East Lansing's Finamore took unlikely road to coaching

EAST LANSING - Steve Finamore has some of the biggest names in basketball in his digital Rolodex.

He’s a text away from Michigan State men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo. A call away from Indiana’s Tom Crean — a relationship that materialized due to his friendship with former coach and noted ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla. He's known Ohio State head coach Thad Matta and Michigan head coach John Beilein for nearly two decades.

He exchanges emails with Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy and keeps in touch with Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone.

“I look at them as my peers," the 52-year-old Finamore said. "I used to be in awe of them because of their fame and fortune, obviously. Now, after spending time with them and talking to them, I've found out they're just like me, but they just make more money than I do and they're at a higher level.

"But coaching is coaching, at any level."

It's an impressive array of relationships, especially for a guy who dropped out of high school in ninth grade, played only a handful of varsity basketball games, and, at one point, thought he'd spend his life as an iron worker.

The Brooklyn, New York, native is entering his seventh season as the coach of the East Lansing boys basketball team, a program that’s expected to be one of the state’s top contenders this season. The Trojans' season kicked off Tuesday with a 56-44 victory over DeWitt.

He credits a cold January day, a basketball his mother gave him for Christmas the year he was six and a lifelong passion for the game for putting him where he is today. That, and his wife, Mary Hogan.

"I only played five high school basketball games, and, every night we have a game, every Tuesday and Friday, I feel like a player," he said. "When we're in the locker room, I look at everyone and wish I had a uniform on. I put myself in their shoes, and not vicariously live through it, but re-live it. It brings back flashbacks."

New York state of mind

Finamore attended three different high schools before he dropped out of school altogether as a 16-year-old freshman.

He started at 14 at Power Memorial Academy, the alma mater of basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but left after three days. His next stop was John Jay High School. He lasted about three weeks. 

The next school year, he tried again at LaSalle Academy, the home of NBA veteran Metta World Peace (aka Ron Artest), and lasted, again, about three weeks. He went back to John Jay two more times before dropping out.

Finamore's final stop at John Jay lasted a month, the longest he stayed in one spot. He made the varsity basketball team, starting two games during his five-game career. That fizzled when his coach realized that he was skipping school and only showing up to practice.

He said the coach gave him a choice: go to school or don't play.  

"I said to him, 'All right.'" Finamore walked out of the gym and high school for good.

"I hated being told what to do. I wasn't a very good student. It was more of a discipline thing to me."

His problem with school was deeper rooted. Finamore's father left him, his mother and his brother and sister when he was 5. Finamore's mother worked two jobs and discipline at home was non-existent.

Finamore replaced education and basketball with booze and marijuana. He and his crew, "a bunch of tough kids," would hang out on street corners and in parks and drink and smoke and smoke and drink and do it again the next day. 

At 18, he decided to get a job. He followed in the footsteps of his absent father and became an iron worker. It's what he thought his life was supposed to be.

"I loved it," said Finamore, who helped put up the World Trade Center. "My grandfather was the business agent of the union. All of the males in my family did it.

"That's what you did. None of those guys went to college. I made great money and was on top of the world, literally."

Finamore spent six years traveling across the East Coast erecting buildings for a living. At 24, he decided to dust off his love for basketball. He started coaching a neighborhood team of 15-year-old kids in New York City.

"One day, I was iron working in January, and a Jamaican welder asked me, 'Steve, how old are you?'," Finamore recalled. When he learned Finamore was still in his 20s, he asked: 'You want to do this for 40 more winters?'

"It was freezing," Finamore said. "We were 30 stories up. I didn't want to do this (for another 40 years). Coaching struck me."

Finamore became the assistant junior varsity coach at Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School for a season before leading the freshman team for three years.

It was the start of something.

"When I was the freshman coach, I thought I was John Wooden," he said. "I loved having players respond to me."

Finamore quit his job as an iron worker and began working the night shift at a Planet Hollywood down the street from Carnegie Hall. His job was to protect the Hollywood memorabilia. It allowed him to coach during the day.

