Rumors

Carter's family, his former Nets teammates, ex-coach Lawrence Frank, team president Rod Thorn and fellow Nets number retirees Julius Erving, Bill Melchionni and Buck Williams were on hand to see Carter become the seventh Nets player with his number retired. "This is truly something my family and I will cherish forever," Carter said during the ceremony. "To be the seventh number to go up is insane. It is an honor to be up there with you gentlemen. "No. 15 Carter is going up there, but we're going up there together."

ESPN

Wattrick also believed Lloyd was the man for the job. But one detail got in the way. “The quote that he had for Earl Lloyd was that ‘If you were a white guy, you’d solve all my problems,’” says former Pistons forward Ray Scott. Wattrick simply did not have the stomach to be the GM who hired the NBA’s first Black head coach. He had no hesitation, however, about becoming the GM who hired the youngest head coach in the history of U.S. professional sports when he awarded the job to DeBusschere. “I think almost all the players were shocked, because you just never heard of a 24-year-old coach,” Thorn says. “I think even he was surprised by it, when he was offered the job.”

The Ringer

DeBusschere had experience in balancing two jobs. Up to that point in his career, he’d spent his offseasons pitching for the Chicago White Sox and their minor league squads. But he had no coaching experience, and was still learning the ropes as an NBA player. Taking on the role of player-coach was a whole new challenge. “[Wattrick and Zollner] thought that he had the ability or the acuity to operate in both positions. … But it was a disaster,” says Scott. “I thought that Dave should have been working on his game at 24 years old, not being concerned about the game of others, and substitutions, and rotations, and scheduling, and all of those things.” According to Thorn, DeBusschere’s coaching limited the team’s best player … DeBusschere. “I think it took away from him as a player,” says Thorn. “To me, he didn’t play himself at the minutes he should have played. During those days, top-flight players played close to 40 minutes a game.” DeBusschere averaged 35 minutes per game in his first season as player-coach.

The Ringer

West Virginia celebrated the life of NBA great Jerry West, the school's career leading scorer, at its sellout game Saturday against No. 2 Iowa State, and announced at halftime that his No. 44 would be retired across all sports at the university. Video tributes and stories about West, who died on June 12, 2024, at the age of 86, were shown throughout the game, including past clips from Pat Riley, Magic Johnson and former West Virginia stars Rod Thorn, Willie Akers and the late “Hot Rod” Hundley.

Houston Chronicle

Tim Reynolds: A pregame tribute here at Summer League to the great Jerry West. Some of West Virginia's finest are here as well -- including the great Rod Thorn and the great Mike D'Antoni.

Twitter

Monty McCutchen, NBA Senior Vice President of Development and Training for Referee Operations: After 30 years, I’ve seen a lot of iterations of summer league. I started as a young referee trying to get into the CBA when it was at Loyola Marymount. It was much more — I don’t use this term pejoratively — but lazy. It was this thing that was there and teams used it, but it didn’t have the energy to it the way this does now. Rod Thorn, former NBA Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations: When Warren was pitching (over the years), he was like everybody wants to go to Vegas. I was like, “Wait a minute, are you serious?” But you had the Rocky Mountain League in Salt Lake City that didn’t have that many teams. Then you had the Orlando League with more teams, but no fans were there.

New York Times

ClutchPoints: Mavs head coach Jason Kidd shares a cool story about Jerry West: "When I was with the Nets and Rod Thorn and we're going to Memphis to play [the Grizzlies] and I never seen a grown man drool before. I asked Rod why he was drooling and he was like, 'That's my idol.' And I was like looking for Michael Jordan... That's when I learned a little about West Virginia and it was an incredible moment." (via @JoeyMistretta_ ) pic.twitter.com/X8phO4YxwR

