Seth Greenberg - commonly and comprehensively known as “Coach” - grew up the youngest of three brothers in Long Island, New York. For someone now of monomial recognition - ‘Coach’ - it’s fitting that Greenberg always saw himself enabling the development of others through sport. That sport has been basketball from the start.
Greenberg is recognized as uncompromisingly benevolent and distinctly gritty - a compassionate man who speaks up for his beliefs. Former Long Beach State Athletic Director, Dave O’Brien, described Greenberg, who served as the program’s Head Coach for six years, “[as] a street fighter.” He told the Los Angeles Times, “When things get tough, no one fights back better than Seth.”
His character and career accomplishments have been celebrated by the Jewish community, amongst others. In 2012, he was inducted into The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. In 2013, he led the USA Open Men’s Basketball Team at the 19th World Maccabiah Games in Israel. Greenberg is the inaugural recipient of the Al LoBalbo Award from Fairleigh Dickinson University. His alma matter also awarded him with ‘The PINNACLE’, its most prestigious honor presented to alumni.
While head coach at Virginia Tech, media agent, Gideon Cohen, helped Greenberg secure a studio role at ESPN covering the first round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Greenberg’s one day appearance became ten given his superlative execution. ESPN let the two-time ACC Coach of the Year know he had a place to return to should he desire a career pivot. Greenberg thanked them and returned to Blacksburg, Virginia with an eye on next season - he was enlivened by the talent returning to his Hokies team.
A week later, former Virginia Tech Athletic Director, Jim Weaver, announced in a surprise press conference that the university was terminating Greenberg’s contract.
Greenberg credits Cohen - who remains his agent to this day - as the person who built a bridge for him leading to the arena playing host to his second career: broadcast journalism. Eleven years later, Greenberg remains in broadcast at ESPN, working as a College Basketball Analyst who brings thirty six years of coaching experience to the air.
While Greenberg’s professional coaching career ended at Virginia Tech - a decision he felt “blindsided by” - his commitment to coaching, to facilitating the maturation of others, did not. Coaching is a lifelong endeavor for Greenberg, just as he suspected it would be as a young boy. At present, he mentors more than twenty coaches across the collegiate game.
I caught up with Coach - who wore a royal blue baseball cap and navy hoodie - over Zoom from his Lubbock, Texas hotel room. At the time of our conversation, Greenberg was in the centrum of a month-long roadie for The Basketball Tournament (TBT). He had touched down the night before from Denver; his next stop, Louisville.
INTERVIEWER
You grew up the youngest of three brothers - what effect did that have on the way you learned to communicate?
GREENBERG
Hah. I had to fight for everything; I got smacked up a little bit. Basketball became the key. I fell in love with the game. The game of basketball was something that united my family, it was our vehicle - something we all understood.
INTERVIEWER
So basketball’s been a lifelong love?
GREENBERG
I am a big believer in mentors. Before I had a mentor, I had the game of basketball and my second oldest brother, Brad. Those two things built a bridge for me to cross and chase my dreams. Obviously I wanted to be a player, but at a very young age I knew I wanted to be a coach.
INTERVIEWER
Was Brad your first teammate?
GREENBERG
My parents got divorced when I was thirteen years old, right after my Bar Mitzvah. I had to grab onto someone. That person was Brad - we both had the same passion and love for basketball. He and I became a band of thieves. We were connected at the hip, whether it was playing pickup all across Long Island or traveling the country working basketball camps when we were in college. We’d just get in a car and go from camp to camp for ten weeks, teaching and learning and asking lots of questions. We got lost in that lifestyle. That’s how and why we chased careers in basketball.
INTERVIEWER
Your lifestyle, at a young age, formed around the sport?
GREENBERG
I was never a carouser in high school - I never was a drinker, I never got involved in any of that stuff. I wanted to be in the gym, learn how to play, and be the best player I could be. When I went to college, I selected Fairleigh Dickinson University because of the coach, Al LoBalbo, who was a great, great coach. Even though I majored in broadcast journalism, my education really came from listening, hearing, learning, and taking notes - seeing both how and how not to do things - in terms of crafting my coaching personality.
