Charlotte Bobcats Managing Member of Basketball Operations Michael Jordan announced Thursday that the team has begun filling Sam Vincent’s coaching staff for the 2007-08 season, as Phil Ford, Lee Rose and Jeff Capel were named assistants.

“We are very fortunate to add three assistant coaches with a proven track record of positive player-coach relationships, work ethic and NBA knowledge,” Jordan said. “We want to provide Sam with a strong supporting staff, and we feel we have taken the initial steps in that direction with these three coaches.”

Ford has a wealth of experience as a player and coach on both the collegiate and professional ranks, most recently as an assistant with the New York Knicks. He made his NBA coaching debut with the Detroit Pistons during the 2004-05 season and spent the last two in New York. Overall, his coaching experience spans over 15 years, including a 12-year period as an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina under Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith.

The 1979 NBA Rookie of the Year, Ford averaged 11.6 points in 482 games over his seven-year career with the Kansas City Kings, New Jersey Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Houston Rockets. The second overall pick in the 1978 draft, he also earned All-Rookie and All-NBA Second Team honors that season. During his third year in the league, he led the Kings to the 1981 Western Conference Finals.

No stranger to the North Carolina region, Ford was a standout player for the Tar Heels, where he earned All-ACC First Team honors (1976, 1977, 1978) and All-ACC Tournament First Team honors (1975, 1976, 1977). In addition, he was also named First Team All-American (1976, 1977, 1978) and was the winner of the John Wooden Award during his senior season, as well as ACC Player of the Year in 1977 and 1978. Ford was also a member of the gold medal-winning United States team at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where he averaged 11.3 points during competition.

Ford was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1991 and was voted on the ACC’s Top 50 All-Time Male Athletes during the conference’s Golden Anniversary celebration in 2003. Rose joins the Bobcats after a successful and extensive coaching career that spans over 40 years on the collegiate and professional level. He enjoyed a 15-year run in the NBA as a coach and front office executive with Milwaukee, New Jersey Nets, San Antonio Spurs and the Charlotte Hornets.

He started his NBA coaching career in San Antonio during the 1986-87 season. After two seasons with the Spurs, he joined the Nets staff under then head coach and Hall of Famer, Willis Reed. After just one season in New Jersey, he moved to Milwaukee and coached for the Bucks for seven seasons. Rose also served as director, and later as vice president of player personnel, before moving back to the bench as an assistant coach during the 1991-92 season.

In his 19 seasons as a college head coach, his teams participated in 13 national tournaments - seven NCAA appearances, five NIT appearances and one NAIA berth - and was named Coach of the Year in each of the conferences his teams played. Rose is still the only person to have coached in the NAIA Tournament, NCAA Division I, II and III and NIT tournaments over his collegiate coaching career.

Rose began his collegiate coaching career at his alma mater, Transylvania, serving as an assistant coach for four seasons, before moving into the head coaching role during the 1964-65 season. He later became an assistant coach at the University of Cincinnati for three seasons. Rose has also held head coaching posts at UNC Charlotte, Purdue and South Florida.

In eight seasons at Transylvania, his team posted a 160-57 record that included five NCAA Division II tournament berths and one trip to the NAIA tournament. He was named head coach and athletic director at UNC Charlotte in 1975 and led that team to a 72-18 record over three seasons. He was named Sporting News National Coach of the Year in 1977 after the 49ers advanced to the NCAA Final Four. Rose then became head coach at Purdue for two seasons and posted a 50-18 record. The 1978-79 season saw the Boilermakers advance to the NIT Finals and then to the NCAA Final Four a year later. Rose ended his collegiate career at South Florida, where he led the Bulls for six seasons with three NIT appearances. Rose is still one of a dozen coaches that led two different college teams to the NCAA Final Four.

Most recently, Rose has served as supervisor of coaches for the National Basketball Association Development League.

Capel joined the Bobcats staff during its inaugural season in 2004-05 after serving as head coach of the D-League Fayetteville Patriots for two-plus seasons. In Fayetteville, Capel guided the Patriots to the D-League Finals, falling to eventual champion Mobile, who was coached by Bobcats head coach Sam Vincent. Prior to his minor league tenure, he spent 12 years as a head coach at the collegiate level at Old Dominion, North Carolina A&T; and Fayetteville State with a combined record of 201-162.

In seven seasons at ODU, Capel compiled a 122-98 record, including a school-record 25 win season, two NCAA tournament appearances and one NIT postseason berth. In his one season at N.C. A&T;, Capel led the Aggies to the MEAC Championship and a NCAA tournament berth.