The Bulls or Blazers Should Hire Jerry Stackhouse for This One Reason Alone!!!

Jerry Stackhouse is interviewing for two NBA head coaching jobs, and he gave Rich a reason to root for him that has nothing to do with pick-and-roll coverage.

First, the news. Stackhouse confirmed he is in the mix for the Bulls job and is also interviewing for the Portland job the very next day. After his last two years on the staff in Golden State, he is ready to run his own ship. "Just an opportunity to try to get my own situation," he said. "Exciting time for me right now."

He knows Vanderbilt hangs over the conversation, and he addressed it head on. When he took that job it was a rebuild in a different era, before NIL and the transfer portal reshaped the sport. He inherited a roster he had to rebuild from scratch, with incoming players who had to sit out a year. The team improved every season, made two NITs, and finished fourth in the SEC in his fourth year. A down final year and five seasons without a tournament bid prompted the change. What stuck, he argued, was the development track record that keeps getting him in these rooms.

Ask Stackhouse what he loves about coaching and he goes straight to teaching. It is the closest thing he has found to who he is as a competitor now that the ball has stopped bouncing. His foundation traces all the way back to Dean Smith and North Carolina: playing smart, playing unselfishly, competing at a high level.

He has caught himself channeling Smith, and his own father, saying things he never expected to say to young people. Smith, he said, was ahead of his time with points per possession. The knock was always that Smith held Michael Jordan back, but Stackhouse pointed out those Carolina teams were among the top scoring teams precisely because of how they valued possessions, crashed the offensive boards for second chances, and got to the paint for layups and free throws.

He is not stuck in the past, though. Stackhouse still runs the Carolina secondary offense, just with a modern variation, more five out, the big man at the top of the key making plays instead of working block to block. The principles hold. The spacing changes.

Then came the real pitch. Rich asked Stackhouse to bring the "Vanderbilt look" to an NBA sideline, and Stackhouse delivered the answer of the segment. He would not put that stress on his staff every night, but every Sunday game, fans will see one of those looks. The reason is personal. His mother was a minister, and Easter Sunday meant she scraped together enough for a suit. "I'mma honor her," he said. "Wherever I'm at on Sundays, I'm going to have on one of those looks."

Rich, who misses when coaches and players dressed like the game meant something instead of throwing on a quarter zip, called it another reason to root for Stackhouse. Both men traded layaway memories, the Easter suit put on hold in January and finally worn by spring.

Hire him for the development. Stay for the Sunday fits.