Doc Rivers told reporters, including of Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, that he assumes Kevin Johnson will have the choice to become the president of the NBA players association even if he wants to remain mayor of Sacramento (Twitter link). Earlier, we passed on word that Johnson isn’t a candidate for the union role due to his political ambitions. Here’s more from around the league:
- The Bulls haven’t received any indication that the Lakers plan to request a meeting with coach Tom Thibodeau, a source tells Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Cowley surmises that the rumblings about the Lakers pursuing Thibodeau won’t amount to much beyond speculation.
- Sources tell K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune that Thibodeau is a proponent of the Bulls pursuing Carmelo Anthony this summer. Johnson speculates that Thibodeau’s involvement with future personnel decisions casts doubt on the potential for him to meet with the Lakers, let alone leave Chicago for Los Angeles.
- Damien Wilkins has signed with Indios de Mayaguez of Puerto Rico, agent Christian Santaella tweets (translation via Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). The 34-year-old spent training camp with the Hawks before signing in China this winter, and hasn’t played in the NBA since starting 21 games with the Sixers in the 2012/13 season.
- Ian O’Connor of ESPNNewYork.com says that Jason Kidd‘s performance as a coach would be the biggest failure for the Nets if Brooklyn doesn’t make it out of the first round. While the team recovered after a disappointing start, O’Connor notes that the upgraded roster will still have done worse than last year’s team, when P.J. Carlesimo was let go following a first round exit.
- Adam Silver was not aware of any potential boycott from NBA players when he made his decision to seek the ouster of Clippers owner Donald Sterling, per Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal (Twitter links). Kevin Johnson, helping represent the players union through the issue, tells Mullen that a boycott “was never mentioned” in his talks with the commissioner.
- With the help of legal experts, Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today looks at some of the legal maneuvers Sterling could pursue to counter the league’s actions, including stalling the team’s ownership status by filing for divorce.
- In a Q&A with Richard Sandomir of The New York Times, a longtime sports lawyer lays out the legal framework that lies ahead as the league pushes to remove Sterling.