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Bryan Colangelo, Grant Hill, Others Eye Hawks

January 8th, 2015 at 2:39pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:39pm: Itzler is teaming with brokerage firm founder Steven Starker and has “extreme interest,” though he cautioned that it’s just preliminary, as he told Scott Soshnick and Zeke Faux of Bloomberg.com. Vivlamore reported Wednesday (below) that Itzler was seeking only a minority share.

2:22pm: Bryan Colangelo is part of the group with Hill and Bridgeman, Aldridge clarifies (on Twitter).

THURSDAY, 2:19pm: Hill and fellow former player Junior Bridgeman are teaming up to try to purchase the Hawks, with Jerry Colangelo, Bryan’s father, acting a “senior advisor” to them, TNT’s David Aldridge reports (Twitter link). It’s unclear if Bryan is a part of the Hill-Bridgeman group. The Hawks officially put the entire team as well as Phillips Arena up for sale today, the club announced via press release.

WEDNESDAY, 10:29am: Former Suns and Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo, Grizzlies minority owner Steve Kaplan and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson are some of those who’ve expressed interest in purchasing the Hawks, reports Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Grant Hill is also in the mix, Vivlamore hears, confirming earlier speculation. The owners of Atlanta’s WNBA team, Kelly Loeffler and Mary Brock, also hold a level of interest in bidding for the Hawks, along with their husbands, Jeffrey Sprecher and John Brock, as they recently told Maria Saporta of the Atlanta Business Chronicle for a subscription-only piece (hat tip to Vivlamore).

Colangelo appeared to be linked to a group of Chicago-based investors who came up short in a bid for the Bucks last year, and he was also reportedly a candidate for Cavs and Pistons front office jobs in the spring. Hawks GM Danny Ferry is on an indefinite leave of absence. Kaplan’s role within the Grizzlies hierarchy reportedly shrunk during the team’s reorganization this past offseason.

Jesse Itzler, whom Grantland’s Bill Simmons identified Monday as a “name to watch” in regard to the sale of the Hawks, is currently interested only in a minority share, sources tell Vivlamore. Simmons also reported that investors Chris Hansen and Thomas Tull are mounting separate bids to buy the team and move it to Seattle, but it appears unlikely they’ll be allowed to relocate the franchise. The NBA’s stance has been that it will only consider moving a team if the market has essentially given up on the club, and that’s not the case in Atlanta, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders points out via Twitter.

Former players Dominique Wilkins, Dikembe Mutombo and Chris Webber, former Grizzlies CEO Jason Levien and attorney Doug Davis are others who reportedly have interest in purchasing the Hawks, though some would probably have to find partners to have control over a majority stake. The three ownership groups who currently own the Hawks have all agreed to sell, and the team is set to officially go on the market in a matter of days, according to Vivlamore. The purchase price is likely to end up on the low end of a range between $750MM and $1 billion, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe reported last week.

And-Ones: World Cup, Ayon, Budenholzer, Hill

September 15th, 2014 at 3:28pm CST by Chuck Myron

Support is growing stronger to make both the Olympics and the World Cup of Basketball solely for players age 22 and under, one NBA GM tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who bemoans an existing system that he believes to primarily benefit Mike Krzyzewski. The change would take effect for 2018 World Cup, Wojnarowski writes. SB Nation’s Tom Ziller argues that while the NBA could work with FIBA to implement an age limit, FIBA has shown hesitancy to cooperate, and that the players union would have a case that any league-imposed restriction should be collectively bargained. Nonetheless, it seems there’s a decent chance that even without so many A-level stars, this year’s World Cup champion Team USA squad will be significantly more talented than the next American entry into the competition. Here’s more from around the NBA:

Shandong of China has jumped into the race for Gustavo Ayon as his European rights remain up in the air, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. The Spurs are reportedly still in the mix, with Ayon needing to come up with $376K to pay FC Barcelona, which holds his European rights, if he’s to put pen to paper on a deal with Spanish rival Real Madrid.
Mike Budenholzer has never held an NBA front-office job, but he played as much of a role in talent acquisition for the Spurs as anyone outside of Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford during his time in San Antonio, writes TNT’s David Aldridge amid his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. Budenholzer is in charge of player personnel for the Hawks while GM Danny Ferry is on indefinite leave.
A group that included Grant Hill as well as billionaires Tony Ressler and Bruce Karsh made a strong impression on the league when they put up a $1.2 billion bid to purchase the Clippers this spring, Aldridge writes in the same piece. The TNT scribe speculates that they could resurface as contenders for the Hawks.

