Alvin Gentry
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Alvin Gentry (born November 5, 1954) is an American professional basketball coach, and college basketball player, who has led three different NBA teams. He served as an interim coach for the Miami Heat at the end of the 1995 season, and later coached the Detroit Pistons and the Los Angeles Clippers. As of March 2006, Gentry is an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns.[1]
He was born in Shelby, North Carolina, where he grew up, and attended Shelby High School. His first cousin is former NC State and NBA star David Thompson.
Gentry played college ball at Appalachian State University under Press Maravich and Bobby Cremins. In 1978, he spent one year as a graduate assistant at the University of Colorado. He also was an assistant coach at Baylor University under Gene Iba, in 1980. Gentry served as an assistant at the University of Kansas under Larry Brown, where they won the 1988 NCAA National Championship. After one year, Gentry joined the University of Colorado staff.
In 1989, he began his NBA coaching career as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs under Larry Brown. It was in San Antonio that Gentry met his future wife, Suzanne Harris, the daughter of a prominent Baptist pastor and sister of a local sportscaster/radio host in the San Antonio area.
Gentry joined Gregg Popovich, R.C. Buford and Ed Manning as Larry Brown's assistant coaching staff during the 1988-1989 season when Brown left Kansas to coach the Spurs.
After two seasons in San Antonio, Gentry left to become an assistant for the L.A. Clippers beginning in the 1990-91 season. The next year, Gentry joined Pat Riley's staff as an assistant coach for the Miami Heat. He then moved to Detroit following the 1994-95 season where he served as an assistant for two and a half seasons before being named head coach late in the 1997-98 season.
Gentry briefly returned to San Antonio as head assistant coach following the 1999-2000 season, where he was reunited with former co-assistants Gregg Popovich (the Spurs head coach and vice president of basketball operations) and R.C. Buford (the Spurs General Manager). But the stint was short, with Gentry accepting the head coaching position of the L.A. Clippers weeks after taking the San Antonio job.
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| Preceded by Kevin Loughery |
Miami Heat Head Coach 1995 |
Succeeded by Pat Riley |
| Preceded by Doug Collins |
Detroit Pistons Head Coach 1998–2000 |
Succeeded by George Irvine |
| Preceded by Jim Todd |
Los Angeles Clippers Head Coach 2000–2003 |
Succeeded by Dennis Johnson |
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