Del Harris

Delmer William Harris, called Del Harris ( born June 18, 1937 in Plainfield, Indiana) is an American basketball coach who works as a trainer at last the Texas Legends. In the 1994/95 season he was awarded the NBA Coach of the Year Award.

Coaching career

Del Harris started out as coach of the team of Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, before he was under head coach Tom Nissalke assistant coach with the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association. In 1976, Harris Nissalke again as an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets, he served as head coach from 1979 to 1983. With the Rockets in 1981 he reached the NBA Finals, but these were lost to the Boston Celtics.

After his time in Houston Harris was taken by Don Nelson as an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks. After Don Nelson left the Bucks, Harris was head coach and later general manager in Milwaukee.

In 1994 he became head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, which he supervised until 1999. During this time he was also coach of the year.

After completing his work at the Lakers Harris worked as an assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks.

On 3 July 2008 it was announced that both Harris and the former head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats Bernie Bickerstaff have signed a contract as an assistant coach of the Chicago Bulls, to assist with their experience rookie coach Vinny Del Negro. After the dismissal of Del Negro 2010 Harris was also dismissed.

For the 2011/2012 season Harris became the new head coach of the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League. For the season 2012/2013 he was replaced by Eduardo Najera as head coach.