Christian Laettner retired from the NBA following a forgettable 49 games during the 2004-05 season when he sat on the Miami Heat bench alongside such big man luminaries as Michael Doleac and Wang Zhizhi. Following a couple of failed business ventures, however, the former Duke Blue Devils star is back in basketball ... as an assistant coach with the NBA Development League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants.
The former third overall pick and 12-year NBA veteran is expected to be named the new Mad Ants’ assistant sometime Friday, according to sources familiar with the hire, and should be on the bench as the Mad Ants take on the Sioux Falls Skyforce in South Dakota this weekend. Laettner’s head coach will be 26-year-old Steve Gansey (yes, brother of former West Virginia standout Mike Gansey).
Gansey needed an assistant after being promoted to head coach when the team relieved veteran Joey Meyer of his duties a few weeks ago. Until the hirinig of Laettner, Gansey had been using volunteer assistants Sebastian Pruiti (of NBA Playbook fame) and Chad Clarke.
An article on NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk explained why Laettner might be wanting to get back into a paying gig -- so he can pay back Shawne Merriman, namely -- but the wildcard in this hire will be what exactly Laettner is able to bring to the table for the Mad Ants. The 42-year-old doesn’t have any prior coaching experience and had a pretty nondescript professional career after a standout amateur career. Laettner led Duke to a pair of championships and was a part of the original Dream Team prior to failing to live up to NBA expectations, but told Lost Lettermen last year that he has high hopes for his coaching career.
“Well, the ultimate goal is to get a big-time head college coaching job,” Laettner said. “If nothing happens in the college ranks, I’ve got to go to the NBA pre-draft camp this year in Chicago and let the people in the NBA know that I’m ready to be an assistant coach.”
Laettner wasn’t able to catch on with any teams after letting them know he was ready, however, leaving him without any coaching experience aside from the time he led a team known as the “Villains” against former Kentucky Wildcats greats in one of the many lockout exhibition games this summer. The results are unbeknownst to your’s truly, but hopefully they were better than the video Laettner made to promote the event (Update: Laettner’s team won).
With only a modicum of coaching experience, a quick look through Laettner’s background provides a quick glance at what else he might bring to the Mad Ants:
- Laettner’s best known for hitting the game-winning shot over Kentucky to allow Duke to clinch a second-consecutive championship for the 1992 Blue Devils squad, but it’s unknown if he’s able to teach others the ability to pull that sort of miracle off during actual play. And, if he is, the NBA’s rules of advancing the ball to halfcourt following a timeout make the scenario altogether unlikely (though it’s possible Pruiti, his fellow assistant, could draw something up to help recreate 1992’s Hail Mary attempt). Regardless, it seems Laettner’s best on-court moment probably isn’t something he’ll spend much time teaching in the D-League.
- Marketing probably is out, too, considering the Mad Ants are already one of the most talked about teams in the D-League thanks to their mascot the Nightmare Ant. There’s a chance the team’s marketing staff could try and wrangle up the other former NBA player’s coaching in the D-League, however -- Randy Livingston, Ira Newble, Vitaly Potapenko, Donyell Marshall, Paul Mokeski, Eldridge Recasner, Chris Carrawell, Sam Perkins and David Wesley all appear on coaching staffs throughout the league -- to form some sort of one-on-one tournament, but handicappers probably wouldn’t Laettner in that scenario.
- Fort Wayne probably won’t use Laettner in the business office, either, considering his financial woes of the past. The Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Ronald Tillery broke all of that down here as Tillery goes back and explains how Laettner nearly bought the Memphis Grizzlies before falling into a financial hole that ended with him owing money to the aforementioned Merriman, the oil company Chevron and quite a few other investors following failed real estate ventures when the economy crashed.
In the end, however, the ‘D’ in D-League stands for development and Laettner’s being given an excellent chance of learning the ropes in Fort Wayne. Hopefully he takes full advantage of it ... and maybe even teaches their big men how to do the moves portrayed in this neat little Youtube clip.