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New York Knicks President Phil Jackson has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for a tampering violation involving veteran guard Derek Fisher.
Jackson told reporters last week that Fisher is "on my list of guys that could be very good candidates" to coach the Knicks next season. Because Fisher is under contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder, that was deemed to be in violation of league rules.
The Thunder were eliminated from the Western Conference finals on Saturday night. Fisher is widely expected to retire and told reporters after Oklahoma City's season ended that he plans to have conversations with teams about his future at some point.
Fisher just completed his 18th season. He played under Jackson with the Los Angeles Lakers, and helped that franchise win five NBA titles.
Noah, George lead all-defensive team
Chicago's Joakim Noah and Indiana's Paul George received the most votes on this year's NBA all-defensive team, released Monday.
Less than two months after a landslide victory in balloting for the league's defensive player of the year, Noah was the only player to receive more than 100 first-team votes and earn more than 200 points for the team. Noah received 105 of 123 possible votes, while George had 65 votes. The rest of the first team consisted of Clippers guard Chris Paul, Oklahoma City forward Serge Ibaka and Golden State swingman Andre Iguodala.
Sterling attends black church's service
Donald Sterling, whose racist remarks in a recording triggered the fight over ownership of Los Angeles Clippers, attended a predominantly black church service in South Los Angeles on Sunday.
Sterling told KNBC-TV he went to Praises of Zion Missionary Baptist Church to support the church and said the service was "beautiful."
The station said the church's pastor met Sterling recently and invited him to worship with the congregation. Sterling received a warm welcome, and Pastor J. Benjamin Hardwick told him the congregation was praying for him.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver fined Sterling $2.5 million, banned him from the league and started the process to end his ownership of the Clippers after an audio recording of Sterling disparaging blacks became public in April.
Seattle's Hansen continues quest
Steve Ballmer's departure from the group looking to bring the NBA back to Seattle isn't derailing lead investor Chris Hansen's hopes of getting a team back in the region. Hansen told The Associated Press on Monday that he is confident he'll be able to find investors to take Ballmer's place in his group.
Ballmer is set to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion.