BILLY King, Billy Knight, Bernie Bickerstaff and a mystery man are the exclusive competition for the Knicks’ GM job, it says here. My use of a mystery man allows me to claim “I told you so” should a fourth entrant surface as the winner. These are the kind of crafty machinations you pick up after years on the case.
Donnie Walsh’s disinclination to volunteer the name of the European coach he interviewed regarding the Knicks’ job, notwithstanding, a source reveals it was Italian (but of course) Ettore Messina, whose CSKA Moscow team won the European Championship two weeks ago in Madrid.
Team owner Robert Sarver summarily disqualified (campaigning) Eddie Johnson, Vinny Del Negro and Tom Chambers as coaching candidates when asked about his three Suns’ employees on a Phoenix radio station.
Confirming desert reports, Mark Jackson will meet with president/GM Steve Kerr and senior VP David Griffin today in Los Angeles. I’m informed there are no plans to reach out to Avery Johnson.
Contrary to projections about a lengthy search, it appears management’s list is rather condensed. Pistons assistant Terry Porter yesterday huddled with Kerr and Griffin. Kurt Rambis will get his turn after Jackson. Kerr looks up to Phil Jackson, whom he played for in Chicago. Rambis is a Lakers’ assistant and exhibits a similar free spirited style.
The Hawks, sources divulge, received permission from the Spurs to speak to assistant GM Dennis Lindsey about replacing Knight. Ownership already has talked to Wizards VP Tommy Sheppard. Cavaliers assistant GM Chris Grant, who worked under Stan Kasten and Pete Babcock in Atlanta, is a third nominee.
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Nobody is about to doubt that the Nets’ Kiki Vandeweghe is aroused to acquire Carmelo Anthony and Marcus Camby. Aside from Melo’s multi-dimensional skills, I’m sure Kiki thinks getting him would greatly facilitate the Nets’ chances of luring LeBron James to New Jersey, er, Brooklyn, when he becomes a free agent.
However, I assume the Nuggets have some say in this matter and that should be the end of that. Unless Melo is mired in misery why would Denver give up on him so early in his career?
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Several core Warriors are convinced owner Chris Cohan is considering paying off ($5.1M) Don Nelson rather than risk a players’ rebellion next season.
That gloomy forecast is largely based on how downbeat last season ended. In the second half of the Warriors’ elimination-from-playoff-contention loss (next to last game) at Phoenix, Nelson benched Baron Davis – purportedly because his offense backfired (2-13) in the opening 24 minutes. He did not play in the second half, as if a franchise player never shot blanks only to rediscover his stroke of genius in the final 24.
The night before the game, Versace held a reception for Davis in Phoenix that was scheduled to last from 7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. It was not a party, underlines a Warriors official, yet it was referred to in that sense by the Arizona Republic the next day.
Numerous observers, me included, were convinced Nelson disciplined Davis for “partying” the night before such a big game after he was unable to find the range in the first half.
Column co-conspirators swear it was Nelson way to provoke his firing in order to return to his dream life in Maui. Why? Because supposedly he realized more and more key players (one of the top six already wants to be traded) had become anesthetized by his con.
On the other hand, there are more than a few Warriors observers who believe Nelson (with management’s unspoken blessing) might’ve been trying to incite Davis to exercise his early-out clause July 1, 2008 in order to become a free agent.
Executive VP Chris Mullin could certainly use the $17.8M Davis would forfeit in that event to invest in rising free agents Monta Ellis, Andris Biedrins, Matt Barnes and Mickael Pietrus.
Davis has repeatedly stated his wish to remain a Warrior but agent Todd Ramasar expressed a need for his 29-year-old client to reconsider his position.
“I’d be absolutely shocked if Nellie was not here next season,” stressed someone who usually has his hand on the Warriors’ pulse. “I don’t think anyone has even given that a thought.
OK, fine, so why wasn’t’ Davis re-inserted?
At the time, Nelson said Baron was “lethargic” so he went to his bench in the third quarter, and the Warriors outscored the Suns 38-19 in one of their best quarters of the season. Late in the fourth quarter when the game was tight, Nelson had to make a decision: “Do I continue to go with the players who got us back in the game in the third quarter or do I go back to the players who got us buried in the first half?”
Nelson decided to reward the group that got him back in the game. “Coaches are faced with those decisions all the time during the course of the season,” a team official remarked.
I understand. Yet the majority of them would have rewarded the player most responsible for propelling his team over the course of a full season when measured against fewer than two quarters.
Case closed.
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Dennis Farina was arrested at LAX for “forgetting” that a loaded .22-caliber handgun was in his luggage. Police let the actor slide after he explained he was just holding it for Carmelo.