Florida State hires Luke Loucks to 5-year deal as basketball coach - ESPN

Nine years ago, Luke Loucks sat in Leonard Hamilton's office at Florida State when his former coach asked him a question that changed his career trajectory:

«Have you ever considered coaching?»

That query ultimately sent Loucks on a quick rise through the NBA ranks. Now, in what Loucks described to ESPN as a move that was «meant to be,» he will succeed Hamilton at Florida State. The 34-year-old Sacramento Kings assistant signed a five-year deal Sunday as the new Seminoles head coach and will be officially introduced Monday in Tallahassee.

«I don't know how to put it into words, but it's like it was meant to be this whole time,» Loucks told ESPN in a phone interview. «This whole journey led me to this point.»

At the time Hamilton suggested Loucks get into coaching, Loucks was rehabbing a back injury but was heading to summer league in Las Vegas to try out for NBA teams. Hamilton suggested while there, Loucks start making connections with NBA personnel officials to see if he could find his way into a front office or coaching job.

That ultimately landed Loucks his first job, as a video coordinator and player development coach at Golden State in 2016. He spent five seasons there learning under Steve Kerr and won two NBA championships. He then spent two seasons with the Phoenix Suns before moving to the Kings for the last three years, where he reunited with Mike Brown (an assistant at Golden State when Loucks was there).

«You're going to be a head coach. It's just a matter of when,» Brown told Loucks when he arrived in Sacramento in 2022.

Brown figured it would be in the NBA, but based on the way the college game is moving, he told ESPN he is not surprised Florida State hired Loucks, especially given his ties.

«As a young