Photo: Keith Allison from Owings Mills, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What strikes me about Maurice Cheeks is how rare his longevity is. He spent his playing days as a steady, defense-first point guard before reinventing himself as a coach, leading the Trail Blazers, 76ers, and Pistons and later working as an assistant with the Knicks. A 2018 Hall of Fame induction as a player feels like overdue recognition for someone whose game was always more about substance than highlights. Coming out of Chicago and West Texas A&M, he never seemed flashy to me, but that quiet competence is exactly why his name still carries weight inside NBA circles decades later.
Overview
Maurice Edward Cheeks (born September 8, 1956) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who serves as an assistant coach for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has also served as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, Philadelphia 76ers, and Detroit Pistons. Cheeks was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 2018.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Maurice Cheeks
- Name (Japanese)
- モーリス・チークス
- Reading
- もーりす・ちーくす
- Born
- September 8, 1956 (age 69)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Monkey
- Origin
- Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- 185 cm
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- basketball player / basketball coach
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- DuSable High School
- University
- West Texas A&M University
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Basketball player — see all → · Basketball coach — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.