Dwane Casey is the former coach of the Toronto Raptors. Casey had coached the team from 2011 until the end of the 2017/18 season. He had also coached the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2005-2007. Casey has been a basketball coach since 1979 when he became an assistant coach for the University of Kentucky.
Dwane Casey Networth As Of 2018
When Casey signed his last contract with Toronto, it was for $18 million over three years. He was entering his third year of that contract when he was fired.
Early Life
Casey was born in 1957 and grew up in Morganfield, Kentucky. He got his coaching start at 13 years old when he coached a little league team of younger kids. He played basketball throughout his childhood and became a top recruit out of high school. Casey made the decision to commit to the University of Kentucky and during his junior year led his team to an NCAA tournament championship title. He declared for the NBA draft but was never drafted, prompting his professional coaching start at Kentucky.
1979-1994
Casey started his coaching career at Kentucky after he wasn’t drafted into the NBA. His head coach at Kentucky convinced him to come on as an assistant coach, and he did for a season, before deciding to move to Western Kentucky. He spent five seasons as an assistant coach for Western Kentucky before eventually moving back to his alma mater, where he spent another four seasons as assistant coach.
At this point, Casey was put on probation by the NCAA for allegedly bribing a top recruits father with $1,000. He was initially suspended for five years until they cleared him of the allegation. Because of this scandal, Casey accepted a head coaching job in the Japanese Basketball League with Sekisui Chemical. Between 1989-94, he coached in the JBL with Sekisui and the Izusu Motors Lynx. His JBL career came to an end when he accepted an assistant coaching job with the Seattle Supersonics.
1994-2011
Casey took the job with the Supersonics in 1994 and eventually left in 2005. Throughout his time in Seattle, Casey helped the team win four division titles. In 2005 he received his first big shot, he was hired by the Minnesota Timberwolves as their head coach. It didn’t all go to plan however as the Timberwolves went a disappointing 33-49 in his first season and his second season didn’t go much better. Mid-way through the next season, Casey was fired, leading him to join the Dallas Mavericks as another head coach.
Casey found success in Dallas. In his second season there, the Mavs won a division title and the following year, they defeated Lebron in the finals to take home Dallas’ first championship title.
2011-Present
After his run with Dallas and helping them win a title, Casey was hired as the next head coach for the Toronto Raptors. In his first two seasons, the Raptors failed to make the playoffs, not something surprising to the fans or ownership at the time seeing as the team was fairly awful. But starting with the 2013-14 season, the Raptors would make the playoffs every year and securing first place in the Atlantic division in four of the last five years.
Casey brought the team to their first conference semifinals and finals, as well as becoming the winningest coach in their history and leading them to their first 50 win season. Since 2015 the Raptors haven’t had less than 51 wins in a season and set their franchise record for wins this past season with 59.
On May 11, 2018, Raptors president Masai Ujiri announced that they were parting ways with Casey after seven years.
