Hilarious Nick Saban pickup basketball game story surfaces

A hilarious new story about retired head coach Nick Saban playing a pickup basketball game recently surfaced.

The story was reported by ESPN, where Chris Low and Harry Lyles Jr. shared that Saban was actually a huge fan of pickup basketball games. In particular, he liked to play 3-on-3 basketball with his assistant coaches while taking lunch breaks during the offseason.

Apparently, the infamous Noontime Basketball games were more than a little bit intense with Nick Saban often choosing the teams himself, down to who would be guarding him. Typically, that was current Arkansas State athletic director Jeff Purinton, who used to be the associate athletic director for football communications at Alabama.

Current Georgia head coach and former Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart broke down these pickup basketball games.

“My first years with him, I loved it and looked forward to it. My last six years, I dreaded it,” Smart laughed. “We played outside when we were with the Miami Dolphins, some great games.”

However, the games go back before Alabama and before the Dolphins all the way to his time at LSU. There, Smart shared a hilarious story of one game in particular where Nick Saban called for a timeout, winded after grabbing a loose ball. At that point, former Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley, not realizing who called it, shouted: “There’s no timeouts out here.”

It wasn’t something that Nick Saban was thrilled with and Kirby Smart relayed that it got Derek Dooley a talking to.

“Hey Derek, I’m 50 years old, and I’m about to have a heart attack. If I want to call a timeout, I’ll call a damn timeout,” Saban said, according to Smart.

Steve Sarkisian believes his career would not be possible without Nick Saban

In the wake of his retirement, plenty of former Nick Saban assistant coaches have shared stories about working for the legendary coach. That includes current Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, who praised Saban and said his own career wouldn’t have been possible without him.

“He believed in me at a time when I was having a hard time even getting an interview,” Sarkisian said.

Steve Sarkisian had been the head coach at Washington and USC before he worked with Nick Saban. However, his career was derailed by his battle with alcoholism. As Sarkisian explained, he never would have become the Texas coach without Saban taking a chance on him.

“My goal is that we can play in some big games down the road and those two guys can come and support us,” Sarkisian said. “I think that’s part of leaving a legacy. Other coaches that have worked for you, what have they gone on to do? Now that they have a little bit more time on their hands, hopefully, they can come down to Austin, and watch us play.”