Boston Celtics hire former Portland Trail Blazers guard Damon Stoudamire

The Boston Celtics have hired former Portland Trail Blazers guard Damon Stoudamire as an assistant coach on Ime Udoka‘s bench.

Stoudamire, once known as “Mighty Mouse” because of his height and his Mighty Mouse tattoo on his arm, is a Portland native himself, played for the Blazers from 1998-2005 after being acquired by Portland in a six-player trade with Toronto. He was a teammate of Udoka’s from 2006-2007. After retiring as a player in 2008, his last team being the San Antonio Spurs, Stoudamire would go on to be Director of Player Development at Rice University from 2008-2009.

After leaving Rice, he’d join the bench of former Blazer Lionel Hollins as an assistant with the Memphis Grizzlies from 2009-2011. He’d also have stints as an assistant with the University of Memphis (twice), his alma mater the University of Arizona, and most recently the head coach of Stockton California’s Pacific University, a Division 1 school in the West Coast Conference.

With Udoka hiring Stoudamire on his new bench who else could he hire with connections to Portland? Hollins could be available. He however is currently an assistant on the Lakers but could leave for Boston if he wanted and deal worked out with Los Angeles.

Another possibility if Udoka wanted, is Brandon Roy, one of his teammates while playing for Portland. Roy has coaching experience being the coach at Seattle’s Nathan High and now, where he went to high school, Garfield High, also in Seattle. If Danny Ainge didn’t just retire from his management position with the Celtics, perhaps he’d be interested in a smaller position as an assistant on Udoka’s bench. He played for both Portland and Boston after all. Ainge reportedly was interested in a management-type position with the Utah Jazz. However, he recently dismissed those rumors.