Utah Jazz select Will Hardy, former Spurs and Celtics assistant, to be their next head coach

The Utah Jazz have chosen a young, fresh face to lead the organization forward.

Former San Antonio Spurs assistant and current Boston Celtics assistant Will Hardy has been offered the Utah Jazz’s head coaching job and plans to accept, according to reporting from ESPN and The Athletic Tuesday. The Tribune first reported that Hardy was a leading candidate on Saturday.

Hardy, 34, will be just the sixth head coach of the franchise since they moved to Utah in 1979, and looks set to sign a five-year contract.

Hardy played college basketball at Williams College in Massachusetts, then found a role with the Spurs as a video intern thanks to a mutual friend in 2010. He was officially named team video coordinator from 2013-15, after which he was promoted to assistant coach.

“(Popovich) said, ‘You are now a coach of the San Antonio Spurs,’ " Hardy told the Boston Globe in an interview last year. “I was stunned and happy and scared to death. I remember calling my wife and saying, ‘I’m pretty sure Pop just made me an assistant coach. I don’t know. I’ve got to get some clarity on this, because he said it so quickly, as only Pop can. And then he hung up on me.’”

Six years later, when fellow Spurs assistant coach Ime Udoka was hired by the Celtics to be their next head coach, Udoka hired Hardy to be among his lead assistants. He was hired about three weeks after then Celtics general manager and current Jazz CEO Danny Ainge left Boston.

Hardy will also be the youngest head coach in the NBA.

On Tuesday, the Jazz were also reportedly set to bring aboard longtime NBA coach David Fizdale, hiring him as an associate general manager. ESPN was first to report the hire.

This story will be updated.

from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/0Tns9zK