The Atlanta Hawks are finalizing a deal with Steve Gansey for him to be the head coach of their G League affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks, league sources told Fieldhouse Files.

Gansey was in Atlanta on Tuesday to visit with team officials, sources said.

The Skyhawks were previously known as the Erie BayHawks, moving to a suburb of Atlanta before the 2019-20 season — which was canceled due to the pandemic. A condensed 2020-21 season went down in a bubble environment at Disney World.

Gansey did not coach this past season after his contract with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants expired on Oct. 31, 2020. It had been extended several months in light of the pandemic, allowing for him to finish the 2020-21 season with the franchise.

Tom Hankins, who was already on staff with the Pacers as assistant player development coach, was named Mad Ants head coach last January.

A native of Ohio, Gansey spent most of the last decade in the G League and within Pacers Sports & Entertainment, but never was promoted to the Pacers coaching staff. He twice served as an assistant and twice as the head coach of the Mad Ants, most recently from 2015-2020.

The 35-year-old coached the Pacers’ summer league team the last two times, in 2018 and 2019.

This hiring will reunite him with Nate McMillan, who had his interim head coach tag removed after leading the Hawks to the Eastern Conference finals. McMillan also brought back Tim Dather to be an assistant coach and head video coordinator, like he was during his stint as Pacers head coach.

The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the week, per source. Chris Kirschner of The Athletic first connected Gansey with the Skyhawks.

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November 30th 2020

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