Don Casey
Lawrence Donald Casey is a former professional and collegiate basketball coach. He has coached two National Basketball Association teams, the Los Angeles Clippers and the New Jersey Nets—each for a season and a half. He had previously coached the Temple Owls from 1973 to 1982. He also worked as an assistant coach with the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics.
Casey grew up in Collingswood, New Jersey and attended Camden Catholic High School. As a young man in the 1960s, Casey coached at Bishop Eustace Preparatory School in Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, where he was recommended for a job as a JV coach by a friend and took over the varsity squad after the coach left the job. His coaching led to two state championships. Casey coached Bill Melchionni, a high school and college great who eventually played in the pros in the late 1960s with the ABA New York Nets and Philadelphia 76ers.
In his first season as Temple head coach, Don Casey had his team stall with the basketball in the finals of the Volunteer Classic against Tennessee. The final score of the game was Tennessee 11, Temple 6, the lowest scoring major college basketball game since 1938.
, Casey is the vice-chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, and, Casey is the head coach of the Hollywood Fame of the American Basketball Association's 21st century incarnation.
