NBA Rumor: World Cup
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JD Shaw: Sources: Team USA has received commitments from several players for the next round of World Cup Qualifiers, including Joe Johnson, Juwan Morgan, Langston Galloway and DaQuan Jeffries. Full roster to be released next week.
Fomer Bulls coach Jim Boylen, I’m told, is indeed locked in to coach USAB’s World Cup qualifying team in its next two games in February after going 1-1 last month against Cuba and Mexico. Boylen might well end up coaching the qualifying team in all six two-game windows it must complete through February 2023 to secure a spot in the 32-nation field for the 2023 Worlds in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, but that will depend to an extent on Boylen’s NBA future and whether he returns to the league after this season.
Tim Reynolds: USA Basketball opens qualifying for the 2023 Basketball World Cup with a 95-90 win over Cuba. Isaiah Thomas had the dagger, a 3-pointer with 13.3 seconds left that sealed matters for the Americans and capped his 21-point night.
Team USA draws Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba for World Cup qualifying
Team USA will face Puerto Rico, Mexico and Cuba in the first round of qualifying for the 2023 Basketball World Cup. The Americans, who won a fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in Tokyo but finished only seventh at the most recent Basketball World Cup two years ago, found out their qualifying opponents Tuesday when the draw was held at FIBA headquarters in Mies, Switzerland. It will also be the first major tournament for USA Basketball with Grant Hill as managing director. Hill is succeeding Jerry Colangelo in that role; Colangelo oversaw each of the last four Olympics for the U.S., helping assemble teams that won gold medals each time.
Defending World Cup champion Spain, trying to become one of the 12 European qualifiers for the tournament, opens with games against Ukraine, Georgia and North Macedonia in the opening round. As hosts, the Philippines and Japan are already in the 32-team World Cup field. The other 30 spots will be decided through qualifying. Indonesia does not get an automatic spot as a host country.
Team director Jerry Colangelo told The Republic in July that Booker’s agent told him in May Booker wanted to focus on getting healthy and ready for the 2019-20 season. Booker addressed that by saying he did what was best for himself, his family, his career and his future. “You know me, I don’t look into none that too much,” Booker said. “… I think it’s obvious I’ve dealt with injuries, especially last year, dealing with three hamstring injuries and not wanting to go through that. Just focusing on this Suns team and getting where I want to go with this team is my main priority.”
Ryan Wolstat: Marc Gasol wouldn’t pick one championship celebration over the other. “Thanks for putting me in that position though.” Between that and his shoe quip, Marc brought the jokes to media day.
Olgun Uluc: Inbox: Basketball Australia says that Andrew Bogut has received notification of disciplinary proceedings from FIBA, concerning an incident that occurred at the #FIBAWC on September 13. Bogut has until 8pm (AEST) on September 25 to provide his statement.
Marc Gasol: Not a bad harvest year! 🥇🏆
USA Basketball has kept its No. 1 spot in the FIBA world men’s rankings, even after a disappointing seventh-place showing in the World Cup that ended earlier this week. It’s now nine years and counting in the top spot for the U.S., which has held the No. 1 ranking since winning the 2010 world championship. World Cup champion Spain stayed No. 2, Australia leaped eight spots to No. 3, World Cup finalist Argentina rose one spot to No. 4 and World Cup bronze medalist France fell two slots to No. 5.
Some are taking Team USA’s disastrous showing in the FIBA World Cup lightly. Jerry Colangelo is not one of those people. “I believe that if we didn’t have those injuries, we would have won.”
“FIBA made a mistake moving the World Cup into odd years,” David Stern, the former N.B.A. commissioner, recently told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “And as a result, you are asking players to play in the FIBA world championship, play in the season and then play in the Olympics. And I think that pushed a lot of players to feel that they should make a choice between back-to-back years of international competition.”
Utah’s Rudy Gobert and I had a brief chance to chat about this issue — again — after he and his teammates clinched the bronze medal for France in a victory over Australia in FIBA’s third-place game on Sunday. “I wish all the best players would come, but it’s never going to happen,” Gobert said of the modern N.B.A. player’s approach in the Load Management Era. “They think about themselves more than anything — and it’s understandable. It’s a business. We all have families to take care of.”
