Former OSU Buckeye, long time NBA Assistant Jim Cleamons to Coach in China

(Buckeye Jim Cleamons won a total of six NBA Championships as member of the Los Angeles Lakers, one as a player & 5 as an assistant coach!)

The Next Career Phase - According to early July 2011 reports, former Ohio State Buckeye, and long time NBA assistant coach Jim Cleamons will be a head coach in the Chinese Basketball Association next season.

Cleamons (pictured left: Valerie Macon - Getty Images) is slated to coach the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions (a squad based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang which is located in far east China) for the 2011/2012 season. Cleamons joins a long line of American coaches who have traveled overseas to coach and develop international talent. The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) is the top basketball league in all of Asia, and it is also known worldwide for its great media coverage, fan popularity, and financial organization (a main attraction for former NBA players, Rafer 'Skip to my Lou' Alston, for example, played for Cleamons' new team last season) .

Coach Cleamons (age 62) will arrive to China with a wealth of NBA accomplishment and expertise. The former Buckeye owns a championship ring for every one of his fingers. Cleamons won an NBA championship while playing on the 1971/72 Los Angeles Lakers. But he is perhaps most well known to the basketball community as one of Phil Jackson's top leutenants during legendary coaching stints in Chicago and L.A (Four titles with Bulls, and five titles with the Lakers as a coach!) The 2011 retirement of hall of fame coach Phil Jackson and the subsequent hiring of former Cavs coach Mike Brown signaled he end of an era for Jackson and his coaching staff.


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PR National Team - There were reports in May about talks between Cleamons and the Puerto Rican National Team with the possibility of Cleamons emerging as the head coach of Puerto Rico's National Team. However, Cleamons withdrew from the talks in the latter part of the month. (read this - link)

Here's a short video interview with Cleamons when he was Puerto Rico.