{"id":625744,"date":"2026-02-26T09:44:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/625744\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T09:44:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:44:29","slug":"lakers-hire-former-virginia-coach-tony-bennett-as-a-draft-advisor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/625744\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers hire former Virginia coach Tony Bennett as a draft advisor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Former Virginia coach Tony Bennett, who led the Cavaliers to the 2019 national title, has been hired by <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/lakers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Lakers<\/a> as an <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/lakers\/news\/los-angeles-lakers-name-tony-bennett-as-nba-draft-advisor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NBA draft advisor<\/a> to Rob Pelinka, the team\u2019s president of basketball operations and general manager. Bennett\u2019s record was 364-136 from 2009-24.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we refine and build out our NBA draft and scouting processes, we could think of no better basketball mind than Tony Bennett to have as a resource,\u201d Pelinka said in a statement. \u201cTony\u2019s track record of forming culture, with high-character, high-skill and high-IQ players is revered and respected across all basketball circles. Tony will be an incredible asset to our basketball leadership, to our scouts and to our draft department as a whole. We are truly excited.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Virginia honored Bennett in a ceremony before Saturday\u2019s 86-83 win over Miami, naming the court at John Paul Jones Arena after him.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett was the AP national coach of the year in 2007 and 2018. He led Virginia to six ACC regular-season championships. He previously coached at Washington State from 2006-09.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Rob and I began talking, what stood out to me was the chance to help out such a storied organization,\u201d Bennett said in a statement. \u201cThe Lakers carry a tradition that speaks for itself, so to be connected to it and assist Rob and the Lakers in any way I can is exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bennett played under his father, Dick Bennett, at Wisconsin-Green Bay before playing four years in the NBA, including three for Charlotte from 1992-95.<\/p>\n<p>Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Virginia coach Tony Bennett, who led the Cavaliers to the 2019 national title, has been hired by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,26479,10591,40509,82235,3227,18050,300,295,6,12,82234,4685,5301,3088,5203,54509,702],"class_list":["post-625744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-draft","tag-basketball","tag-basketball-operation","tag-bennett","tag-ceremony","tag-draft-advisor","tag-general-manager","tag-laker","tag-lakers","tag-miami","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-nba-draft-adviser","tag-president","tag-record","tag-rob-pelinka","tag-statement","tag-tony-bennett","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116136294674049426","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}