Western Rumors: Clippers, Hill, Mincberg, Pera

May 26th, 2014 at 2:57pm CST by Chuck Myron

Clippers co-owner Shelly Sterling met Sunday with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who was part of a bid to move the Kings to Seattle last year, writes Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com, seconding an earlier report from TMZ Sports. Still, Sterling wouldn’t consider selling the team to anyone who would move it from Los Angeles, according to Shelburne, and the league has given no indication it will allow Sterling to facilitate the sale of the team, as her husband, banned owner Donald Sterling, would like. Shelburne has more on the Clippers, which we’ll pass along amid our look at the latest around the West:

People within the league regard Grant Hill’s bid to buy the Clippers as a viable one, according to Shelburne. Hill’s consortium includes Antony Ressler, who’s reportedly a longtime friend of Donald Sterling.
The Grizzlies have said that David Mincberg is only a scout and will have no significant front office role from now on, according to TNT’s David Aldridge. Mincberg, whom the team lists on its website as its director of scouting, reportedly had a growing influence over the team’s basketball decisions and has been at odds with coach Dave Joerger.
Grizzlies owner Robert Pera took to Twitter to deny the assertions in an earlier report from Chris Mannix of SI.com in which Pera is said to have demanded more playing time for soon-to-be free agent Ed Davis, among other, more unusual suggestions.

Grant Hill, Yao Ming Seek Purchase Of Clippers?

May 24th, 2014 at 9:00pm CST by Cray Allred

9:00pm: Grant Hill has partnered with billionaire investors and longtime Southern California residents Tony Ressler and Bruce Karsh to form an ownership group to bid on the Clippers, Marc Stein of ESPNLosAngeles.com reports.

SATURDAY, 11:41am: Yao has denied the report, telling Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle that the news took him by surprise. “I just heard about it in the morning my time,” Yao said via email. “I really don’t know where this news came from.”

FRIDAY, 6:45pm: Both Grant Hill and Yao Ming are lining up investor groups to try and purchase the Clippers, sources tell Stein. While the Clippers aren’t yet for sale, disgraced owner Donald Sterling will likely sell the team, either by cooperating with the league or by a forced ouster. Hill, who retired from playing just under a year ago, has made it known within league circles that he’s putting together a group to pursue the team once it’s available. Since retiring, Hill has been rumored as a front office executive for the Suns and, more recently, the Pistons.

It appears Yao could be further along in the process than Hill. Yao already owns a team in China, and is expected to pursue the Clippers with a group of Chinese investors. Stein reports that Yao was initially interested in purchasing the Bucks, but dropped out of the bidding when former owner Herb Kohl insisted a new owner would keep the team in Milwaukee.

Yao and Hill join a growing list of potential buyers that includes Magic Johnson‘s Guggenheim Partners, among others. The franchise is expected to sell for over $1 billion, and a large-scale bidding war is a possibility. While Yao and Hill might not be quite as compelling as Johnson in reversing the negative attention brought on the NBA by Sterling’s actions, both are highly respected potential Hall-of-Famers that the league would presumably be more than comfortable with as franchise owners.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.

Pistons Considering Griffin, Zarren, Vandeweghe

April 18th, 2014 at 5:37pm CST by Eddie Scarito

With Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars’ announcement that he was “stepping aside”, the speculation as to who would take over his post began. The team intends to conduct a comprehensive search for their next GM, report Jeff Zillgitt and Sam Amick of USA Today. According to the article, there are several names are on the Pistons’ radar.

The latest names to be mentioned in connection with Detroit are Cavaliers acting general manager David Griffin, Celtics assistant GM and team counsel Mike Zarren and NBA senior vice president of basketball operations Kiki Vandeweghe.

Other names connected with the search per the article, are Magic assistant GM Scott Perry, who is from Detroit and used to work for the team, Warriors assistant GM Travis Schlenk, and former Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo.

