SAN ANTONIO — Former Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams is headed from the pros to high school basketball as he was named the head coach at TMI Episcopal, a private prep school in San Antonio, on Sunday.
Williams is returning to a city he is very familiar with as he played for the San Antonio Spurs for three years from 1995-98 and then worked for the team as a coaching intern in 2005 and as the Vice President of Basketball Operations from 2016-17.
Williams is taking over the program from former Spur Bruce Bowen, who had been the head coach at TMI Episcopal since April 2021.
"We are excited to announce that Monty Williams will be our new Head Coach for the Boys' Basketball Team," an Instagram post from the school announcing the hire reads. "Coach Williams brings extensive coaching experience, including his most recent roles in the NBA as the Head Coach of the Detroit Pistons and Phoenix Suns (where he was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2022). He and his wife, Lisa, recently moved to San Antonio and are also TMI parents to Elijah, Class of ‘26, and Micah, Class of ‘29. We are thrilled to welcome Coach Williams to this position and look forward to the future of our basketball program under his leadership."
Among the players Williams will coach is his son, Elijah, who is a junior and is an elite five-star prospect, according to 247Sports. He reportedly has offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Notre Dame — his father's alma mater — and Oregon, among other schools.
Williams will also be coaching Bowen's two sons, Ozmel and Ojani, and the son of Spurs legend Tim Duncan, Dra Duncan, according to 12News sister station KENS5 in San Antonio.
Williams' other son, Micah, is in eighth grade and also attends TMI Episcopal.
Williams has been the head coach of three NBA teams. He coached the New Orleans Pelicans from 2010-15, the Suns from 2019-23 and the Detroit Pistons from 2023-24. Williams led the Suns to the NBA Finals in 2021, which was the team's first NBA Finals appearance since 1993.
He led a major turnaround for the Suns, ending a 10-year-long playoff drought in 2021. He was named the NBA Coach of the Year in 2022 and won the National Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year award in both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.
Williams had a record of 194-115 with the Suns and a record of 27-19 in the playoffs.
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