Steve McKean started his New Zealand basketball career with the Auckland Club Panmure, after arriving here from the USA over 45 years ago. He was appointed head coach of the New Zealand men’s team from 1972 to 1981. During this time he became the first coach to beat Australia, in 1978. He was an NBL coach for nine years, during that time he was notably the coach of the first team in the NBL to win 100 games. Coach received the Basketball New Zealand Coach of the Year Award in both 1978 and again in 2002.
Coach was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012 for his services to Sport. Earlier this year Coach McKean was honoured by the wider sports sector when he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the New Zealand Sport and Recreation Awards.
For many years Coach worked as a Regional Sports director for Sport Taranaki and as a secondary school sports co-ordinator, where he had an extremely positive effect on student participation in sport across the region and nationally.
