NBA OK if Wembanyama's debut comes in Sacramento

DENVER – Victor Wembanyama’s next couple of weeks are now set: He’ll be playing in the French league finals starting this weekend, and then the San Antonio Spurs will almost certainly make him the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft on June 22.

And if that means the French star’s summer league debut comes in Sacramento instead of Las Vegas in early July, the league is fine with that. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league doesn’t have a preference regarding the site of his first game.

If Wembanyama plays in Sacramento, he’d be the first No. 1 pick that didn’t debut in Las Vegas since Markelle Fultz for Philadelphia in 2017. The 76ers played in Utah’s summer league that year before going to Vegas.

Bucks make hiring of Griffin official

MILWAUKEE – Adrian Griffin is getting his first head coaching job at the same place where he started out as an assistant.

The Bucks officially announced Monday they have hired the 48-year-old to replace Mike Budenholzer, who was fired last month after a first-round playoff loss to the Miami Heat. Reports surfaced on April 29 that the Bucks were finalizing an agreement to make Griffin their next coach.

An introductory news conference is scheduled for Tuesday.

Griffin has spent the last five seasons as a Toronto Raptors assistant on a staff headed by Nick Nurse, who was fired after the season and has since been hired as the Philadelphia 76ers’ head coach. Griffin’s coaching career began during a stint as a Bucks assistant from 2008-10.

“The Bucks are a championship organization and I’m thrilled to work with an established roster of high-character and talented players,” Griffin said in a statement released by the team.