by Donal Ware
boxtorow.com

The man who coached NBA Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady, former NBA player Ronald “Flip” Murray, and current NBA/G League player Amir Hinton of the New York Knicks has resigned as head men’s basketball coach effective Thursday, October 10.

For those that may not be aware, Coach Hopkins has been dealing with his son having testicular cancer over the last couple of seasons. His father also has dementia, and he’s been dealing with that as well. In two separate stints and six seasons at Shaw, the Bears won four division championships, a CIAA tournament championship, and made a Final Four appearance.

Hopkins has also sent Ronald “Flip” Murray and Amir Hinton to the NBA. (He sent Tracy McGrady straight from Mt. Zion (Durham, NC) as the head coach to the NBA.) His assistant coach Dominique Stephens, who was a teammate of his on the 1989 North Carolina Central national championship team, has been named the head coach at Shaw.

Coach Hopkins told me he feels good with where he is right now and where the program is right now and looks forward to spending more time with his son, his father and his family. His son is about a year away from being cancer free. He said he was proud of the fact his team had the highest GPA on campus and that he graduated 92 percent of his student-athletes. While he has had plenty of players to go on and play pro basketball, he also mentioned that plenty have gone on to have success in other professional fields.

Hopkins has a great affinity for Shaw, where he got his college head coaching start. He and his family will continue to support Shaw University. During the athletics banquet in 2018, he donated $10,000 to Shaw University.

I will have more on Joel Hopkins in the coming weeks.