September 19, 2024

Richard Jefferson Shares Honest Thoughts On Arizona’s Hire

Richard Jefferson #RichardJefferson

Richard Jefferson holding a basketball: Richard Jefferson on the court for the Cleveland Cavaliers. © Provided by The Spun Richard Jefferson on the court for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

On Wednesday, the Arizona Wildcats hired Tommy Lloyd as their new head coach for the men’s basketball team. That hire quickly received mixed reviews.

Lloyd spent nearly two decades as Mark Few’s top assistant at Gonzaga. He played an integral role in recruiting international talent, like Rui Hachimura, Kelly Olynyk and Domantas Sabonis.

Former Arizona star Richard Jefferson shared his thoughts on his alma mater’s hire in a lengthy social media post. Though he seems on board with the move, he’s not thrilled with how the school handled its search.

“Welcome to the family Coach Lloyd!!,” Jefferson wrote. “If it hasn’t hit you yet – the magnitude of this hire – I’m sure it will continue to hit you in waves. You have my 100% support and I look forward to meeting you. This is a conversation about PROCESS.

“There are grumblings going around about players ‘wanting an alumni’ but Lute and Sean weren’t alumni. If those words come out of your mouth, you’re clueless about this. My biggest issue with the process is your contract (true or not) was released on the same day Damon Stoudamire got interviewed and the day before Jason Terry and Miles Simon were also interviewed. Seems very ‘Rooney Rule’ to me.”

Jefferson finished his post by saying he’ll support Lloyd as long as he’s the head coach of the Wildcats.

There will be a lot of pressure on Lloyd to have immediate success in Tucson.

Arizona does have a solid roster in place for the 2021-22 season, but we need to see how Lloyd performs in the spotlight before we judge the team as a whole.

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