Hersey Hawkins named Director of Player Development for the Portland Trailblazers

[Da Coach]

Former Bradley great Hersey Hawkins has a new job for a team he never played for. Yesterday, Hersey was named Director of Player Development for the Portland TrailBlazers. Hersey's friendship with Portland's head coach Nate McMillan (they played together 3 years at Seattle) helped him land the job.

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090916/SPORTS/909160456/1001/NEWS/Around-Oregon

Congratulations Hersey!

[Braveman]

Happy to call Hawk a friend..

Portland got a good guy- and if anybody can straighten the JailBlazers out- Hawk can!

[PTownHawkeye]

One thing many people may not know about Portland is that their VP of Basketball Operations is a Peorian (Notre Dame HS graduate, I believe). Tom Penn worked as an attorney and sports agent in the mid-late 1990's and represented around 25 professional players overseas (including Bayo Akinkunle and JJ Anderson). He even was spotlighted in a 1999 FoxSports 2-hour documentry called "Over There" about a team of American players traveling overseas looking for a team to sign them (I still have it on VHS!). Tom was originally hired by Dick Versace in Vacouver/Memphis as a lower level assistant GM. He took the job in Portland about 3 years ago and is now considered one foremost experts on the NBA salary cap.

Tom is doing so well that he was a top candidate for the Timberwolves GM job with another NBA team this past year, but turned it down because it wasn't the right situation.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4175419

Portland offered him the promotion to VP of Bball Ops when he turned the job down. Tom will almost surely be a GM within the next year or two. It will be great to have Peorians as a manager in the MLB and a GM in the NBA someday soon!

[tornado]

He even was spotlighted in a 1999 FoxSports 2-hour documentry called "Over There" ..

I recall that, it featured Bayo quite prominently!

[Da Coach]

A more extensive article about Hersey and his new position with the TrailBlazers-

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/09/trail_blazers_name_hersey_hawk.html

[mrcoachdude]

Congrats Hawk!!!!

Tom is a great guy....


May have to be a Portland fan..........

[Chico]

Darn it, I was hoping he would be the new Bradley AD. Couldn't be happier for the Hawk. A class act and a great guy who I'm proud to call a friend.
GO TRAILBLAZERS.

[tornado]

Blazers appear to be cleaning house...so either it might be bad news for Hersey or an opportunity to move up in the system

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/2010-06-22-68008199_x.htm

[dogsrus]

Darn it, I was hoping he would be the new Bradley AD. Couldn't be happier for the Hawk. A class act and a great guy who I'm proud to call a friend.
GO TRAILBLAZERS.

Kevin Bacon....6 degrees of seperation.

I Know the Hawk but not personally so I can't call him a "friend"...but I DO know Chico and am proud to call HIM a friend so......

[AZ BU Fan]

Does anyone know how much mileage in recruiting, if any, BU gets from their NBA connections with HH, JL, POB, and Dick Versace?

I would think being introduced to HH, DV, or POB would be pretty impressive to potential recruits who covet future careers in the NBA or NBA D-League and would benefit from exposure to these guys.

[Future Walk-On]

Does anyone know how much mileage in recruiting, if any, BU gets from their NBA connections with HH, JL, POB, and Dick Versace?

I would think being introduced to HH, DV, or POB would be pretty impressive to potential recruits who covet future careers in the NBA or NBA D-League and would benefit from exposure to these guys.

I would hope some.

All Deron Williams does is call a recruit and he has Illinois on his list.

[Braves4Life]

I would think being introduced to HH, DV, or POB would be pretty impressive to potential recruits who covet future careers in the NBA or NBA D-League and would benefit from exposure to these guys.

Maybe. Maybe not. I doubt many high school kids even know who these guys are, though.

[Future Walk-On]

One thing many people may not know about Portland is that their VP of Basketball Operations is a Peorian (Notre Dame HS graduate, I believe).

he is pretty old right? spalding or bergan right?

[tornado]

One thing many people may not know about Portland is that their VP of Basketball Operations is a Peorian (Notre Dame HS graduate, I believe). Tom Penn worked as an attorney and sports agent in the mid-late 1990's and represented around 25 professional players overseas (including Bayo Akinkunle and JJ Anderson). He even was spotlighted in a 1999 FoxSports 2-hour documentry called "Over There" about a team of American players traveling overseas looking for a team to sign them (I still have it on VHS!). Tom was originally hired by Dick Versace in Vacouver/Memphis as a lower level assistant GM. He took the job in Portland about 3 years ago and is now considered one foremost experts on the NBA salary cap.

Tom is doing so well that he was a top candidate for the Timberwolves GM job with another NBA team this past year, but turned it down because it wasn't the right situation.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4175419

Portland offered him the promotion to VP of Bball Ops when he turned the job down. Tom will almost surely be a GM within the next year or two. It will be great to have Peorians as a manager in the MLB and a GM in the NBA someday soon!

Peorian Tom Penn is now part owner of the newest Major League Soccer franchise...
the MLS' LAFC...

http://blogs.theprovince.com/2014/10/30/mls-announces-bulky-22-member-ownership-group-for-new-lafc/