Out of playoffs, Hornets fire Clifford after five seasons
First the general manager, now the coach. In another move aimed at getting the Charlotte Hornets on track, majority owner Michael Jordan fired coach Steve Clifford on Friday after the team went 36-46 and failed to reach the playoffs for the third time in the last four seasons.
Clifford had a year left on his contract. The move to dismiss him came after his face-to-face meeting Friday with new general manager Mitch Kupchak.
“I want to thank Coach Clifford for his contributions to the Hornets,” Kupchak said in a statement. “I know he has worked incredibly hard on behalf of the organization and we wish him the best moving forward. The search for a new coach will begin immediately.”
Jordan hired Kupchak on Sunday to replace Rich Cho, who was fired earlier in the season after the Hornets failed to climb out of an early slump.
The Hornets were 196-214 in five seasons under Clifford. They reached the playoffs twice, but failed to make it out of the first round in 2014 and 2016.
Tanking the problem Silver can’t solve
NEW YORK » Adam Silver sees successes all around the NBA, yet can’t stop thinking about the teams who aren’t successful. And he can’t make them try to be. Tanking is the problem the NBA commissioner can’t solve.
He can’t force every team to try to win when they all know sometimes there’s more reason to lose. And though he understands rebuilding, he loathes losing on purpose.
“Let me add, I find it an incredibly difficult issue,” he said Friday.
He spoke shortly after ties were broken for positioning ahead of the draft lottery, which seemed a bigger priority than the postseason for some teams this season.
Thunder play-by-play man Davis suspended 1 game for comment
OKLAHOMA CITY » Thunder television playby-play man Brian Davis has been suspended for Game 1 of the playoff series against Utah on Sunday for a comment he made about star Russell Westbrook during Oklahoma City’s regular-season finale against Memphis.
Davis said Westbrook was “out of his cotton-pickin’ mind,” an exclamation that came after the Oklahoma City guard made an assist in Wednesday’s game on his way to setting an NBA record for averaging a tripledouble in multiple seasons.
Cotton picking was the primary responsibility for black slaves in the South, so the term can be offensive when used by a white person to describe a black person. Many took to social media to complain about Davis’ choice of words.
Wizards’ Meeks suspended 25 games for positive drug test
NEW YORK » The NBA has suspended Washington Wizards guard Jodie Meeks 25 games without pay for using a banned substance.
The league announced the suspension Friday, a day before Game 1 of the Wizards’ firstround series against Toronto.