NBA Rumors Round-Up
NBA Rumors: Adrian Griffin Replacing Mike Brown?
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
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Adrian Griffin has emerged as a top candidate to become head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers fired Mike Brown after his first season back with the club.
Griffin is currently an assistant coach with the Chicago Bulls.
Via Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today Sports
Griffin has become a popular head coach candidate these days based off his development in Chicago. Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau has worked with him extensively and he was given to coach the Bulls’ summer league team this past offseason as well.
However, the competition is stiff, as a lot more qualified candidates are on the Cavaliers radar as well, like Mike D’Antoni, Vinny Del Negro, Mark Jackson, Tony Bennett, John Beilein and Alvin Gentry. Steve Kerr has also been mentioned as a possibility.
Cavaliers GM David Griffin is said to be looking for a coach with an up tempo system that values three point shooting. After letting go of a veteran coach like Brown who only had one losing season on his record, Adrian may be a tough sell to ownership, considering that the goal is to get back to the playoffs and there are much more experienced candidates out there. Gentry and D’Antoni could be more likely considering their ties to David from their days in Phoenix together.
“I just read a transcript of Donald Sterling’s interview with Anderson Cooper and while Magic Johnson doesn’t need me to, I feel compelled on behalf of the NBA family to apologize to him that he continues to be dragged into this situation and be degraded by such a malicious and personal attack. The NBA Board of Governors is continuing with its process to remove Mr. Sterling as expeditiously as possible.”
Via NBA Press Releases
According to Cooper, Sterling was there under his own accord without a public relations team or a lawyer present – another grave mistake. He came out of the interview looking worse than before after making even more outlandish comments that Jewish people give back once their successful more than African Americans, and questioning what Magic Johnson has done to help people. He also attacked Magic for having the HIV virus. Needless to say, Sterling’s days are done and that interview only sealed his fate that was already unavoidable to begin with.
Magic is set to appear on Cooper’s show later tonight.
The New York Knicks and Steve Kerr are moving closer to a deal for him to become their next head coach.
A deal has been slow to materialize as the Knicks have been slow to overpay Kerr in terms of deal length and salary.
The Knicks have tried to treat Kerr more like a first-time coach.
Kerr was reportedly seeking a five year deal in the $30 million range, which would pay him about $6 million annually. That certainly is a precedence the Knicks would like to prefer avoiding, but it make sense for Kerr to come in high with his asking price considering the demand there is for his services. He’s been courted by the Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz and now the Cleveland Cavaliers have become yet another potential suitor.
All signs point to a deal with the Knicks getting done, it could just take into the next couple of weeks to get a deal done based on the fact that Kerr is currently very busy finishing out his analysts duties with TNT and is in no rush to start this multi-year commitment before then.
