Kings hire Alvin Gentry to serve as top assistant under coach Luke Walton
The Kings have hired former New Orleans Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry to serve as their top assistant under coach Luke Walton.
League sources told The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday the Kings were finalizing an agreement to make Gentry their associate head coach. The team made a formal announcement Wednesday morning.
“I’m excited to add Alvin’s valuable experience and leadership to the team,” Walton said in a news release. “His veteran coaching perspective will be a great addition and I look forward to working with him again to continue developing our group.”
Sources told The Bee Walton led the hiring process and Gentry emerged as the top choice for Walton, new Kings general manager Monte McNair and owner Vivek Ranadivé. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed per team policy, but a league source said Gentry received a three-year deal, aligning his contract with Walton’s.
Gentry, 65, was also considered a top candidate to become the lead assistant under coach Doc Rivers with the Philadelphia 76ers. The Kings are hiring Gentry to replace Igor Kokoskov, who left Sacramento after one season to become head coach of European power Fenerbahce.
Gentry and Walton worked together under Steve Kerr as assistant coaches with the Golden State Warriors in 2014-15, the year the Warriors won their first NBA championship since 1975. Gentry then left the Warriors to become head coach of the Pelicans, where he coached Kings shooting guard Buddy Hield in 2016-17. Walton stayed with the Warriors one more year before he was named head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2016.
Gentry has 31 years of NBA experience, both as a head coach and as an assistant. He has served as head coach of the Miami Heat, Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns and Pelicans. He has been an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs, Clippers, Heat, Pistons, New Orleans Hornets, Suns and Warriors.
Gentry has amassed a 510-595 (.462) record as a head coach. He enjoyed his best season as a head coach in 2009-10. The Suns finished 54-28 that year, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games in the Western Conference Finals.
Gentry is a native of Shelby, N.C., and a cousin of former North Carolina State star David Thompson. Gentry was a point guard at Appalachian State, where he played for Petar “Press” Maravich, the father of NBA legend “Pistol” Pete Maravich. Gentry began his coaching career in the college ranks at Colorado and Baylor before joining Larry Brown’s staff at Kansas, where he helped the Jayhawks win the 1988 NCAA championship.
When Brown was named head coach of the Spurs in 1989, Gentry joined him. Gentry served as an assistant with a Spurs coaching staff that included Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford.
Gentry left the Spurs in 1990 to become an assistant coach with the Clippers. He spent the next three seasons as an assistant with the Heat before joining the Pistons in 1995.
Gentry was named head coach of the Pistons toward the end of the 1997-98 season. He was hired as head coach of the Clippers in 1999, where he led a young group that included Elton Brand, Lamar Odom and Darius Miles.
The Clippers fired Gentry in 2003. Gentry worked as an assistant under Mike D’Antoni and Terry Porter with the Suns before being named interim head coach when Porter was fired. Gentry and the Suns mutually agreed to part ways in 2013.
Gentry then returned to the Clippers, where he served as associate head coach under Rivers in 2013-14. A year later, Kerr hired Gentry as his associate head coach with the Warriors.
After one championship season with the Warriors, Gentry left to become head coach of the Pelicans. Gentry compiled a 175-225 record in five seasons with New Orleans. He was fired Aug. 15 after the Pelicans finished 30-42 and failed to reach the Western Conference playoffs.
This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 4:02 AM.