Twitter

Tim Hardaway, presented by Isiah Thomas (’00), Mitch Richmond (‘14), Chris Mullin (‘11), Yolanda Griffith (‘21), Nate Archibald (‘91) Manu Ginobili, presented by Tim Duncan (’20) Lindsay Whalen, presented by Dawn Staley (‘13), Charles Barkley (’06) Swin Cash, presented by Tamika Catchings (‘20), Teresa Weatherspoon (‘19), Tina Thompson (‘18), Isiah Thomas (’00), Geno Auriemma (‘06) Bob Huggins, presented by Jerry West (‘80), Rod Thorn (‘18) George Karl, presented by Roy Williams (‘07), Gary Payton (‘13), Bobby Jones (‘19)

hoophall.com

Sirius XM NBA: "Jason made Giannis toe the line, if you will, when Giannis was a rookie" @Hoophall member Rod Thorn tells @Frank Isola & @Eddie Johnson why Jason Kidd deserves a lot of credit for the player Giannis Antetokounmpo has become #FearTheDeer | @Giannis Antetokounmpo pic.twitter.com/Xt25YPlxEL

Twitter

“We call heads,” said Thorn. A pause. “OK, gentlemen, here we go,” boomed the deep voice of O’Brien. “The coin’s in the air.” Another pause. Another pause. Another pause. “Tails it is!” O’Brien said. Hearn let out a triumphant whoop. “I was playing basketball at Venice Beach,” said Pat O’Brien, at the time a reporter for KNXT-TV in Los Angeles. “The news came over a transistor radio, and people started screaming. ‘Yes! Yes! We’re getting Magic! We’re getting Magic!’ ”

Los Angeles Times

LeGarie pitched former NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Rod Thorn on doing just that in the late 1990s, but the idea was shot down by the league. The league viewed the Las Vegas Strip as nothing but trouble with its gambling-based economy and tempting nightlife. “It just seemed to suggest more problems than solutions,” LeGarie said. “Initially, it was a hard no.” LeGarie didn’t give up, however. He and his business partner Albert Hall had been attending various NBA summer leagues for years and, while they believed they were good places to do business, they thought they could be improved. That led to the idea to create their own, and they found themselves continuing to come back to Vegas as the destination for it.

The Athletic

In its first year, Las Vegas Summer League only drew about 1,700 fans total. Its most recent showcase in 2019 averaged 12,199 fans per day. That increase includes people from all over, but many of the attendees remain Vegas locals. “The Summer League is homegrown,” LeGarie said. “The people in Vegas, I think when you bring it up there, there’s a source of pride that this is one of their own. It isn’t an event that they bought or had to pay a rights fee to come in; this is something that they initially helped create and sustain. And look, a good portion of the fans are Vegas fans; they’re from Vegas. That part has been terrific for us.”

The Athletic

ESPN’s recently aired documentary series “The Last Dance,” chronicling Michael Jordan’s final championship season with the Chicago Bulls, rekindled interest in Jordan’s long-running feud with Isiah Thomas, including how the Pistons’ star was left off the 1992 Dream Team that won Olympic gold in Barcelona. Author Jack McCallum addressed the controversy in the most recent episode of his “The Dream Team Tapes” podcast series. McCallum said Jordan brought up the issue of Thomas himself in a 2011 interview. “When they called me and asked me to play — Rod Thorn called me. I said ‘Rod, I won’t play if Isiah Thomas is on the team.’ He assured me. He said, ‘Chuck doesn’t want Isiah. So, Isiah is not going to be part of the team,’” Jordan said on the recording that McCallum played during the podcast.

USA Today Sports

Despite Jordan’s denials, an audio recording released by Jack McCallum on “The Dream Team Tapes” podcast seems to confirm His Airness was a big reason for Thomas’ omission. Jordan is heard on tape saying he would not play if Thomas were on the team, which won gold at the 1992 Olympics. “Rod Thorn called me. I said, ‘Rod, I won’t play if Isiah Thomas is on the team.’ He assured me. He said, ‘You know what? Chuck doesn’t want Isiah. So, Isiah is not going to be part of the team.'”

Yardbarker.com