國際娛樂新聞

So the Golden State Warriors hired a former TV analyst with no coaching experience and a decorated playing career to lead their up-and-coming team.

Stop us if you've heard this before.

One week after firing Mark Jackson despite a second consecutive playoff appearance and inviting so many inquiries about what in the name of Joe Barry Carroll was going on behind their walls, the Warriors gave Steve Kerr a five-year, $25 million deal that naturally led to all sorts of fair questions how this all made sense. Kerr is a widely-respected and darn-near revered member of the NBA community, to be sure. And the fact that the Warriors, having failed in their pursuit of new Detroit Pistons team president and coach Stan Van Gundy, were able to seal this deal before Phil Jackson could convince his former player to come to the New York Knicks was impressive.

HIRED: More on Kerr joining the Warriors

LACOB: Owner faced pressure this time

But in the here and the now, Kerr's coaching résumé' looks exactly the same as Jackson's did when Warriors owner Joe Lacob gave him his first chance back in 2011. And that is why, as Lacob sees it, this all makes perfect sense in the weirdest of ways.

Shelly Sterling has signed her divorce papers but is holding off on filing them against her husband Donald, partly because her camp knows that proceeding could disrupt the situation involving the NBA and the Los Angeles Clippers, a person familiar with the Sterling case told USA TODAY Sports.

But that might be her strongest leverage against the league — a nuclear option that could place the Clippers under the jurisdiction of a California divorce court and delay any sale of the team indefinitely.

MAGIC: No place for Shelly in NBA

SHELLY: Says Donald has dementia

The question is whether Shelly Sterling will use that leverage in her quest to keep her 50% ownership share of the Clippers. She has been advised not to file yet, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the situation.

A decision by either Shelly or Donald Sterling to move forward with a divorce immediately could make it difficult for the NBA to force a sale of the franchise as quickly as desired by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. In the case of divorce, the couple's many assets, including the Clippers, could be subject to a temporary restraining order by the court as the couple tries to divide their community property and reach a resolution about who gets what, a situation that sometimes takes years.

MIAMI — Miami Heat star LeBron James, as expected, softened comments made by former teammate Roger Mason, suggesting James was prepared to lead a boycott if Donald Sterling still owned the Los Angeles Clippers at the start of the 2014-15 season.

"We as players see what (NBA Commissioner) Adam Silver's doing," James said before Game 5, the first time James met with reporters since Mason made his comments on Jim Rome's Showtime show. "He's moving forward, and if he continues, which we believe Adam Silver will do, to move aggressively on the situation, then as players we have nothing to worry about."

LEBRON: Heat send Nets to finishing school

NBPA: KJ ready to move past Sterling saga

Mason told Rome on Tuesday, "If it's not handled by … the start of next season, I don't see how we're playing basketball. I was just in the locker room with LeBron. At the end of the day, you know we have leaders, we have player reps, we've got executive committee members. … Leaders of the teams, they're all saying the same thing: 'If this man is still in place, we ain't playing.' "

But he backtracked Wednesday with a series of tweets.

MIAMI — Game 6 between the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets was just about set for Friday night in New York.

The Nets were in command with an eight-point lead with 4:49 left in the fourth quarter, and Miami had no answer for Brooklyn guard Joe Johnson, who had his way offensively for much of the game.

But as these 2014 playoffs have proven, few leads are safe at any point in the game. Miami overcame that deficit — similar but not quite as dramatic as their Game 6 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in the 2013 NBA Finals — eliminated the Nets 96-94 in Game 5 Wednesday.

The Heat now are headed back to the Eastern Conference finals for the fourth consecutive year.

BOX SCORE: Heat 96, Nets 94

SCHEDULE: Second-round TV times

Wearing two hats doesn't usually work.

But since the predominant organizational headgear for the Detroit Pistons the past five years resembled that of a court jester, there's understandably some excitement at The Palace of Auburn Hills that their search for a new president of basketball operations and head coach ended with a single hire.

Stan Van Gundy can coach. But Tom Gores is gambling a reported $35 million over the next five years that Van Gundy can capably juggle the daunting responsibilities of coaching a team that chews coaches up and spits them out with regular ease, while also overseeing a vast organizational cultural change.

Good luck.

Van Gundy's a recycled coach liberated from the NBA scrapheap, cleaned, polished and passed off as a fresh new vision for what would be his third team.

HIRED: More on Van Gundy's dual roles