Harrick Resurfaces With Nuggets

Jim Harrick is back in basketball, hired Monday by the Denver Nuggets as a scout and coaching consultant.

Harrick was forced to resign as Georgia’s coach in March amid accusations of improper payments to players and academic fraud.

That scandal, which led Georgia to pull out of postseason play, was the latest in a series that followed Harrick on nearly every step of his 23-year career as a college coach.

“We are thrilled to add Coach Harrick to our staff,” Nugget General Manager Kiki Vandeweghe said. “He possesses a remarkable basketball mind and will be a great asset to us.”

The Nuggets also added Scott Brooks, Adrian Dantley and Chip Engelland as assistant coaches.

In an on-court move, the team re-signed reserve forward Chris Andersen.

At Georgia, Harrick’s son was accused of paying some bills for a player and teaching a bogus class on coaching. Harrick said he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing.

He was fired from UCLA in 1996 -- a year after winning an NCAA championship -- for lying about an expense report. He also was accused of changing players’ grades and arranging for players to receive lodging, cars and money from boosters when he coached at Rhode Island.

Harrick, also the coach at Pepperdine, has a career record of 470-235. He guided his teams to 14 NCAA tournament appearances.