Casey, Dwane
(born: 1957)Dwane Casey was born in Indianapolis, IN and grew up in Morganfield, KY. Casey, a 6' 2" guard, was on the University of Kentucky (UK) basketball team from 1976-1979; the 1977-1978 team won the NCAA Championship.
Casey played in 95 games, scoring 125 total points. He served as an assistant coach under Clem Haskins for five years at Western Kentucky University until 1986, when he became an assistant coach at UK. Casey was the third former player to become an assistant coach at UK and the first African American to do so.
In 1988 he filed a $6.9 million suit against the Emery Air Freight Corp. and the employees who claimed to have discovered $1,000 cash in a package Casey sent to the father of California basketball player Chris Mills. [The suit was eventually settled out of court.] Casey resigned from UK in 1989.
Casey later served as an assistant coach overseas and in the NBA. From June 2005 - January 2007, Casey was head coach of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves. He was the third African American from Kentucky to be named a head coach in the NBA [the first, Bernie Bickerstaff; the second, Wes Unseld]. In 2011, Casey was named the head coach of the Toronto Raptors. In 2018, he was named head coach of the Detroit Pistons basketball team.
For more see Dwane Casey at the Big Blue History website; J. Tipton, "UK names Casey coaching assistant," Lexington Herald-Leader, 4/19/1986, Sports section, p. C1; M. Barnhill, "Kentucky basketball coach sues freight firm in Mills case," 7/9/1988, News section, p. N8, and "Kentucky charged by NCAA - investigators say L.A. basketball star's father was paid $1000," 7/26/1988, News section, p. N1, both in the Daily News of Los Angeles (California); "Timberwolves hire Sonics' assistant," The Grand Rapids Press, 6/18/2006, Sports section, p. C1.; "Dwane Casey agrees to 5-year deal as Piston's new coach," an ESPN website; and "Detroit Pistons and Head Coach Dwane Casey Agree To Contract Extension Through 2023-24 NBA Season," 5/12/2021, at the NBA website.
