The Boston Celtics will be losing a front office member to an important position in college ranks. Celtics scouting director Remy Cofield is set to take a GM position at Arkansas, a source confirmed to MassLive. Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports was first to report the move.
Cofield has been with the Celtics organization since 2013. He was originally hired as a basketball operations assistant but moved up the ranks to college scout and eventually director of scouting for the past three seasons. Cofield also had a stint as general manager of the Maine Celtics from 2019-2022.
Cofield played college basketball at Penn before joining the Celtics front office and now he’s heading to the SEC where he will play a big role at Arkansas, likely with major sports within the athletic department (basketball, football). Amid an evolving NIL landscape at college level, the general manager position has turned into a very important role quickly.
John Calipari is currently the head coach at Arkansas for basketbal and Sam Pittman is the head coach for football. Pittman recently spoke to Rivals about what Arkansas was looking for when hiring for their GM role.
“Well, I want somebody that’s done it,” Pittman said. “So you may have to go to the NFL, NBA, whatever, to find somebody like that. You want someone who’s kind of done that before, whether it be the top dog or the second, you know, somebody that understands that. Because that’s something that I’ve never dealt with. Well, I have for three years, and I want some help. You would want a recruiter. If somebody comes in and says, ‘Well, I need $500,000,’ you don’t want to just — Hell, any of us can say, ‘Oh, okay.’
“I mean, we need a negotiator. To be honest with you, I need someone that takes the, ‘Well, Coach Pittman won’t give it to me. Coach Pittman won’t give it to me.’ I need that taken off my plate. I need somebody to be ahead of what the market is...But that’s what I’m looking for. And I’m looking for someone to talk to these kids’ agents, besides me. I want somebody else to talk to them and then give me the information.”
It’s unclear when exactly Cofield will be beginning the new position at Arkansas but it does create a void that will Boston will need to fill in the front office after this season.
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