Asst.s Named! At last...

[Guest]

Stotts spent the last four seasons as the Milwaukee Bucks top assistant.

Stotts, Henson Named Hawks Assistant Coaches

The Atlanta Hawks today announced several changes to their basketball coaching and administrative staffs, with the naming of Terry Stotts and Steve Henson as assistant coaches, former Denver Nuggets star Alex English as the team’s Director of Player Development, and the addition of Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins as Player Development Assistant.

By adding Stotts and Henson to his coaching staff, Hawks coach Lon Kruger has filled the vacancies caused by the departures of Eric Musselman and Rick Mahorn, and they will join current assistant Gar Heard on the bench for the 2002-03 season.

“I’m really excited about the additions of Terry and Steve to our staff,” said Kruger. “Both bring extended NBA experience to our staff and both are very self-motivated and will work extremely hard in assisting our players in their daily development. Alex and Dominique are highly respected ex-players and both are interested in pursuing careers in coaching, and I believe this opportunity will provide them with an excellent chance to do just that.”

Stotts, a former professional player in Europe and the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), has been a member of the NBA's coaching ranks since 1983 and he joins the Atlanta staff after spending the last four seasons as the top assistant on George Karl's staff with the Milwaukee Bucks.

A second round draft choice of the Houston Rockets in the 1980 NBA Draft, Stotts played professionally in Italy, France and Spain, and also in the CBA for Karl and the Montana Golden Nuggets. When Karl was named head coach of the 1990-91 Albany Patroons, Stotts' elected to pursue a new career as an assistant, and in his first year with his former coach helped establish a CBA record when the Patroons went 50-9 that year.

Karl departed after one season to coach in Spain, but Stotts stayed in the CBA as an assistant with the Fort Wayne Fury, and reunited with Karl one year later when he became head coach of the Seattle Supersonics. He began his career with the Sonics as a scout and was promoted in September of 1993 to assistant coach.

After five years on the bench in Seattle, Stotts continued his longtime association with Karl when he accepted a similar position in Milwaukee prior to the 1998-99 season. During their 14-year collaboration, Karl and Stotts were never associated with a losing team.

He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1980 with a degree in zoology, and the standout forward was named All-Big Eight his senior year and was an academic All-American in both his junior and senior years. Eight years later (1988), Stotts earned a Masters of Business Administration from his alma mater.

A former player with the Hawks during the 1992-93 campaign, Henson rejoined the organization as a NBA advance scout prior to the start of last season. He played seven years in the NBA with five different teams (Milwaukee, Atlanta, Charlotte, Portland and Detroit) and a total of three seasons in the Italian and Greek Leagues. Henson ended his NBA career with averages of 3.1 points and 2.0 assists in 238 regular season games.

An assistant coach on Kruger’s Illinois staff in 1999-2000, Henson also played for him at Kansas State from 1987-90.

He was a four-year starting guard and the first KSU player to play in four NCAA tournaments. Henson averaged nearly 20 ppg his junior and senior seasons and garnered All-Big Eight and honorable mention All-America honors. He was only the second player in school history (Kruger was the first) to win the program’s most inspirational player award three times. In 1988, Henson led the nation in free throw percentage by hitting 92.5-percent of his attempts.

After earning his kinesiology degree from Kansas State in 1990, Henson was selected in the second round of the 1990 NBA Draft by Milwaukee.

Elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1997, English's career determination to venture into the coaching profession after 15 years led to his appointment as the first head coach of the National Basketball Development League's (NBDL) North Charleston Lowgators. He coached the Lowgators to a 36-20 record in his first season and led the team to the finals of the league's first championship where they were beaten by the Greenville Groove. His teams' progress was chronicled throughout the 2001-02 year on ESPN's "Down Low: Life in the D-League," 13 episodes of the inaugural season of the NBDL and the Lowgators.

According to Hawks’ VP/General Manager Pete Babcock, English’s duties will consist of assisting the players in their on- and off-court development, as well as assisting the coaching staff in all facets of game preparation, decisions and planning.

Following a career in which he became the Nuggets' all-time leader in scoring (21,645) and assists (3,679), English was honored by his old franchise on March 2, 1993, with the retirement of his uniform #2. In 10 of his 11 seasons in Denver (1979-90), he averaged better than 21 points per game, and in eight of those seasons, he scored more than 25 per contest. The NBA's 11th all-time leading scorer with 25,613 points, English finished with career averages of 21.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists.

The eight-time NBA All-Star was selected to the all-league second team three times (1982, 1983 and 1986), and in 1988, he was presented with the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for community service.

He helped guide the Nuggets to nine straight playoff appearances from 1981-82 to 1989-90, including a berth in the Western Conference Finals in 1984-85, and finished with a career playoff scoring average of 24.4 ppg in 10 appearances (including the 1987-88 season with Milwaukee).

Selected by Milwaukee in the second round (23rd overall) of the 1976 NBA Draft, English played two years for the Bucks before signing as a free agent with the Indiana Pacers in 1978. His level of consistency with the Nuggets began on February 1, 1980 when he was traded by the Pacers along with a first round pick to the Nuggets for George McGinnis, and after 11 years, he was signed as a free agent by the Dallas Mavericks on August 15, 1990, where he played his final NBA season.

After retiring from the NBA in 1991, English played one season in the Italian League for Delp Napoli, where he scored 13.9 ppg.

A four-year starter at the University of South Carolina, English averaged 17.8 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, and in his senior year, he averaged 22.6 points and 10.3 rebounds. He earned an undergraduate degree in interdisciplinary studies at USC and has also parlayed his basketball career on the movie screen by co-starring in the 1986 film "Amazing Grace and Chuck," where he portrayed the title character, Amazing Grace, a player for the Boston Celtics.

