About Kevin Ollie
Kevin Jermaine Ollie (born December 27, 1972) is an American basketball coach and former player who most recently was the interim head coach for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is the former head coach of the University of Connecticut men's basketball team and one of only four African-American coaches to ever win an NCAA men's basketball championship. Ollie graduated from UConn in 1995 with a degree in communications. He played for twelve NBA franchises, most prominently in three stints with the Philadelphia 76ers, in thirteen seasons from 1997 to 2010 after beginning his career with the CBA in 1995. After retiring from professional basketball in 2010, Ollie joined UConn as an assistant coach; in 2012 he was promoted to head coach following the retirement of Jim Calhoun (who coached Ollie when he was a player). In his second year as Huskies head coach, they won the 2014 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. He was fired in 2018. == Early life == Ollie was born in Dallas, Texas to parents Fletcher and Dorothy Ollie and grew up in the rough neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles. When Ollie was seven years old, his parents divorced and his father moved to Dallas. He spent summers there, cutting lawns and doing other odd jobs so he could be with him for some length of time.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.