Former UConn coach Kevin Ollie has been hired as coach and director of player development for Overtime Elite, a professional basketball league for prospects between the ages of 16 and 18, as relayed by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Ollie, 48, spent 13 years in the NBA as a point guard. He coached UConn to the national championship in 2014.
“I’m ready to get back to what I was born to do: empowering and encouraging and supporting young people, and helping them grow,” Ollie said in a statement. “There’s no better place for me to do that than OTE, an extraordinary league for extraordinary young men. I consider it my mission to help these elite athletes realize their dreams.”
Ollie will work with former NBA executive Brandon Williams, now Overtime Elite’s executive VP and head of basketball operations.
“The OTE’s plan is to offer six-figure financial packages and an academic tutoring component for high school players to compete against prep school and international teams in a year-round training program,” Wojnarowski explained. “The league’s model would allow for players to share in prospective revenue from name, image and likeness and sales of custom jerseys, trading cards and non-fungible tokens. These players would lose college eligibility but be able to advance toward the G League and NBA draft in a more basketball-intensive environment.”
Ollie and UConn parted ways in 2018, a decision resulting in Ollie suing the school for $10 million in backpay. The process is now in arbitration.
