Tag: Jerome Allen

Woj: Ex-Boston Celtics assistant Jerome Allen to interview with Utah Jazz for open head coaching role

Now with the Detroit Pistons, Allen joins three other Boston alumni in the search to replace Quin Snyder.

The depth of the Boston Celtics alumni pool in the thick of the interview process to be the next head coach of the Utah Jazz just got longer according to recent reporting from ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski. Woj reports that former Boston assistant coach and current Detroit Pistons assistant Jerome Allen will be permitted by his current team to interview for the job recently vacated by 2021-22 Jazz head coach Quin Snyder.

Allen joins current Celtics assistants Will Hardy and Joe Mazzulla and onetime Boston shooting guard (and current G League coach for the Rapid City Gold) Jason Terry are also among Boston alumni who could well end up at the helm of the Jazz next season.

That the front office is under the guidance of former Boston President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge as the team seeks to shake things up significantly after stalling out as a not-quite contending team in recent seasons is likely part of the reason for such a notable Celtics connection to Utah’s hiring process.

But all of the alumni currently under consideration have enviable resumes documenting excellent bodies of respective work, and any of the foursome with ties to Boston would make a solid hire to lead Utah moving forward.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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It’s mystical, the Shammgod dribble. In …

It’s mystical, the Shammgod dribble. In one moment the ballhandler is moving with comforting familiarity, crossing over like millions have before. In another, the ball has seemingly teleported, as if controlled through supernatural ability, but instead with the utmost precision dictated from the player in control. Now you see it, now you don’t. It’s a moment that jolts anyone watching to attention. The 100th time you see it is no less thrilling than the first. It’s named after God Shammgod, the legendary Brooklyn dribbler whose cultural impact on the sport reaches far beyond this single trick of the basketball. He’s long been credited with both its creation and popularization. The second, undisputedly, is true. But what if you were told of a debate between two East Coast cities about the dribble’s birth? What if you learned another hooper shares a claim to the move’s history, one whose role in its genesis has rarely been talked about over the decades?

Like Shammgod, Allen now spends his …

Like Shammgod, Allen now spends his time molding the next generation of NBA players, passing along his gift. He has worked with a number of top guards, including Rozier, Irving and Isaiah Thomas. According to Rozier, Allen has a unique way of comparing dribbling to boxing. The description made perfect sense to Rozier, who boxes a lot during the summer. “So basically like, if you were coming up in transition and you like the pull-up 3, and you put it between your legs one time before you shoot the pull-up 3, that’s basically like giving somebody one jab,” Rozier explained. “Now if they adjust, now you come down the court and put it between your legs one time, they think you’re going to shoot and you just go into a hesitation. That’s giving somebody a counter because they reacted to that jab. So it’s basically just reading and reacting, the same thing you would do when you’re putting all that work into boxing. It’s the same stuff. Just reading and reacting to the defenders. Giving them counters.”

Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart have high praise for former assistant Jerome Allen

The now-former Celtics assistant coach will join Detroit in the same role.

Two Boston Celtics gave former assistant coach Jerome Allen their personal stamp of approval on his next gig in the same role with the Detroit Pistons in recent interviews with SNY’s Ian Begley. Both star forward Jayson Tatum and recently extended guard Marcus Smart had a great deal to say.

“Pooh is going to be great there,” shared Tatum, using one of Allen’s more endearing nicknames. “He just wants to have an impact and help you get better.” Noting the former Penn head coach is a great basketball mind, the former Duke star added he “can connect with anybody — from the star player to the 15th man on the bench.”

Smart echoed Tatum’s assessment of Allen as a coach in his own words.

“He’s always going to hold you accountable and he’s always going to hold himself accountable,” Smart explained. “You can trust that whatever he’s telling you, he means it. And he’s saying it to help you.”

Both Tatum and Smart agree Allen is head coach material, however, so Pistons fans shouldn’t get too comfortable with having him around — unless they want to promote him, that is.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Woj: Boston’s Jerome Allen to join Detroit Pistons coaching staff as an assistant

The Celtics assistant is evidently out of the running for Boston’s top spot with the move.

Boston Celtics assistant head coach Jerome Allen appears to be bowing out of the race to become the next head coach of the Celtics, with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting that Allen will accept a position with the Detroit Pistons as an assistant coach.

Allen had been among several internal candidates interviewing for the position left vacant by now-team president Brad Stevens on his elevation to that role at the end of the 2020-21 NBA season, and also interviewed with the Pistons last week. Whether Allen had knowledge of his chances in Boston, or if he simply decided to go with the safe move, it’s looking like his time as a Celtic is over for the present.

A much-loved member of the team’s coaching staff, Allen will be missed in the organization.

Given that there will likely be significant turnover in the coaching staff on the hire of whoever the organization settles on however, Allen’s choice makes sense from the perspective of securing a position in the league.

The former Penn head coach had also interviewed with the Portland Trail Blazers for their vacant head coaching position.

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This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Celtics assistant Jerome Allen reportedly interviewing with Pistons for similar position

Allen may be looking for a parachute in case he does not land Boston’s top coaching position.

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Unless he ends up getting the Boston Celtics head coaching gig he recently interviewed for, the Jerome Allen era for the Celtics may soon be drawing to a close. And we have an idea about at least one place he could land beyond the other top NBA coaching gig he applied for, the Portland Trail Blazers.

According to The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears, current Boston assistant coach Allen is interviewing for a similar position with the Detroit Pistons, presumably in the event he is not the Celtics’ final choice to helm the franchise for the 2021-22 season and perhaps beyond. Smart thinking on his part given whoever does get the job is very likely to bring in their own staff, perhaps retaining a small part of the prior regime for continuity’s sake.

