A former champion and 10-year NBA veteran is joining the ranks of the Georgia Southern (GS) men's basketball team.
"I'm extremely excited to add Mo Speights to the Georgia Southern basketball family," said GS coach Charlie Henry while naming Marreese Speights as the new assistant coach on April 14.
"Mo has won at the highest levels of basketball throughout his playing career, and I'm beyond excited that he will have the opportunity to share his championship experience with our current and future players. On top of that, Mo is an incredible person and teammate with a passion for coaching and mentorship, which he has displayed during and after his playing career. We are extremely fortunate to have Mo joining us,” said Henry.
Speights is one of 33 players in the history of men's basketball to win a national title in college and a professional title.
He won a national title as a member of the Florida Gators in 2007 and an NBA Championship as a member of the Golden State Warriors in 2015.
Speights played 10 seasons in the NBA from 2008 to 2018 before finishing his career with the Guangzhou Loong Lions in the Chinese Basketball Association from 2018 to 2021.
He averaged 7.9 points and 4.1 rebounds in 705 career games in the NBA and 17.2 points and 6.4 boards in 57 contests in China.
Speights founded the Speights Academy in 2021 in St Petersburg, Florida, a post-graduate program created to give high school athletes an opportunity to continue to develop their skills during a gap year between high school and college.
"I'm excited to be joining the GS and Statesboro community," said Speights. "I built a relationship with coach Henry through guys we both connected with in the NBA, and he is a coach who is really smart, especially offensively, and knows how to build a program, which he demonstrated during his time at Alabama. I look forward to having an impact in developing and mentoring our players, both on and off the court."
Rated a four-star recruit coming out of Hargrave Military Academy in 2006, Speights played two seasons at Florida before he was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 16th pick of the 2008 draft.
He was the Warriors' top scoring option off the bench in 2014-15, earning the nickname "Mo Buckets" and helping Golden State finish with the best record in NBA history at 73-9.
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