Jason Terry’s summer flirtation with the NBA has led him back to the league.
Well, close to it, at least.
Terry is leaving the Arizona Wildcats’ coaching staff after one season to become head coach of the Grand Rapids Gold, the Denver Nuggets' G League team, the Gold announced Thursday.
The move puts Terry on a track to become an NBA assistant or head coach instead of on a college bench, which Terry tried out last season as an assistant to then-UA coach Sean Miller.
A former national player of the year at Arizona whose No. 31 jersey hangs in the McKale Center rafters, Terry, 43, spent the 2020-21 season on Sean Miller’s staff. He was then retained, along with associate head coach Jack Murphy, when Tommy Lloyd was hired to replace Miller in April.
As spring turned to summer, Terry’s name began to be linked to NBA jobs.
A story on the Mavericks’ website last month said new head coach Jason Kidd reportedly talked to Terry and former Dallas players Tyson Chandler and JJ Barea about possibly joining his new staff. And Terry attended a coaching clinic at the NBA’s summer league last week, telling a Dallas reporter “we’ll see” when asked whether being an NBA assistant is in his future.
Despite Terry's open look into pro coaching this summer, Lloyd indicated that he was expecting Terry to return.
“Every conversation J.T. and I have had has revolved around Arizona basketball and what we’re doing here,” Lloyd told the Star earlier this month. “I can’t predict the future, but I know we’re planning on him being here this year and he’s doing a great job.”
Arizona may not have to look far for Terry’s replacement. The Wildcats employ two non-coaching staffers with previous college coaching experience: Player relations director Jason Gardner, the former head coach at IUPUI, and special assistant TJ Benson, a former assistant coach at Grand Canyon.
Both Benson and Gardner have carried out some recruiting duties this summer while Lloyd also waits to officially hire his third assistant coach (Suns player development coach Riccardo Fois has long been a candidate).
Gardner, another ex-Wildcats star whose jersey is retired at McKale, was hired late last month in a support-staffer’s role. The expectation was that Gardner would transition back into coaching at some point.
Earlier this month, Lloyd called Gardner both “a great guy” and someone with “a ton of coaching potential.”
“He really knows college basketball; he’s played it and coached it,” Lloyd said.
