Dallas Mavericks General Manager Don Nelson said Wednesday that he and other team officials will discuss the fate of head coach Jim Cleamons on Thursday.
Media reports swirled Wednesday that Cleamons’ firing was imminent, with Nelson expected to take over.
Nelson told radio station KLIF that Cleamons’ future will be discussed after Thursday night’s home game against the New York Knicks.
“Ross Perot (Jr.) has called a meeting with (team President) Terdema (Ussery) and myself,” he said. “We’re going to meet after the ballgame and I think the decision should be made at that time to either endorse Jim . . . or make a change.”
After the game against the Knicks, Dallas (4-12) plays the Houston Rockets on Saturday in the NBA’s first regular-season game in Mexico City.
Cleamons, in the second year of a four-year, $5 million contract, is Dallas’ fifth coach of the 1990s; none has managed a winning record.
– Latrell Sprewell admitted he made a mistake by attacking Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo during Monday’s practice, but said in a television interview he was provoked “after a lot of verbal abuse by P.J.”
“It’s definitely not something that I condone, but it did happen. And that’s a mistake I made,” Sprewell said in an interview with San Francisco’s KPIX-TV at his home.
“I think it’s been known for some time now that we haven’t been on good terms. And it’s been over a month or so now, and I just couldn’t take the verbal abuse that he’s been giving all the guys over the past month or so.”
