Maryland’s Steve Blake is a coaching intern for the Portland Trail Blazers

Former Maryland basketball star Steve Blake has a new home in the NBA, but this time as part of a coaching staff.

After a 13-year career and a brief stint in Australia, Blake is retiring to pursue a coaching career and already has his first job. As with entering any new field, he’s starting at the bottom and interning under Terry Stotts in Portland.

The Trail Blazers make a lot of sense as a landing spot for Blake. He lives in Portland and played for the organization at four different times during his career, his last stint with the team coming in the 2014-15 season playing for Stotts. Blake will also get the opportunity to work with former teammate Damian Lillard and fellow Terp Jake Layman.

It appears Blake approached Stotts about the opportunity, and Stotts told The Oregonian he’s been around since September helping with workouts and mixing in every now and then. Stotts said he appreciates having a former player on the staff, and Lillard also appears to appreciate the extra guidance from the vet.

Like Stotts notes, Blake’s role with the team is limited so he can test the coaching waters. However, his experience in most roles in an NBA rotation gives him varied perspectives from which to mentor players. Lillard is already seeing the benefits of having Blake around.

"I think having Steve around is good, because it comes from a different lens than the coaches. They're telling it kind of as enforcers -- 'you should have been here, you need to do this, this is what we wanted' -- but with Steve it's more him teaching. He wants to see you improve, see you do better. He's also a vet ... he's been a starter, played good minutes as a backup, he's been on winning teams and losing teams. Just having him here, I think, is really helpful for the players."

The 2002 National Champion looks to have retired his playing shoes for now, but he’s already back in his element.

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