updated 8:54 p.m. ET June 13, 2006

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Jim Harrick returned to coaching basketball Tuesday when he was hired to lead the expansion Bakersfield Jam of the NBA Development League.

Harrick, 67, hasn’t coached in three years since resigning from the University of Georgia amid a scandal that resulted in NCAA sanctions. It’s been 10 years since Harrick was fired at UCLA.

“I’ve been sitting around doing nothing,” he told The (Bakersfield) Californian. “I think my wife wanted it more than I did. Get me out of the house. It’ll hurt my (golf) handicap, but that’s what I do. That’s all I’ve done my whole life.”

Harrick had spent the last three years scouting for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and traveling to China to help develop basketball there.

“We searched around and we feel like we’ve found probably the best coach that wasn’t already under contract somewhere else in America,” Jam co-owner Steve Chase said.

Harrick’s 470-235 career record includes guiding UCLA to the 1995 national championship. He was fired the following season over a false expense report. He said he has a letter from the NCAA exonerating him from any wrongdoing.

“I’ve never done anything that I needed to have that,” he said. “I got it in case I have to show it to someone.”

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After leaving UCLA, Harrick coached at the University of Rhode Island and Georgia.

Harrick said his son, Jim Jr., would not be on his staff in Bakersfield. The younger Harrick was fired from Georgia because of alleged money given to a recruit and preferred academic treatment to athletes.

“When I started years ago, I only asked to have a team to coach,” the elder Harrick said. “That’s all I ever wanted. To have that again, to me, is really exciting.”

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