INTERVIEWER
You said you always knew you wanted to coach. Was there an element of fright when the time came to make the transition from player to coach?
GREENBERG
Really, nothing scared me about the transition. I was part of an organization called Five Star Basketball Camp that preceded curriculums like the National Basketball Players Association's Grassroots Program and AAU basketball. That camp was a channel for me to learn how to coach, to be around other great coaches, to ask questions, and to be seen. In terms of fear, I was too stupid to be afraid of anything. I was so focused, so in love with the game, so wanting to stay involved.
INTERVIEWER
When was the first time, then, that you felt fear in your career?
GREENBERG
When you get fired, then you have fear. When I got fired from the University of Pittsburgh, there was fear. I was single at the time, so I could pick up and go anywhere I wanted. I landed at the University of Virginia as a graduate assistant which meant I went from a top assistant in the Big East to a graduate assistant in the ACC. But, in the end, it was the greatest thing that ever happened for my career and for me because Terry Holland came into my life.
INTERVIEWER
How did your relationship with Terry become so meaningful?
GREENBERG
Terry was the Head Coach of UVA at the time. He invested in me; he became my mentor. He changed my life. It is a big belief of mine that everyone needs a mentor. I don’t care who you are or what you do - everyone needs a mentor; everyone needs someone who invests in them and doesn’t ask for anything in return.
That’s what Coach Holland did for me. He saved my career but also became a person - I tell this story on Game Day - from 1983 to 1984 that I never made a major decision in my life without consulting. That included asking my wife, Karen, to marry me.
INTERVIEWER
Terry was your mentor?
GREENBERG
Without a doubt. He changed the prism of how I look at things, especially professionally. The impact he had on my life was tremendous. I got into coaching to make an impact. And yet here I am coaching, and this person was helping me. That continues to motivate me to help others. The key is to not ask anything in return - that’s mentorship to me.
INTERVIEWER
What’s important for you to get across to those you mentor?
GREENBERG
I mentor about twenty to thirty college coaches which I love doing - it’s been fun. I basically teach them not to do all the stupid things I did. Winning is relief and losing is misery sometimes in coaching. In the present, you don’t get the chance to celebrate. It’s like so what you beat Duke? You’ve got North Carolina next week.
I stress to those I mentor that when they become a head coach, don’t let it become a burden. You worked too hard to get there - enjoy it, every aspect of it. Including the losses.
INTERVIEWER
Is it fair to say you’ve rebounded from disappointment in your career with the help of mentors?
GREENBERG
No doubt about it. I’ve had two setbacks in my career: when I got let go from the University of Pittsburgh and when I got let go from Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech was harder, to be honest. I had a family, daughters who were both in college and soon to be.
When you’re single and twenty-three-years old, all you care about is yourself. You only have to take care of yourself. When you're fifty-five-years old and have a family, you can’t be concerned about yourself.
INTERVIEWER
You felt more pressure when you were let go from Virginia Tech?
GREENBERG
It’s surely a different feeling - when you're by yourself, you figure it out. You don’t need much. When I went to UVA, I had one bedroom and Lean Cuisine Teriyaki Chicken: put it into boiling water, cook for five minutes, add rice. I basically lived off of that for a year.
Now, when you have Paige, Ella, Jackie, and Karen, obviously there is a tremendous increase in responsibility. That’s when the pressure came in - I had a family to take care of. They were most important.
INTERVIEWER
What did your departure from Virgina Tech teach your girls?
GREENBERG
It was a great life lesson for them: no one has a clean slate. You have to be resilient. Adversity visits the strong and lives with the weak. There are going to be roadblocks and detours in your life - everyone, even the most successful, greatest families in the world, face them. No one follows a straight line to get where they want to go. It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you deal with it. It sounds so cliche, but it is also so true.
My firing was a lesson for all of us to witness: in the end, it works out.
INTERVIEWER
Did how you measure your own resiliency change with your family watching?
