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Magic Hire Mavs' Jamahl Mosley to Be New Head Coach on Reported 4-Year Contract
July 11, 2021
After spending the past 15 seasons as an assistant coach, Jamahl Mosley will be an NBA head coach for the first time with the Orlando Magic.
Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic first reported the team's plan to hire Mosley.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, citing sources, reported "Mosley has agreed-in-principle to a four-year deal."
Mosley has been an assistant coach since he was 28 when the Denver Nuggets hired him before the 2006-07 season. He joined Rick Carlisle's staff with the Dallas Mavericks in the summer of 2014.
After Carlisle resigned from the Mavs in June, Dallas Basketball's Mike Fisher reported that Luka Doncic "would endorse" Mosley taking over.
Dallas opted to go with Jason Kidd as Carlisle's replacement, but an endorsement from one of the NBA's best young players does speak volumes about how well-regarded Mosley is as a coach.
The Magic cast a wide net in their search to find a replacement for Steve Clifford. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported June 27 that Anfernee Hardaway "emerged as a serious candidate" for the job after meeting with the team.
Becky Hammon, Mike D'Antoni, Charles Lee and Wes Unseld Jr. were among the other candidates considered by the Magic.
Orlando is looking for some stability at the position after parting ways with Clifford coming off a 21-51 record in 2020-21. The franchise did go all-in on a rebuild by trading Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier during the season.
Those deals helped the Magic secure two of the top eight picks in the 2021 NBA draft. They also have promising young players already on the roster, including Jonathan Isaac, Markelle Fultz, R.J. Hampton and Mo Bamba.
If some combination of those players and two lottery picks this year develop as the Magic expect, Mosley could have the franchise back on track in a hurry.