Former Irish player/coach Jay Larranaga has emerged as a frontrunner for the vacant Boston Celtics head coach job.
The C’s reshuffled their pack this week with longtime president of basketball operations Danny Ainge stepping down from his role and naming head coach Brad Stevens as his replacement. With Stevens moving upstairs after an eight year stint on the sideline, many believe an internal candidate will take the role of head coach.
Larranaga has been with the Celtics as an assistant coach since 2012. Just last year, Stevens said it was ‘only a matter of time’ before he would land a head coaching job. With Stevens now directly responsible for choosing his own replacement, there is potential for Larranaga to be the chosen one.
Before his coaching career took off, Jay Larranaga was already well known in Irish basketball circles. It was around the turn of the millennium when momentum began to build around him representing Ireland. His grandfather Vincent Lynch was born in Cork before emigrating with his family, thus qualifying his grandson to play basketball in Irish colours. Since Larranaga’s career had him based in Europe at the time, it was a convenient jaunt over to link up with the Ireland squad.
He served as captain of the Irish basketball team from 2001 until 2006. In that time, his thorough appetite for the game of basketball rippled through the Irish squad. Former Ireland international Colin O’Reilly noted Larranga’s commitment to the cause:
“On the court, he has that competitive streak as all the great players have. He just flips switches and goes to business.
“The first weeks of training with Jay in the Irish camp, being in the same position as him and being matched up with him, you got the competitive side on the court where he’s trying to kick your ass, and then off the court at lunch and dinner he’s helping you,” said O’Reilly.
Larranaga’s make-up as the consummate professional who pushed his peers to the limit of their abilities while also looking out for them meant the transition from player to coach was always likely to happen.
His time as a player for Ireland coincided with the team’s best-ever spell in the international game. In 2001, the team reached the semi-final round of the European Championships for the first time ever after overcoming a Finland side that included Hanno Mottola, the Atlanta Hawks power forward who stood at 6’11’’. Larranaga was influential on the night, with 29 points in total. This included eight consecutive points early on and twelve points in the final seven minutes of the game which put a Finn comeback out of the question.
Larranaga then went on to become player/coach of the Irish team between 2008 and 2010. It was following this stint that he brought his coaching skills back across the Atlantic to the United States. Ahead of notching the Celtics post, he coached the Erie Bayhawks in the NDBL - the tier below the NBA now known as the G League - for two years. According to Larrananga, his experience from coaching Ireland helped him in acquiring that job:
“Part of the reason I got my first job in the States with the Erie Bayhawks was because I had two years’ experience as a head coach with Ireland.
“Those two years really helped me - even when I was talking to the Celtics,” said Larranaga.
Having been interviewed for the Celtics job before the legendary Doc Rivers was appointed in 2012, Larranaga has since made his name as the top assistant coach among the Boston backroom staff. His player development skills are widely respected and back in 2017, he made it his mission to develop a young Jayson Tatum one-on-one:
"I do think that it’s not a coincidence that the Celtics had this really promising young player and that they had Jay Larranaga work with him," said Tom Westerholm of the Gino Time Boston Celtics podcast.
Tatum has since made two All-Star game appearances and despite the Celts’ first round exit from the playoffs this year, Tatum averaged 31 points-per-game, including a 50 point showing in Game 3 which yielded the team’s sole victory in a 4-1 series loss against the Brooklyn Nets.
While some suggest that the Celtics need a fresh voice from elsewhere to helm the rebuild needed, Larrananga must feel as though this is the golden coaching opportunity he has earned the right to grab.
Now in his ninth year with the Celtics, the former Irish star has a strong pitch to become the Boston outfit’s next head coach.
