Who is Damon Stoudamire: Former NBA player who made his head coach debut for Boston Celtics after Joe Mazzulla's eye ailment

Damon Stoudamire logged his first win as an NBA head coach after he replaced interim head coach Joe Mazzulla in Boston's 126-107 win over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday.

Stoudamire found out that he had to replace Mazzulla 10 minutes before tipoff, something he spoke about in an interview:

“I found out probably with about 10 on the (pregame) clock. But in a lot of ways that’s better. I’m pretty sure I’m going to check my phone and there’s going to be a lot of people saying, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Well, I didn’t know.” (via) NBA

Jaylen Brown scored 39 points and Jayson Tatum 38 points in the win.

Damon Stoudamire's playing and coaching career

Listed at 5-foot-10, Damon Stoudamire played as a point guard in the NBA for 13 years for four franchises: the Toronto Raptors, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs.

Stoudamire was selected seventh overall by the Toronto Raptors in the 1995 NBA draft, after playing four years for the Arizona Wildcats. Stoudamire averaged 22.8 points per game and 7.3 assists per game.

Damon Stoudamire's rookie season included an All-Rookie first-team selection, breaking the record for 3-points made in the rookie season. The record that has been broken several times since. He was also the 1996 Rookie of the Year. Stoudamire is the shortest player to win the award.

Stoudamire also held the record for most triple-doubles for the Raptors until 2014. Stoudamire's first two-and-a-half seasons with the Toronto Raptors were his best years by the numbers.

In his rookie season, he averaged a near double, logging 19.0 points per game, 9.3 assists per game, 4.0 rebounds per game and 1.4 steals per game, shooting 39.5% from 3-point range on 4.8 three-point attempts per game. The following season, Stoudamire averaged 20.2 points per game, 8.8 assists per game and 1.5 steals per game.

Before Stoudamire was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in February 1998, he put up 19.4 points per game and 8.1 assists per game in his 49 games for the Raptors.

Following his trade to the Trail Blazers, Stoudamire's numbers took a dive, and so did his usage percentage. In the 1996-97 season, Stoudamire's USG% of 25.3% dropped to an average of 20.4% from 1998-99 until his retirement. Stoudamire ended his career averaging 13.4/3.5/6.1.

Damon Stoudamire played his last season in 2008, following which he took up an assistant coaching job at Rice University.

In 2009, the Memphis Grizzlies hired Stoudamire for an assistant coaching job, and in 2011, he returned back to college basketball where he stayed until 2021, when he left the head coach position at the University of the Pacific and joined the Boston Celtics.