He met Hogan, his soon-to-be wife, while working. She pushed him to get his GED. Finamore had never taken a test in high school, but he did it. She pushed him to pursue coaching. After nearly two years of dating, the two left for East Lansing.

"In terms of cost of living in New York and knowing that he needed to go back to school, it made sense," said Hogan, who grew up in Michigan. "I got a job, he got a job, and he wanted to pursue his degree so that he could hopefully get a coaching job somewhere."

Finding a home

In February of 1996, a week before moving, Finamore attended a college basketball game to see Fraschilla, who was coaching the Manhattan Jaspers at the time and knew Finamore from his time at Bishop Ford.

Finamore told Fraschilla he was moving.

"Steve's the quintessential Brooklyn kid. He's the quintessential New Yorker, accent and all," Fraschilla said. "When he told me that he was going to marry a girl and move to Lansing, Michigan, I told him I had to connect him with Tom Crean and Tom Izzo, two friends of mine."

Crean, who was an assistant under Izzo, pointed Finamore in the direction of Lansing Community College. He took classes and became an assistant coach under Mike Ingram. In 1998, he enrolled at Michigan State and became a student manager. He was 34. 

Crean and Izzo can’t publicly discuss their relationship with high school coaches, per NCAA rules.

"He always wanted to be around the basketball program and be around basketball," said Owosso boys basketball coach Dave Owens, who was an assistant to the head coach and video coordinator at MSU around that time. "I was at Indiana and a young man named Lawrence Frank (former Pistons coach) had graduated just before I got to Indiana, and every time I see Steve I can't help but think of Lawrence Frank. Their personalities are so similar — high energy, they just never stop. It's all about basketball. ...And in Steve's case, it's about helping young men become men."

Finamore was a student manager until 2000, the year Izzo captured his only national championship. That's when he flunked out. He couldn't pass math. He only knew the basics.

"I almost became depressed," Finamore said. "I felt like going back to New York and being an iron worker. But my wife pushed me through."

Finamore went back to LCC and Ingram allowed him to be an assistant coach again. He finished community college, got a degree at Central Michigan University and, in 2004, got his first varsity gig at Portland High School.

"I felt like John Wooden again," Finamore said.

The next year, he was hired as an assistant coach at Division I Saint Peter's University in New Jersey but left after one season. He coached Jackson Community College for four seasons. He took the helm at East Lansing in 2010. 

"What stood out to me, was is his real passion for basketball," said East Lansing athletic director Tom Hunt, who was involved in the hiring process. "That comes through with kids. His passion for the sport was there and so was his experience."

Championship dreams

Last season, Finamore led the Trojans to a 23-1 record and a No. 3 state ranking. Their only loss came in the Class A regional championship to Lansing Everett.

The players, and Finamore, believe this could be the year. They returned eight players - four starters - from last season's team, including four-star recruit (ESPN) Brandon Johns.

Staying put: Brandon Johns bucking trend of top talent leaving state

"Our slogan this year is 'Unfinished Business,'" said Finamore, who is a substitute teacher during the day.

Junior point guard Malik Jones can sense his coach's determination to grab the elusive state championship, but he said it hasn't distracted Finamore from his top priority, which goes back to his days as a reckless juvenile in New York.

"He tells us he had a hard life and that's why he pushes us so hard," Jones said. "He wants us to do better, have better and make our families better.

"We know he wants the best for us. He knows what he's talking about. If you see his Twitter, you know."

Finamore used to watch high school city games in New York. He knows what the joy that comes with winning a championship looks like. He wants that feeling. If he's able to get it, he won't take it for granted.

"When I came to Michigan, I'd sit in the Breslin every year and watch," Finamore said. "If you're a coach and you sit there and don't think about what it's like to win the state championship, you don't have a pulse. You're not passionate.

"I wouldn't say it would be validation for me, but it would be euphoria."

Contact James L. Edwards III at jledwards@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @JLEdwardsIII.