The Dallas Mavericks have hired former University of Hawaii basketball standout and highly regarded player development specialist Phil Handy as an assistant coach. 

What You Need To Know

Handy, whose professional resume includes assistant coaching positions on three NBA championship teams, joins head coach Jason Kidd’s radically reconstructed staff, which has seen the departures of six assistants since February

Handy’s last stint in the NBA was with the Lakers from 2019 to 2024. He most recently served as the head coach of the Mist in the Unrivaled 3×3 basketball league

Handy broke into the coaching ranks in 2011 as a player-development specialist for Lakers, learning the ropes under head coach Mike Brown and earning the respect of veterans like Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol

Well regarded for his ability to connect with both journeymen and stars, Handy will be counted on to lend a steadying hand to a franchise coming off a historically tumultuous season 

Handy, whose professional resume includes assistant coaching positions on three NBA championship teams, joins head coach Jason Kidd’s radically reconstructed staff, which has seen the departures of six assistants since February.

Handy’s last stint in the NBA was with the Lakers from 2019 to 2024. He most recently served as the head coach of the Mist in the Unrivaled 3×3 basketball league.

“The last year off was needed on many levels,” Handy posted on his Instagram, @thereal94feetofgame, on Thursday. “Learned a lot about myself and became a better coach. Thank you to everyone for the messages and outpouring support it’s been humbling. Honored to be part of a great organization in a great city with great coaches and players.”

A 6-foot-5 defense-first shooting guard with a reliable stroke, Handy played two years for UH, garnering Western Athletic Conference All-Defense First Team honors and helping his team to a conference championship in 1994. He started his seven-year professional playing career in the now-defunct Continental Basketball Association (earning a spot on the all-rookie team in 1996) and continued internationally in England and Australia.

Handy broke into the coaching ranks in 2011 as a player-development specialist for the Lakers, learning the ropes under head coach Mike Brown and earning the respect of veterans like Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. He followed Brown two years later to the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers, with whom he earned an NBA championship ring in 2016. He earned his second and third rings in Kawhi Leonard’s lone season with the Toronto Raptors in 2019 and again with James in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Well regarded for his ability to connect with both journeymen and stars, Handy will be counted on to lend a steadying hand to a franchise coming off a historically tumultuous season marked by the indefinite suspension of long-time assistant coach Darrell Armstrong following his arrest for allegedly assaulting a woman with a deadly weapon, the jaw-dropping Luka Doncic-for-Anthony Davis trade (which shocked the league and reportedly led to the departure of assistant coach Marko Milic), a catastrophic injury to star guard Kyrie Irving and the conspiracy-theory-evoking lottery triumph that yielded them No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg.

Joining Handy on next season’s coaching staff are Frank Vogel, Mike Penberthy, Jay Triano, Popeye Jones and Jordan Sears. Handy, Kidd and Penberthy were all assistants under Vogel during the Laker’s championship run in 2020.

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com.