The Chicago Bulls continue to zero in on Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg and remain confident he will become their next coach.
Sources told the Des Moines Register on Saturday that they expect the Bulls to make the announcement Tuesday, but it may linger until Wednesday.
The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reported Hoiberg could be named before Thursday’s start of the NBA Finals.
Hoiberg played four of his 10 NBA seasons with the Bulls and has remained close to Bulls general manager Gar Forman, who was an assistant at Iowa State when Hoiberg was a senior.
The Bulls fired Tom Thibodeau on Thursday despite the team reaching the playoffs in each of his five seasons.
The 42-year-old Hoiberg has had two open-heart surgeries, with the first ending his playing career. Hoiberg underwent surgery to replace his aortic valve last month.
Since taking the helm of the Cyclones in 2010, Hoiberg has gone 115-56, and Iowa State has made four NCAA Tournament appearances.
—Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson is expected to play in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, coach Steve Kerr said.
“He’s doing well,” Kerr said after the Warriors practiced Saturday. “There’s sort of a progression of tests that he has to go through for NBA protocol, league protocol. But he’s going through that process.”
Thompson suffered a concussion when he took a knee to the head Wednesday in Golden State’s clinching win over the Houston Rockets in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.
The Warriors host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday to start the Finals.
—Washington Wizards guard John Wall was kicked off a flight before it took off from Las Vegas after a verbal altercation.
According to multiple reports, Wall spent the Memorial Day Weekend in Las Vegas and boarded an American Airlines flight on Tuesday for the trip back to Washington.
The flight crew became worried as the argument between passengers and Wall and his group escalated. The crew contacted Las Vegas Metro at McCarran International. No arrests were made, and Wall and his friends were taken off the plane without incident.
—Former NBA player Chris Gatling has been arrested on fraud charges in Arizona.
Scottsdale police said Saturday that Gatling ran a massive online fraud scheme by using credit cards of people from across the nation.
Gatling, 47, was arrested Thursday on charges of fraud schemes, aggravated identity theft and forgery. He has been released from jail.