Report: Jerry Stackhouse named Memphis Grizzlies’ assistant coach

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Raptors 905 head coach Jerry Stackhouse checks in with Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.

Jerry Stackhouse checks in with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson on Scoop B Radio. Press Play Below To Listen!

According to multiple reports, Jerry Stackhouse was named an assistant coach by the Memphis Grizzlies. He’ll join head coach, JB Bickerstaff’s staff.

The move was confirmed by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Before accepting the position, Stackhouse spent two seasons as head coach of Raptors 905, the Toronto Raptors’ G-League team.

While at the helm in the 6, Stackhouse and Raptors 905 made back-to-back finals appearances and won the G-League championship in 2017.

Stackhouse was the league’s coach of the year in 2017, a year after retiring from the game in 2016 after an 18 year NBA playing career.

Drafted 3rd in the 1995 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, Stackhouse was a superstar at the University of North Carolina under head coach, Dean Smith. Stackhouse says that during his playing days with the Dallas Mavericks, where he made a cameo in the 2006 NBA Finals and played under head coach, Avery Johnson, the light began to flicker that maybe coaching is something he could do after his playing career ended.

“Avery took over and it was just the same language that I learned from Coach Smith and how I think the game should be played and how to share the ball, how you play the game defensively, it was all the same language,” Jerry Stackhouse told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.

“I got a lot of that from [Gregg] Popovich, Popovich got a lot of that from Larry Brown, who had got a lot from coach Smith. So, I think once we were able to kind of align our minds, we thought this was really good and obviously we had good players, a good team and we made it to the Finals. So yeah, that was kind of the start of my thinking about coaching because Avery put me in that role.”

After meeting with the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons for potential head coaching positions, the move to Memphis was a smart move.

Stackhouse already has credibility with the youth of the NBA having once been teammates with Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki and Allen Iverson.

He’s also well respected as a players coach.

His former Mavs coach, Don Nelson had rapport with players during Stack’s career and he experienced it when he came over to the Mavs in 2004. “I really enjoyed playing for Nelly,” said Stackhouse.  

“I didn’t know that I would have when we first got together. It kind of seemed like it was a throw in for a bigger deal that they were trying to do. I think there were whispers that Shaq was available and that there was possibly a trade for Shaq at that time. So I never thought it was going to be home for me or turn into kind of a resting spot for a while but we hit it off really good.”

Rick Carlisle also influenced him too.

He’d realize it later on in life, though. “I was playing for him,we didn’t see eye to eye all the time,” said Stackhouse.

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