Patrick Mills: Well that’s awks. Not the ultimate award I was after, but I was told by @BasketballAus on the bus post game that I made the All-Star Five. Nek Minute… ??????? Throw it on the fire ?? WE’LL BE BACK #Tokyo2020 @AUSOlympicTeam
Jason Anderson: Following comments on ESPN regarding Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox, USA Basketball says it “understands De’Aaron’s decision.” Aaron Fox: Who cares if he ever play for team USA Sacramento Kings is his first responsibility team USA is not gonna pay his bills.
SiriusXM NBA Radio: 🔊NBA PG @JmCalderon {Jose Calderon} explains to @TheFrankIsola & @Mitch_Lawrence what makes former @BaloncestoESP teammate @MarcGasol so special in both NBA & international play “[Marc Gasol’s] just about the team, he’s about winning.”
Eurohoops.net: Never change @MarcGasol. “Tomorrow the sun will come up again, the world will keep going, and we get to be world champions. But basketball is not that important as the message we can send to younger generations and inspire them to be good people. That’s the most important thing”.
They all have an NBA season to prepare for now, and at least some of them would love a shot at redemption next summer. “There’s no telling,” Walker said about possibly playing next year. “It’s not up to me. I would love to. It was really fun to be a part of. I would love to do it again.”
That’s right, not only did the once-mighty Team USA finish seventh at the World Cup (its lowest finish ever), but also not a single American made the all-tournament team. “I have tremendous respect for what Team USA represents,” Scariolo said. “Now people are having fun and disrespecting them. We have to be thankful to American basketball and the NBA. Now in this competition, they didn’t fulfill what they were expecting. “Let’s show respect. Whatever is decided in their house is going to be there. I can only say it’s an honor to be above them in the final ranking. I respect them so strongly next year.”
When asked on if the Gasol brothers will be in Tokyo, Japan for the 2020 Olympics, Gasol didn’t make any promises: “At this point in your career, you don’t know. You want to be there, you hope to be there, but you’re not gonna make any promises. Potentially this could be my last World Cup”.
“It’s been a good three months”, he said jokingly. “I’m very happy and fortunate. I’m blessed to be in this position.” Gasol, 34 was also voted in the All-Star five, but still, he said: “the sun will come up again, the world will keep going, but we get to be world champions”.
Tim Reynolds: Ricky Rubio: ““We weren’t the most talented team. We weren’t the bigger team. Put anything you want, but we were the team with the biggest heart and we showed it tonight and we showed it during the whole tournament.”
Tim Reynolds: More from MVP Ricky Rubio: “I lost my mom three years ago and I know she was behind me, pushing me every day to get the best out of me. There’s nobody in this world who loved me more than her and she’s still driving me every day. She’s not here, but I feel it.”
The Toronto Raptors center becomes the second player to win an NBA title and a FIBA world gold medal in the same year, joining Lamar Odom — who did it for the Los Angeles Lakers and USA Basketball in 2010. Gasol also became the 19th to win either an NBA or WNBA crown along with a gold medal, either of the Olympic or World Cup variety, in the same year. The first 18 all did it for the U.S. This time, Vamos España! “NBA champion and a World Cup champion as well,” Gasol said. “What can I say? How does it sound to you? I feel very fortunate to be in this position and be able to play this game and help these guys be part of history of Spanish basketball.”
Jorge Sierra: Spain has a +12.1 point differential in World Cup/Eurobasket finals this century. They don’t mess around when it matters the most. Olympic finals a different matter because 🇺🇸
Jorge Sierra: Ricky Rubio MVP of the World Cup. No complaints.
Mark Woods: The All Star Five for the World Cup: Bogdan Bogdanovic (Serbia) – the leading scorer in the tournament – Evan Fournier (France), Ricky Rubio (Spain), Luis Scola (Argentina), Marc Gasol (Spain)
Emiliano Carchia: Juancho Hernangomez: In the past two months I had great teachers as Ricky Rubio, Marc Gasol, Rudy. They know how to win.
Nikos Varlas: Asia favors Spain! World Champions in 2006 and 2019 #FIBAWC pic.twitter.com/m2ytKONV2h
Donatas Urbonas: Bogdan Bogdanovic and Evan Fournier share the first row in the World Cup final, which might indicate that they’re going to make the all-tournament team. 2-3 other players likely share the floor right now.
France are the winners of FIBA Basketball World Cup bronze medal. The team coached by Vincent Collet beat Australia 67-59 with a comeback in the second half. France was led defensively by Nicolas Batum while offensively Nando De Colo paced the team with 19 points.
