Rumors

All of this context currently surrounds North Carolina, where the Tar Heels are mired in a season of mediocrity while advancing through a GM search, sources told The Stein Line. In football, of course, North Carolina just made an almighty splash by hiring Bill Belichick as its head coach with GM Mike Lombardi in tow. Now NBA names, not surprisingly, have been connected to the basketball gig. UNC is a school known to value its alumni, spawning the expectation that the Tar Heels will ultimately hire a general manager who bleeds the school's powder blue blood. Mitch Kupchak, most recently the Charlotte Hornets' lead executive and once ACC Player of the Year as a Tar Heel, is known to be advising the process.

marcstein.substack.com

So, with all of those questions and all of that work, what is Rivers excited about when he wakes up in the morning to do this job? “I’m literally excited about the team,” Rivers told The Athletic in an exclusive conversation at the team’s training camp in Irvine, Calif. “I am so f—— engaged. I think we got the right group, I just do. And you know, again, as Bill Belichick said, we’re either going to land this f—— plane or we’re going to have a crash landing. “And I’m in for that fight.”

New York Times

Sirius XM NBA: The best Bill Russell story, from Charles Barkley 🏀🏈 With Bill Belichick and @JimGrayOfficial on this week’s Let’s Go! On the @SIRIUSXM App 🔗 sxm.app.link/LetsGo pic.x.com/lbtcbb9h9t

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NBCUniversal is eyeing free-agent reporter Shams Charania, sources tell Front Office Sports. I’ve also heard Amazon is interested. The two sports media giants are poised to divide the NBA’s TV rights with incumbent ESPN starting with the 2025–2026 season. (TNT Sports, the NBA’s other longtime incumbent media partner, is suing to retain its rights.) The interest between Charania and suitors are in early stages, say sources. As with previous TV free agents Jason Kelce and Bill Belichick, he’s keeping his options wide open. “He’s talking to everyone at this point,” says one source.

Front Office Sports

Clemente Almanza: Mark Daigneault, known Pats fan, was asked about Bill Belichick and his coaching style: “Their success, so much has been out there about their team and I just devour it… I’ve always had a very close eye on them as a fan and then it’s evolved past that as I’ve gotten further along in my coaching career. I’ve just got great admiration for the way he runs a whole program.”

Twitter

Bobby Manning: Asked Joe Mazzulla about Bill Belichick and #Patriots parting ways: "Don't have a reaction to that...(I) have a reaction to Bill as a coach, as a friend, as one of the best coaches of all time and what he's been able to do. Thankful for the relationship him and I have been able to build."

Twitter

LeBron James: Coach Belichick is such a LEGEND!!!! 🫡 man

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Clutch Points: Paul Pierce: "Miami [Dolphins] not making no playoffs." Kevin Garnett: "Miami probably making it before the Patriots, bro!" Paul Pierce: "Nah... Let's bet that... Bill Belichick still over there, you must've forgot!" 🤝😅 (via @shobasketball) pic.twitter.com/t3sUucIJAW

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The Los Angeles Clippers are the first team in N.B.A. history to erase multiple 2-0 series deficits in the same postseason. Their players, so impressed by the adjustments that their coach, Tyronn Lue, has been making to facilitate those comebacks, have started calling him Bill Belichick. “Yeah, right,” Lue said late Thursday, laughing at the comparisons to Belichick, who has coached the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl titles.

New York Times

Mark Medina: Clippers coach Ty Lue laughed off that players are calling him 'Bill Belichick' because of his constant adjustments. Lue "It means a lot for those guys to trust me."

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One man who has had a bit of success as both a coach and an executive and still fills both roles believes that Stevens’s background should help. “There’s a lot of lines that run together there,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “You can’t be the head coach and not be aware of contracts and acquisitions and things like that. I don’t know exactly how they’re set up, and each situation is a little bit different, but Brad has enough experience in basketball and with the Celtics and with the NBA to handle all the things that he’ll need to be handling.”

Boston Globe

Noah Levick: Doc Rivers says Bill Belichick always told him teams will either "land the plane smoothly or have a crash landing" in the playoffs. He says the Sixers "want the entire cake" and wouldn't be satisfied with just making it past Round 2.

Twitter

What was it like playing for [Pat Riley]? Mychal Thompson: Demanding! He’s a man who doesn’t suffer fools. He expects you to be a pro. He expects you to be an adult. To do your job. Like Bill Belichick simply says: Do your job. And you’re held to account playing for a guy like Pat Riley because he ain’t got time to wait on you. You’ve got to be ready to play. He’s such a perfectionist and such a winner. I remember when I joined the Lakers, we’d won 10 in a row and then we stubbed our toe and lost our 11th game. I couldn’t believe how mad he was at us for losing that game. I was just coming into a new environment and on another team, anytime you win 10 in a row and then you lose one, you go ‘okay that’s cool.’ But Riles wasn’t accepting that. I couldn’t believe how upset he was that we lost that 11th game. It just showed me how much he wants to win. Every time. Every time out. It doesn’t matter if it’s a November game or a June game.

The Athletic

Chris Grenham: Bill Belichick to the Celtics last month, per Stevens: "History and experience are meaningless. It's how you play in this minute."

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