Harrick joins Nuggets as scout and consultant

DENVER -- Jim Harrick is back in basketball, hired Monday by the Denver Nuggets as a scout and coaching consultant.\nHarrick was forced to resign as Georgia's head basketball coach in March amid accusations of improper payments to players and academic fraud.\nThat 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.\n"We are thrilled to add Coach Harrick to our staff," Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe said. "He possesses a remarkable basketball mind and will be a great asset to us."\nThe Nuggets also added Scott Brooks, Adrian Dantley and Chip Engelland as assistant coaches.\nIn an on-court move, the team re-signed reserve forward Chris Andersen, who averaged 5.2 points and 4.6 rebounds last season.\nAt 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.\nHe 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.\nHarrick, also the coach at Pepperdine, has a career record of 470-235. He guided his teams to 14 NCAA tournament appearances.\nBrooks, who played in the NBA from 1988-98, will join John MacLeod and T.R. Dunn as assistants to head coach Jeff Bzdelik.\nDantley was a six-time All-Star during his 15-year career and ranks 17th on the NBA's career scoring list with 23,177 points.\nEngelland, who played at Duke and in the CBA, has served as a shooting coach for Grant Hill, Steve Kerr, Juwan Howard and the WNBA's Chamique Holdsclaw.\nDantley, Engelland and Jarinn Akana will serve in player development roles.\nThe large coaching staff is similar to what the Dallas Mavericks have done under owner Mark Cuban. Vandeweghe was the Mavericks' director of player development for two seasons before becoming Denver's GM in 2001.