Jerry Stackhouse wants to return to the NBA as a coach.
Jerry Stackhouse wants to return to the NBA as a coach. (USATSI)

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Eighteen-year veteran Jerry Stackhouse, who most recently played for the Brooklyn Nets in 2012-2013, is the head coach of the USA Select team at Eurocamp in Treviso, Italy. He has been coaching on the AAU circuit for years, and said that his next step is getting back into the league as a coach, via NBA.com's Scott Howard-Cooper:

Stackhouse said he talked with the Hawks last summer, soon after retiring, about staying in his adopted hometown as a player-development coach and that he met with new president Phil Jackson about a role with the Knicks in 2014-15. While staff decisions in New York are essentially on hold until a head coach is hired, the sense from Stackhouse’s side is that “there could be some realistic possibilities coming in.”

“I enjoyed this year, just doing some broadcasting, doing radio and still being able to build what I want to do from a basketball standpoint coaching wise,” he said. “But I think I’m ready. When you look at the guys that had completely no experience, like Jason (Kidd) last year and his success, I think that’s what it’s going to. It’s going to coaches that can really understand these players now. That’s the key.”

Stackhouse played for 14 coaches in the NBA, but the North Carolina alum said "everything goes back, to me, to Dean Smith," via ProBasketballTalk's Brett Pollakoff. He added that he wants to be a head coach, but understands he'll likely have to be an assisant first: 

“The perfect blueprint would be Doc Rivers and Mark Jackson, do the broadcasting and then fall into the right seat, but it doesn’t happen that way for everybody,” Stackhouse said. “I would love to have that opportunity to come right out of playing and get a chance at a seat, but everybody’s path is a little bit different. We’ll see.

“If I get my feet in the door and show what I can do, I could ascend pretty fast.”

There is no word yet on how seriously Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks are considering the 39-year-old. A head-coaching hire might happen soon, though, and from there things could move quickly.