Tucker legend James Hartry retires from basketball — but not from coaching
James Hartry’s legendary basketball coaching career ended Saturday night in his signature style.
Hartry’s fashion stood out pregame. He dressed to impress on the sideline one last time, sporting a gray sweater, dress pants and black dress shoes.
His coaching style also stood out after the Tigers fell behind Cambridge early in the second-round playoff game. With his star senior point guard sidelined by injury, Hartry was already in a tough position. Then Tucker trailed 37-25 at halftime.
The Tigers didn’t have much momentum as they entered the locker room, but they had Hartry, known as one of the best motivators in his profession. The 26th-year coach, who surpassed 500 career wins last season, preached the need to remain calm and focused with an intense tone.
“If there’s nothing else you’re going to do for Tucker, you’re going to play hard,” Hartry said. “In high school basketball, if you play hard, you’ll win 90% of your ballgames.”
Hartry’s message and adjustments appeared to work, as the Tigers jumped on a 14-3 run to open the second half. Tucker and Cambridge traded the lead throughout the fourth quarter before the Tigers eventually fell just short — 58-56.
It wasn’t the way he wanted to walk off the court for the last time, but it was the kind of game that Hartry could stand to lose.
“Give the effort, stay locked in and stay focused. That’s the thing that we have always had at Tucker, and I know that’s what helped me win over the years,” Hartry said.
Sitting right behind Tucker’s bench for Hartry’s last game was his brother, Donald. The youngest of the five Hartry brothers, Donald is a former McDonald’s All-American and a member of the 1983 Georgia basketball team that beat Michael Jordan’s North Carolina team to make the Final Four.
Donald was also there when his brother started coaching basketball. James Hartry was a graduate assistant at Clark Atlanta University — where he played basketball for three seasons — when he started coaching Donald and his UGA teammates in an Atlanta-based summer league.
“Dominique (Wilkins), all the Hawks players were in that league, and the college players that would come home for the summer,” Donald Hartry said. “With the gap in age, James (Hartry) was really like my coach and my motivator.
“Before every game at Georgia, he was going to come into the locker room and talk to all of us. All of the players at Georgia that played with me know coach Hartry.”
Donald Hartry watched his brother learn to harness his emotions throughout his career, using his passion in just the right moments. —
But Donald’s favorite moment from James’ career was highly emotional: Tucker’s 2007 state championship victory over Columbia. The Tigers won their first state title since 1996, finishing a 31-2 season that had 22 mercy-rule wins.
It was the first and only state title of James Hartry’s career, and Donald still remembers watching his brother celebrate it.
“He came up into the stands and hugged everybody that came to the game,” Donald said. “After the game was over, still sweating and perspiring, before he did any kind of press conferences, he came into the stands.
“He hugged every parent, every brother, sister, sibling that he could find for hours.”
Hartry’s record at Tucker ends at 523-222, according to DeKalb County Athletics. He had three title runner-up teams in 2005, 2009 and 2019 and made six final fours.
Caesar Burgess, former Atlanta-area basketball coach and longtime friend of James Hartry, still sees him value the Tucker community that way. Burgess coached against Hartry for years at Marietta and Chamblee before retiring to work part time at Tucker High School.
“You should see him at Tucker High School. When he walks down the hallways, it’s like the pope is in the building,” Burgess said. “Kids try to grab him, and say, ‘Hey, coach.’
“Since I’ve retired and I’ve been working at Tucker, the first thing I would tell my class was, ‘Hey, I’m a friend of coach Hartry,’ and I didn’t have any problems after that.”
Burgess shared another key piece of Hartry’s long-term success at Tucker. That was James “Bud” King, Hartry’s manager and right-hand man.
King, who passed away two years ago at 57 years old, had autism. Hartry said he saw King as a true asset that helped Tucker win games.
“They said Bud was special needs, but I don’t call anybody special needs that can tell me a scouting report better than a coach,” Hartry said.
King kept the score for Hartry’s Tigers for over 20 years. He rode alongside Hartry to games, and his picture still hangs in the gym at Tucker.
“There’s been two legends at Tucker,” Burgess said. “One was Bud, and the other was coach Hartry.”
Hartry, who grew up in Milledgeville and played for Baldwin High School, didn’t stay at Tucker because he had to. The veteran coach said he received job offers from other schools over the years, but nothing could pull him away.
As it turned out, the only offer that could get him to leave Tiger basketball was another job at Tucker.
Hartry knew he was nearing the end of his basketball career last fall when an unexpected opportunity arose.
Tucker’s softball team was without a coach, and the team was struggling. Team morale was low when the Tigers forfeited a game to Stephenson in the middle of the season.
Tucker athletic director Treva Barr asked Hartry to help her coach the team and finish the softball season.
“All the girls had literally given up on softball,” Barr said. “We went to the girls, and he just said, ‘Look, if this is really what you want to do, we can do this together.’”
Hartry admitted he didn’t exactly desire the opportunity, but he couldn’t turn Tucker down after all it had done for him. Barr saw the team revive around Hartry and herself.
Three days after the forfeit, Tucker beat Stephenson 6-1. And Hartry will coach softball for Tucker next season.
“Now, they think I’m Bobby Cox,” Hartry said.
To be clear, softball isn’t the reason Hartry stepped away from coaching basketball.
Hartry still loves basketball. It gave him the chance to claim a state title, win well over 500 games and coach several NBA players — including 2025 No. 1 overall draft pick Cooper Flagg in the 2024 McDonald’s All-American Game.
Hartry felt it was time to step away for several reasons.
“Well, I’m not getting any younger, and I’m getting more serious about the game more and more,” he said. “The older you get, the more it gets in your blood, man, and in basketball, when you’re a winner, basketball is very stressful.
“You know when it’s your time.”
Hartry added that he wants to spend more time with his wife and daughters, but he doesn’t plan on going far.
Hartry still wants to go to Tucker basketball games as a fan. He still wants to enjoy his free meals at Matthews Cafeteria in downtown Tucker, and he still wants to invest in the community that became his home for the last 29 years.
“I don’t have a problem telling people Tucker has been better to me than I’ve been to it, so when you ask me, Tucker, to do something … I ain’t got a problem with doing that,” Hartry said.
About the Author
Jack Leo is a sports writer and reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jack worked for the AJC throughout his four years studying journalism and sports media at Georgia State University and the University of Georgia. He's now focused on telling stories in the grassroots: bringing comprehensive coverage of high school sports for AJC Varsity.
