Former Wildcat and NBA standout Jason Terry will be officially named an Arizona assistant coach, most likely before this weekend, multiple sources have told the Star this week.
The move to hire Terry was all but done a month ago, but the hiring freeze in UA's athletic department held it up slightly. Once the school posted the job listing on May 19, the addition of Terry appeared close to being official.
Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke indicated last month exceptions to UA's hiring freeze might be possible once coronavirus-related NCAA recruiting restrictions are lifted.
The restrictions have not been lifted -- in fact, the NCAA extended its recruiting dead period until July 31 on Wednesday -- but the Wildcats have already been busy virtually chasing several key 2021 recruits from Terry’s home area in Seattle, including five-star forward Paolo Banchero.
In addition, the Pac-12 has given schools the go-ahead to resume on-campus workouts as early as June 15, and Arizona is expected to gather basketball players by July.
A key sixth man for Arizona’s 1997 national champions and an All-American as a senior in 1998-99, Terry went on to play 19 years in the NBA. He also coached and ran a Dallas-area girls club team and served last season as an assistant general manager for the G League’s Texas Legends.
Terry, 42, has a jersey hanging in the McKale Center rafters.
He earned that honor by being named the national player of the year in 1998-99 by Sports Illustrated, CBS and the Basketball Times, but Arizona did not honor him for 15 years after an NCAA investigation found Terry accepted $11,500 from agents while playing for the Wildcats as a senior.
The NCAA’s finding prompted Arizona to forfeit $45,363 in NCAA Tournament revenues while vacating its 1999 NCAA Tournament first-round loss to Oklahoma. In 2000, the school made an agreement with the then-Pac-10 Conference to ban Terry from the UA Sports Hall of Fame, with a provision that his jersey would not be retired.
But Terry eventually repaid the $45,363 in forfeited NCAA Tournament revenue and went on to graduate from UA in 2014. The school raised his framed jersey in McKale in 2015.
