Brandon Roy, Portland Trail Blazers legend and former National High School Coach of the Year, was dismissed as the head coach of the boys’ basketball program at Seattle’s Garfield High School in September. At the time the reasoning for Roy’s dismissal was not stated publicly. But this week David Gutman of the Seattle Times reported that Roy was fired because of recruiting allegations.
Roy was fired after an allegation that he was part of a recruiting push involving an NBA agent that offered a student
cash, a car and an apartment if he transferred to the Seattle school.
Roy, 41, denied the allegation in a letter to Seattle Public Schools last fall but was nonetheless fired two days later.
The Times article included a response from Roy:
“I’ve never recruited a kid to play at Garfield High School,” Roy said in an email last week to The Seattle Times.
In comments exchanged by text message with Blazer’s Edge, Roy elaborated further, stating the Times article did not include statements from the mother of the player at the center of the allegations.
“The kid’s mother responded to Seattle school’s investigator and said it was false. And no one from my staff ever contacted her or her son,” Roy said. “The paper didn’t mention that. And the report the investigator wrote failed to mention that also.”
No official finding has been made by Seattle Public Schools, the Metro League or the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA). The WIAA Executive Board will hear the allegations later this month.
“I would like to coach again. And I am considering legal action against the district,” Roy said.
The former Portland two guard began coaching in 2016 at Nathan Hale High School, where his team went undefeated and won the Washington state title. That year, Roy was named Naismith National High School Coach of the Year. Roy went on to coach at Garfield, his alma mater. The school retired his number, and a portrait of him is painted on the wall. Garfield teams he coached won state titles in 2018, 2020 and 2023.
Roy was the sixth pick of the 2006 NBA draft. He played for five seasons with the Trail Blazers, averaging 19.0 points per game. “The Natural” was a three time NBA All-Star, the 2007 NBA Rookie of the Year and the 2006 Pac-10 Player of the year. No one who ever saw him in a Blazers uniform will forget what he did for the team. In a painful separation from the Blazers, Roy retired from the NBA in 2011 at age 27 because of chronic knee issues. He attempted a comeback with the Timberwolves in 2012 that lasted five games before a knee injury ended his NBA career.
