Aces hire 2nd assistant with NBA coaching experience

Aces coach Becky Hammon has hired longtime coach Larry Lewis as an assistant, the team announced Friday.

Lewis, 55, most recently worked as an assistant coach for the UC Santa Barbara men’s basketball team, but has years of experience in the NBA and G League.

“I’m thrilled to add coach Lewis to our group,” Hammon said in a statement. “To add the quality of depth in character and knowledge will be a huge value to our basketball system and culture we’ve built. We got ourselves a great one with Larry, who brings a wealth of experience to the Aces bench from the NBA, G-League and NCAA, in addition to 19 years as a professional player. He has been successful in player development, which will benefit us as we continue in our quest for another championship.”

Lewis joined the Gauchos in 2019 and parted ways with the team this May. He’d previously spent three years as a member of the Sacramento Kings’ staff, where he focused on player development.

Before his arrival in Sacramento, he spent three seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, also working as the director of player development and an assistant coach.

His other coaching experience includes two seasons as an assistant for the now-defunct G League team, the L.A. D-Fenders. With him on the sidelines, the D-Fenders recorded what was the best regular-season record in G-League history at the time in 2011-12 (38-12).

Lewis was also instrumental in the G-League club winning the Development Champion Award that year, given to the team that best developed talent through the lens of NBA call-ups and player assignments.

Lewis still works with NBA players in the offseason. He transitioned to coaching after a lengthy playing career that included stops in the U.S. and overseas.

“It’s exciting to be joining the Aces because there’s a passion behind the team that is cultural, and it seems to be a very definite ambition of the team to hold onto that culture,” Lewis said in a statement. “That’s always been very intriguing to me, because I know how difficult that is to hold together as a group. That’s a beautiful part of the team. Being a basketball player, playing professionally and having coached on different levels, I know to get a team together to share in a high standard of culture is not the easiest thing to do. That’s what the Aces have here, and it should be valued, it should be cherished, and it should be held together.”

Lewis’ hiring continues a pattern that Hammon began when she arrived in Las Vegas. Natalie Nakase and Tyler Marsh, who both left the Aces this offseason for WNBA head coaching jobs, had experience in the NBA and G League before joining Hammon’s staff.

Lewis will join former NBA and G League assistant Ty Ellis on Hammon’s staff. Ellis was hired Nov. 7.

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