GALT GRAD HIRED BY KINGS
Phil Ricci joins Kings staff under Dave Joerger as an assistant
GALT — Phil Ricci knows what life is like as a professional basketball player.
Now the former Galt High boys basketball coach is returning but in a different capacity.
On Thursday, the Sacramento Kings added Ricci an assistant player development coach to head coach Dave Joerger’s staff. Ricci is expected to be with the Kings’ coaching staff when they begin their NBA summer league schedule, beginning today at 7:30 p.m. when they play the Phoenix Suns at the Thomas and Mack Center on the UNLV campus in Las Vegas, Nev.
Ricci stepped down as the Galt boys basketball coach in late March, citing a new career adventure in the public sector. He felt the time commitment would take away from developing returning and new players for the 2017-18 season. Ricci notified Galt High Athletic Director Nicole Silvey of his decision at that time. Greg Milton, who was the Galt froshsoph boys basketball coach last winter, was named as Ricci’s replacement last month.
Last winter, Ricci and Galt went 7-17 overall with an 0-10 mark in the Sierra Valley Conference. Galt started its season at 5-2.
“The experience was awesome,” Ricci told the News-Sentinel in March. “Being a player, I was able to control my own destiny. But sitting on the bench, it’s a grind. I give coaches a lot of credit. There’s a lot of effort. It’s a year-round job. But I had a blast doing it. I was prepared for every single game, and every single practice. It was a fun experience.”
After he resigned as the Warriors’ coach, Ricci talked about missing time away from the development of returning and incoming players for the upcoming winter season.
“I’ll miss the growth,” Ricci said in March. “I got to see how the players developed in the spring and summer months. I’ll miss the growth of players. They really do mature. They apply everything that you’ve applied you taught them, watching them getting better.”
Last summer, Ricci held a youth basketball camp for youngsters ages 5 through seniors in high school.
Ricci, a 1998 Galt High graduate who led the school’s boys basketball team to an outright SVC and Sac-Joaquin Section Division II titles, plus a deep run in the playoffs during the 1997-98 season, brings nearly 20 years of collegiate and profession-
al basketball experience to Sacramento. That includes a playing career that spanned a half-dozen countries and the NBA Development League.
In addition, Ricci spent a decade playing pro ball abroad in Spain, Japan, Korea, France, Israel and the Czech Republic, where he guided Nymburk to an appearance in the 2010 European Cup for the first time in club history.
Prior to traveling overseas, the 6-foot-7 forward parlayed a successful stint at Delta College in Stockton to a scholarship at Oregon State, where he averaged 16.2 points and 8.2 rebounds in route to AllPac 10 First Team honors as a senior (2002). A year later, he registered 14.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per contest with Huntsville of the Development League after spending the summer as a member of the Kings training camp roster.
On Sunday, the Kings take on the Memphis Grizzlies at the Cox Pavilion, also in Las Vegas, at 7 p.m. The third game will be Monday at the Thomas and Mack Center when the Kings tangle with Pacific Division foe Los Angeles Lakers at 7:30 p.m.
Out of the 17 players on the Kings’ summer roster, 10 are rookies. Two of those rookies include first round picks of the NBA Draft last month in point guard De’Aaron Fox out of Kentucky, No. 5; and power forward Harry Giles from Duke at No. 20.