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Charlotte Hornets head coach Steve Clifford is expected to step down from his head coaching position to take a front-office role with the franchise, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Clifford, 62, has led the Hornets to a 45-112 overall record in two seasons, which have been riddled with injuries to young players LaMelo Ball and Mark Williams.&nbsp;
According to sources, new Charlotte owners Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin were open to bringing him back as coach next season, but Clifford thought he wasn't prepared to commit to the year-round grind of head coaching for the 2024-2025 season. He will coach them for their final 7 games.
Clifford informed his players and staff on Wednesday of the decision, which will allow the Hornets to immediately start searching for a new head coach for next season.
Among the league&rsquo;s assistant coaching candidates expected to be considered in the Charlotte process are Jordi Fernandez (SAC), Charles Lee (BOS), Chris Quinn (MIA), and Kevin Young (PHX).
Coaching the Hornets next season will be appealing following the emergence of 2023 no.2 overall pick Brandon Miller with the impending return of Ball and Williams. All three players would be paired with the new players acquired from this year&rsquo;s trade deadline as well as the projected lottery pick in next season&rsquo;s draft as the organization pivots to a new era of winning basketball under their new ownership.

Hornets head coach Steve Clifford is expected to step down from his head coaching position to take a front-office role with the franchise.

Steve Clifford to step down as Charlotte Hornets coach at end of season

The NBA announced that 242 players have filed as early-entry candidates for the 2023 NBA Draft. Here is the complete list.

NBA announces 242 early-entry candidates for 2023 NBA Draft

SAN ANTONIO (AP) &mdash; The San Antonio Spurs have announced an attendance of 68,323 for their return to the Alamodome, a record for an NBA regular-season game.
The Spurs, celebrating their 50th anniversary season, returned to their former home to face the Golden State Warriors on Friday night.
Spurs Hall of Famer David Robinson announced the official attendance at the close of the third quarter. Robinson said, &ldquo;Spurs fans have again set the standard for the league.&rdquo;
Fans began chanting &ldquo;Go Spurs Go! Go Spurs Go!&rdquo; after the announcement.
It shattered the previous record of 62,046 who gathered to watch Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls play the Atlanta Hawks at the Georgia Dome on March 27, 1998.
&ldquo;Yeah, that&rsquo;s pretty different,&rdquo; San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said of the record crowd. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a situation where you know &hellip; are they selling alcohol? I think that people will be pretty fired up. It is just an exciting moment for everybody. It is nostalgic for everybody. To have that many people in one building, to be able to play in front of them, is pretty damn exciting, actually. We hope it is a good game.&rdquo;
San Antonio now plays its home games at the AT&amp;T Center but returned to the Alamodome as part of the franchise&rsquo;s 50th anniversary celebration.
While the Spurs (13-29) are having one of the worst seasons in franchise history, the chance to play at the Alamodome gave fans a chance to relive a former era for the team.
&ldquo;Having my son here with me sharing a past and present memory will be cherished by both of us for years,&rdquo; said Spurs fan Eric Hernandez, who previously attended games at the Alamodome.
The franchise started at the HemisFair Arena in 1973, but the Alamodome is where the franchise took its first steps to becoming one of the most respected NBA franchises.
The Spurs played in the Alamodome from 1993 to 2002 before moving 3.1 miles south to the AT&amp;T Center.
San Antonio won its first NBA championship in 1999 while playing in the Alamodome and held its championship celebration in the downtown facility.
The Alamodome also hosted the 1996 NBA All-Star Game, where Michael Jordan was booed for winning MVP over former San Antonio resident Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s crazy,&rdquo; said Taro Kotani, a Spurs fan visiting from Japan. &ldquo;The amount of people here. I&rsquo;ve never been inside the Dome, so just imagining what it was like here during &rsquo;96 All-Star Game and &rsquo;99 Finals is so nostalgic. I wasn&rsquo;t there but this brings back lots of memories.&rdquo;
Kotani planned his annual trip to San Antonio around Friday&rsquo;s game because he wanted to be a part of history.

The San Antonio Spurs announced an attendance of 68,323 for their return to the Alamodome, a record for an NBA regular-season game.

