LAS VEGAS – Jim Harrick turns 68 years old on Tuesday.
And the former UCLA basketball coach will spend his birthday doing what he loves best: He’ll be coaching.
Harrick, who lives in South Orange County (Rancho Santa Margarita) with his wife, Sally, hasn’t been employed as a coach since he resigned (under pressure) at the University of Georgia following the 2002-03 season.
But Tuesday he will be coaching some of California’s best high school players, including James Harden of Artesia, who play for the Pump-N-Run “Select� team that is one of 16 teams still competing for a championship in the adidas Super Sixty Four Tournament in Las Vegas.
Harrick has plenty of experience coaching high school players. It’s just that the last of it came during the 1972-73 season at Morningside High.
This is just a temporary gig until he assumes his duties as the coach of the Bakersfield Jam, a franchise that is part of the NBA’s Development League and begins playing in November.
“How are you doing, Burlison?� he said, greeting me in the lobby of gymnasium at Desert Pines High Monday afternoon, a few minutes before his team took on the L.A Stars “Gray� (as opposed to the “L.A. Stars�, which advanced to the Sweet 16).
Like everyone remotely connected with basketball in Southern California (or beyond), Harrick has known David and Dana Pump since they were teen-agers running basketball camps in the San Fernando Valley.
Now, for a few days in Las Vegas, he’s coaching one of their traveling teams, a few months before his job with Bakersfield begins in earnest.
“I’m enjoying this,� he said. “It’s coaching and we’ve got some pretty good kids.�
The only coach not named John Wooden to lead the Bruins to a national title (in 1995) grinned that Jim Harrick grin.
“It’s all fun, with Pump-N-Run,� he said drolly, before heading into the gymnasium to have some more fun.
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