Celtics giving big promotion to their former player

Dec 17, 2021; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; The Boston Celtics logo is seen before their game against the Golden State Warriors at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Celtics are rewarding one of their best-known assistant coaches after their NBA championship victory.

Veteran NBA writer Marc Stein reported Saturday on his Substack page that the Celtics are planning to elevate assistant coach Sam Cassell. Stein notes that it will be a promotion for Cassell that keeps him on head coach Joe Mazzulla’s staff (rather risking him leaving for the same job elsewhere).

Cassell, 54, is a former All-Star point guard who played 15 seasons in the NBA. That included a run with the Celtics to close out his playing career, during which Cassell was a member of Boston’s 2008 championship team.

After retiring as a player, Cassell became an NBA assistant coach and has now logged a decade-and-a-half of experience with four different teams. He returned to the Celtics as an assistant for the 2023-24 season, which ended with the franchise’s record 18th NBA title.

Boston already lost a number of staff members after their championship run, including lead assistant Charles Lee (now the head coach of another East team) and senior consultant Jeff Van Gundy (who left for an assistant coaching job in the West). Cassell himself garnered interest in recent weeks from a big Celtics rival. But he is now officially sticking around in Boston, presumably ascending to the lead assistant role that Lee has now vacated.