneapolis state titles

A winner of four boys' basketball championships in a row at Minneapolis Henry and two more at Minneapolis North, he's exiting after 24 years.

www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[BleedGopher]

Coach Johnson chimes in:


Go Gophers!!

 

[BleedGopher]

Innocent until proven guilty....... LOL

Huh?

Go Gophers!!

 

[MNVCGUY]

I can see NIL driving a lot of coaches away, especially in basketball since it is much more of an individual game than football.

 

[Zeppelin Gopher]

Never a fan of McKenzie. Good riddance

 

[jovs]

Never a fan of McKenzie. Good riddance

I'm curious, why.

He is smart, dedicated, and was very successful, came a long way from the time when he started coaching.

 

[cheeseheadgophfan]

Huh?

Go Gophers!!

Wow....totally wrong thread....this was meant for the Bill Self self-imposed sanctions thread. Sorry!!!!

 

[RockChalk]

I can see NIL driving a lot of coaches away, especially in basketball since it is much more of an individual game than football.

I think this is why Jay Wright left Nova.

 

[Blackhammer]

I think companies will eventually rethink making deals with young athletes be it High Schools or college. The very top one percent or so may be considered marketable but in time the money will dry up. Kudos to McKenzie for all the time and commitment to youth he’s made.

 

[Unregistered User]

Welcome to the unintended consequences of a rushed “plan”.

 

[LongLiveMilesTarver]

After you've beaten ubah medical academy by 1000 what was left for him to accomplish?

 

[Gophers1992]

Welcome to the unintended consequences of a rushed “plan”.

So we need NIL regulation to hopefully avoid more current coaches retiring?

 

[GopherPlaya]

So we need NIL regulation to hopefully avoid more current coaches retiring?

This fear of change with NIL is ridiculous. It’s not like a middle of the pack high school kid who isn’t even a good enough prospect to get recruited will receive NIL deals. North didn’t even had 1 D1 player last year. What one of his kids will get a NIL deal.

 

[jovs]

NIL is the buzzword and he did mention it but that wasn't the only takeaway from the article. It was also about social media and creating a presence out there, I find it hard to imagine this would carry over into sports and how you play it but that is what the article states, The loss of what was teamwork to individualism on the court but that has been happening for a long time in basketball. i figure about the time DR J entered the game.

 

[fan of Ray Williams]

He’s 65. Probably had a little something to do with pulling the plug.

 

[Some guy]

He’s 65. Probably had a little something to do with pulling the plug.

Yeah. It’s actually a pretty ridiculous retirement statement from a very successful guy.

I coached until many people retired. Retired but blame it on the kids rather than just saying I’m old.


I don’t really blame him though. Could just be the editing of the article. He could’ve been asked a question or something.

 

[MennoSota]

Mike Max had a short interview with Larry McKenzie. Start at the 1:15 mark.

Legendary Boys BB HC Larry McKenzie on his legendary career - Sports to the Max with Mike Max

Mike Max talks with legendary Boys Basketball Head Coach Larry McKenzie about his career, why this was the right time, doing right by the kids, teaching through tragedies and more.

omny.fm

 

[fan of Ray Williams]

Yeah. It’s actually a pretty ridiculous retirement statement from a very successful guy.

I coached until many people retired. Retired but blame it on the kids rather than just saying I’m old.


I don’t really blame him though. Could just be the editing of the article. He could’ve been asked a question or something.

In his defense, which I failed to acknowledge, he mentions being in the “fourth quarter of life”. He does the same in the interview that @MennoSota was kind enough to post. Wish Mr McKenzie all the best.

 

[MennoSota]

In his defense, which I failed to acknowledge, he mentions being in the “fourth quarter of life”. He does the same in the interview that @MennoSota was kind enough to post. Wish Mr McKenzie all the best.

What I found in the interview was the So St Paul coach, who took his own life, was an assistant under Larry McKenzie for 12 years. He mentioned how devastating that was for him. I didn't know about that coaching tree.

 

[oldrodent]

Congrats coach for 24 years of high school basketball and getting out when you feel its right.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I think companies will eventually rethink making deals with young athletes be it High Schools or college. The very top one percent or so may be considered marketable but in time the money will dry up. Kudos to McKenzie for all the time and commitment to youth he’s made.

I hope so but all of this is happening at the same time that marketing, in general, has changed to generating clicks. If you look at guys like Mikey Williams (now), Mac McClung when he was in HS, and the entire Jelly Fam crew - - they generate a TON of clicks. The Jelly Fam clips on youtube all hit around 2 million views and that's just on youtube. When you consider each of their clicks could go to Instagram, some to Tik Tok, etc., those numbers could become extremely large (3 or 4 of them could reach the same number of people as an average NFL game or a World Series game).

So I believe companies will continue to give some of these people money but it isn't because they seem them as the next Jordan selling shoes, it's because they see them like any other youtuber generating clicks.

 

[FredCoxRocks]

I think companies will eventually rethink making deals with young athletes be it High Schools or college. The very top one percent or so may be considered marketable but in time the money will dry up. Kudos to McKenzie for all the time and commitment to youth he’s made.

Never underestimate the stupidity of social media marketing.