Jamion Christian
Jamion Christian is an American basketball coach. He is currently the head coach of the Bryant Bulldogs men's basketball team. He previously was the head coach at Siena, Mount St. Mary's, and George Washington. He was also the head coach for Pallacanestro Trieste in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A from 2023 to 2025.
Biography
Christian was born and raised in Quinton, Virginia. As a shooting guard, he led New Kent High School to a Virginia High School League State Championship with a 26–0 record and earned the VHSL Group A State Player of the Year honors. Christian then became a shooting guard and a three-year captain for Mount St. Mary's under head coaches Jim Phelan and Milan Brown. Christian has a strong pedigree in athletics, Christian's father, John, was a standout track athlete at Virginia State University. The elder Christian is in the Virginia State University Hall of Fame and is a retired Head Coach of the Charles City County High School Track & Field team. His mother was middle school teacher for New Kent County.His brother Jarell Christian, is currently a coach for the Seattle storm
Assistant coaching career
Christian began his coaching career as an assistant at Emory and Henry College, Bucknell and then William & Mary. While with Coach Shaver and the Tribe, Christian recruited two of the most successful players in Tribe history: Brandon Britt and Marcus Thornton.Christian then served as an assistant at Virginia Commonwealth under head coach Shaka Smart, helping the Rams to the third round of the 2012 NCAA tournament after upsetting #5 seed Wichita State in the 2nd round. Coach Christian also helped the Rams to a 2012 CAA Tournament championship and finished 2011–12 season with the most wins in school history.
Head coaching career
Mount St. Mary's hired Christian as head coach on March 26, 2012. Christian implemented an up-tempo offense and “mayhem” defense, comparable to VCU's "havoc" defense popularized by Shaka Smart. After his first season at the helm, Christian was named finalist for the 2013 Joe B. Hall Award, presented to the top first-year head coach in Division 1.During the 2012–13 season, the Mountaineers qualified for the NEC tournament. As a No. 5 seed, Mount St. Mary's upset Bryant and Robert Morris, but lost to Long Island University in the championship game. During the 2013–14 season, the Mountaineers won the NEC tournament and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, their first appearance since 2008.
Christian was also responsible for overseeing development of Rashad Whack, Julian Norfleet, Sam Prescott and Shivaughn Wiggins.
On May 2, 2018, Christian replaced Jimmy Patsos as the head coach at Siena. He guided the Saints to a nine-win turnaround from the previous year, finishing 17–16 overall and 11–7 in MAAC play, and a second-place finish. It would be his only season on the job as he accepted the head coaching position at George Washington on March 21, 2019. Christian was fired from George Washington on March 14, 2022, after three seasons.
In July 2023, Christian accepted a job offer from Italy and became head coach of Pallacanestro Trieste. He guided Trieste to a Serie A2 Championship in 2024 and thus to promotion to the country's top flight, Lega Basket Serie A.
On April 3, 2025, Christian was named the next head coach at Bryant, replacing Phil Martelli Jr.