Michael Grange
From Thursday's Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, Dec. 03, 2008 11:12PM EST Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 9:21PM EDT
It's not exactly the way Jay Triano wanted to make basketball history, but these things don't happen according to schedule. The former Canadian national team star was named interim head coach of the Toronto Raptors yesterday in the wake of Sam Mitchell's dismissal.
He'll make NBA history as the first Canadian head coach tomorrow, when the Raptors face the Utah Jazz, headed up by Jerry Sloan, the longest tenured head coach in North American professional sports.
"I wish it didn't happen under the circumstances it did," Triano said from Denver last night. "I don't know if you can ever prepared for this. … I've always been a student of game and loved the game. Is this the ideal time? Probably not because of the situation. But at the same time, I'm confident and excited about our first practice."
Triano is a rare NBA head coach as he's never played in the NBA, nor coached at the top level of U.S. college basketball, nor been an assistant with any other team than the Raptors, where he started working for Lenny Wilkens in 2002-03. His coaching career began at Simon Fraser University, where Triano had been a standout player and continued during his tenure running the Canadian national team from 1999 to 2004. His introduction to the NBA came as colour commentator for the old Vancouver Grizzlies.
He's promising to deliver a team that will run more and be more free-flowing offensively than it was under Mitchell, but added that changes will likely be gradual.
"I'm happy for Jay," Raptors president Bryan Colangelo said. "He's paid his dues. People want to talk about his lack of experience, but people are either good basketball people or they're not and they deserve a chance or they don't, and Jay deserves this chance."
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