NBA News: Celtics react to Damon Stoudamire’s Georgia tech hiring

Assistant Coach Damon Stoudamire will be leaving the Boston Celtics this season after accepting a head coaching gig at Georgia Tech on a five-year contract on Monday Afternoon.

This is after Georgia Tech let go of Josh Pastner who had only one March Madness appearance (2021) in his seven-years as head coach. Stoudamire has connections to Pastner as he was head coach of the Memphis Tigers while Stoudamire was working for them from 2011-2013. Stoudamire also had the same role at his alma mater at Arizona, which Pastner also attended.

Stoudamire brought player perspective and coaching experience to the Celtics and contributed to their success. Before being hired by the Green in 2021, Stoudamire was the head coach of the Pacific Tigers of the West Coach Conference, where he won WCC Coach of the year and the Ben Jobe award, which is an award given to minority coaches.

Stoudamire was an NBA Player from 1995-2008 where he played with Vince Carter and the Toronto Raptors, Portland Trail Blazers, Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs. Soon after he would go into coaching starting in 2008 when he because the Rice University’s Men’s Basketball team director of player development. From 2009-2011, he was an assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies before going for two stints for the Memphis Tigers and Arizona before his head coaching career.

He’ll use the things he helped implement as a Celtics assistant for Georgia Tech to become a contender in the ACC.

Boston Celtics will miss him and he’ll be hard to replace

President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens reacted to the news in regards to Stoudamire

"“Congratulations to Damon and Georgia Tech. We are thankful for everything that Damon has contributed during in his time in Boston. He’s a great teammate – he works hard, he cares about everyone in the room, and he has a special feel for the game. We will all miss having him here, but are thrilled for him and will be rooting for his success with the Yellow Jackets.”- according to Sports Illustrated."

Joe Mazzulla also congratulated Stoudamire for getting hired.

"“Damon is a great person, successful leader, and will be a great head coach. He has an ability to build genuine relationships, connect with players, and bring an organization together for a common goal. His loyalty, basketball experience, work ethic and personality made the Celtics better. We will miss him as a person and coach. Georgia Tech is lucky to have him.”- according to Sports Illustrated"

This also shows that the Celtics assistants are more than equipped to become head coaches, because Mazzulla was also the Assistant Coach before becoming an interm coach and recently became the official head coach of the Celtics.

The C’s now have Ben Sullivan, Aaron Miles, Tony Dobbins and D.J. MacLay in their assistant coaches room, where they will be filling in two vacancies in the offseason for Stoudamire and Mazzoulla, and it’ll be hard to replace those two to help match the Celtics success for next season.