Angela Hill of the Oakland Tribune reports: Dr. Derric DesMarteau, longtime team dentist for the Golden State Warriors, the Oakland Raiders and other sports organizations as well as a highly regarded private dentist with a thriving practice in Piedmont, died Aug. 20 from complications from cancer. He was 58. “He had such a love of dentistry, such an unbelievable passion for it,” said Rhonda Nelson, who worked with DesMarteau for 17 years as his office manager. “He could work magic with people. Patients came to him when other dentists said they’d given up on them, so he would often get unusual cases and restore their whole mouths.”
Category: NBA News Blog
NBA news blog
Lamar Odom dating Khloe Kardashian
Janis Carr of the Orange County Register reports (via blog): Reality TV star (and we use that term loosely) Khloe Kardashian will be the newest celeb Lakers fan sitting courtside, thanks to her boyfriend Lamar Odom. “They’re very, very happy,” the Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami star’s sister, Kim Kardashian, tells PEOPLE magazine. “They’ve been together a few weeks, and are literally inseparable. Khloe thinks he’s amazing and makes her laugh and smile constantly.”
InsideHoops.com editor says: As fun as Kim looks, my favorite Kardashian girl is Kourtney.
Francisco Garcia breaks finger
Sacramento Kings swingman Francisco Garcia fractured his right ring finger while playing for the Dominican Republic in the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship. He will not play in the remainder of the tournament and will return to Sacramento late next week, at which time the injury will be further evaluated. Garcia is entering his fifth NBA season (all with the Kings).
Beno Udrih has left knee strain
Sacramento Kings’ guard Beno Udrih strained his left knee while playing for the Slovenian national team. Per Udrih’s representatives, an MRI was taken and was negative. He will remain with the Slovenian team and be evaluated by the Kings’ medical staff when he returns to Sacramento in late September. Udrih is entering his sixth NBA season, and third with the Kings.
Timberwolves sign Ramon Sessions to offer sheet
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The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced the team has signed restricted free-agent guard Ramon Sessions to an offer sheet. Under the terms of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Milwaukee Bucks will have seven days upon receiving the offer sheet to match Minnesota’s offer.
SEPT. 11 UPDATE: The Bucks did not match the offer.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the deal was for four years and $16 million.
“We are excited about the opportunity to have Ramon Sessions on our team,” said David Kahn, Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations. “Ramon has the ability to play both guard positions, and thus will be able to complement the members of our current backcourt. At only 23, Ramon also has the potential to improve and fits our plan of building a young, up-tempo team with championship contending potential.”
Sessions, a 6-3 guard from Nevada-Reno, had a break-out season in 2008-09, averaging 12.4 points (.445 FG%) and 5.7 assists in 27.5 minutes per game in 79 contests (39 starts). His 5.7 assists per game led the Bucks and ranked 18th in the NBA. Sessions scored in double figures 53 times (12 times 20+ points), dished out 10+ assists on 10 occasions and posted nine double-doubles during the season. Additionally, he finished the year with a 2.97:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, the ninth-best ratio in the NBA. He scored a career-high 44 points, along with 12 assists, against Detroit on Feb. 7.
In 2007-08 as a rookie, Sessions averaged 8.1 points, 7.5 assists and 3.4 rebounds in 17 games. He set a Bucks franchise record with 24 assists against Chicago on April 14, while also tallying 20 points. He became the first Bucks player to notch 20 points and 20 assists in the same game. Selected by Milwaukee in the second round (56th pick) of the 2007 NBA Draft, Sessions has averaged 11.6 points, 6.0 assists, 3.4 rebounds in 27.3 minutes per game in 96 contests (46 starts).
Alex Acker signs in Italy
The Detroit Free Press reports: Free-agent shooting guard Alex Acker has signed to play this season with the Italian club Armani Jeans Milano — taking the former Piston back to the Euroleague after a second stint in the NBA. The 6-foot-5 26-year-old played sparingly for the Pistons last season, appearing in seven games before being dealt to the Clippers in February. The Pistons, who were basically dumping salary, received future draft picks in return.
NBA to set Twitter restrictions for players, coaches
Marc J. Spears of Yahoo reports: NBA commissioner David Stern told Yahoo! Sports on Thursday the league will soon follow the NFL in announcing Twitter guidelines and other social media restrictions for its players and coaches. “Obviously, there is a happy medium between tweeting before the game and tweeting from our bench during the game,” Stern said by phone. “You want to make sure that pop culture doesn’t intrude on what brought us here, which is the game, and that we show the right respect for the game.” The NFL announced its own guidelines on Monday by restricting players, coaches and football operations personnel – or anyone representing them – from using social media networks like Twitter and Facebook from 90 minutes before kickoff to the end of traditional media interviews after games. NFL game officials are banned from using social media at all times. Stern described the NBA’s guidelines as “nothing too serious.”
