Michigan State basketball head coach Tom Izzo said he “talked seriously” with Suns majority owner Mat Ishbia about Phoenix’s head coaching job last summer before the team ultimately hired Jordan Ott.
Izzo, who just coached the Spartans to the Sweet 16 before losing to UConn, said he was tempted to join Ishbia in Phoenix. Ishbia was a walk-on player at Michigan State on Izzo’s national championship team in 2000.
“I was a lot younger but I have [had] more than a couple of job offers in the NBA and looked at one last year with Phoenix,” Izzo said while appearing on “The Dan Patrick Show.”
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“My former player, Mat Ishbia — that was hard. That was a hard thing to turn down because … I kind of wanted to go with him.”
Asked if the Suns offered him the head coaching job, Izzo said: “We talked seriously about it, let’s say that.”
Izzo, 71, has been the head coach at Michigan State since the 1995-96 season and is the all-time winningest coach in the Big Ten conference. The Hall of Famer has led the Spartans to 28 consecutive NCAA tournaments, including eight Final Four appearances.
Izzo considered NBA head coaching jobs in the past with the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers. He has said, however, that he remains intensely driven to win his second national championship.
The Suns are loaded with Michigan State connections. Ott was a graduate assistant for two years before spending five seasons as the video coordinator for the Spartans from 2008 to 2013. Suns general manager Brian Gregory was a longtime assistant coach at Michigan State. The Suns also added former Michigan State star Mateen Cleaves as a player-development coach last summer.
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