After an unceremonious departure from the Chicago Bulls, Ron Adams will join the coaching staff of the Boston Celtics, according to Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. He'll help guide new head coach Brad Stevens, who wasn't born yet when Adams began coaching.
Celtics hire Ron Adams as assistant coach
Ron Adams was Tom Thibodeau’s lead assistant in Chicago, but a rift between Thibodeau and Bulls management led to his departure. He quickly landed on his feet, though, taking a gig mentoring Brad Stevens through his first year as an NBA head coach in Boston.
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If you're not familiar with Adams' situation, it wasn't pretty. Considered to be Tom Thibodeau's second-in-command, as he had been for Scott Skiles in a previous stint with the Bulls, general manager Gar Forman made the decision to let Adams go -- seemingly without Thibodeau's consent. As Tom Ziller wrote at the time, there's a growing, ugly divide in the Bulls' front office between Thibodeau and his higher-ups.
But that’s in the past now, and now Adams joins a coaching staff in dire need of experience. Although the Celtics’ hiring of Brad Stevens is a bold move that’s received praise from many, he’s never coached an NBA game before after spending most of the 14 years since the end of his playing days at Division III DePauw climbing the college basketball ladder. His two assistants before the Adams hiring are Jamie Young and Jay Larranaga, both of whom were in their first year as assistants last year.
Meanwhile, Adams took his first head coaching job at his alma mater, Division II Fresno Pacific, in 1972 -- a full four years before Stevens was born. He’s been on the NBA sidelines since 1992, and has been an assistant for five different franchises. It’s Adams’ experience that leads CelticsBlog to call Adams “a great hire.”
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