42nd Annual Steak & Burger Dinner

Ft. Guest Speaker: Dwane Casey

Title Sponsor: Independence Bank

Dwane Casey Bio

Our 42nd Annual Steak & Burger Dinner guest speaker was Mr. Dwane Casey: a Kentucky Native, NCAA Men’s Basketball Champion, & NBA Coach of the Year!

Playing Career: Mr. Dwane Casey is no stranger to the Bluegrass State. He moved to Morganfield, KY at the age of 3 and graduated from Union County High School. He was a top basketball prospect coming out of high school. He made the decision to commit to the University of Kentucky where he played from 1975-1979. During his college tenure, he played under legendary Coach Joe B. Hall. His team would go on to win a National NCAA Championship during the 1977-78 season. He served as the team’s captain during his senior year. When he wasn’t playing basketball in the summers, he worked odd jobs to support himself including coal mining and tobacco farming. He graduated his senior year with a degree in Business Administration in 1979. He was also awarded Kentucky’s All-Academic Award.

Coaching Career: Casey has a long and esteemed coaching career. He began his coaching career at UK as an assistant under Coach Joe B. Hall. He then moved to WKU for the next 5 seasons as an assistant coach. He would later return to UK in 1985 as a top recruiter and reprising his role as an assistant coach. 4 years later he accepted a head coaching position with the Japanese Basketball League where he coached for both Sekusui Chemical and Isuzu Motors Lynx (Fun Fact: his teammate, Jack Givings, played for Isuzu during this time). After success in the Japanese League, he left in 1994 to take the assistant coaching position with the Seattle SuperSonics. This team would win 4 division titles. Casey began his NBA head coaching career with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Next on his journey would be the Dallas Mavericks. Under his assistant coaching position this team would win their first championship defeating Lebron James & the Miami Heat in 2011. In 2011, he accepted the Toronto Raptors head coaching job. He helped the Raptors achieve records and first in franchise history moments including: He was the first coach to reach 200 wins here and the first Raptors coach to be selected for the NBA All Star Game in 2018. He celebrated his 300th win and would later be named the 2018 NBA Coach of the Year! After this season he would move on to become the head coach of the Detroit Pistons and later move to the Piston’s front office.

Thank you to our 2025 Dinner Sponsor: