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PHOENIX SUNS

Michigan State ties make Suns fans skeptical about hiring of head coach Jordan Ott

Fair or not, Phoenix Suns fans can't overlook the ties to Michigan State with the hire of head coach Jordan Ott.

Kevin Zimmerman BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN
Jun 4, 2025, 11:28 AM Updated: Jun 5, 2025, 1:01 pm
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Jordan Ott may have a less substantial resume compared to other reported candidates who were not hired to become the next Phoenix Suns head coach.

But it isn’t an unqualified hire.

Risky? Possibly.

More egregious on paper because of his ties to Michigan State that are shared with current Suns owner Mat Ishbia and general manager Brian Gregory? For sure.

Ott, who will follow a series of three head coaches who had NBA Finals experience, has been an NBA assistant for a decade now, serving under head coaches Kenny Atkinson (Cavaliers and Nets), Darvin Ham (Lakers), Jacque Vaughn (Nets) and Steve Nash (Nets).

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Prior to that, he was recently fired Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer’s video coordinator for the Atlanta Hawks.

For all we know, Ott is plenty qualified. According to Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro, he got approval from star Devin Booker and impressed Nash, whose two MVPs in Phoenix carry some weight here. But the deeper ties to the Spartans and the latest Phoenix casualty at least look weird.

Suns fans were already apprehensive about the downward direction of the team. It grew with the hiring of Gregory, a former college coach who had just two years of NBA front office experience, and from the lengthy month of whittling down the head-coaching candidates.

Many of those coaches were the top assistants on their bench. To that point, Phoenix’s other finalist, Johnnie Bryant, was the associate head coach for Cleveland, ahead of Ott in the pecking order. And it didn’t help from a public relations standpoint the New York Knicks opened their coaching job Tuesday by firing Tom Thibodeau, with many New York publications pointing to Bryant as a favorite potential candidate.

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That has not changed with the Ott hiring. And now it’ll be on the Suns and him to win and reshape opinions.

Suns fans react to the hiring of head coach Jordan Ott

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Kevin Zimmerman
Kevin Zimmerman ArizonaSports.com editor

Kevin Zimmerman is ArizonaSports.com's and KTAR.com's digital content manager and co-host of Arizona Sports' Empire of the Suns podcast. The Mesa native has covered the Suns on-and-off since graduating the University of Arizona in 2011 and also spent… Read more

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