Kevin Young’s first taste of being a head coach in the NBA came just after Christmas in 2021 when then-Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams was sidelined due to COVID-19 protocols.
The associate head coach was eager to prove his worth to Suns brass, while also displaying his skills to other clubs in the league that had watched his meteoric rise up the profession. But then Young’s own son, 9-year-old Jude, got sick with a COVID complication called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, or MIS-C.
After defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in Phoenix, the Suns were on a flight to Boston for a New Year’s Eve showdown with the Celtics when Jude was admitted to the Phoenix Children’s Hospital.“It became incredibly difficult to manage in the hospital alone and I remember calling Kevin and telling him I needed him home and needed his help at the hospital,” said Melissa Young, the coach’s wife. “He immediately jumped on the first plane back to help me without a second thought. … He knew the importance of being there for our family when we needed him.”
Of course, Kevin Young is now entering his second season as BYU’s head coach, having left his position with the Suns in April of 2024, but Melissa Young says he hasn’t stopped being an outstanding husband to her and father to their three children: Jude, Van and Zoey.
Another child, a daughter, is due to arrive in late September.
“We have No. 4 coming, which is crazy,” Young said. “Kind of a surprise.”
The other children are 12, 10 and 7.
Kevin Young described the former Melissa Bailey, whom he married in the Salt Lake Temple in July of 2011, as being “very anti-spotlight.”
However, the blonde who grew up on a farm in Omaha, Nebraska, and met Young when she was a student at BYU and he was an assistant coach on Dick Hunsaker’s staff at Utah Valley State College (now Utah Valley University) agreed to answer a couple of questions about her husband recently for a series of Deseret News articles ahead of Father’s Day.
She shared the aforementioned anecdote via email and also described how the 43-year-old coach who recently signed a “long-term” contract extension with BYU balances a time-intense career as a Division I basketball coach with fatherhood.
“Kevin has always been able to balance fatherhood and his career because he values being with his family over everything. I think that was engrained in him from his childhood. His family, and all six of his siblings, are very close,” she said.
“A lot of coaches in the NBA would hang around the office after practice or after meetings to just be there, but it always baffled Kevin. He always got his work done as efficiently as possible to get home to the kids and I,” she continued. “I think that’s how I survived all the rigorous years of the NBA schedule, because Kevin made us his No. 1 priority. I think that’s why Kevin stood out so much on the different NBA staffs he was a part of, and what set him apart and what a lot of his colleagues admired.”
Kevin is the third of Phil and Jody Young’s six children, and the second-oldest boy. The couple who raised their family in Texas and Georgia has lived in Gilbert, Arizona, the past 13 years. They also have 26 grandchildren.Phil Young told the Deseret News that when Kevin became a father some 12 years ago that his best advice was to be patient and not expect a child to be as obedient and compliant as a player on a basketball team.
“Kevin was 31 or so when Jude was born, so by that time he had developed his life traits, and patience might not have been one of them,” Phil Young said. “I will say that Kevin did pretty well with that. Just to be there and support their mom is probably the biggest thing that I counseled him on.”
Melissa Young says her husband took that advice to heart.
“Kevin is extremely family oriented. He’s always put us first. Luckily, he learned early on in his demanding career how to manage his time. His time management skills have honestly been the antidote to how he’s been successful in balancing home and work life,” she said. “In the NBA he would get on many midnight flights after road games to come home and he would watch all the game film on the flight, and make all of his notes so that when he got home that morning he wouldn’t have to work at all. He could be completely present with me and the kids. He still continues to do that now.”
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Kevin Young said it thrills him to no end that his sons, Jude and Van, love sports like he did growing up and want to be around the team, the games, and him at work as much as possible.
“When it comes to basketball, Jude knows what he is talking about,” Kevin said. “He has been at games since he was 6 months old. He knows players, he knows who is good, not good. He is starting to notice schemes and will say stuff like, ‘hey dad, they are in zone right there.’ Like, he will watch film with me. He is locked in, and his little brother is right behind him.”
Although basketball is an indoor sport, mostly, the Youngs say their favorite times spent together are almost always outdoors.
“No matter how exhausting his schedule is he always makes time to play with the kids. You can usually find him playing basketball, football or baseball with the boys or playing soccer or on a bike ride with our daughter,” Melissa Young said. “He’s always been super positive even when he’s exhausted from a long road trip or late nights, and never complains even though his schedule is extremely demanding.”
