The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lynch takes reins at Clark Atlanta
NBA veteran, ex-UNC standout hired as the men’s basketball coach.
Clark Atlanta had success with its last NBA-player-turned-coach. So much that it had to try again.
T he Panthers introduced George Lynch as their men’s basketball coach Monday. Lynch, a 12-year NBA veteran and former University of North Carolina standout, coached with the Grand Rapids Drive, the Detroit Pistons’ G-League affiliate, last season.
“It was an honor to take this interview and follow up coach Darrell Walker,” Lynch said. “He’s done a great job at leading the young men and the university. I’d like to continue their success in seeing these young men graduate and follow their dreams. That’s my goal.”
Lynch helped lead the Tar Heels to a national championship in 1993. The Lakers drafted Lynch in the first round of the 1993 NBA draft. He also played for the Grizzlies, 76ers and Hornets.
CAU Athletic Director J Lin Dawson said they had over 60 applicants for the job, includ
ing inquiries from seven former NBA players.
“We were particularly look
ing for someone who would win championships,” Dawson said. “Someone who would demand graduation. Someone who would develop our student-athletes as leaders. We believe that we have found such a one.”
The Panthers qualified for the NCAA Division II National Tournament the past two seasons under Walker, who accepted the coaching position at Arkansas-Little Rock in March. Lynch played under Walker for two seasons when he was an assistant coach with the Hornets. He turned to
him about the CAU job.
“He said the people, the faculty and the staff was very welcoming,” Lynch said. “They embraced him with open arms.
The community in Atlanta supported him. As a head coach, you really need that.”
Lynch retired as a player after the 2005 season. He worked as
a graduate assistant at SMU before accepting an assistant athletic director position at UC-Irvine. He parlayed that into a strength and conditioning coaching job, then returned to SMU to do the same from 2012-15.
Looking back on his collegiate days, Lynch remembers what he learned from coach Dean Smith, and hopes to translate it in Atlanta.
“Just the way he treated his players,” he said. “Treat them with respect and demand from them to play the right way.”
‘It was an honor to take this interview and follow up coach Darrell Walker.’ George Lynch New Clark Atlanta men’s basketball coach