Mavericks hire Mario Elie as assistant coach
Sep 29th, 2007 by Inside Hoops
The Dallas Mavericks hired Mario Elie as an assistant coach, the team announced today. Per club policy, terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Elie joins the Mavericks after most recently serving as an assistant coach in Golden State for two seasons (2004-05 and 2005-06). He also spent the 2003-04 season as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs.
Last season, Elie worked for FOX Sports Net as the host of the Houston Rockets’ pre- and post-game shows.
“I am very excited to come to this great organization,” Elie said. “I look forward to working with Mark Cuban and Avery Johnson, who’s one of the best coaches in the NBA.”
An 11-year NBA veteran, Elie averaged 8.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 732 regular season games with Golden State, Philadelphia, Portland, Houston, San Antonio and Phoenix. He played in 116 playoff games and won three NBA Championships with Houston (1994, 1995) and San Antonio (1999).
Elie’s best individual season came in 1996-97, when he averaged 11.7 points, 4.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds in 78 games for the Rockets. In 1998, he was named to the Rockets 30-Year Team as one of the top 10 players in club history.
After going undrafted (1985) out of American International College – a Division II school in Springfield, Mass. – Elie played in Portugal, Argentina, Ireland, the USBL, the WBL and the CBA before making his NBA debut with the Philadelphia 76ers in Dec., 1990.
Elie and his wife, Gina, are the parents of triplets, Gaston, Glenn and Lauren. Gina is a television personality who has most recently worked as a national correspondent for MSNBC and as a nightly news anchor for KTRK-TV in Houston. Elie, who earned a degree in human relations from American International, speaks Spanish, Portuguese and French.