TUALATIN, Ore. -- Micah Nori was told by several NBA teams that he was their No. 2 choice to be head coach before the Portland Trail Blazers finally gave him his chance at No. 1.
A 28-year journey in the NBA culminated in Nori joining general manager Joe Cronin on Thursday at the Blazers' practice facility for his introductory news conference.
"I think for five of the interviews they said, 'Micah, you are our No. 2,'" Nori said, citing his recent experience interviewing for the New York Knicks in 2025. "'You were phenomenal, but Mike Brown's done it before. We've never seen you in that seat.' When you slide over, everybody says it's that 18 inches. Do I get discouraged? Absolutely not. You don't stay in this thing for 28 years starting where I started [by getting discouraged]."
Nori, who spent the past five seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, had interviewed for multiple head coach vacancies, including the Knicks last year, the Chicago Bulls earlier this month and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2024. He began his NBA career as an intern for the Toronto Raptors in 1998.
Nori's contract has just one guaranteed year and back-to-back team option years. It also has a below-market base salary and includes incentives based on team success, sources told ESPN.
He responded to criticism about the deal leveled by Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the National Basketball Coaches Association president, who called the contract "a slap in the face to our value."
Nori, who sits on that board of the organization, said he had a conversation with Bickerstaff and it had no bearing on him.
Cronin rebuffed suggestions that the terms of the deal hurt Portland's ability to get its preferred coach, saying the team hired the coach it wanted.
"To me, it's done, it's finished," Nori said. "This is one of these things, you can have 8 million people watching this press conference; you can have 100,000. Next week, nobody's really going to care about this press conference. What they will care about is what we do."
Micah Nori was told by several NBA teams that he was their No. 2 choice to be head coach before the Trail Blazers finally gave him his chance at No. 1. "Do I get discouraged? Absolutely not," he said on Thursday. AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File After nearly three decades of coming to Portland with the visiting team, Nori is eager to be on the other side.
"After 28 years of coming out here and seeing all the red, seeing all the noise, it's just very tough to play [here]," Nori said. "I'm super excited to be a part of it, and I can promise you that every single night -- and I don't like promises and guarantees -- but we will play hard for 48-plus, we're going to play smart for 48-plus and we will play together for 48-plus."