InsideHoops.com editor says: I understand it if the league decides that players aren’t to post on the Internet for a period of time before a game starts through after a game has ended. These guys are getting paid crazy money to focus 100 percent on winning, and entertaining the fans who are paying to be in the arena. Just like companies can set Internet guidelines on what employees are allowed to do in an office, I understand the league doing that around game-time.
Pacers sign A.J. Price
The Indiana Pacers announced Wednesday they have signed their second round draft pick (52nd pick overall) A.J. Price to a multi-year contract.
Per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.
Price, a 6-2, 181-pound guard from the University of Connecticut, was named to the All-Big East Second Team, USBWA All-District First Team and Big East All-Tournament Team as a senior.
For his career, he had 1,284 career points in three seasons, ranking 25th all-time at Connecticut. He also handed out 469 career assists (4.7 apg), which ranks 9th in school history.
Bruce Bowen retires
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The AP reports: Bruce Bowen won’t be pestering the NBA’s best anymore. The 38-year-old former San Antonio Spurs forward retired Thursday after 12 seasons and a reputation as one of the league’s most menacing defenders, hounding opponents with a tenacity that some players groused was more dirty than dogged. He called it quits after being waived this summer by Milwaukee, where the Spurs dealt him in a veteran dump-off for swingman Richard Jefferson — a decision Bowen said he understood. “You need to do things to better the business, and the Spurs definitely got better in the players they received, so I’m looking forward to continuously supporting the Spurs, but from more of a distance now,” he said in a news conference at his wife’s San Antonio salon. Bowen said he had been weighing retirement for the last five years.
ESPN.com reports: After helping the San Antonio Spurs win three championships and establishing himself as perhaps the premier perimeter defender of his generation, Bruce Bowen is retiring at 38. Bowen told ESPN.com that he will formally announce his retirement at a Thursday afternoon news conference and said he would elaborate more on his decision then. The announcement was scheduled to take place at the San Antonio spa/salon he co-owns and operates with his wife, Yardley… It was initially believed that Bowen would then sign in August with one of the Spurs’ championship rivals. Orlando, Boston and Cleveland were all mentioned as possibilities. But he has apparently decided instead to pursue his off-court business and community interests as well as a career in broadcasting.
Timberwolves hire Dave Wohl, Reggie Theus, Bill Laimbeer, JB Bickerstaff as assistant coaches
The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced the completion of head coach Kurt Rambis’ coaching staff with the hiring of veteran NBA coach Dave Wohl and former NBA standouts Reggie Theus and Bill Laimbeer. John-Blair “J.B.” Bickerstaff, who has served as an assistant coach with Minnesota for the past two seasons, will return as a member of Rambis’ staff serving as assistant coach/director of player development. Collectively, Rambis and his staff have been involved with 15 championship teams (NBA and WNBA), and bring more than 100 seasons of coaching (NBA, WNBA and collegiate) and playing experience (NBA and collegiate) to the Timberwolves bench.
“I’m excited to be able to add such a wealth of experience and such a talented group in Dave, Bill and Reggie to our coaching staff,” said Timberwolves head coach Kurt Rambis. “Each of them brings a wide array of both NBA and coaching experiences, skills and talents to our team. We all are looking forward to the start of the season and getting on the court with our players.”
DAVE WOHL
Wohl brings over 30 years of NBA experience to the Timberwolves bench, having served in a variety of capacities through the years, including as a head coach, an assistant coach and as a member of the front office. The last two seasons he was the assistant general manager of the Boston Celtics. Wohl has spent several years as an assistant coach in the NBA with various teams: Boston (2004-05 – 2006-07), Orlando (1999-00 – 2003-04), L.A. Clippers (1993-94), L.A. Lakers (1982-83- 1984-85, 1998-99), Miami (1989-90- 1990-91) and Sacramento (1992-93). As an assistant coach under Pat Riley, Wohl was a member of the Lakers’ 1985 NBA Championship team. Wohl was the head coach of the New Jersey Nets for two-plus seasons (1985-88), leading the team to the NBA Playoffs in 1986. From 1995-97, Wohl was the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Miami Heat.
Selected in the third round of the 1971 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, Wohl spent seven seasons as a player in the NBA (1971-78). He appeared in 410 games with Philadelphia, Portland, Buffalo, Houston and New York-New Jersey Nets, scoring 2,553 points. A two-time Ivy League selection at the University of Pennsylvania, Wohl led the Quakers to two Ivy League titles and two NCAA Tournament appearances.
