NBA Coaching Career
Carlesimo moved to the NBA in 1994, taking over the Portland Trail Blazers from Rick Adelman. He led the team to a winning record and the playoffs in his first season as an NBA head coach, becoming the first ex-college coach to do so in his opening year in over a quarter of a century. Carlesimo led the Blazers to the playoffs in each of his three years as their head coach, setting team defensive records in the process. However, he was unable to lead the team out of the first round of the playoffs and was fired following the 1996–97 season.
In 1997, Carlesimo headed to the Golden State Warriors, again taking over for Rick Adelman. He coached that team until December 1999, at which point he was fired after his team got off to a losing start for the third straight year.
Carlesimo was an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs under Gregg Popovich from 2002 to 2007. He became head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics on July 5, 2007. The Sonics relocated to Oklahoma City a year later, where they become the Oklahoma City Thunder. Carlesimo was fired on November 22, 2008 by the Thunder after a 1–12 win-loss start.
On May 31, 2010, Carlesimo had reached an agreement to join the Toronto Raptors as an assistant coach under Jay Triano. On December 6, 2011 he was hired as an assistant coach by the New Jersey Nets.
Read more about this topic: P. J. Carlesimo
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