SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Spurs are set to lose rising assistant coach Will Hardy to the Boston Celtics, according to a report in The Athletic.
Jay King reported Monday that new Celtics head coach, Ime Udoka, was hiring Hardy to join his staff. The Spurs have not officially announced Hardy’s departure.
Hardy has been with the Spurs organization for 10 years. He started as a video intern in 2010 and worked his way up the coaching staff ranks to become one of Gregg Popovich’s full-time assistant coaches in 2015.
Hardy has been one of Popovich’s lead assistants for the past two seasons along with Becky Hammon. He is considered to be one of the rising coaches in the league and has interviewed for head coaching vacancies in the past.
Udoka and Hardy worked together in San Antonio from 2012 to 2019 and were both part of the staff that won the 2014 NBA championship. Udoka left the Spurs to become the lead assistant in Philadelphia and was on the coaching staff in Brooklyn this season.
It’s unclear if Hardy will be Udoka’s lead assistant in Boston, but his departure leaves Hammon as the Spurs most tenured lead assistant coach.
Hammon reportedly interviewed for the Portland and Orlando head coaching positions. However, the Trail Blazers recently announced that Chauncey Billups would be their next head coach, while the Magic are still conducting their head coaching search.