PORTLAND, Ore. (Oct. 29, 2023) – The Rip City Remix have announced coaching and basketball operations staff additions for the team’s inaugural 2023-24 season.
George Galanopoulos has been named Associate Head Coach under Head Coach Jim Moran. Galanopoulos brings over 12 years of NBA and G League experience to the Remix, most recently serving four years as Head Coach of the Texas Legends, the Dallas Mavericks’ G League affiliate. During his time with the Legends from 2019-23, Galanopoulos accumulated a winning record in two of three seasons, with his team not competing in the G League bubble season. In 2021-22, the Legends saw a team-record nine NBA call-ups under his lead. Prior to his time as Head Coach of the Legends, Galanopoulos was an Assistant Video Coordinator for the Dallas Mavericks (2017-19) and an Assistant Coach for the Legends (2016-17). He worked in player development for the Mavericks during the 2015-16 NBA season and got his start in the G League (then the D-League) as a basketball operations intern with the Bakersfield Jam in 2011-12 before being promoted to Assistant/Player Development Coach in 2013. Galanopoulos also currently serves as Head Coach of the Uganda Men’s National Team.
Chris Kent joins the Remix as Assistant Coach after spending the 2022-23 season as an Assistant Coach with the Windy City Bulls, Chicago’s G League affiliate. He previously served as a Chicago Bulls Assistant Coach from 2019-22. Prior to his time with Chicago, Kent was the Director of Player Development at the University of South Florida (2017-18), a graduate assistant at Florida State University (2015-17) and an Assistant Coach for the G League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants (2013-15).
Leron Black has assumed the role of Assistant Coach/Director of Video. Most recently, he was a video coordinator at the University of Dayton after serving as graduate assistant from 2021-23 while completing his master’s degree in human services. He played three years of professional basketball overseas from 2018-21 after a four-year career at the University of Illinois, where he was a three-year starter, a co-captain and was named an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention during his senior season.
Assisting the coaching staff this season, Victoria Vivians will serve as Coaching Intern. Vivians recently completed her fifth season in the WNBA as a member of the Indiana Fever. She was the No. 8 overall pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft out of Mississippi State, where she received the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award her senior year, given out annually to the country’s best shooting guard.
Alex Sarama comes to the Remix to begin his first season as Director of Player Development. Sarama founded the company Transforming Basketball, where he has created guides for coaches and player development specialists globally. A native of England, Sarama spent last season as the Director of Methodology for the London Lions of the British Basketball League (2023) in addition to serving as a Player Improvement Specialist for Paris Basketball. He has also held the role of Head Coach for Pallecanestro College Basket (2020-23), an Italian academy devoted to finding college basketball opportunities for men 16 to 20 years old. From 2016-19, he was the Associate Manager of the NBA’s Europe, Middle East and Africa basketball operations.
Francina Brea joins the team as Logistics Coordinator. Brea previously worked for the Mexico City Capitanes of the G League, where she was the Basketball Operations Manager for two seasons (2021-23). Brea has over eight years of experience in international basketball operations, largely based in the Dominican Republic, where she served as the Director of Operations for the Dominican Men’s National Team from 2015-20. She remains a consultant for the Federacion Dominicana de Baloncesto, a position she has held since 2019.
On the training staff, the Remix have hired Charvette Johnson as Head Athletic Trainer. Johnson was mostly recently an Assistant Athletic Trainer with the Los Angeles Sparks during the 2023 WNBA season and was the Head Athletic Trainer for the Stockton Kings during the 2021-22 G League season. Johnson received her Ph.D. in psychology from Grand Canyon University in 2023.
AJ Jackson enters his first season as Assistant Athletic Trainer. Jackson was previously the Head Athletic Trainer at Milton High School in Atlanta from 2022-23 and worked as a first aider and athletic trainer since 2018 for Varsity Spirit, a leading cheerleading and dance team apparel company that hosts camps and trainings for athletes throughout the country. In his role with Varsity Spirit, Jackson supervised all staffers and coaches to ensure the safety of participants in the company’s camps and trainings.
Greg Hurlbrink Jr. has been named Strength and Conditioning Coach. Hurlbrink Jr. most recently was an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Florida Gulf Coast University, where he worked with the men’s basketball and tennis teams from 2022-23. Previously, he was a Strength and Conditioning Assistant at the University of Miami (2021-22), where he helped the Hurricanes men’s basketball team reach the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament. A graduate of the University of Kentucky, he also earned a master’s degree in kinesiology from McDaniel College in 2021.
Aeric Walker begins his first season with the Remix as Equipment Manager after spending last season as the Head Football Equipment Manager at Georgetown University. He was previously an equipment intern with the Carolina Panthers (2021-22) and a football equipment graduate assistant at Middle Tennessee State University (2019-21).
