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DeMar DeRozan No. 25 all-time in scoring after passing Reggie Miller
Jorge Sierra: DeMar DeRozan has passed REGGIE MILLER for No. 25 all-time in scoring. Also: Nikola Jokic moved ahead of Damon Stoudamire in assists for No. 59. He passed CHRIS WEBBER in rebounds for No. 75.
Dennis Scott’s No. 4 is going to hang from the rafters. Georgia Tech coach Damon Stoudamire and athletic director J Batt surprised Scott on Thursday live on NBA TV by announcing to the Yellow Jackets legend that he will have his number retired this season. Scott will become the seventh former Tech player to have his number retired by the program joining No. 15 Matt Harpring, No. 20 Tom Hammonds, No. 21 Roger Kaiser, No. 22 John Salley, No. 25 Mark Price and No. 40 Rich Yunkus.
BSJ: How difficult was last year with everything you guys went through and Joe kind of being thrust into that role just days before training camp. What kind of position did that put you in becoming his assistant last year to help him make that transition? Damon Stoudamire: "It was easy for me, because first of all, when I came, I never aspired to be the head coach. So everything happened, I get it, everything happened, but my goals and my mission for coming never changed one bit. Everybody knows that Ime is one of my good friends and will always be one of my good friends and the situation was unfortunate, but at the same time, I still had a job to do too. So it never dawned on me. The task at hand wasn't completed. So I told Joe, even when everything went down and he was named (head coach), we met and I told him, no different than if Ime was here. I'm gonna do my best to make sure you succeed. It's my job. So whether it's putting out fires, whether it's being there for you, lending an ear, game planning, whatever it is that we need to do to be successful, that's what I'm gonna do to help you. Nothing's changed. So me and Joe had a great relationship and so most people wouldn't even know, it wasn't a working relationship now. It wasn't a working relationship because when he was an assistant, we talked a lot. We talked a lot about a lot of different things. We spent a lot of time together. I don't think people understand that when you're with a staff, you wanna work with really good people, and we had a really good staff and we spent a lot of time together. So I knew he was gonna be successful and it was just a matter of me trying to help him get to the point of where he needed. Even now fast forwarding and all the way to now, the thing that I take really good joy in watching him is he's so much more comfortable with who he is as being the head coach of the Boston Celtics, and I think he wears that with a badge of honor and it's not easy. That's a city that loves the sports, that's the city that wants to win, and with the teams that we have, they expect us to win as well. So it's not enough to get to the playoffs, it's not enough to go to the semis or the Eastern Conference Finals. At this point, it's not enough to go to the Finals. The task at hand never goes unforeseen. I think they got the right guy at the helm to get them to where ultimately they want to hang that 18th banner."
BSJ: What was the process like of him getting comfortable last year, because I'm sure a lot of when you go into a season with just a couple of days, you keep all the same stuff. I'm sure he made his imprint, too, with him becoming the coach. How do you see him through the course of that year get more comfortable and get adjusted to what was probably like a really frantic, tough situation stepping in there? Damon Stoudamire: "To be honest with you, I don't know if he ever truly got comfortable. He got comfortable enough to coach the team, obviously, because you're thrust into that position. It's a great opportunity, but you're never comfortable until you're able to, at the end of the season, evaluate, see what you like, don't like, because you can only tweak things. Everything was pretty much already in place. So the task at hand didn't change from that standpoint. It was just a different leader, and so now you're leading guys that were brought in by another head coach. That's not easy. So you gotta, you gotta develop a different type of relationship with guys. So he did do that. I think that, ultimately, the season came up short, but I thought he did a hell of a job because it wasn't easy to be put into that situation. We quickly forget how it is, but the first thing I told Joe when we talked before he said anything, I said, 'man, unfortunately, nobody gives a shit what happened, they still want us to win a championship. So we gotta keep this thing moving. We gotta keep it moving fast forward.' I know he always understood that, but the imprint of his team, you can see it now more than last year because he has a year under his belt. He knew the players as the assistant. Now he knows him as the head coach and they know him. The trust is there and you just see, to me, a guy that's really comfortable in his own skin again and being the head coach of the Boston Celtics."
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“Vin Baker. Vin’s like an uncle to me,” Payton shared with Poole and Johnson. “We used to go fishing when my mom was pregnant with my brother. Detlef [Schrempf], Hersey [Hawkins]. Those were all of [Gary Sr.’s] teammates. Nate McMillan, Damon Stoudamire– [Jason] Kidd is like family, too. [Brian] Shaw is family. Big [Shaquille O'Neal]. Rest in peace Kobe [Bryant]. Kobe was around back then. I can literally go on. Bonzie Wells.”
