Why Jason Terry, Nuggets G League affiliate’s new head coach, is ready for the grind

Jason Terry’s former life might’ve been the perfect analogy for his current one.

Amid a 19-year NBA career that included a championship, Terry, the new head coach of Denver’s G League affiliate the Grand Rapids Gold, spent his offseasons bouncing from one AAU Tournament to the next. Terry proudly drove a minivan while overseeing the basketball development of 15- and 16-year-old girls.

“It is a grind,” Terry said Tuesday at his introductory news conference for the Gold. “When you talk about traveling across the country, there are no first-class seats, there are no charter flights. It’s you, it’s some young kids and dreams.”

If that’s not the G League’s new slogan, it should be.

Terry, who left his post as an assistant coach at Arizona after just one season, called earning the job a dream come true. Two seasons ago, Terry got a taste of the G League as the assistant general manager of the Texas Legends – the developmental squad of the Dallas Mavericks. It was then Terry realized how valuable the insight he’d gleaned through nearly two decades in the NBA could be.

He said he went to practices with the team, took several road trips and began mentoring certain players trying to find their way.

“In those conversations, I realized what my impact could be as a head coach,” he said.

Not that he was in any way expecting to land the job when he went to dinner with members of Denver’s front office a few weeks ago during Summer League in Las Vegas.

“This interview was not like others,” Terry said. “This was very different.”

At dinner was Nuggets GM Calvin Booth, a one-time teammate of Terry’s in Dallas, president Tim Connelly and Scott Howard, Denver’s manager of player personnel who will serve as GM of the Gold.

“This was more of a conversation about ball, life, about experiences, and, man, it just took a turn for the best,” Terry said. “Halfway through the conversation, they were like, ‘Well, you know we have a spot open. We got a new team, the Grand Rapids Gold. We want great leadership, we want a guy that aspires to be more than just a G League coach …’”

Terry was their guy.

Though he’s a few seasons removed from his playing days, the 43-year-old was as energetic as always. He seemed eager to convey the secrets that allowed a 6-foot-2 guard to stick in the NBA for nearly two decades and prepared to do the grind all over again with prospects trying to reach the NBA. Depending on the parent roster, Terry might get to work with first-round pick Bones Hyland or potentially Markus Howard, who re-signed with Denver on a two-way contract.

Either way, Terry’s vast experiences, from the minivan to the championship podium, have given him an appreciation of the dedication it takes.

“I’m a basketball lifer,” he said.