It was also reported earlier this week that Grant Hill, a former Pistons player who is now working for Turner Sports, is also a possibility for the post. The Pistons may also look into an arrangement similar to the one Doc Rivers has with the Clippers, the article notes. Rivers is both coach and senior vice president of basketball operations and works with vice president of basketball operations Gary Sacks on personnel decisions.

The other wild card here could be former Pistons great Isiah Thomas, who was reported to be openly campaigning for the job, despite the team shooting down those rumors. There has also been talk that the team may want to hire Chauncey Billups for the front-office, but the exact role hasn’t been revealed.

Currently Pistons director of basketball operations Ken Catanella and assistant GM David George are preparing for the draft and free agency. They report to ownership executives Phil Norment and Bob Wentworth, both of whom are partners is Gores’ private equity investment firm, Platinum Equity, write Zillgitt and Amick.

Candidates Emerge For Pistons Top Exec Job

April 16th, 2014 at 1:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:33pm: Hill would be interested in taking a front office job eventually, but not now, tweets Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News.

11:16am: The Pistons appear to be targeting Grant Hill and Magic assistant GM Scott Perry as candidates to replace Joe Dumars atop the Detroit front office, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Stein cautions that the Pistons have promised a broad search, so Hill and Perry will likely be two of many in the running for the job.

Perry has spent most of his NBA career with the Pistons, joining the team as a scout during the same offseason in which Dumars became the club’s top basketball executive. He ascended through the ranks to become vice president of basketball operations for the team after a one-year stint as assistant GM to Sam Presti with the Thunder in 2007/08. He was said to have advocated for the Pistons to draft Carmelo Anthony rather than Darko Milicic while serving as Pistons director of player personnel in 2003, USA Today’s Sam Amick notes (Twitter link).

Hill was rumored to be a candidate for the Suns GM job last year shortly after he retired from playing at the end of the 2012/13 season. NBA teams were still interested in the 41-year-old as a player earlier this year, but Hill rejected those entreaties and has spent the season as a broadcaster. The Pistons drafted him third overall in 1994, and he played his first six NBA seasons with the team.

Amick also names Warriors assistant GM Travis Schlenk and former Raptors and Suns GM Bryan Colangelo as possible candidates (Twitter link).

Odds & Ends: Silver, Nets, Hill, Draft

February 11th, 2014 at 3:56pm CST by Chuck Myron

We’re 11 days into Adam Silver’s reign as NBA commissioner, and if no one’s noticed much of a difference from before, that’s by design, as Silver tells Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press.

“I’m not coming in with a five-point plan,” Silver said. “I’m not an outsider coming into the league. I’ve been part of this league for a long time and if there was something that I thought should’ve been done markedly different than the way it’s done now, I think David and I would have pushed each other to do it.”

Here’s more from Silver’s status-quo league:

A source puts the chances of the Nets making a trade between now and the deadline at less than 10%, tweets Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (Twitter link). That echoes what we heard from Grantland’s Zach Lowe earlier today.
Grant Hill is still drawing NBA interest during his first year of retirement, but the 41-year-old tells Sean Deveney of The Sporting News that he’s definitely not making a comeback.
The top 10 prospects are unchanged on the latest Insider-only draft board from Chad Ford of ESPN.com, though Swiss power forward Clint Capela jumps to No. 20 from outside the top 30.
Wizards camp invitee Xavier Silas has signed with a team in Argentina, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. The deal includes an escape clause that will allow him to ink an NBA deal at any point this season.
Udonis Haslem has never played for an NBA team other than the Heat, and the 11th-year vet doesn’t intend for that to ever change, as he tells Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick. Haslem has a $4.62MM player option for next season.

Poll: Is Grant Hill A Hall Of Famer?

June 1st, 2013 at 9:02pm CST by Spencer Lund

After Grant Hill announced his retirement tonight, many people started wondering whether Hill had done enough over his career to warrant a place in the Springfield, Massachusetts Hall of Fame?

Chris Tomasson of Fox Sports Florida, spoke to Hill a few years ago about the possibility of Hall of Fame enshrinement. Here's what Hill told Tomasson at the time (Sulia link):

"You kind of leave that to the media and the barber shops. It's a matter of opinion."

"I don't know (if he's a Hall of Famer). Certainly my injuries took away maybe a good chance of it happening. You could argue against it and say that I wasn't healthy for a long period of time. But I did have six or seven years of health, with All-Star Games, and the college stuff.

