Friday, May 2, 2008
P.J. Carlesimo will return to coach the SuperSonics next season, the team's general manager said yesterday, ending speculation he might be fired after the worst season in Seattle history.
At an event introducing Kevin Durant as the NBA rookie of the year, GM Sam Presti declared what Carlesimo, who was standing about 15 feet away, did not yet know.
"Will he come back?" the youngest GM in the league was asked.
"Absolutely," the 31-year-old Presti said.
Minutes earlier, Carlesimo was asked if he had received assurances he would be the Sonics' coach next season.
"It's not a question of assurances. You know, you [only] get told if you are not coaching," Carlesimo said, chuckling. "Sam and I have had great conversations."
Carlesimo, 58, made it clear he wanted to continue his first head coaching job in the NBA since 1999. "I'm happy here," he said. "I love it here."
Two weeks ago, immediately after the Sonics' 20-62 season ended, Presti gave only a vague answer when asked if there would be any coaching staff changes -- Carlesimo included.
Meantime, Durant became the first Seattle player to win the award -- and perhaps the last.
Durant, the national college player of the year at Texas and the No. 2 pick in last year's draft, averaged 20.3 points per game.
Durant was a bright spot during the Sonics' dismal season, possibly their last in Seattle. The owner is trying to move the team to Oklahoma City.
· A DENIAL: The Nets' owner insisted the team is not for sale, shooting down a report yesterday that investors were being assembled to buy the franchise and move it to Newark.
"The team is very simply not for sale, and any stories that suggest or insinuate that we would be interested in listening to those conversations are flat out false," Bruce Ratner said in a statement. "We are focused on breaking ground on the Barclays Center in Brooklyn later this year and building all of Atlantic Yards, nothing else."
The Star-Ledger of Newark reported in yesterday's editions that New Jersey Devils owner Jeffrey Vanderbeek and Newark Mayor Cory Booker were trying to assemble investors to buy the Nets and move the basketball team from its current home at the Izod Center in the Meadowlands to Newark.
People familiar with the effort told the newspaper Vanderbeek had met with Ratner, while Booker has spoken to an official at Ratner's development company, Forest City Ratner Cos. The outcome of each talk was characterized as "open-ended."
"There have been no discussions with any elected officials or business executives about buying the team or moving to Newark," Ratner said.
· RODMAN ARRESTED: Former NBA star Dennis Rodman was arrested for allegedly hitting a woman at a Century City hotel in Los Angeles.
He was arrested Wednesday night after officers answered a report of a domestic dispute, police said. The woman suffered injuries to her arm, police added.
The 46-year-old former rebounding champion was jailed for investigation of felony domestic violence and freed on $50,000 bail early yesterday.
-- From News Services
View all comments that have been posted about this article.