SAN ANTONIO — Just one week after the San Antonio Spurs lost a top assistant coach, reports have surfaced that Spurs assistant coach Ettore Messina will be leaving as well.
Ettore Messina's contract with the Spurs expired this summer after 5 years with the team, and the coach has agreed on a deal to run basketball operations and become the new head coach of Olimpia Milano, sources tell senior NBA insider Shams Charania.
Messina is a European coaching legend; he's a two-time coach of the year and a four-time Euroleague champion who's served as the head coach of the Italian national team.
He's been linked to several NBA head coaching positions - as recently as this offseason, when he interviewed for the Cleveland Cavaliers - and served as interim head coach for the Spurs after coach Gregg Popovich took a leave of absence during the 2018 NBA playoffs following the death of his wife, Erin.
Last week, longtime Spurs assistant coach Ime Udoka joined the Philadelphia 76ers' coaching staff, joining former Spurs assistant and current head coach Brett Brown.
