Joe Prunty

Early career

Prunty was born in Sunnyvale, California and graduated from Fremont High School. He played college basketball at De Anza College in Cupertino, California before going on to earn a bachelor's degree in Speech Communications from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He began his coaching career in 1992 in San Diego, California, coaching at University of San Diego High School and St. Augustine High School. During his time as a high school coach, Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton and former Chicago Cubs pitcher Mark Prior were among his players.

NBA coaching career

While coaching at the high school level, former University of San Diego head coach Hank Egan informed Prunty of a possible opening in the San Antonio Spurs organization. Based on this tip, Prunty joined the coaching staff of the Spurs as an assistant video coordinator. He left briefly in April 1997 to become an assistant coach at the University of San Diego but returned to the Spurs for the 1997-1998 season, eventually being promoted to assistant coach in 2000. During his time with the Spurs, the team won championships in 1999, 2003, and 2005.

In 2006, he left San Antonio to become a Dallas Mavericks assistant coach, becoming a part of the staff of former Spurs assistant coach Avery Johnson. The team made it to the 2006 NBA Finals, losing to the Miami Heat in six games. The team ended the 2006-07 NBA season with the best record in the league, led by MVP Dirk Nowitzki, but were upset in the first round of the playoffs by Don Nelson's Golden State Warriors. Prunty left the Mavericks for the Portland Trail Blazers in 2008 when Avery Johnson was fired and replaced with Rick Carlisle.

While Prunty was a member of the Trail Blazers' coaching staff, the team had back-to-back 50 win seasons for the first time since the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 NBA seasons. He also served as the Blazers' head coach during the NBA Summer League in 2008 and 2009. He joined the Cleveland Cavaliers as an assistant coach in 2010, spending three seasons as a member of Byron Scott's team. On August 20, 2013, he was hired as an assistant coach by the Brooklyn Nets. Nets Head Coach Jason Kidd was suspended for the first two games of the season after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor DWI charge stemming from an incident in July 2012. Kidd named Prunty to serve as acting head coach for the team's season opener against Cleveland Cavaliers and their home opener against Miami Heat. The team went 1-1 in these games with a loss against Cleveland and a win against Miami.

Kidd left the Nets for the Milwaukee Bucks in 2014 and Prunty joined the staff there. On December 20, 2015 Prunty was named interim head coach for 17 games as Jason Kidd underwent hip surgery. The team went 8-9 during that time, a significant improvement after beginning the season 10-18. With Prunty at the helm, the team played at a faster pace with a greater emphasis on offensive rebounds, which resulted in a much improved offensive rating. The Bucks reached the playoffs during the 2016-17 NBA season, losing to the Toronto Raptors in six games.

British national team

Joe Prunty was named the head coach of the Great Britain men's national basketball team in June 2013 after an extensive interview process following Chris Finch's resignation. The choice was initially somewhat controversial as Prunty had little previous international coaching experience. Prunty's first campaign as GB head coach was Eurobasket 2013, the team having qualified due to their participation in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Despite being without top players Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Joel Freeland, and Pops Mensah-Bonsu and losing all six of their friendlies leading up to Eurobasket, the team upset Israel in their first game of the tournament, earning a dramatic overtime victory. However, Great Britain ended the group phase with a 2-3 record, not good enough to advance. Because of this result, UK Sport cut its funding for the team.

Despite the future of the British national team looking bleak due to the budget constraints, Prunty stayed on as coach as the team attempted to qualify for Eurobasket 2015. The cut in funding meant the team could not afford the insurance costs required to recruit top players, had to cancel training camp, and required players to sleep in dorm beds and live on £15 a day. After losses to Bosnia and Iceland, the team failed to qualify for the tournament.

With funding from Sport England, the team set out in 2016 to qualify for Eurobasket 2017. Their 3-3 record in their group was good enough to ensure that they were one of the four top runners-up in all of the qualifying groups. For the 2017 tournament, they ended up in the very tough Group D, facing off against Belgium, Latvia, Russia, Serbia, and hosts Turkey. Despite keeping most of the games close, the team went 0-5 at the tournament and were not able to advance to the knockout phase.

Due to changes from FIBA in the qualifying process for the upcoming World Cup and Olympics that conflict with the NBA, Prunty was forced to step down as head coach of the Great Britain men's national team after Eurobasket 2017. Under Prunty's tenure, the team went 11-37 with a 5-15 record in competitive games. Despite the lackluster record, Prunty is credited with creating a close communication culture within the team that kept the program afloat during difficult times, with at least one player on record saying he would not have considered playing for the team without Prunty as head coach.

Personal life

Prunty and his wife Laura have been married since 2002. They have two children, Luke and Emma.