RICHMOND, Va. — More than 20 years after they last shared the court in the Robins Center, a pair of Spiders reached the top of the basketball mountain Monday evening, helping the Boston Celtics to their record 18th NBA championship. Tony Dobbins, ’04, and Jermaine Bucknor, ’06, are both members of the Celtics coaching staff, with Dobbins serving as an assistant coach and Bucknor a member of the team’s player enhancement staff. The two have reunited in Boston a generation after they thrilled Spider fans as All-Conference players at Richmond.
Dobbins broke into the NBA as a member of the Celtics video staff and was promoted to assistant coach in 2020. As a Spider, Dobbins earned All-District, All-State, and All-Conference honors and served as a team captain as a senior in 2003-04. One of the best defenders in program history, he remains the only Spider to be named a conference defensive player of the year twice. He will be forever remembered by Spider fans for hitting the game-winning shot just before the buzzer on the road vs 12th-ranked Kansas on Jan. 22, 2004, a win that helped the Spiders earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament that season.
Bucknor, a sophomore, was the sixth man on the 2003-04 Spiders. He moved into a full-time starting role in his final two seasons, serving as team captain and earning Second Team All-Atlantic 10 honors in 2005-06. He came to Boston following a decorated international playing and coaching career, with stints in Germany, France, Poland, Argentina, Belgium, and his native Canada. Prior to the Celtics, Bucknor was serving as head coach of Gladiators Trier, a professional team in Germany’s second division.
Dobbins and Bucknor are the fourth and fifth Spiders to win an NBA championship in recent years. They join Kenny Atkinson, R’90, an assistant coach on the 2021-22 Golden State Warriors, Dan Geriot ’11, a video coordinator on the 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers, and Kevin Eastman, R’77, an assistant coach on the 2007-08 Celtics.