Canaan Chatman joined the University of Detroit Mercy men’s basketball coaching staff as an assistant in June of 2016.
"Coach Chatman's national AAU and high school connections provide a borderless aspect that helps bolster our recruiting efforts at Detroit Mercy,” said head coach Bacari Alexander. “His deep connections specifically in Baltimore, Illinois, Northern Indiana and Washington D.C., will prove to be valuable in the immediate future. The fact that he is originally from Chicago provides instant credibility for our program in that area. His ability to connect and mentor young people was something that stood out as well in our discussions over recent years."
Chatman is a well-known and highly successful AAU coach serving as the Adidas Grassroots Basketball Northwest Regional Director from 1999-2007 and the Nike Elite Youth Basketball Northwest Regional Director for the last eight years. In those positions, he was able to evaluate and develop relationships with some of the top high school and college players as well as high school and college coaches in the game.
He was the director of the Adidas Superstar Camp from 2002-2007, where he planned and coordinated, in accordance with the NCAA, a five-day athletic and academic skill-building session for 200 elite U.S. and international basketball players.
Chatman has also been the director of the Great Northwest Summer League since 1999, a seven-week skill development basketball summer league for all regional collegiate and professional basketball players, as well as director of the SEI/ Nike Boys Basketball Camp since 1993, which is a one-week life skills camp that uses basketball as the incentive in understanding that “Life has Options”.
He is also the founder, Executive Director and head coach of Journey’s Foundation and the founder and President of Courtside Entertainment, with both of those located in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Journeys Foundation is a non-profit organization geared towards inner city student-athletes, using athletic incentives as positive motivation towards high school graduation and secondary educational opportunities. Courtside Entertainment is a sports entertainment group founded on individualism and creativity and also has publishing rights in the music, literary and film.
Chatman starred on the court as a player in high school and college. He started his collegiate career at Oregon State before transferring to Portland Community College. He then finished his collegiate career at the University of Portland earning team MVP honors in 1994 and 1995. He led the Pilots in rebounding in both years with 8.1 in 1993-94 and 6.8 in 1994-95, and also topped the team in scoring with 18.3 points as a senior. A two-time First Team All-West Coast Conference selection, he is the fastest person to reach 1,000 points in Portland history needing just 58 games, while his 1,021 overall points is 31st in school history and his 17.3 points per game ranking fifth. As a prep, he helped Benson High School to a state championship as a senior.
He would go on to play professionally for seven seasons in the CBA as well as overseas in Australia, Dubai, Israel, Japan, Poland, Switzerland and Turkey.
Chatman graduated from Portland in 1995 as a double major in Sociology and Communications. He is the father of current Titan Kam Chatman.