Tim Reynolds: Jazz center @Rudy Gobert on the bronze: “It means everything. Obviously it’s not the one we wanted. We all know that. But being able to come back _ we’re the only team that was on the podium five years ago and on the podium now. So it shows our heart.”
Globally, there has been a lot of talk about Team USA’s absences, and the 32 players who withdraw their names from the preliminary roster. Fournier, 26 was critical of his competitors in the NBA: “It does [bother me]. To be honest, when you look at LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and all these guys… they came here already and won, so it’s fine. But for friends of mine like Tobias [Harris], I thought it was a great opportunity for him to see something different and compete. I think they don’t realize how beneficial this is for their career. It’s a great tournament, great basketball, super intense. I know you have to work on your game, but this is way better.”
Tim Reynolds: Magic G @EvanFourmizz after France win: “It feels good to finish on a good note. When you see Australia, the players, Bogut, Dellavedova, I know those guys and it’s awful for them. But that’s definitely what we didn’t want, to finish the tournament feeling like (crap) like that.”
Manu Ginobili: #FIBAWC Congrats to the French team on winning bronze and to the Aussies for a great tournament! 👏👏
Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Lamar Odom, LeBron James, and Kyrie Irving. Those are the only five players to win an NBA title and a gold medal in the same year, whether it was in FIBA or Olympic competition, with Pippen doing it twice. It is an exclusive club – one that Marc Gasol is on the cusp of joining.
A mere three months after helping the Toronto Raptors win the NBA Finals, Gasol has led Spain to the gold medal game at the World Cup. It’ll be Spain against Argentina on Sunday, with both nations looking for their second title. Spain won the world championship in 2006 when Gasol was a 21-year-old backup, and Argentina won the inaugural tournament in 1950. “I’m so deep in the rabbit hole right now that I don’t get to see much light,” Gasol said. “You’re so focused on your opponent, your next rival, recovering, doing whatever’s necessary to win games that you don’t look at the big picture. It’s been great. I’m very fortunate. “I knew that committing to the national team this summer would not be easy physically. But it’s so worth it, and not just because we’re in the final game.”
A USA Basketball spokesman responded Saturday to comments made on ESPN suggesting Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox would not be allowed to represent Team USA in the future because he withdrew from consideration for this summer’s FIBA World Cup team.
Popovich said it’s too early to think about what USA Basketball needs to do before getting ready for the Tokyo Games. But he warned — just as two-time gold medalist Kobe Bryant did on Friday — that the days of American romps to gold are done. “There are a lot of great teams in the world,” Popovich said. “It’s not written in stone that the United States is supposed to walk to a championship. That’s pretty old-school thinking. Even the teams that have won in the past had a lot of close calls.”
Serbia guard Bogdan Bogdanovic finished the 2019 World Cup with some phenomenal stats, including the number of 3-pointers he made in the tournament. In fact, Bogdanovic hit more 3-pointers by his own than seven national teams that participated in the World Cup.
“People want to play the blame game, there’s no blame to be placed anywhere,” Popovich said. “They want to play the shame game, like we should be ashamed because we didn’t win a gold medal? That’s a ridiculous attitude. It’s immature, it’s arrogant, and it shows that whoever thinks that doesn’t respect all the other teams in the world and doesn’t respect that these guys did the best they could.”
“I don’t fault anybody that decided not to come — everybody’s got a life,” Popovich said. “Things happen in people’s families. People have things going on. Could be injuries, could be personal commitments that they have. Whoever came, came. “This group I couldn’t have been happier with any other group no matter who would’ve come. They wouldn’t have worked any harder this group.”
Tim Reynolds: Donovan Mitchell, world-class good dude, was the last American to leave the court in the pre-warmup period. He took off his sneakers and tossed them into the crowd — making sure a young fan he was pointing to got them.
Australia and Bogut — if he plays — will face the wrath of much of the Beijing arena when they take on France for the bronze medal. The footage of Bogut swearing repeatedly and making accusations of favouritism was widely featured in Chinese media. Many reports called for FIBA to ban him.
Baynes was typically staunch when leaving training, delivering his message as he breezed by journalists to the bus. “I’ve got three words for you; nothing else, no questions, nothing,” he said. “Regroup. Refocus. Reinvigorate.”
The loose ball foul against Andrew Bogut is the one most will point to – he sure did – with the centre apparently making contact with Marc Gasol, who would hit a pair of free throws to give Spain a one-point lead. Patty Mills would split a pair on the other end, sending the game to overtime. “They’re furious. They’re crushed and furious,” Longley said. “Where their fury is directed, I can’t tell you. Probably all over the place. It’s very quiet in there. That’s the team we lost to in Rio, but we felt like we deserved to win it. We felt like we played well enough to win it. Yeah, it’s pretty quiet in there.”
