{"id":504018,"date":"2026-02-25T22:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504018\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T22:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:42:08","slug":"lakers-add-ex-virginia-coach-tony-bennett-as-draft-adviser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504018\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers add ex-Virginia coach Tony Bennett as draft adviser"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES — Former Virginia<\/a> coach Tony Bennett, a two-time national coach of the year, joined the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> on Wednesday as NBA draft adviser to president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka.<\/p>\n

Bennett was Virginia’s coach from 2009-24 and guided the Cavaliers to the 2019 national championship. Bennett compiled a 364-136 record at Virginia.<\/p>\n

“As we refine and build out our NBA draft and scouting processes, we could think of no better basketball mind than Tony Bennett to have as a resource,” Pelinka said in a statement.<\/p>\n

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“Tony’s track record of forming culture, with high-character, high-skill and high-IQ players is revered and respected across all basketball circles. Tony will be an incredible asset to our basketball leadership, to our scouts and to our draft department as a whole. We are truly excited.”<\/p>\n

Bennett is Virginia’s career leader in wins.<\/p>\n

Virginia honored Bennett in a ceremony before Saturday’s 86-83 win over Miami<\/a>, naming the court at John Paul Jones Arena after him. With a group of his former players by his side, Bennett watched as his signature was unveiled on the court.<\/p>\n

Bennett was the AP national coach of the year in 2007 and 2018. He led Virginia to six ACC regular-season championships. He coached at Washington State<\/a> from 2006-09.<\/p>\n

“When Rob and I began talking, what stood out to me was the chance to help out such a storied organization,” Bennett said in a statement. “The Lakers carry a tradition that speaks for itself, so to be connected to it and assist Rob and the Lakers in any way I can is exciting.”<\/p>\n

Bennett played under his father, Dick Bennett, at Wisconsin-Green Bay before playing four years in the NBA, including three for Charlotte<\/a>, from 1992-95.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES — Former Virginia coach Tony Bennett, a two-time national coach of the year, joined the Los…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-504018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}