In addition to his previous role in the organization as a Special Assistant to the Executive Vice President, Wilkins will take on additional responsibilities with the basketball staff in the area of player development. He will focus on the individual development of the players – the fundamentals of the game and skill work -- at all home practices and games, as well as providing leadership and expertise from his days as professional.

The ninth all-time leading scorer in NBA history with 26,668 overall points and the Hawks’ franchise all-time leader with 23,292 points, Wilkins rejoined the organization on October 18, 2000 when team president Stan Kasten appointed him to the business side of the ledger.

A 15-year NBA veteran, Wilkins was originally selected as the third overall pick in the first round of the 1982 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz before he was traded to the Hawks on September 2, 1982 (for two players, John Drew and Freeman Williams and cash). In addition to playing with the Hawks, he also spent time with Los Angeles (Clippers), Boston, San Antonio and Orlando, and overseas with Panathinaikos Athens of the Greek League and Teamsystem in Italy.

He was a member of the NBA All-Rookie Team in 1983 and was named to seven All-NBA teams, nine consecutive All-Star squads and was a two-time winner of the NBA Slam Dunk Championship.

[Guest]

We've decided to win! This year we've added depth to our anemic front-office and continued to bring in experienced and respected people to man the asst. coaching positions. Additionally, it sounds like Nique will now focus on helping DJ!

Can this season please start?!

[hds428]

Replacing quality with quality, very good, Muss will still be missed, but it sounds like Stotts is here to anchor Big Dog, and Henson sounds like Kruger's boy. The best part is that now Nique has an official job title and a specific role with the team, I think English should be Nique's assistant though.

[KB21]

I don't think Stotts is here to anchor Big Dog. He's hear because he's a damn fine assistant coach.

[Guest]

Looks like found a use for everyone doesn't it?

[KB21]

I think it is a good thing. We don't have gobs of assistants like the Mavs do, but we have guys that can help us and will have defined roles.

One thing I've criticized the Hawks organization about in the past is their lack of attention to the scouting department. For years, the Hawks have had the smallest scouting department in the NBA.

Now, with Pete, Billy Knight, Alex English, Dominique Wilkins, Chris Grant, and the coaching staff, the Hawks should be able to scout college players, have varying opinions on each player, and come up with a good idea on who the team should look at picking up.

[Gray Mule]

One of my major gripes with the Hawks has always been

the weakness of the scouting department.

Strengthing this department will ,in my opinion, be one

of the best moves that the Hawks could have possibly

made. With the price of NBA players today, millions

are spent on so many of them. How much does it cost

to have several additional scouts?

A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. I believe

that the Hawk's chain just got stronger!!!

Way to Go, Hawks!

Gray Mule

[hawkster411]

Hiring experts to our scouting department is a plus. You can't go wrong by spending some cash flow in our scouting department especially when you have ex-players(experienced, respected, knows the game well, and has a knack for spotting talent) giving their opinions on a particular draftee. I think the Hawks are heading in the right direction. I would love to sit down with Nique and ask his opinion on some college players (or highschool players) for next year's draft.

[Diesel]

[BlackHawkDown]

Losing Mahorn for Henson is a bigt loss. But give Henson a chance. And again proving Stotts is a bad choice, on top of being Karl's boy, is a former Euro - sissyballer. Project turn Reef into a punk 7'0"PG with no defense or atheletic ability. But who cares as long as he doesn't become head coach I could care less.

[KB21]

Mahorn is no big loss. His job was to add some toughness to our big men, and he failed.

There's a reason that no one has picked him up as an assistant. He's not that good.

[Sage11]

Bravo Hawks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the moves and now I am on my way to the ticket office. Ready to get this campaign started.

[hds428]

Well, KB, I'm not saying he's here for the sole purpose of coddling Robinson. He's a damn fine assistant coach, no doubt, but his presence here and history with Glen and the Bucks will definitely make GR feel more comfortable and a part of the team, familiarity but not for familiaritys sake. Same goes for English. I'm not trying to pigeon-hole anyone, just trying to look at some of the connections among the players and coaches, who just like players need to have chemistry in order to work well together.

[BlackHawkDown]

She was one of the greatest congress women in history. I really respect her and what she did. I am sick of that woman that ran against her, she is a tool and I hate tools. I managed to become successful without losing my integrity, unlike Denise Majette. But I have to support Majette, publically, to a certain extent, if I like it or not so I wont say what I really want to. Next year I am donating some real money to McKinney's comback.

[Guest]

Well I have very little to say about politics.I think all these

people care about themselves and are scams so it doesn't

really make a difference to me.

[Sage11]

Do me a favor and lose the pict of former congressman McKinney. She is gone why cant we just let her be forgottonen like Newt. Lets try to keep the board clean of the political arena. Thanks

[Inside_Man]

"She was one of the greatest congress women in history."

Jihad Cindy is a racist whack job. Sorry - that's the truth - wahabi fanatics murder 3000 innocent U.S. civilians and she wants to take $10 mil blood money from a wahabi, whack job prince. PUHLEEEEEZE!

[hds428]

I realized yesterday with the few posts I put up that I'm as sick of seeing her jew hating face as I am of hearing about her actual jew hatred. Did'nt mean to be grandstanding, I realize that politics, like religion is a sensitive and personal subject. The sig got changed last night, btw.

[Sage11]

Cool. I am not sensitive but I an "dirt" tired of seeing or hearing her.