Spain was waiting for its opponent in the 2019 FIBA World Cup final on Sunday at Beijing and Argentina completed the pairing in the gold medal match by defeating France, 80-66, on Friday at China’s capital. Manu Ginobili was in attendance for both semifinals, but thoroughly enjoyed his country triumph in the second contest. Former teammate Luis Scola put in the work on the court with a 13-10 double-double at halftime and 28 points coupled with 13 boards in the end of the match.
Doug Smith: Argentina 80, France 66 Scola plays 34 of 40 minutes, has 28 points and 13 rebounds Argentina won first world championship in 1950, Luis was not on that team, I don’t think Gold medal game Sunday vs. Spain
“You have to remember on the Redeem Team we needed a hell of a fourth quarter to beat Spain. That was a hell of a team we had. We still needed a real late push to beat Spain in that gold medal match. So I say that to say, put the best players that you think are going to make the best U.S. team out on the floor, we are still going to have challenges. It’s not going to be a cakewalk. The days of the 92 Barcelona Dream Team are gone. They’re over, so it’s going to be tough.”
That last player to earn NBA and FIBA titles in the same summer was Lamar Odom in 2010, when he won with the Los Angeles Lakers and was a part of Team USA’s victory in the World Championships in Turkey. “I don’t want to lose a second to think what it would mean,” Gasol said. “You look at the big picture. I’m very fortunate I committed to the national team this summer.”
Donatas Urbonas: Andrew Bogut stormed out the mixed zone: “It’s a fu**ing disgrace”
Emiliano Carchia: Andrew Bogut after foul on Marc Gasol witth 8 seconds to play He “shows” money…
John Schuhmann: After Australia’s 2OT loss to Spain in the WC semifinals here in Beijing, Andrew Bogut cursed his way past all the reporters in the mix zone, griping about FIBA & clearly wanting to be heard.
Olgun Uluc: An emotional but measured Luc Longley, after Australia’s loss: “Spain gets kissed on the dick by the basketball gods every time we play them.”
Spain’s experienced core didn’t break against a feisty Australia and survived a double-overtime to return to the final of FIBA World Cup after 13 long years with a 95-88 victory. Australia had a great chance to make history and showcased impressive athleticism for 50 minutes, though when Sergio Llull stepped foot in the second OT, things turned out in Spain’s favor.
Tim Reynolds: Andrew Bogut screaming postgame that FIBA is “a (bleeping) disgrace.” “Cheating bleep bleeper-bleepers” was also shouted.
Djordjevic did not want to use curse words at his postgame news conference, but he revealed later that Popovich, the five-time N.B.A. championship-winning coach, broke the pregame ice by jokingly calling them “a couple of losers” — with a profanity thrown in. “We were just looking at each other, saying, ‘We are playing this?’” Djordjevic said, referring to Thursday’s fifth-place-bracket game.
“He said we should be playing for something else,” Djordjevic continued. “The disappointment is there. Competitors are like that.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo made his first public reaction following the elimination of Greece in the World Cup second round stage. The “Greek Freak” uploaded a photo of him with the jersey of his national team and the caption: “Blessings show up in many different forms.. Don’t ever second guess Gods plan.”
Factor in the language barrier and the culture shock that most Australians experience when first arriving in China, and the World Cup has proven itself to be one hell of a taxing tournament. “It’s tough,” Andrew Bogut said on Wednesday. “It’s tougher than an NBA schedule.”
Andrew Bogut: “FIBA is way more physical than the NBA, first and foremost. It’s pretty hard recovering, just 48 hours rest. Then, couple that with: everything in China takes twice as long as they say it’s supposed to; traffic, a lot of people everywhere, nothing every runs on time.”
Of the 35 players originally selected for the U.S. player pool, only four are in China for the World Cup. The U.S. lost to France in the quarterfinals, ending a streak of seven major international tournaments — four Olympics and three World Cups — where the Americans captured a medal, the last five of them being gold. “I can only say, you can’t help but notice and remember who you thought you were going to war with and who didn’t show up,” Colangelo said. “I’m a firm believer that you deal with the cards you’re dealt. All we could have done, and we did it, is get the commitments from a lot of players. So with that kind of a hand you feel reasonably confident that you’re going to be able to put a very good representative team on the court. “No one would have anticipated the pull-outs that we had.”
