Joe Espada Brings Kelvin Sampson In To Talk To Astros Employees About Leadership — “He’s Not Just a Basketball Coach, He’s a Human Leader”

Houston Astros manager Joe Espada brought University of Houston basketball coach Kelvin Sampson in to talk to more than 200 Astros’ employees about leadership this week. “He’s not just a basketball coach,” Espada tells PaperCity. “He’s a human leader.”

Espada and Sampson have become good friends who frequently text each other during each other’s seasons and when the third-year Astros manager was looking for someone to speak at an organizational event the Astros hold every offseason, he immediately thought of the college hoops legend with 807 wins and counting. So there is Kelvin Sampson on Tuesday afternoon, talking to the majority of the Astros’ organization at Daikin Park.

Sampson’s bond with Astros owner Jim Crane is just as strong and Crane and Astros general manager Dana Brown spent time with UH’s coach talking ball, coaching and plenty else.

“You know who I have a great relationship with — Jim Crane,” Sampson tells PaperCity, walking to the bus after a 82-67 win over Florida State at Toyota Center that moves his No. 8 ranked team to 8-1 on the season. “I went out to lunch with Jim. Me and (UH assistant coach) Kellen (Sampson). Spent a day at the ballpark. And Joe knew I was good friends with Dusty (Baker) and he knew I was a baseball guy.

“So he started following our team and we started texting.”

To Joe Espada, Sampson’s speech to the Astros organization turned into a home run with numerous Astros personnel coming up to tell him how much they enjoyed it.

“I’ve always been a huge fan of Coach Sampson,” Espada says. “Not only how he’d lead, but how much he’s able to grow and adjust to this new era of players. Every generation is different. To be able to adapt and connect with players. . .

“He’s been so generous with his analysis and advice. He’s been very open to helping me out.”

Espada will text Sampson during the Astros’ season and ask for his advice or thoughts on certain situations and team dynamics. And Sampson likes hearing Espada’s thoughts on bringing the best out in players in a long baseball season too.

“I think it’s game recognizes game,” Karen Sampson, Kelvin Sampson’s wife of 46 years, says of the bond between the 70-year-old Sampson and the 50-year-old Espada. “They look at life through the eyes of a coach and there are things that only other coaches understand.”

Espada is struck by how Sampson can deliver on-the-money advice in just a few lines of text.

“He’s straight to the point,” the Astros manager notes. “He makes his point. It’s powerful. And you’re like, ‘OK, let’s keep moving forward.’ We’ve got a way to connect on this.”

“He’s not just a basketball coach. He’s a human leader.” — Astros manager Joe Espada on Kelvin Sampson

Espada ended up impressed that Sampson talked to the Astros’ employees about the need to prioritize your family too.

“He’s not only a great coach,” Espada says. “He’s a father first. He’s a husband and a father first. He sends that message out. And it’s a responsibility we really take for granted a lot of times. We’re always on the go, go, go and we don’t pause to make time for our families.

“That’s what makes him a good leader.”

Connecting With Players

Through their talks, Joe Espada also has been struck how Sampson makes sure his players get to know him as a person and family man, not just as one of the most demanding coaches in college basketball.

“Very impactful,” Espada tells PaperCity. “His coaches meetings, he hosts though at his house. This is a man who opens up his home for his players and that in itself is powerful. If you want to get your players to buy in and trust you, there’s no better way to do it.

“And in sharing those things, the reason why he did it, he was missing out on bed (time) stories with his kids (when Kellen and Lauren Sampson were younger).”

Espada’s admiration for this move comes through over the phone. He called a reporter back on a Saturday because the subject is Kelvin Sampson. It’s a mutual thing.

“Kelvin always loves to hear from Joe,” Karen Sampson says.

“He texts me a lot,” Kelvin Sampson tells PaperCity. “He’ll ask me about handling certain situations, things that they’re going through.”

Kelvin Sampson was a star baseball player in high school who’s love for the game has never wavered. “People don’t realize he was an ACC level baseball recruit,” Kellen Sampson notes. Sampson’s original boyhood team was the Atlanta Braves due to where he grew up in North Carolina with Sampson a huge Henry Aaron fan. Now Kelvin Sampson spends chunks of his summer watching Astros games and he knows the roster well.

For Sampson the best part of his giving that talk to the Astros organization was getting to hang around with Jim Crane, Dana Brown and Joe Espada before and after, just shooting the shit and talking baseball.

“Talking with Jim,” Sampson says. “Talking with Dana. Me, Dana, Jim and Joe. Just the four of us. And that’s my wheelhouse. Because I love baseball.”

Espada is a baseball lifer who did anything he could to stay in the game he loved, starting his coaching career as the hitting coach for a Class A South Atlantic Team in the Marlins organization. In his first season as the Astros manager, he led Houston back from a 10 game deficit in the division on June 18 to another American League West title and a playoff berth. Last year, in his second season as the manager, Espada had the most injury-riddled team in baseball on the brink of another playoff berth before more player losses (including All-Star shortstop Jeremy Peña for the final week of the season) ultimately crippled that push in the season’s closing days.

Espada is all about learning anything he can about becoming an even better leader. He looks at having Kelvin Sampson in the same city as a blessing. Why not use a resource like that?

“Coach Sampson is always willing to reach out and help out,” Espada says. “He loves the city. He loves our community and he loves the sports in our community. I’m in the same boat man. We are here making Houston the best sports city in the world. And I think we have done that.

“So for us as leaders, in all the sports, we’ve got to join our hands and stick together and bring that message throughout our community, how wonderful our city is. Coach Sampson is one of the best ever.”

“I think it’s game recognizes game. They look at life through the eyes of a coach and there are things that only other coaches understand.” — Karen Sampson on Kelvin Sampson and Joe Espada’s bond

These Jim Crane era Astros (two world championships and seven straight American League Championship Series appearances from 2017 to 2023) and Kelvin Sampson UH Cougars (two Final Fours, a national championship game and the most wins in college basketball since 2018-2019) are the two most successful winning sports entities in Houston. With DeMeco Ryans building the Texans into the No. 1 defense in the NFL and the Houston Rockets’ future arguably brighter than any pro team in town, it’s a nirvana era in Houston sports in many ways.

It seems fitting the Astros and Coogs are doing more together. Including a Sampson leadership talk at the ballpark.