GREENBERG
When you face adversity, it’s real simple: you’ve got to carry yourself in a way that makes you feel good about what you did accomplish. You’ve got to control what you can control.
For me, when I got let go, I couldn’t control that Athletic Director’s decision, but I could control how I responded to it, how I carried myself, how I interacted with people. Those were the behaviors I wanted my girls to see. I said to them: we had nine great years, let’s celebrate our victories.
INTERVIEWER
You mentioned slates. What is it like to have a career in which the public is always privy to your resume?
GREENBERG
Yeah, it is not easy. It is not easy.
It’s not easy for me - but how would you like to be the daughters of a head coach? You’re on campus and everyone knows you. It’s not just me that’s in the public eye - it’s my whole family. And you’ve got to make good decisions. Bad decisions last a lifetime.
I get fired, people ask me: how you doing, Seth? I say: I’m hanging in there. But when you’re in the public eye, it’s not just you. It’s everyone in your circle. You are not walking that road alone - you are walking with your family. And what happens to you, because you're in the public eye, impacts your family and their individual lives. I’m not sure a lot of people understand that.
INTERVIEWER
You’re not afraid to say what’s on your mind - has your candor ever gotten you in trouble?
GREENBERG
Being a public figure, especially one that’s a bit gregarious and free spirited as a speaker - I always say what I think. But, you have to be mindful.
I loved Blacksburg, we were there for nine years. Some people say I didn’t fit in. That’s because I didn’t tell people what they wanted to hear. I told them the truth. I coached my team hard and held people accountable. I said what I believed.
B Wendell Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
INTERVIEWER
Do you keep a tight circle?
GREENBERG
As coaches, you have small circles. You have a lot of acquaintances, but very few friends. Acquaintances are with you win or tie. Friends are with you no matter what. When you bounce around which happened to my girls - from Long Beach to Tampa to Blacksburg - the friends that travel with you are ridiculously strong, lifelong friendships. I have dear friends from every place I’ve ever worked that are at every wedding, every major family event.
But its quality, not quantity. You don’t have a ton of people because there’s maybe a lack of trust. I think one thing about being a coach's kid is that it’s hard to trust people.
INTERVIEWER
Is Karen the epicenter of your circle?
GREENBERG
Karen is the rock. She is my rock. She keeps it together. You can push her to the edge - I mean, she’s not running back to Virginia Tech tomorrow to say the least - but she is the rock, it’s not even close. She has a toughness about her and a much more even keel. Her highs aren’t as high, her lows aren’t as low.
INTERVIEWER
Has your religious identity shaped how you face your own highs and lows?
GREENBERG
I am proud to be a Jew. We live in a world today where anti-semitism may be at its all time high in our country. The misconception of the Jewish struggle has been real. The values you learn through it - family, resiliency, creating a cocoon to protect each other - those values carry over into every facet of your life.
The values and journey of Judaism is something that probably, in the back of my mind, helps me put things in perspective when things do not go well. It helps me stay the course; right is right. It’s never wrong to be right, to stand up for the right thing. That’s the impact Judaism has had on me.
INTERVIEWER
What do you value presently?
GREENBERG
Continuing to be present for my family as a father, grandfather, and husband. And staying healthy, so I can share those experiences that you get to share at this stage of life. I never had thought about this stage of my life - I mean, I used to look at this one golf group and joke with them that they were ‘the old guys.’ Finally Karen told me: you’re one of them. I don’t see myself as that. But what happens is, you transition.
INTERVIEWER
On the vein of cocoons and transitions, any thoughts on your next metamorphosis?
GREENBERG
Ok, so my next metamorphosis? One, stay healthy - so I can enjoy the next twenty years. And two, continue to work. I have to work, it invigorates me.
I’ll tell you, your health is not guaranteed. I think, sometimes, when you’re in this young mindset that I had, you take health for granted. If I can stay healthy, I can continue to be present in my family’s lives: as a father, as a grandfather, and as Karen’s partner. That, to me, would be a good life, a good next stage.
By: Emily Burstein