The Memphis Grizzlies named Barry Hecker an assistant coach, General Manager and Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Wallace announced today.
With over 35 years of basketball experience in the professional, collegiate and high school ranks, Hecker joins the Grizzlies after a stint with the China Basketball Association (CBA) where he was an assistant coach with the Jiangsu Nangang Dragons during the league’s 2008 playoffs.
Along with his work in the CBA, Hecker spent 16 seasons (1986-98, 2001-05) with the Los Angeles Clippers, first serving as the team’s director of scouting (1986-94) and then moving to the bench for four seasons (1994-98) as an assistant under head coach Bill Fitch. Hecker would later spend four seasons (2001-05) as the club’s director of player personnel/assistant coach.
Before his first stint with the Clippers, Hecker spent two seasons (1984-86) as the player personnel director for the Cleveland Cavaliers, helping assemble a core of players including Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, Ron Harper and Johnny “Hot Rod” Williams, that would turn the Cavaliers into a perennial Eastern Conference power in the late-1980s and early-1990s.
Hecker basketball executive experience also includes two seasons (1999-01) as the interim head coach, assistant coach and player personnel director for the Las Vegas Bandits of the International Basketball League (IBL), where he assisted current Grizzlies Head Coach Lionel Hollins in the 2000-01 season.
A popular and frequent speaker on the basketball clinic circuit, Hecker has been the director of numerous camps, including those run by Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley, Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues, Xavier McDaniel and Andrei Kirilenko. Internationally, Hecker has been invited as a guest speaker at clinics in China, Italy and Turkey.
The Washington, D.C. native received his bachelor’s degree from Frostburg State (MD) where he played basketball and baseball. He earned his master’s degree in education from George Washington University and was a Ph.D. candidate at Florida State. Hecker’s head coaching credits also include B.S. Leiden of the Dutch Professional League (1975) and Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah (1976-78).
The club also announced today that Andy Greer and Ron DuBois are no longer with the team and that Kevin O’Neill has been assigned to the new position of special assistant to the general manager.
Post your basketball opinions on the InsideHoops Memphis Grizzlies message board.