Josh Lewenberg: That’s the 3rd career triple-double for Scottie Barnes (23 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and counting). He’s already tied for the 3rd-most triple-doubles in Raptors history. Kyle Lowry: 16 Pascal Siakam: 5 Scottie Barnes/Damon Stoudamire: 3
Behind him, students danced in delirium at midcourt. Damon Stoudamire, the first Georgia Tech coach to win his first game against Duke, is a mighty career 1-0 in the ACC. That’s it. But as far as debuts go, this is about as good as it gets. Taken on its own, Tech’s 72-68 win over No. 7 Duke does not a renaissance make. Dig into the actual game, though, and the substance reveals itself. The Yellow Jackets led for all but 1:38, coughing up the edge at the most precarious point — with two minutes remaining. Yet down four, they rallied back, ultimately scoring the game-winner on a bold alley-oop, They secured it with not one but two successive defensive swarms. Back that stalwartness up to a win against No. 21 Mississippi State four days prior, and the seeds of what Stoudamire is sowing begin to show.
It helps that Stoudamire comes to the ACC at a time when there’s a little more space to squeeze by. Not to discount the win against Duke, but beating Jon Scheyer reads differently than upending Mike Krzyzewski. Pastner laughs when he thinks back to his first three ACC games as head coach at Georgia Tech. “Home against North Carolina and Roy Williams. At Duke with Mike Krzyzewski. Home against Louisville and Rick Pitino,” he says. “That was my introduction to the ACC. What is that, like 2,000 wins and how many national championships?” Closer to 2,400 and nine titles.
After playing in just 31 games for the San Antonio Spurs at the conclusion of the 2007-2008 season, Damon Stoudamire was aware of the obvious. He knew his playing career was finished, and the star guard was at a crossroads. Like many NBA and WNBA players who hit the end of their playing careers, he had a conundrum: What do I do with all this time? Stoudamire had felt it coming for several seasons, long after he won the 1996 Rookie of the Year Award. It happens to professional athletes in other sports, too. Since grade school, their days have been regimented by their sports schedule. There are workouts in the morning, practices in the daytime, weight training in the afternoons and games at night.
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Suddenly, all that structure was gone, and Stoudamire needed something; he just did not know what. “Athletes become creatures of habit. I was no different, but by my eighth year, I started to think about the end more than the beginning. I went back to Arizona and got my degree, and in my 10th year, I tore my patella tendon. I was 32, I had just signed a four-year deal, but it killed my momentum. I never really recovered from that injury. I still loved basketball, but you get older, and I had to admit some things to myself. “So for me, I started to put my ego to the side. I never even turned in my retirement papers, but I knew I just couldn’t play anymore. I figured that out, and it was therapeutic. But still, athletes can get depressed. It is not enough for me to wake up and work out. Then it’s 10 a.m., and you still have a lot of time to burn.”
Fast forward 15 years, and Stoudamire is now the new head coach at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, his second Division I head coaching job after being at the helm of Pacific University from 2016 to 2021. “After playing for the Spurs, I didn’t feel it anymore. I had always said I wasn’t built to be a 12th man. I didn’t have a plan, didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Stoudamire told Legends of Basketball Magazine in September as he prepared for the upcoming NCAA season. He spent some time as a studio analyst at NBA-TV in Atlanta before returning to Houston and meeting with John Lucas. “He put confidence back in me. That’s what he does. He told me: ‘Don’t run from it. Tell your story where it is. Just own it and move on. After that, what can people say?’” “I owe him a lot. He taught me to be myself again,” Stoudamire said of Lucas. “I built myself back up.”
Kerry Eggers: Damon Stoudamire on Scoot Henderson: “Once he learns the nuances of the NBA game, he will be fine. He is strong, athletic, a downhill guy. He is what the NBA looks like nowadays. He is that combo guard who can play with the ball and play without it.”
Beyond Udoka, the Celtics staff faced a depletion of talent that raised the difficulty of Mazzulla’s job. Will Hardy took over as Utah Jazz head coach in June and turned them into one of the NBA’s biggest surprises. Multiple team sources both on the roster and the staff said Stoudamire’s departure to lead Georgia Tech in March left a significant void in the team’s leadership structure. He was known for having a good feel for when and how to talk to players, understand their motivations, and pull from his own experiences when making recommendations for how the team should operate.
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