Day: September 19, 2013

The San Antonio Spurs today announced several front office promotions and additions entering the 2013-14 NBA season. Sean Marks assumes the role of assistant coach for the Spurs after serving the past season as director of basketball operations/Toros GM. Brian Pauga, currently director of scouting, adds Austin Toros general manager to his duties. Additionally, Will Hardy has been promoted to video coordinator, Anthony Falsone joins the Spurs as the athletic performance coordinator and Matt J. Herring assumes the role of athletic performance associate.

Marks, a native of New Zealand, began in the Spurs front office in 2011 as a basketball operations assistant before being promoted to director of basketball operations/Toros GM prior to last season. An 11-year NBA veteran, Marks played for San Antonio from 2003-06 and was a part of the Spurs 2005 NBA Championship team. He joins new assistant coach Jim Boylen and Ime Udoka on Gregg Popovich’s staff.

Pauga adds Toros general manager duties to his title after spending the past year as the director of scouting. The Michigan State graduate began his career in the Spurs front office as a basketball operations intern during the 2007-08 season before being elevated to scouting team coordinator.

Hardy takes over the role of video coordinator after spending the past two years as the assistant video coordinator for San Antonio. Hardy, who attended Williams College in Massachusetts, began with the Spurs as a video intern in 2011.

Falsone spent 10 seasons as the strength and conditioning coach for the Houston Rockets from 1995-2005. He also served as the personal strength coach for Hakeem Olajuwon from 1993-95 and for Yao Ming from 2005-06. While assisting Ming, Falsone worked with the Chinese men’s basketball team in preparation for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece and for the 2006 FIBA World Championships in Sapparo, Japan.

Herring comes to the Spurs after spending the past year in Bermuda as the principal, strength and conditioning coach and fascial stretch therapist for Rhino Training. In the past year he has also worked for the Peak Performance Project in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he assisted with strength and conditioning preparation for athletes prior to the 2013 NBA Draft.

The San Antonio Spurs today announced that forward Jeff Pendergraph has formally changed his last name to Ayres.

Ayres is the family name of his biological father, James. It replaces the surname of Jeff’s former stepfather.

According to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express News, “I didn’t know who my dad was until I was a senior in high school,” Jeff Ayres said Wednesday, during a break from pickup games at the Spurs’ practice gym. He was born Jeff Orcutt, using his mother LaDona’s maiden name, and became Pendergraph in elementary school when she married. Growing up in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., 45 miles east of Los Angeles, the future Jeff Ayres dreamed his biological father was someone famous, such as Denzel Washington or Shaquille O’Neal. A doctor. A musician. Somebody who was somebody. “It turns out it was a mechanic named James,” Ayres said.”