Boston Celtics

Celtics coach Ime Udoka reportedly targeting Damon Stoudamire for coaching staff

Stoudamire is currently the head coach of the Pacific men's basketball team.

Damon Stoudamire
The Celtics are reportedly interested in bringing on Pacific head coach Damon Stoudamire as an assistant coach. AP Photo/Young Kwak

By Tom Westerholm

1 minute to read

New Celtics head coach Ime Udoka, a Portland native, reportedly has interest in adding another coach with ties to Portland to his staff: Former Blazers guard and current head coach of the Pacific men’s basketball team Damon Stoudamire.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported the Celtics’ interest in Stoudamire, the 1995 NBA Rookie of the Year who played 13 NBA seasons. Stoudamire has a 71-77 record as a coach, but he led the Tigers to one of their best seasons in 2019-20 with a 23-10 record (11-5 in the WCC).

Stoudamire bounced around between several assistant coaching gigs before landing the Pacific job in 2016.

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Udoka reportedly already added Spurs assistant coach Will Hardy to his staff. He suggested at his introductory press conference that he might be interested in bringing in his own staff to replace the coaches Brad Stevens had in place last season.

“Tons of great candidates out there,” Udoka said. “Obviously I have the benefit of being a journeyman and being in so many organizations you meet a lot of people. I have a lot of relationships built around the league.”

Udoka offered some of his criteria as well.

“I’m looking for energy, juice in the building, a great environment to produce winning,” he said. “That’s what I’m looking for in my staff and some of the people I’ve talked to so far. Then in general just a little bit of mix. I don’t feel like I need to have an energetic staff more so than a veteran staff, so I’m looking at both areas and a ton of great candidates. We’re kind of nailing that down now as we speak.”

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Jerome Allen — who is headed to the Detroit Pistons — is the only Celtics assistant coach to land a different gig so far. Scott Morrison has reportedly interviewed with the Washington Wizards.

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