"Certainly, if it would happen, it would be great. If it doesn't happen, I'm certainly more proud of getting back (from injuries) and playing than making the Hall of Fame. I don't mean to say anything negative about the Hall of Fame and minimize its importance, but opportunities are a little different after (a career) is almost taken from you.''

Hill made seven All-Star teams during his 19-year NBA career and shared the 1994/95 Rookie of the Year award with Jason Kidd. He also made four All-NBA 2nd Team's and one All-NBA 1st Team before ankle injuries destroyed his quickness going to the basket.

During the 1996/97 season with Detroit when Hill made his only All-NBA 1st team, he also finished third in MVP voting. It's easy to forget how explosive he was before his ankles started giving out shortly after signing with the Magic in the summer of 2000.

But Hill's on-court accolades pre- and post-injury don't adequately sum up how gracious an athlete he was over the course of his career. David Stern said of Hill, via Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press (Twitter link), that he "embodied the ideals of dedication and perseverance in overcoming injury and adversity." That's something voters will keep in mind when they cast their ballot for the Hall of Fame.

So we put it to you: Should Grant Hill be elected into the Hall of Fame?

Grant Hill Announces Retirement

June 1st, 2013 at 7:15pm CST by Spencer Lund

NBA veteran Grant Hill has decided to call it quits, announcing on TNT tonight that he's retiring from the NBA after 19 seasons. The announcement came before the start of game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The 40-year-old Hill has been one of the most respected players in the league for almost two decades with career averages of 16.7 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 4.1 APG, 1.2 SPG in 33.9 minutes per game.

Said Hill during the announcement: "I’m glad to say, I’m done. I’m officially retired. Moving on from playing. I had a great run. I’m announcing it now. I’ve been hinting at it the last few years, you get to a point where you just don’t want to do it any more. But I’ve enjoyed it, I’ve loved it.”

Clippers Vice President of Basketball Operations Gary Sacks thanked Hill for his time in the league, and congratulated him for his career in a press release confirming the retirement.

“The entire Clippers organization wants to congratulate Grant on an incredible career. For 19 years, Grant has always been the embodiment of class, a true professional and not only one of the best players – but one of the finest individuals I have been around. We were fortunate to have Grant with us last season, and we wish him all the best in his next endeavor.”

The Sporting News' Sean Deveney had more from Hill on his decision to retire (via Twitter links):

"On one hand, I’m 40 and in great physical condition. My body tells me that I can continue playing. On the other hand I'm 40, and in great physical condition–a rare parting gift in this sport."

Eric Pincus from the Los Angeles Times, astutely points out (via Twitter) how Hill's retirement will shed the 2.045MM towards the Clippers' 2013/14 salary cap, and how that will help them avoid the luxury tax if they sign Chris Paul this offseason.

Pacific Notes: Suns, Hill, Meeks, Clippers

May 7th, 2013 at 8:40am CST by Luke Adams

Coming into the 2012/13 season, the Lakers and Clippers were receiving most of the attention out west, but with four Western Conference teams still alive, the only Pacific team still standing is Golden State. Stephen Curry and the Warriors played in perhaps the best game of the 2013 postseason last night in San Antonio, but ultimately couldn't hold off the Spurs, who escaped with a 129-127 victory. As we hold out hope that the rest of the series lives up to the standard set by Game One, let's check out some other notes from around the Pacific….

ESPN.com's Marc Stein reports (via Twitter) that "rumblings persist" about the Suns holding off on their decision on a new general manager because they're hoping to land Grant Hill for the job. Stein adds in a second tweet that if Hill can't be persuaded to return to Phoenix, the Suns figure to decide between Celtics assistant GM Ryan McDonough and Bucks assistant GM Jeff Weltman. Charles Barkley didn't receive an interview for the position, says Stein (via Twitter).
Even if the Lakers could save a bit of money by declining Jodie Meeks' 2013/14 option and replacing him with a minimum-salary player, Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Sulia link) expects the team to bring back Meeks, who could be L.A.'s starting shooting guard on opening night.
Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times examines the futures of Chris Paul and Vinny Del Negro in L.A., noting that the Clippers and Del Negro discussed an extension a couple times early in the season, but ultimately elected to wait until season's end.