Report: New Celtics hire Darren Erman was fired for secret Warriors tapes
The Warriors fired Darren Erman for violating of company policy on April 5. (Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)
Shortly after the Celtics revealed the hiring of Darren Erman as the team's director of NBA scouting on Tuesday, ESPN's Chris Broussard reported the Warriors had fired Erman three weeks ago for secretly recording conversations between the team's coaches and players.
Celtics general manager Danny Ainge told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports that the team hired Erman based on his previous work as a coaching associate under former Celtics coach Doc Rivers from 2007-11.
"Darren worked with us for four years and he was one of the hardest working, most competent and intelligent members of our organization," Ainge told Yahoo Sports. "We welcome him back."
The extent of Erman's recording efforts as a Warriors assistant coach varies in two sourced reports.
Wojnarowski cites league sources saying Erman's firing was based on a single taping incident:
In the aftermath of his departure from the Warriors, which league sources say stemmed from a single taped conversation of Warriors coaches who had been working to undermine his game preparation and relationships with players, Erman accepted the job to return to Boston where his NBA coaching career began in 2007.
Broussard's sources claim Erman taped numerous meetings and conversations over an extended period of time:
Sources said Erman, who was coach Mark Jackson's second assistant, would record coaches' meetings, meetings between the coaches and players, and informal discussions among coaches that took place in the team's coaches room -- all without the participants' knowledge.
"He was taping everything," one source said. "Taping pregame speeches wouldn't have been that bad, but he was taping guys just sitting around talking in the coaches' office."
Sometimes Erman would be present during the tapings. Other times, he would leave the room and leave his phone behind to record conversations the other coaches were having.
When Warriors coaches caught Erman recording a conversation, he reportedly told team officials he had been taping conversations for three weeks. The Warriors fired him a week later on April 5.
