The San Antonio Spurs have announced additions and promotions within the team’s basketball operations staff.
The Spurs have added Kaleb Thornhill as VP of player development and organizational growth and Jimmy Baron joins as the team’s shooting development coach, while Josh Brannon has been promoted to player development from the Spurs video room. San Antonio has also promoted Kenny Trevino to head video coordinator, as well as Jon Harris and Ryan Oliver to assistant video coordinators.
In the Spurs medical and performance group, the team has added Guy Nicolette, MD as director of sports medicine, Beth Morford as soft tissue specialist and Guillaume Alquier as athletic performance coach.
Thornhill will lead the Spurs player development efforts as VP of player development and organizational growth. Prior to joining the Silver and Black, he established Pro Athlete Community (PAC) with the mission to help current and former NFL players sharpen their business acumen, develop life skills, foster a sense of community, all while providing them with invaluable mentorship. Thornhill got his start in the NFL with the Detroit Lions front office before spending more than 12 years as director of player engagement for the Miami Dolphins, where he created the NFL’s first Business Combine. This off-field experience for current and former players made the Dolphins the only NFL team to implement an executive education certificate program for current players. From Lansing, Michigan, Thornhill holds a bachelor’s in human resources and master’s in kinesiology from Michigan State University, an MBA from Nova Southeastern University and completed the Athlete Development Certification Program at Wharton Business School.
Baron will serve as the Spurs shooting development coach after working as head skills coach at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida from 2020-23. Prior to joining IMG, he spent 10 years running basketball camps and training athletes, while also assisting with a 2016 regional USA Basketball Youth Development Clinic. Baron brings 11 years of professional playing experience, having played in Turkey, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Lithuania and Russia, winning a EuroCup Championship in 2013 with Lokomotiv Kuban (Russia). Before heading overseas, the Rhode Island native spent four seasons playing for his father Jim Baron at the University of Rhode Island where Jimmy set and currently holds the Atlantic 10 record for three-pointers made (361).
Brannon is entering his fifth season with Spurs, moving to player development after spending last season as San Antonio’s head video coordinator. He spent 2021-22 in the video department as the assistant video coordinator and two seasons as a quality assurance assistant from 2019-21. Brannon coached at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas from 2016-18. The Houston native played at Southwestern Community College and Panola Junior College before spending his final three seasons at Rockhurst University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business communication in 2016. Brannon also worked in basketball camps for the Spurs Sports Academy since 2010, serving as a camp director from 2016 until he joined the coaching staff in 2019.
Trevino will serve as the Spurs head video coordinator after spending last season as the assistant video coordinator. Prior to joining San Antonio, he spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Austin Spurs after serving as a coaching assistant with Austin in 2019-20. Trevino joined the Spurs organization as a team attendant for San Antonio in 2012, later becoming an assistant equipment manager for the team during the 2016-17 season. The Laredo, Texas, native graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2016.
Harris becomes an assistant video coordinator for San Antonio in his second season with the organization. Prior to joining the Spurs as a video assistant in 2022, he served as a graduate assistant with the Florida State University men’s basketball program, while obtaining a master’s degree in coaching. Following three seasons at Miami University of Ohio and one season at Cleveland State, Harris played internationally for seven years in Argentina, Germany, China and Canada. Originally from Twinsburg, Ohio, he also worked as a camp counselor and coordinator for the Cleveland Cavaliers Youth Academy from 2016-2020.
Oliver begins his second season with the Spurs as an assistant video coordinator after spending last season as a video assistant. Prior to joining the Silver and Black, he served as the director of basketball operations at UC Davis from 2020-2022 following coaching stints at Clark University (MA), Northfield Mount Hermon (MA), and Glendale College (CA). In addition to his time on the sideline, the Inglewood native played professionally for two seasons in Ireland. Oliver earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Missouri in 2019 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Siena College, where he played four seasons from 2012-2016.
Nicolette becomes director of sport medicine for the Spurs as an associate clinical professor at UT Health San Antonio, bringing more than 20 years of sports medicine experience to the team. Prior to joining the Spurs, he served as executive director of University Health and a team physician at University of California-Berkeley and spent 16-plus years as a team physician and director of the sports medicine fellowship program at the University of Florida. Nicolette returns to the Alamo City after attending University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio for medical school, while also receiving medical and sports medicine training at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
Alquier joins the Spurs medical team as an athletic performance coach after spending the 2022-23 season as a strength and conditioning coach for Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 in the LNB ProA French League. Prior to Mets 92, he spent five years (2017-2022) as strength and conditioning coach for Élan Béarnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez also in the LNB ProA French League and has previous experience working with the Pau Orthez youth academy as well as a third division rugby team. In 2015, Alquier graduated from the University of Pau in France with a master’s degree in performance.
Morford joins San Antonio as the team’s soft tissue specialist, entering her 20th year as a high-performance sports massage therapist. Throughout her career, Morford has worked with top-10 Division I swimming and basketball programs, including University of Kansas Men’s Basketball where she was a part of the 2018 Final Four and 2022 National Championship teams. In addition to her collegiate background, she spent seven years traveling with USA Swimming and was invited by the United States Olympic Committee to be part of Team USA’s sports medical staff at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Originally from Lawrence, Kansas, the former Jayhawk attended the University of Kansas prior to obtaining her soft tissue certification.