One day after the Celtics’ season ended at the hands of the Brooklyn Nets, the team announced big changes in their franchise. Brad Stevens was promoted from head coach to president of basketball operations, while Danny Ainge retired from that position with the team after 18 seasons.
The team said in a statement that the search for a new head coach will begin immediately, and one of the reported main candidates has significant Philadelphia ties.
Jerome Allen is expected to interview for the vacancy, according to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. Allen was an assistant for Stevens for the past six seasons.
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Allen grew up in Germantown, graduating from Episcopal Academy and the University of Penn, where he was two-time Ivy League Player of the Year for the Quakers. He went on to a pro basketball career that took him from the NBA to five different European countries over the course of 15 seasons.
After retiring from his playing career, he went right back to Penn to begin his coaching career. Just a few months after being hired as an assistant, he was promoted to interim head coach after Glen Miller was fired.
Allen resigned from his job at Penn after the 2014-15 season with a 65-104 record, and he was hired by the Celtics that summer.
It won’t do a lot for his street cred here in Philly, but Stevens could do a lot worse than hiring Allen as his successor.