Del Harris To Coach Dallas Mavericks' Texas Legends This Season

The Texas Legends' coaching vacancy was one of the hardest to figure out all offseason, especially when the Bruce Pearl courting came to an end. That, we now know, was because the heir to Nancy Lieberman's former post was in-house all along.

Del Harris will be named the second head coach in team history, as first reported by ESPN's Marc Stein. Harris has worked closely with Legends' owner -- and Dallas Mavericks president of basketball operations -- Donnie Nelson in the past and served as the D-League team's general manager last season after most recently serving as an assistant to the New Jersey Nets.

More from Stein's report:

Harris will continue to be the Legends' general manager, sources said, teaming in the front office with Lieberman, team president Spud Webb and Donnie Nelson. Lieberman, 52, had been promised the option when she took the coaching job in November 2009 of choosing whether to stay on as Legends coach or moving into management after the 2010-11 season.

Considering Harris has served as the head coach over 1,000 NBA games, the Legends probably picked up the best coach available. Considering he gave up on the Nets midseason after finding out he wasn't in the running as the team's next head coach, though, it makes me wonder how committed he'll be to coaching an entire season in the D-League.