K. Garnett to Houston Rockets... WOW
HOUSTON -- The Rockets hired Keith Garnett as the franchise's rehabilitation and performance coordinator/assistant athletic trainer on Monday.
Garnett will be responsible for daily treatment, care and rehabilitation of players, as well as assisting vice president of basketball operations/head athletic trainer Keith Jones in all other duties.
Garnett, who previously assisted the Rockets ' athletic training staff while serving as head athletic trainer for the Texas Terror/Houston ThunderBears (AFL) from 1996-99, returns to Houston after a year of working as a certified athletic trainer/rehabilitation specialist at St. John's Hospital and the HealthTracks Sports Medicine Center through Missouri State University.
In addition to performing orthopedic injury assessment and physical rehabilitation, Garnett was an approved clinical instructor for Missouri State athletic training students. During the 2005-06 NBA season, Garnett served as assistant athletic trainer/head equipment manager for the Charlotte Bobcats. Prior to joining the Bobcats, Garnett spent eight years as head athletic trainer/assistant professor at Drury University, where he oversaw 15 NCAA Division I and II varsity athletic sports.
A native of Denver, Colo., Garnett's work experience as an athletic trainer also includes stints with the Springfield-Ozark Mountain Ducks (Texas-Louisiana Baseball League), the Sonoma County Crushers (Western Baseball League), Houston Baptist University and the Kansas City Chiefs (NFL). Garnett has also been honored with invitation as an athletic trainer to the 2000 NBA Pre-Draft Camp and the NAIA National Tournament (2001-05).
After receiving his bachelor's degree in business communications from the University of Oklahoma in 1988, Garnett moved to Phoenix, Ariz., where he worked for American Express, TRS Headquarters as a statistical analyst from 1988 to 1992. Garnett went on to earn a master's degree in physical education/exercise and sports science from Central Missouri State University in 1994. Garnett is a member of several prestigious groups, including the National Athletic Trainers Association, the NATA Ethnic Diversity Advisory Committee, the National Basketball Athletic Trainers Association, the National Academy of Sports Medicine and the National Society of Black Athletic Trainers.
