BROOKLYN, N.Y. — The day after Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young became the assistant general manager of the Oklahoma Sooners, a teammate approached him with some questions. Hawks guard Terance Mann had recently spoken to Luke Loucks, the new coach of Florida State, about doing the same thing for the Seminoles.
“He kind of wanted to know, before he just took the job and took a new role, he wanted to know what I was doing to see how involved he wanted to be,” Young said.
During his four years at Florida State, Mann had grown close to Loucks, who played for the Seminoles himself from 2008 to 2012. When they hired Loucks as their coach in March, Mann told him to let him know if he needed help with anything. Loucks took him up on that offer, pitching him on the position over the phone.
There were only two people on the planet who could really tell Mann what he’d be getting into. One was Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, who became Davidson’s assistant GM the day after Loucks was officially hired. The other just happened to share a locker room with him.
“[Young] kind of explained what his role was,” Mann said, “and I was like, ‘All right, I’ll probably do it then.'”
Florida State announced that Mann was coming aboard on April 4, three days after that conversation. His responsibilities are to “help recruiting, help keeping alumni close and help with decision-making on the money aspect of things,” Mann said. Back when he played for the Seminoles, he could never have imagined doing this while playing in the NBA.
“I’m in the coaches’ group chat,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
Young and Mann are focused primarily on getting the Hawks to the playoffs — they will meet the Orlando Magic in a play-in game on Tuesday — but both have gotten started with their respective side hustles.
“It’s not just an offseason thing for me,” Young said. “I’m going to be involved throughout the season, too.”
Mann said that, due to his main gig, he hasn’t been able to participate in any Zoom meetings yet. There have been phone calls, though, and “a lot…
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