LSU Final Four Hero Garrett Temple Retiring From NBA After 17 Seasons For Coaching Job With Dallas Mavericks

Basketball player in a red Houston Rockets jersey #2 dribbling the ball during a game with fans in the stands behind him.
Guard Garrett Temple helped lead the 2005-06 LSU Tigers to the Final Four. (Houston Rockets photo).

TIGER RAG NEWS SERVICES

Guard Garrett Temple, a hero of LSU’s last Final Four team in the 2005-06 season, has retired from the NBA after 17 seasons that saw him play for 12 teams.

Temple, 40, will be an assistant coach for the NBA Dallas Mavericks under newly named head coach Dusty May.

LSU basketball player wearing number 14 dribbles with the ball during a game, gym crowd in the background.
LSUs Garrett Temple held No 1 seed Duke superstar guard JJ Redick to 3 of 18 shooting in a 62 54 victory in the NCAA Tournament in 2006 to get the Tigers within one win of the Final Four LSU photo

As a redshirt freshman from University High in Baton Rouge, Temple started 35 games in the 2005-06 season under coach John Brady and averaged 5.1 points and 2.8 assists. He held the nation’s leading scorer and national player of the year in guard J.J. Redick at 27 points a game to 11 points on 3-of-18 shooting as the Tigers upset top-seeded Duke, 62-54, in Atlanta to reach the NCAA Regional championship game. LSU beat Texas in that game and advanced to the Final Four.

Temple averaged 8.6 points and 4.3 assists in the 2006-07 season. In the 2008-09 season, Temple was part of the Tigers’ second Southeastern Conference title since 2006 as he averaged 7.1 points and 3.8 assists a game under coach Trent Johnson.

Undrafted in 2009, Temple eventually caught on with the Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs in the 2009-10 season. He then played for Milwaukee and Charlotte in 2011, Washington from 2012-16, Sacramento again from 2016-18, Memphis and the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2018-19 season, Brooklyn in 2019-20, Chicago in 2020-21, the New Orleans Pelicans from 2021-23 and finally Toronto from 2023-26.

Temple will be reunited with former Pelicans’ coach Willie Green, who will also be an assistant at Dallas.

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