Marcus Morris: I knew @usabasketball should of let @Carmelo Anthony play! 🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️
Myles Turner: From 1-12 top to bottom this team this roster has sacrificed so much for our nation. our summers, our bodies, our mental. We came up short can’t nobodies more upset than us but I refuse to tolerate any Slander for our play you cannot question our heart, Our character, or are spirit we layed it all out on the line each and every game. Don’t disrespect us this coaching staff or USA Basketball as a whole but respect the world basketball is an international game these countries are talented. JB, Khris, JT, Dmitch, Mason, Marcus, Kemba, D White, BrooK, HB, Joe it’s been an honor I’d go to war with any of these fellas any given night. #Godspeed fellas let’s head home with a Dub 🇺🇸
Myles Turner: We’re also the ones who stepped up to the plate when others stepped down. We qualified our nation for the Olympics we got some work to do to rebuild a legacy that was left before us were on the wrong side of history indeed. But that’s gunna make the next medal that much sweeter!
Joe Vardon: More bad history for Team USA. Lose two straight for first time since 2002, falling 94-89 to Serbia. Best Americans can do at World Cup is seventh, worst since NBA players took over in 1992.
“It’s all sort of sinking in right now,” the Nets’ Joe Harris said. “They outplayed us from the get-go, really. We were reacting the whole night. “You put in a lot of a time, a lot of work, you build up a special bond with these guys and the coaches. And then for it not to come to fruition at the end of it all, it’s a tough pill to swallow.”
One locker-room observer suggested afterward that, in his time in the league, he had never seen such a despondent scene after a loss. Harris, unprompted, made multiple mentions of the “39 days” that this group spent together trying to establish sufficient continuity to get through eight games and make their summer more of a non-story.
Turner had a brilliant game Monday against Brazil, and he may have let it get to his head. He compared himself to Gobert and said, “He’s the defensive player of the year, according to some.” Well, the French players saw the quote and showed it to Gobert. “Yeah we saw it and we showed it to him,” said Nicolas Batum, of the Hornets. “We know he’s great on defense, so we’re going to use it to motivate him tonight.”
“A lot of guys played well,” Popovich said. “(Gobert and Fornier) were outstanding, but they have a basketball team. All the pieces fit and they’re all playing defense. Their sharing the basketball. They made good decisions. There weren’t too many mental mistakes. I think the switching bothered them for a while and we got back in the game and went ahead. In the end, I think their experience and their execution showed. It wasn’t just two guys.”
“To hear Donovan be so passionate about wanting to play (was great),” Ingles said. “I was like, ‘Oh, are you going to pull out because everyone else is?’, and (Mitchell said), ‘No, I’m going to play for my country.’ He’s obviously like really proud to do that. Obviously Rudy is (too). I know in the past with (former Jazz guard) Ricky (Rubio of Spain, who’s now with Phoenix), and playing against Ricky for so long, there’s genuine love (for playing on the national team). “You’ve got to respect, to a certain extent, guys’ decisions (not to play) because there is career (impact). Some guys are in contract years this offseason, and there’s a lot that goes into it. I think for us, for me, it’s – I’m all Australia right now, and as soon as we’re done with that I’ll switch right off and go to Jazz mode.”
Tom Westerholm: Jaylen Brown was asked about the locker room after the loss: “I don’t even know how to answer that. Like everybody knows what we wanted to do, and we didn’t do it. I guess you can imagine how we feel, right?”
The exciting thing, however, is that they beat the USA by being among other things taller. Coach Gregg Popovich had to play small against Rudy Gobert, but the small ball didn’t affect at all the French game plan. “We knew, and we didn’t want to adjust to that,” explained Batum after the game. “We wanted to keep him on the court. Because… he is our best player. He is the back-to-back defensive player of the year. We know what he can bring in defense and offense as well. That’s why the coach kept him on the court. We knew that his defense would help us. And he also help us on offense. He got better, and that will be the next step for him. He has shown some improvement, he moves better, he knows how to get inside, and if he gets to be like we want him to be, it will be the next step.”
And also one of the surprises of the game was Frank Ntilikina. He not only played good defense but made some big shots down the stretch, scoring seven of his total 11 points in the last quarter. “He was clutch,” said Batum. “And that was a big turnaround for us. We lost our point guard (Thomas Heurtel) to injury during the preparation, and we needed him to have a big tournament. It’s something that will help him for the rest of his career. And this can be a big deal for him during next year, cause he is a great player”.
