A passion for basketball and helping kids drives Tim Natsues

Between the years of 1966 and 1968, Tim Natsues made a name for himself playing basketball for the Fresno City College Rams.

Natsues was coined a junior college All-American, and he was league and state scoring champion. According to Natsues, under the coaching of FCC’s John Toomasian, he was the league MVP.

“It was just awesome for me,” he said. “I got a lot of memories from Fresno City College.

Those were probably two of the best years of my educational life and probably my personal life and basketball wise as well.”  Natsues then went on to the 1968 Olympic trials.

Afterwards he attended the University of Kansas where he continued to play basketball for the Jayhawks. In 1971 Natsues took his love for the game to Greece where he played for AEK, a professional Greek basketball team. “That was a great experience because being of Greek heritage it was great to go back and see some of my family members that I’ve never met before,” he said.

“I was really enjoying myself. It was a great opportunity.”

In 1972, when he returned to the U.S., Natsues signed with Seattle SuperSonics as a free agent.

“Somebody had seen me play over in Europe,” Natsues said. “A friend of mine knew an agent. He gave me a call. So, I went up there, had a tryout and played through the exhibition season.”

Currently, Natsues is an assistant basketball coach at Bullard High School, a job he enjoys.

“If you have passion to do what you do, that’s not really a job, that’s just having fun, and that’s what I find working with young kids,” Natsues said.  Natsues credits his father, a former high school basketball coach, for getting him involved in basketball from an early age.

He in turn passed a love for sports down to his children. He used to coach his son who then, also, played basketball for FCC before joining the marines. Natsues said he still considers his fellow FCC team mates “near and dear friends.”

“We stay in contact periodically and once in a while we’ll get together and have a little reunion,” he said. Natsues holds current FCC mens basketball coach, Ed Madec, in high regards.

He believes that the team is “blessed” to have him guiding the team. “I have the highest respect for Ed,” he said.

“I think what he does with those young men is phenomenal. He’s an outstanding teacher of basketball. My hat goes off to him.”