REGGIE THEUS
Theus joins the Timberwolves staff after serving as head coach of the Sacramento Kings (44-62, 415) for one-plus seasons. He guided the Kings to a 38-44 record in 2007-08, which was a five-win improvement over the previous year, despite being short-handed for most of the season due to injuries to key players.
Prior to his head coaching stint with Sacramento, Theus spent the previous two years as the head coach at New Mexico State University, leading the Aggies to a berth in the NCAA Tournament during the 2006-07 campaign (a first for the school since ’99). He compiled a 41-23 record in his two years with the Aggies. In his first year at the helm of the NMSU program, Theus guided the Aggies to a tie for the fifth-best turnaround in Division I basketball and the best single-season improvement of any NMSU squad since the 1985-86 season. He turned around a program that went 6-24 the year before he arrived (2004-05), leading the team to a 16-14 record. Theus’ Aggies improved to 25-9 in 2006-07, winning the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. Before his NMSU assignment, Theus spent two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Louisville under head coach Rick Pitino.
Before turning his attention to the coaching profession, Theus’ 13 years as a player in the NBA were spent with the Chicago Bulls, Kansas City/Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Hawks, Orlando Magic and New Jersey Nets. After being drafted by the Bulls as the ninth overall pick in 1978, Theus finished runner-up in the NBA Rookie of the Year voting to Kansas City’s Phil Ford and was named to the 1979 All-Rookie team. For his career, Theus averaged 18.5 points, 6.3 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game while being named to the 1981 and 1983 NBA All-Star teams. He is one of only seven players in NBA history to score at least 19,000 points and dish out 6,000 assists, joining John Havlicek, Oscar Robertson, John Stockton, Gary Payton, Clyde Drexler and Jerry West with that distinction. When Theus retired, he ranked 22nd on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with 19,105 career points and 11th on the all-time assists list with 6,453 career assists.
BILL LAIMBEER
Laimbeer joins the Timberwolves after seven successful seasons as the head coach and general manager of the WNBA’s Detroit Shock. During that time, Laimbeer coached the Shock to three WNBA Championships (2003, 2006, 2008), four Eastern Conference titles, including the past three (2006, 2007, 2008) and a historic worst-to-first turnaround (the Shock, 9-23 a year earlier won a league-best 25 games the following season) for which he was named 2003 WNBA Coach of the Year. Laimbeer amassed a regular-season record of 136-90 (.602) and a postseason mark of 27-16 (.628), which includes the most postseason wins (27) and WNBA Finals victories (10) in league history. Laimbeer, who became head coach on June 19, 2002 despite no previous coaching experience, resigned from the Shock on June 15, 2009 to pursue NBA coaching opportunities.
A four-time NBA All-Star center (1983-85, 1987), Laimbeer played 13-plus seasons in the NBA and finished with career averages of 12.9 points and 9.7 rebounds in 1,068 games. He totaled 13,790 points and 10,400 rebounds in his career, making him the 19th player in NBA history to reach 10,000 in both categories. He led the NBA in rebounding during the 1985-86 season (13.1 rpg), collected more defensive rebounds than any other NBA player from 1982-1990 and finished his career as the Pistons’ all-time leading rebounder with 9,430. In 113 playoff games (second most in franchise history), Laimbeer averaged 12.0 points and 9.7 rebounds as Detroit posted a 71-42 (.628) mark with him at center. A key member of the Pistons’ “Bad Boys” teams that won back-to-back NBA championships in 1989 and 1990, Laimbeer had his No. 40 jersey retired (one of six in franchise history) by the team on Feb. 4, 1995. Originally drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the third round (65th overall) in the 1979 NBA Draft, the Notre Dame product was traded to Detroit in a multiplayer deal on Feb. 16, 1982.
J.B. BICKERSTAFF
Bickerstaff returns for his third season as a Timberwolves assistant coach in 2009-10. Prior to joining the Wolves, Bickerstaff spent the previous three seasons as an assistant coach to his father Bernie Bickerstaff with the Charlotte Bobcats. Bickerstaff got his start with the Timberwolves organization during the 2003-04 season as the color analyst on Timberwolves radio broadcasts. Prior to joining the Wolves, Bickerstaff served as director of operations for the University of Minnesota men’s basketball program where he oversaw all administrative areas of the program and assisted the coaching staff with recruiting, scouting and coaching. Bickerstaff played his first two collegiate seasons at Oregon State University, where he was the youngest NCAA Division I player as a 17-year-old freshman, and finished his career at the University of Minnesota. As a senior, he averaged 10.9 points and 6.1 rebounds per game for the Gophers.