C.J.: Richard Coffey dances around question of where Amir will attend college

Richard Coffey is going to try to hustle around a dance floor Saturday night the way he once did in the paint. Coffey is taking part in the "6th Annual Dancing with the Twin Cities Celebrities Charity Ball" along with Ben Utecht, a singer and member of the 2006 Super Bowl winning Colts; Carla Beaurline, creator and host of cable Channel 6's "Around Town;" Heather Harden, a financial adviser and former TV anchor; Mike Woodley, a broadcaster and entrepreneur and Kitty Orient, a fitness ambassador.

The Arthur Murray-sponsored dance contest is due to start around 8 p.m. (unless you bought a ticket to take part in the earlier silent auction and dinner) at the Marriott in Minneapolis' City Center.

Coffey is dancing "The Hustle" and his competitive juices were flowing, as you'll see on my startribune.com/video when he exchanged pleasantries with Utecht.

A former Gophers and Timberwolves players, Coffey has been getting a lot of ink as the father of three standout basketball players — Sydney, a 6-0 junior guard at Marist, Nia, a 6-1 sophomore forward at Northwestern and Amir, a Hopkins High junior expected to be a big-time recruit in 2016, who is out for the season after tearing his ACL in December. Sydney, Nia and Amir are Coffey's children with ex-wife Sheba Coffey, a Timberwolves staffer, who is 50 percent responsible for the kids' athletic gene pool. Mom ran a little track and played a lot basketball in high school.

Richard Coffey told me he is engaged to marry Jenny Blomgren in October. Thanks to an assist from an Arthur Murray pro, Coffey should be ready for that first dance.

Q: Over your shoulder there's a sign that reads, "Never Miss The Chance To Dance." How much dancing did you do before signing up for this?

A: None! None at all but it's been fun. I've learned a lot with the professional dancer I'm working with [Theresa Stecker]; she's helping me out a lot. I'm really excited.

A: I did but in the beginning I was just nervous and afraid of making a mistake. As time went on and I got used to the dance it became a lot of fun and yes, I'm here to win it.

Q: What creaks the first thing when you get out of bed in the morning?

A: Everything. My knees, my hips. I am taking a boxing class. I do that every morning. It's really difficult, really tough. I can't run as much as I want because of injuries, so I use boxing to get my cardio up.

Q: Who are bigger peacocks, these dancers or professional athletes?

A: If you've seen these ladies dance, they are simply amazing. Very athletic. I have such a newfound respect for dancing because you have to be a really good athlete to move and do the things they do. I found that out when I started dancing myself because it's difficult.

A: Sydney is my oldest, she's at Marist in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Nia is my youngest girl, she's at Northwestern and then my son, Amir, is a junior at Hopkins High School.

Q: Any pause come to you as a result of sending your daughter off to Marist where the mascot [Coffey is already laughing] is the Red Foxes?

A: [Laughter continues] Yeah, I thought about that really hard. She's having an excellent time out there. She wanted to major in fashion. They have an awesome fashion school. She's doing extremely well.

Q: How much input will you have in where Amir attends college?

A: That's the part everybody wants to know. I have a lot of input. The final decision is Amir's but being his father, he comes to me for a lot of advice about which program might fit him best academically and basketball wise.

A: At the end of the day, it is his decision. What we hope to do is find the top three or four schools that fit him and his personality and his style of play along with academics and then let him choose the school from there.

Q: What changes take place at home while dealing with an athlete with a long-term injury?

A: There [are] a lot of ups and downs, believe me. The first thing he wanted to know was, 'What does this mean for my basketball career?' I basically told him, 'Nothing.' The next six months of your life will be the toughest, you have to work really hard. Dreams don't come easy. You have to fight. That's what he's been doing for the last two months. I'm really proud of him and the effort he's putting forth getting better.

Q: What advice would you have for Gophers coach Richard Pitino?

A: Just letting the kids play and I think he's doing that. They have a lot of freedom there on the court. It's a fun style to watch. Amir loves playing that style. It's always fun when you see guys running up and down and not being put in a box and they can use their athletic ability.

A: It's funny you should ask that question. Amir and I just had a conversation about the raised floor. I like the raised floor. It gives the home team an advantage. It's a part of history at the University of Minnesota so I would love to see the raised floor stay.

Q: Tell me why colleges and universities aren't embarrassed to turn out athletes who can't speak standard English?

A: That's a great question and something that, even when I was back in school, our head Coach Clem Haskins and the assistant coaches did work on with us. I think it's really important because you are put in a limelight and you have a microphone thrust in your face so many times and if you're not prepared you can really make a fool of yourself. I think it's really important that they train the athlete to be on camera and to speak well.

Q: [Now I'm laughing because] Coach Haskins was not speaking very good English a lot of the time.

A: But he made sure we did. [Laughter.]

A: [Laughter] Both are really difficult. [With] my kids, I saw very early on that they were very athletic. The only sport that I knew I could teach them was basketball. In my household we started basketball early; ups and downs with all three of them. Then I had to find a way to approach each one differently. For example, Sydney was not really passionate about basketball and she wasn't successful at it. Nia is extremely passionate about it and probably the one kid of mine who played like me. Then Amir was just so skillful that he had more skill than I ever [did], so I had to [have] a different approach to get him to understand the things I was saying.

Q: Do you think Charles Barkley can spell 'analytics?'

A: [Hard, long laughter] Absolutely not! Charles is Charles. For some reason we accept that about Charles. Some of us anyway. I think Charles is a really good basketball analyst. He played the game a long time. I don't think anybody knows everything about everything and I'll just leave it at that.

Q: What town in North Carolina are you from? As you know, Southerners get 10 people together and name it something.

A: I'm from Aurora, which is about an hour from the Atlantic Ocean. So I grew up hunting and fishing and playing sports. I actually miss it. It was a really slow life I had, about 500 people in my town. My graduating high school class was 29 people. I go back there now to see my mother and every time I try to think of ways I can move back home.

A: [Laughter] They don't even have a restaurant in Aurora, North Carolina. The closest restaurant is about an hour away.

Q: I keep reading that you're a businessman. What are your businesses?

A: [Laughter] I do a couple of things. I own a professional janitorial company and I'm in the process of selling, getting out of that. For the last two years I've been focusing on professional speaking, so now I travel around the country. I do about five or six speeches a month; trying to get that up to nine or 10. It's going extremely well. I have a [few] speeches. One is called the seasons of life, change and perseverance and attitudes. the other one is a sales speech and the other a customer service speech. The one thing I've been passionate about since basketball is professional speaking, getting out [the message] that you can be more than you are. That's what I tell my kids all the time: You can do more things than you realize. I'm a motivational, inspirational guy. I love being on stage and speaking to people.