Marreese Speights enters his first season as the director of player development in June 2024.
Speights, the St. Petersburg, Florida native, brings a plethora of basketball experience including 13 years of professional playing experience. Speights is a former NBA first-round draft pick, 16th overall, of the Philadelphia 76ers. He is one of 47 players in the history of men’s basketball to win a national title at the college level and an NBA Championship at the professional level. He won a national title as a member of the Florida Gators in 2007 and an NBA Championship as a member of the Golden State Warriors in 2015.
In his two seasons at Florida, Speights averaged 9.4 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game. He was a member of the 2006-07 National Championship team. Before being drafted in the 2008 NBA Draft, he averaged 14.5 points per game to go along with 8.1 rebounds a game.
During his 10 seasons in the NBA Speights played for Philadelphia, Memphis, Cleveland, Golden State, LA Clippers, and Orlando, he averaged 7.9 points and 4.1 rebounds in 705 career games. He produced 5.3 points per game and 2.5 rebounds per game in 60 NBA Playoff games. He was the Warriors’ top scoring option off the bench in 2014-15, earning the nickname “Mo Buckets” and helping Golden State finish with the best record in NBA history at 73-9.
Speights played for the Guangzhou Loong Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association from 2018-21. He averaged 17.2 points and 6.4 boards in 57 contests in China.
Most recently, Speights spent one season as an assistant coach at Georgia Southern. Under his guidance, the Eagles set program records with 309 three-pointers and with a free-throw percentage of 73.2 percent. Georgia Southern finished the season tied for 22nd in the NCAA in three-pointers per game with 9.4.
