Celtics Rumors: Damon Stoudamire Agrees to Join Ime Udoka's Coaching Staff
Jul 7, 2021
Pacific head coach Damon Stoudamire looks on during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash., Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
University of the Pacific head men's basketball coach
Damon Stoudamire is reportedly leaving the program to become an
assistant under new Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka.
Stadium's Jeff Goodman reported the
news Wednesday.
Stoudamire, 47, and Udoka, 43, were
both born and raised in Portland, Oregon. They were briefly NBA teammates as
members of the San Antonio Spurs during the 2007-08 season.
After standout high school and
collegiate careers, Stoudamire was selected by the Toronto Raptors
with the seventh overall pick in the 1995 draft. He won NBA Rookie of
the Year honors to jump-start a 13-year playing career that also
included stops with his hometown Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies.
The University of Arizona product
received his first coaching opportunity as an assistant with the
Grizzlies in 2009. He also spent two stints at the University of
Memphis and one at his alma mater as an assistant before being hired
by Pacific as a head coach for the first time in 2016.
Stoudamire guided the Tigers, a member
of the West Coast Conference, to a 71-77 record in five seasons at
the helm. They posted a 32-19 mark over the past two years.
The 2020 WCC Coach of the Year told
John Gonzalez of The Ringer in 2018 that the experience coaching at the
collegiate level provided him with a lot of important lessons:
"I knew it was going to be a lot of
work — how much work I didn't know until I actually got here. College is different. It's a lot different than the pros.
There's a lot of administrative work. It's a lot of getting out in
the community and helping raise money. In college, I'm the owner, I'm
the CEO, I'm all of that. I've got to do things as I see fit.
Everything comes through me. It's made me be more accountable in a
lot of areas that maybe I wasn't accustomed to."
Now he'll return to the NBA to work
alongside Udoka, who's in the process of overhauling the coaching
staff with former head coach Brad Stevens moving into an executive
role with the C's.
Jay Larranaga, Jamie Young and Jerome
Allen have left the Boston staff, while former San Antonio Spurs
assistant Will Hardy has joined Udoka's group, per Adam Himmelsbach
of the Boston Globe.
Udoka, a former NBA forward, is a first-time head coach after
nine years as an assistant with the Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and
Brooklyn Nets.
