UTAH, USA — A video intern for the Spurs not too long ago, Will Hardy is on his way to Utah to become an NBA head coach.
Multiple media outlets report that Hardy is signing a five-year contract to take the top job for the Jazz next year, filling the position left vacant by Quin Snyder, another former assistant to Gregg Popovich.
Hardy will be leaving the bench of another graduate of the Popovich Coaching Academy, Ime Udoka, who took the Celtics to a Finals appearance in his first season at the helm in Boston.
The 34-year-old will be the youngest active coach in the league. He started as a video intern for the Spurs in 2010, worked his way up to Popovich's bench, and last season followed Udoka to Massachusetts, where he played college ball at Williams.
Hardy is known in league circles as a particularly sharp basketball mind, and his meteoric rise from intern to NBA head coach in a dozen years is a credit to his acumen and hard work.
He joins a long list of Popovich's proteges, in fact, there are now eight head coaches in the league who are part of Pop's ever-growing coaching tree. Steve Kerr, Monty Williams, Mike Brown, Mike Budenholzer, Doc Rivers, and Taylor Jenkins all learned under the winningest head coach in NBA history.
WNBA legend Becky Hammon spent years as an assistant in San Antonio before accepting the head coaching job for the Las Vegas Aces, who sit atop the standings in the W with a 14-4 record.