Rudy Gobert: Encore 2. 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/WhDGGoIuAG
Rudy Gobert has now got some “bragging rights” over his Utah Jazz teammate Donovan Mitchell following the historic win of France over Team USA in the World Cup quarterfinals. However, the two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year will leave trash talk aside for now since he can imagine how much this defeat hurt his teammate. “I don’t think that’s the way I am,” Gobert said. “I like to talk a little trash. But this kind of competition….I just lost to Australia. I love Joe but I wanted to stop him. It hurts. I think this experience is going to make Donovan better. We have to go hard when we go for the national team, but we also have to go that way with Utah. I’m excited for both.”
“Any loss hurts,” Popovich said. “This situation hurts more, but life goes on. This is very important. We would have loved to have won, just like any other team would love to win all their games in this tournament. But we’re all grown. We all have families, lives, and life goes on.”
Team USA coach and five-time NBA champion Gregg Popovich didn’t want to hear any discussion about the squad’s numerous absences, following the eliminating loss to France in the World Cup quarterfinals. A result that marked USA’s first defeat in an official game in 13 years. “I think it’s a disrespectful notion,” Popovich said following a question to USA guard Donovan Mitchell on if he wanted to see some other NBA players at his side. “To even bring up something like that up: ‘Hey if you guys had this guy and had that guy’. That’s disrespectful to France or whoever else is in the tournament. France beat us. It doesn’t matter who is on the team. I couldn’t have been more proud of these 12 guys who sacrificed their summer to come here. Having never played together before. They put themselves in the arena and competed and they deserve credit for that. Just like France deserves credit for winning. It’s not about ‘well, the USA didn’t have their other guys’. There’s no such thing as ‘other guys’. These are the guys who are here. They did a great job and I’m very proud of them.
Tim Reynolds: Enormous credit to the disappointed USA players who came out and talked to us tonight — Kemba, Donovan, Joe Harris, Harrison Barnes, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, I might be missing some, and no one ducked requests. First class.
June 3, 2023 | 9:09 pm EDT Update
Michael Malone on team's success: 'We haven't done a damn thing'
Barely prompted, Malone turned his attention to the fourth quarter where the Nuggets were outscored 30-20 and saw a sizable double-digit lead shrink to just nine as the Heat found its 3-point stroke. Think Malone, with a chance to do something no other team in Nuggets history has done, would allow for even an ounce of complacency? Think again. No one’s getting fat with success right now. Not on his watch. “I told our players today, don’t read the paper, don’t listen to the folks on the radio and TV saying that this series is over and that we’ve done something, because we haven’t done a (dang) thing,” Malone said with his trademark fire.
Aaron Gordon admitted it’s hard not to let the outside chatter filter into his headspace. “It’s difficult because the people around you get excited, as well,” Gordon said. “So, you have to keep like a calmness. You have to keep a poise to you, like an intense energy but calm, while the rest of everybody else is really frenetic. It’s important to just make the main thing the main thing and just be focused on what the task is at hand.”
Gordon began to get out of his seat at the podium before he decided to make one more point. “Still reading the newspaper and the news around the world is important and not being consumed with kind of the bubble that is the NBA, even though it expands during the Finals,” he said. “But still, being aware of the other things that are going on outside of the media, the NBA, and the things that are going on outside of the world and reading world news is still really important.”
Ira Winderman: The Heat are listing Tyler Herro (hand) as out for Sunday’s Game 2 in Denver. But that does not mean he is definitively out. That status can be changed up until game time. Martin (illness) and Zeller (foot sprain) are listed as questionable. Vincent (ankle) listed as available.
June 3, 2023 | 7:24 pm EDT Update
Terry Stotts heads back to Milwaukee as assistant
Adrian Wojnarowski: Terry Stotts is finalizing a deal to join Adrian Griffin’s new coaching staff with the Milwaukee Bucks, sources tell ESPN. Stotts won 402 games and made eight straight playoff trips as Portland’s coach. He was the Bucks’ coach for 146 games, ending in 2007.
Phoenix Suns associate head coach Kevin Young is staying with the franchise on a new $2 million annual deal that’ll make him the NBA’s highest-paid assistant coach, sources told ESPN on Saturday. The Suns were determined to keep Young on new coach Frank Vogel’s staff and made a significant commitment to keep him from following former coach Monty Williams to the Detroit Pistons, sources said.
