Gene Littles

Who is Gene Littles?

Eugene Scapes "Gene" Littles is a retired American basketball player and current coach. He played professional basketball for six years.

Littles played college basketball at High Point University. Afterward Littles was selected in the 5th round of the 1969 NBA Draft by the New York Knicks and in the 1969 ABA Draft by the Dallas Chaparrals. Littles opted to play in the American Basketball Association.

Littles played for five seasons with the Carolina Cougars. He then played for one season with the Kentucky Colonels. With Kentucky, Littles was a member of the Colonels team that won the 1975 ABA Championship.

After his playing career, Littles got into coaching, and became an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association. He got his first taste of head coaching when George Karl was dismissed at the end of the 1985–86 season. The Cavaliers next year hired Lenny Wilkens, however.

In 1990, Littles got a second NBA head coaching job, with the Charlotte Hornets — replacing Dick Harter. He lasted as season and a half with the recent-expansion Hornets, until he was replaced with Allan Bristow at the end of the 1990–91 season. Littles later became an assistant with the Denver Nuggets, and served as an interim coach during the 1994–95 season, in between Dan Issel and Bernie Bickerstaff.