Alvin Gentry Biography

Alvin Harris Gentry is an American basketball coach who is head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a former college basketball player, who has led four different National Basketball Association (NBA) teams. He served as an interim head coach at the end of the 1994–1995 season, for the Miami Heat and later coached the Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers and Phoenix Suns.

Alvin Gentry Age

Alvin Harris Gentry was born on November 5, 1954 in Shelby, North Carolina.

Alvin Gentry Height

The man stands at a height 6 foot 7 (2.0 m ) With a height like his, he certainly won’t be intimidated by his players.

Alvin Gentry Salary and Net Worth

Gentry has an estimated net worth of $9 Million as OF 2019. hIis source of wealth comes from being a basketball coach.

Alvin Gentry Wife

Gentry is marred to Suzanne Harris since 1990 Gentry and his wife have two sons. He also has one daughter from a previous marriage.

Alvin Gentry Education

Born in Shelby, North Carolina, Gentry grew up and went to Shelby High School. His first cousin, David Thompson is former NC State and NBA star. He played college basketball at Appalachian State University, where he was a point guard under Press Maravich and Bobby Cremins. He spent one year as a graduate assistant at the University of Colorado in 1978.

Gentry returned to the bench after one year working in private business, when he received his first full-time collegiate assistant coaching job at Baylor University under Jim Haller in 1980. After one year at Baylor, Gentry returned to the University of Colorado from 1981-1986 as an assistant coach under Tom Apke. He served as an assistant from 1986-1989 at the University of Kansas under Larry Brown, where they won the 1988 NCAA National Championship.

Alvin Gentry Teams Coached

Gentry started his NBA coaching career iin 1989 as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs under Larry Brown. It was in San Antonio that he met his future/current wife, Suzanne Harris. Together they have two children, Ryan and Jack. Gentry joined Gregg Popovich, R. C. Buford and Ed Manning as part of Larry Brown’s assistant coaching staff for the Spurs when Brown left Kansas before the 1988–89 NBA season.

Gentry left San Antonio after two seasons to become an assistant for the Los Angeles Clippers beginning in the 1990–1991 season. For the 1991 season he joined Kevin Loughery’s staff as an assistant coach for the Miami Heat, where he coached for three seasons. He then moved to Detroit following the 1994–1995 season where he served as an assistant for two and a half seasons before being named head coach late in the 1997–98 season.

Following the 1999–2000 season, Gentry returned to San Antonio as head assistant coach, where he was reunited with former co-assistants Gregg Popovich (the Spurs head coach and vice president of basketball operations) and R .C. Buford (the Spurs’ general manager). But that assignment was brief, as Gentry accepted the head coaching position for the Los Angeles Clippers weeks after taking the San Antonio job.

Gentry did a solid job with the Clippers his first two years, leading them to 31 wins and 39 wins respectively in those two seasons. Those seasons were marked by the solid play of young players, like Darius Miles, Elton Brand and Lamar Odom. In Gentry’s third season, however, the team regressed (despite the addition of Andre Miller) and in February 2003, Gentry was fired.

He later became an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns for six years, serving under head coaches Mike D’Antoni and Terry Porter. After Porter was fired in his first season as head coach, Gentry took over on an interim basis. Gentry was named Suns’ head coach for the 2009-2010 season. His record in his first year as head coach during the 2009-2010 season was 54 wins, a career high, against 28 losses.

The Suns advanced to the Western Conference Finals and lost to the Lakers in six games. Gentry became the fifth head coach in franchise history to lead his team to a Western Conference Finals berth in his first full season. He figured out how to blend the two styles of D’Antoni and Porter. Comparing his coaching to D’Antoni, Gentry said “We are not seven seconds or less. We’re 12 seconds or under. We don’t take a lot of really quick shots. We don’t play with that breakneck pace. We play with a rhythm.”

Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich remarked “One thing about Phoenix is they are better defensively than in the past. They’re much more active, much more committed, they’ve taken responsibility to a much more significant degree than ever before.” Gentry mutually parted ways with the Phoenix Suns on January 18, 2013.

He returned to the Clippers organization in July 2013, taking the title of associate head coach, making him Doc Rivers’ lead assistant. After one season with the Clippers, He signed a three-year contract as associate head coach for the Golden State Warriors, working under new head coach Steve Kerr.

The New Orleans Pelicans were granted permission on May 18, 2015, by the Warriors to interview Gentry for their head coaching vacancy. He signed with the Pelicans on May 30, prior to the start of the 2015 NBA Finals, but was to remain with Golden State until the series was completed. The Warriors won the NBA Championship after they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games to give Gentry his first NBA championship.

Alvin Gentry Head Coaching Record