Most Prominent Former Manager Today

Joe Dumars President of Pistons with Lawrence Frank

Former Indiana University men's basketball manager Lawrence Frank was named the head coach of the NBA's Detroit Pistons in July. Frank was a manager under Bobby Knight at Indiana. In addition, he concluded a stint as a leading assistant coach with the Boston Celtics to take the Pistons job, and was previously the head coach for the New Jersey Nets.

Frank is the highest profile former student manager on the men's side today.

Lawrence Frank's love and passion for the game of basketball all began when he was in high school. Frank was born in New York City and later raised across the river in Teaneck, New Jersey. There Frank attended Teaneck High School and hoped to begin his high school basketball career. Unfortunately, Frank ended up getting cut from his high school basketball team freshman year (sound familiar?). After getting cut, Frank really began to focus on the "x's and o's" of the game and became a volunteer coach for a Church Youth Organization team.

Upon his graduation from Teaneck High School, Frank went on to pursue an education degree at Indiana University. While at Indiana, Frank worked with the men's basketball team as a student manager for the Hoosiers under legendary Hall of Fame college basketball coach Bobby Knight. Coincidentally, this is also the same place where Jon Jennings President / GM of the Maine Red Claws was a student manager.

After serving as student manager, Frank earned his first coaching job as an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee under former head coach Kevin O'Neil. This lasted three years, and Frank later followed Coach O'Neil to Marquette where he served as a staff assistant.

Frank began his career in the NBA as an assistant coach for the Vancouver Grizzlies. While working for the Grizzlies, Frank was in charge of team scouting. After working with the Grizzlies, Frank went on to become interim head coach of the New Jersey Nets in 2000. Due to Frank's hard work and dedication he quickly jumped the ladder to the top rung, becoming head coach for the Nets in June 2004.

Frank had a generally unsuccessful 7 year stint at the helm of the New Jersey Nets going 225-241, and ended up getting dismissed at the end of the 2009 season due to the team's 0-16 start, one of the worst starts for a team in NBA history. As we know, disappointing things happen, but sometimes they turn out for the better.

Upon Frank's dismissal from the Nets, Doc Rivers, the head coach of the Boston Celtics, picked up Frank as his top assistant to replace Tom Thibodeau, River's former assistant who took the head coaching position for the Chicago Bulls.

Working for the Celtics for a year, Frank learned from Rivers and understood what he needed to accomplish to eventually become the head coach of another NBA team. Most importantly, he needed to learn how to enhance his interpersonal abilities when dealing with players. Frank was obviously satisfied about what he had accomplished in Boston and interviewed for the head coaching job for the Detroit Pistons. According to USA Today, Joe Dumars, the Pistons' President of Basketball Operations, liked what he saw in Frank, so he was inevitably hired as the head coach for the Detroit Pistons in the upcoming '11-'12 season.

Congratulations Coach!! Best of Luck!!