Gonzaga's Mark Few to remain on USA Basketball staff under new coach Erik Spoelstra
· Yahoo Sports
Jul. 14—There could be another Olympic medal in Mark Few's future after the Gonzaga coach was selected as one of three coaches who will work on Erik Spoelstra's staff as the United States men's national team prepares for the 2027 FIBA World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
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According to ESPN's Shams Charania, Few was selected as one of the three assistants that will serve under Spoelstra, the longtime Miami Heat coach who's replacing Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr ahead of the forthcoming FIBA World Cup and Olympics cycle.
Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault and Detroit Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff will round out Spoelstra's USA staff.
Few spent more than a decade working with USA Basketball in different capacities before Gonzaga's coach was hired as an assistant on Kerr's men's national team staff ahead of the 2023 FIBA World Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics.
A USA roster headlined by future NBA Hall of Famers LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant captured the gold medal in Paris, overcoming a 17-point deficit to bet former Gonzaga forward Filip Petrusev and Serbia in the semifinals before topping host France in the gold medal game.
During an interview at Team USA training camp in Las Vegas prior to the 2024 Olympics, Spoelstra, a former West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year at Portland, estimated he'd known Few "going on three decades."
"He's a hall of fame (coach). First ballot. Right now," Spoelstra said of Few. "And you would never know it by the way he can relate to anybody. He's just a guy that likes to coach basketball, develop programs, develop players, make them better than when they first arrived on campus."
Spoelstra's words were prophetic. Few was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame earlier this year and will be officially enshrined next month in Springfield, Massachusetts.
"He's a brilliant basketball coach," Spoelstra said. "One of the very best in this business."
Few's oldest son, AJ, a former video coordinator at Gonzaga, landed a spot on Miami's NBA Summer League staff in 2025 after connecting with Spoelstra in Paris the year prior.
Before his stint with Team USA at the 2023 FIBA World Cup and 2024 Olympics, Few served as an assistant at 2018 USA National Team minicamp and worked as an assistant for the USA Select Team in 2019 and 2021. He was also the head coach of the 2015 U.S. Pan American team comprised of college players, leading that group to a gold medal.
Few has had two other coaching assignments with USA Basketball, serving as an assistant for the gold medal-winning 2012 U-18 National Team and as a court coach for the 2009 U-19 World Cup/World University Games Team training camp.
Former Gonzaga center Chet Holmgren, who was named a 2026 NBA All-Star while playing under Daigneault at Oklahoma City, could be among the candidates for a roster spot at the 2028 L.A. Olympics. Holmgren was named to the 41-man player pool ahead of the 2024 Olympics, but wasn't one of the 12 players invited to Paris.