Atkinson spurns Hornets to stay with Warriors

The Charlotte Hornets will have to begin their search again for a head coach because Kenny Atkinson changed his mind and will stay with the NBA champion Warriors after all.

Two people with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Saturday that Atkinson will remain with Golden State as an assistant coach and won't become the new coach of the Hornets.

Both spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because neither Atkinson nor the Hornets revealed any details of the talks or agreement publicly. Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he wouldn't discuss it until the Hornets announced Atkinson's hiring.

The move comes more than a week after Atkinson had agreed to a four-year contract. But the contract was never signed, one of the people said.

ESPN first reported that Atkinson had decided not to take the Charlotte job. His decision means Charlotte joins Utah as the lone NBA teams without coaches in place.

Atkinson was 118-190 in threeplus seasons as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets when that franchise was undergoing a rebuilding process. He has spent the last two seasons as an assistant, first for the Clippers and now the Warriors.

• Northwestern forward Pete Nance says he'll transfer to North Carolina. The 6-foot-10, 225-pound senior announced his commitment to play his fifth year for the Tar Heels in a social-media post Saturday. It's a significant addition for UNC, offering a potential replacement for departing starter Brady Manek from a run to last season's NCAA championship game.

Nance averaged 14.6 points and 6.5 rebounds for the Wildcats last year, including 45.2% from 3-point range.

• Lennie Rosenbluth, who led North Carolina to its first basketball NCAA title in 1957 with a victory over Wilt Chamberlain and Kansas in the championship game, died. He was 89. The school announced Rosenbluth's death but did not provide a cause. Rosenbluth and his wife, Dianne, moved to the Chapel Hill area just over a decade ago, and he had been a regular at UNC home games since.

Born and raised in the Bronx, Rosenbluth joined coach Frank McGuire and the Tar Heels in 1955 and was an all-Atlantic Coast Conference honoree in each of his three seasons. He averaged 28.0 points per game in 1957 — still the school record — and beat out Chamberlain for the Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year award.

That 1957 Tar Heels team went 32-0, capping its run with a triple-overtime victory over Chamberlain's Jayhawks.

Osaka withdraws from Wimbledon due to injury

Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from Wimbledon because of an Achilles injury, an updated withdrawal list from the tournament showed.

The 24-year-old was on an initial entry list last week but has not played since the French Open.

Osaka had recently posted a social media video of her rehabilitation following the foot problem. Wimbledon starts on June 27 and the withdrawal list dated Saturday said she was out due to a `leg injury.'

Also, former Wimbledon runner-up Eugenie Bouchard of Canada withdrew from Wimbledon late on Friday because of the lack of ranking points as she fights back from injury. The Wimbledon document lists her reason as a shoulder injury.

• Coco Gauff missed out on reaching a first grass-court final when the 18-year-old American lost to Ons Jabeur 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the semifinals of the Berlin Open. Cheered on by fans waving Tunisian flags amid a heatwave in Berlin, Jabeur recovered from 3-1 down in the first set and dominated the second to set up a final against Belinda Bencic today.

• No. 1 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia and No. 5 Hubert Hurkacz of Poland will meet in today's final at the Terra Wortmann Open in Halle, Germany. Medvedev marched to a 7-6 (3), 6-3 win against home favorite Oscar Otte, and Hurkacz outlasted Australia's Nick Kyrgios 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) in Saturday's semifinals.

Medvedev and Hurkacz have split four previous matches, with Hurkacz winning the only meeting on grass in five sets in the round of 16 at Wimbledon last year.

Gilliland wins NASCAR Trucks race in Knoxville

Todd Gilliland pulled away off a late restart to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race night on Knoxville Raceway's half-mile dirt oval in Knoxville, Iowa.

Racing for father David Gilliland in his first Truck start of the season, Gilliland took the lead from John Hunter Nemechek shortly before John Wood spun to bring out the final caution with nine laps to go. On the restart with four laps left, Gilliland started on the outside in David Gilliland Racing's No. 17 Ford and steadily pulled away for his third career series victory. After four full seasons in the Truck Series, he moved up to the Cup Series this year with Front Row Motorsports.

Nemechek was second in Kyle Busch Motorsports' No. 4 Toyota, followed by Zane Smith, Ty Makeski, Stewart Friesen, Derek Kraus, Matt Crafton, Grant Enfinger and Tyler Ankrum.

• Max Verstappen overcame slick conditions to win his second pole of the season, and Fernando Alonso used the wet track to earn his first front row start in a decade in rainy qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Ledecky reclaims title in 400M at championships

Katie Ledecky started the United States' medal collection at the world swimming championships with a gold by reclaiming her title in the women's 400 meters at Budapest, Hungary.

The Americans finished the first day of racing with two gold, one silver and three bronze.

Ledecky clocked 3 minutes, 58.15 seconds — nearly two seconds off the world record — for her fourth world title in the 400 freestyle after 2013, 2015 and 2017.

Ariarne Titmus pipped Ledecky to the title in 2019 and took her world record last month but the Australian has skipped the worlds in Budapest to focus on the Commonwealth Games next month in England.

Winning the 400 gave Ledecky her 16th gold at a worlds and 18th overall. She's just one behind Natalie Coughlin for the most alltime medals by a female swimmer in world championships history.

The American relay team of Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Held, Justin Ress and Brooks Curry won the men's 4x100 freestyle final, clocking 3:09.34 to finish ahead of the Australians in second and Italians in third.

Emmett defeats Kattar in main UFC event

Josh Emmett defeated Calvin Kattar by split decision in their featherweight bout at UFC Fight Night at Austin, Texas. Emmett took two cards 48-47 and Kattar took the other 48-47 in the main event. It was Emmett's fifth win in a row.

Kattar landed more strikes (131-107) and more significant strikes, 130-107.

• Saturday night's UFC lightweight fight between Donald Cerrone and Joe Lauzon has been canceled again. The promotion said Lauzon had to withdraw from the co-main event in Austin, Texas, with a medical issue.

Later Saturday, Lauzon offered more information on the issue on his Instagram channel. “The reason I didn't go to weighins wasn't because of cramps, but I literally can't put any weight on my left knee,” Lauzon said. “Literally, I can't even stand. I can't fight.”

The 155-pound bout was originally slated for UFC 274 on May 7 in Phoenix, but that time Cerrone fell in and had to cancel.