But that does not necessarily mean Allen would be that person, so having some parachutes lined up is a wise plan to keep oneself in the mix for a future NBA coaching position while staying employed in the league.

In Detroit, Michigan, today to interview for the position, we may have seen the last of Allen on Boston’s sidelines as an assistant.

We may well see him back as a coach, however — pending Brad Stevens and the rest of the front office’s final decision on the matter.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Celtics assistant Jerome Allen hopes missteps help others in new book

After a serious misstep nearly cost him his coaching career, Boston Celtics assistant coach Jerome Allen wrote a book, hoping to help others.

Boston Celtics assistant coach Jerome Allen took a wrong turn in his career that very nearly cost him his future in coaching, and he’s since written a book  — “When the Alphabet Comes: A Life Changed by Exposure,” — to try and help others avoid the same mistake.

Part of the so-called “Varsity Blues” college coaching scandal that saw federal agents bring charges against a number of prominent coaches for taking money to give preferential treatment to the children of wealthy parents, Allen accepted $300,000 to help get an applicant into Ivy-League Penn.

And then one day the Feds showed up at one of Allen’s youth basketball camps with a lot of questions for the future Celtics assistant.

“I wasn’t really sure how the day was going to end up,” he shared in a recent interview with Boston Globe reporter Gary Washburn.

“So much was going through my mind. What happens if they take me away in handcuffs? Who’s going to be there to meet them when they get off the bus? Who’s going to be there to pick my kids up when they get out of school? I tried to emphasize the fluctuations in my emotions going from sitting in that room for 3½ hours being interrogated to thinking I was going to be taken away to not being charged at that time to being allowed to leave and meet the kids coming off the bus.”

The experience was life-changing, and inspired him to write the book detailing his telling of what got him to that point.

It is not supposed to be an exculpatory story, but one that helps the reader how he got himself in the position of accepting a bribe — and how to approach the stewardship inherent in the role of coaching he’d betrayed.

“I wanted people to get a better understanding of the flaws that I carried around,” he explained.

“I had to really think about the impact decision-making has on you, not just as individual but [on] those that are around you. It was a painful exercise, but I felt it was needed because only in being transparent I could deliver something that could possibly help someone else.”

The penalties incurred by Allen were harsh — a 15 years “show-cause” ruling that requires any school wanting to hire the former Penn standout to clear it with the NCAA with justification for the hire or risk incurring penalties of their own, making him near-unemployable at that level.

He was also fined $200,000.

More than anything else though, he regrets the example he set.

“Whether we like it or not, we have an extra sense of responsibility,” explained Allen.

“Prior to me getting the opportunity, there was only two African-American coaches in the history of the Big Five [Temple, La Salle, Penn, Saint Joseph’s, and Villanova]. And to have this failure in character on top of all the other groups that I represented starting with my family first — that was a tough pill to swallow. I felt like I let a lot of people down.”

“I always used to tell my [players] everything we do should never result in a forfeit of an opportunity for someone else,” he added.

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WATCH: Cs assistant Allen hosts rap battle w/ Time Lord, Tacko, Poirier

Boston Celtics assistant coach Jerome Allen has been keeping practice light on a retro tip lately.

Boston Celtics assistant coach Jerome Allen continues to keep the team practice vibe light-hearted and retro, orchestrating a four-man lip-synch rap battle on Friday afternoon.

The battle pitted centers Robert Williams III, Vincent Poirier and Tacko Fall against one another and Allen to predictably comic results on display in the video embedded below.

Chosen tunage was selected from the likes of Eric B and Rakim for Fall (or, ‘Tackim,’ as Allen dubbed the Senegalese center after a rapper whose heyday was before Fall was even born), Z-Ro for Time Lord, Rohff (a French-Malagasy rapper) for Poirier and Three Times Dope for Allen.

Here’s Tacko Fall’s verse:

And here’s Williams’ verse:

(WARNING – BRIEF STRONG LANGUAGE IN THE LINKED VIDEO)

Unfortunately, Poirier seems to have (wisely?) not allowed his video to see the light of day; if you come across it, tweet @TheCelticsWire and we’ll be sure to include it.

While the foursome probably ought not to think too strongly about a career in music after basketball, it’s still worth its weight in comedic gold — and Allen wants your opinions in the comments on who pulled their verse off best.

So, internet, do your thing and give Coach Allen your reviews of the trio we were able to track down.

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WATCH: Jerome Allen teaches Smart, Green, Brown New Edition moves

Boston Celtics assistant coach Jerome Allen taught Marcus Smart, Javonte Green and Jaylen Brown some New Edition dance moves…sort of.

Dance has been a therapeutic outlet for the Boston Celtics in the Disney restart, at least in so much as it has provided a touch of comic relief, and with assistant coach Jerome Allen getting into the mix with Celtics players Wednesday, it took a decidedly retro turn.

Previously, we saw forward Semi Ojeleye and fan favorite center Tacko Fall break out with an impromptu dance battle, with Allen turning to the sounds of yesteryear as he showed shooting guard Javonte Green, veteran guard Marcus Smart and star wing Jaylen Brown how Boston R&B legends New Edition used to throw down.

The players — young enough to be Allen’s kids, if we’re being honest — clearly didn’t know what the Celtics assistant was talking about, save Smart, who called out his teammates on that fact (this might not be true, but we’ll take the Texan’s word for it).

However, as Allen was sure to note in his Instagram post, Smart did not get the part of Boston New Edition is from correct (he thought Dorchester, Allen correctly claims Roxbury, specifically Orchard Park).

The foursome’s New Edition impression…leaves something to be desired, but it’s still good for a laugh, if you watch the video embedded above.

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