(Oklahoma City) —
A reporter for the Gainesville (FL) Sun tweeted late Thursday night that new Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Billy Donovan will bring one of his assistant coaches from the University of Florida to join Donovan’s coaching staff with the local NBA team.
Reporter Pat Dooley tweeted Donovan has chosen Anthony Grant to be his first assistant on his new staff in Oklahoma City. Anthony Grant was most recently fired after several seasons as head coach at the University of Alabama. Before that, Grant was an assistant under Billy Donovan at Marshall, then Florida for several years before Grant landed his first head coaching job at Virginia Commonwealth University.
After leaving VCU, Grant took over at Alabama and the Crimson Tide showed a little improvement his first 3 years on the job. But after that, things went the other direction and after missing the NCAA Tournament in his final 3 seasons and losing in the NIT tournament a few months ago, Grant was fired in Tuscaloosa.
But Billy Donovan quickly hired him back to assist him at Florida before Donovan accepted the Thunder job a week ago. No word on whether a current Thunder assistant will be dismissed to make room for Anthony Grant, or if Grant will simply be added to the current staff.