Portland Trail Blazers bring in Dale Osbourne as assistant coach
Portland Trail Blazers announced earlier on Wednesday that Terry Stotts has brought in Dale Osbourne into his coaching staff for the coming season.
“I’m very excited about Dale joining our staff,” said Stotts. “His diverse coaching background and experience at the college and D-League level will be very valuable in the development of our younger players both on the court and off.”
Osbourne is coming in from the D-league where he served as the head coach of the Tulsa 66ers who are affiliated with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He had been the assistant coach of the 66ers for the past three seasons before getting the promotion in December 2011. Osbourne had also served as the assistant coach for team USA in the 2011 Pan-American games.
Art Heyman: A former number 1 draft pick dead at 71
Art Heyman, the number one selection of the 1963 draft was reported dead on Monday.
Brought into the league by the New York Knicks, Heyman had a 8 year professional career which saw him have stints with the Knicks, Cincinnati Royals, Philadelphia 76ers, Pittsburgh Pipers and Miami Floridians.
Heyman recorded a total of 4,030 points, 1,461 rebounds and 859 assists during his career before announcing his retirement in 1970. He was best known for his exploits in college basketball where he cemented the foundations of the rivalry between Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina.
He was inducted into Duke Hall of Fame back in 1980 and is widely regarded as one of the best Blue Devils of all time also including the current Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski.
“Art Heyman was a wonderful player, and an idol to many of us who were playing basketball in the 1960s,” Mike Krzyzewski said. “Obviously, he had a huge impact on Duke Basketball and was truly one of the elite players to ever wear a Blue Devil uniform.
“When I was fortunate to become the Duke head coach, my admiration for Art blossomed into a great friendship that lasted for more than 30 years. Art will be missed by all of us in the Duke Basketball family.”
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