Spurs set NBA attendance record of 68,323 against Warriors

BERLIN (AP) &mdash; For Spain, almost all of the names on the national team&rsquo;s roster have changed in recent years.
The expectations didn&rsquo;t. And neither did the results.
Juancho Hernangomez scored 27 points, his brother Willy Hernangomez added 14 and won tournament MVP honors, and Spain topped France 88-76 on Sunday to win the EuroBasket gold medal.
It was Spain&rsquo;s fourth European championship in its last six tries, all those golds coming under coach Sergio Scariolo.
Lorenzo Brown scored 14 points and had 11 assists for Spain, while Jaime Fernandez scored 13.
Evan Fournier led France &mdash; which also dropped the gold-medal game at the Tokyo Olympics to the U.S. last summer &mdash; with 23 points, with Thomas Heurtel scored 16 and Guerschon Yabusele added 13.
Rudy Gobert was held to only six points on just two shots from the field for France.
&ldquo;Spain played better from start to finish,&rdquo; Fournier said. &ldquo;They had a clear game plan and we did not execute ours well enough. ... We never really had control of the game. They just played better, man, period.&rdquo;
This was supposed to be a rebuilding summer for Spain. Pau and Marc Gasol, the longtime leaders of the program, retired from international following a quarterfinal loss to the U.S. at the Tokyo Games. Sergio Gonzalez also decided last summer was the right time to walk away, after 16 years with the national team. Sergio Llull and Ricky Rubio, two more of veterans, couldn&rsquo;t play because of injuries.
The winning tradition simply continued anyway. Spain is now the reigning Basketball World Cup (won in China in 2019) along with EuroBasket champion. It has also medaled in 10 of its last 11 EuroBasket appearances.
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For France, it was another medal &mdash; and another instance of coming up a bit short of the shiniest medal. France&rsquo;s last major crown came in winning EuroBasket in 2013. Since then, the French have won two bronzes at the World Cup (2014, 2019), a bronze at EuroBasket (2015), silver at the Tokyo Olympics, and now, silver again.
The difference was clear: Spain held a massive 35-7 edge in points off turnovers.
&ldquo;Today, obviously, we have lost the gold,&rdquo; France coach Vincent Collet said. &ldquo;They executed their plan perfect.&rdquo;
Juancho Hernangomez was 6-for-6 from 3-point range in a 6-minute span of the second quarter, helping Spain extend what was a 23-14 lead into a 45-26 edge with just about 3 minutes left in the half.
barrage. He had made a total of 12 3&prime;s in his eight previous games in this year&rsquo;s EuroBasket tournament, and his high in any NBA game is six.
An 11-0 run helped France cut what had been a 21-point deficit to just 47-37 at the half &mdash; and the momentum carried into the third quarter.
Yabusele&rsquo;s jumper with 6:52 left in the third got France within 49-46, and everything seemed to be shifting.
But Spain held on. Juancho Hernangomez&rsquo;s seventh 3-pointer with 7:29 left made it a 71-61 game, and the outcome wasn&rsquo;t in doubt again.
BRONZE MEDAL
GERMANY 82, POLAND 69
In the bronze-medal matchup earlier Sunday, Dennis Schroder scored 26 points and host Germany held off Poland.
It was Germany&rsquo;s first EuroBasket medal since winning silver in 2005. Poland matched its best finish in the event since 1971.
&ldquo;They told me it&rsquo;s 17 years since Germany won a medal,&rdquo; Germany coach Gordie Herbert said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of fitting that Dennis Schroder&rsquo;s number is 17. It&rsquo;s been an unbelievable honor to coach these guys from Day 1.&rdquo;
Johannes Voigtmann scored 14 for Germany.
&ldquo;We worked hard for it,&rdquo; Schroder said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an unbelievable feeling to come out third in the EuroBasket.&rdquo;
Michal Sokolowski led Poland with 18 points, with Jakub Garbacz scoring 12 and A.J. Slaughter finishing with 10 points and 10 assists.

Juancho Hernangomez scored 27 points to lead Spain to the gold medal.

Spain wins EuroBasket title, topping France 88-76 for gold

SAITAMA, Japan (AP) &mdash; Luka Doncic&rsquo;s first Olympics have not been perfect, despite what the basketball standings say. He was defeated. Once. By the rules.
Doncic was looking for tickets to go watch men&rsquo;s tennis when Novak Djokovic was playing in the men&rsquo;s semifinals. Ordinarily, the world&rsquo;s top athletes have no problem getting into other Olympic events when their schedules allow. But at the Tokyo Games, amid a pandemic, there are very strict policies about what athletes can do and where they can go. As such, Doncic&rsquo;s plea for tickets went unfulfilled.
He settled for watching &ldquo;everything on TV,&rdquo; Doncic said.
Another marquee event is coming up Tuesday, that being the men&rsquo;s basketball quarterfinals at the Tokyo Games. Doncic won&rsquo;t have tickets to those, but won&rsquo;t need them, either. He&rsquo;ll be on the court when Slovenia takes on Germany for a berth in the medal round, a step that would put his basketball-crazed homeland even more on the sport&rsquo;s map and potentially send his stock soaring even higher.
&ldquo;We have, obviously, the best player in the world,&rdquo; Slovenia coach Aleksander Sekulic said.
Doncic is certainly in the conversation about being the world&rsquo;s best. As far as being the best player in the Tokyo Games, there&rsquo;s no argument.
Through the group stage, Doncic led the Olympic men&rsquo;s field in scoring at 28.3 points per game, 6.0 points ahead of Japan&rsquo;s Rui Hachimura. He&rsquo;s second in rebounding at 10.7 per game, behind only Slovenian teammate Mike Tobey&rsquo;s 13 per contest. And he&rsquo;s third in assists at 7.0 per game; Tomas Satoransky of the Czech Republic averaged 8.7, Spain&rsquo;s Ricky Rubio is averaging 7.3.
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No men&rsquo;s player has ever finished an Olympics averaging Doncic&rsquo;s current numbers. And nobody has averaged 28.3 points in an Olympics since Brazil&rsquo;s Oscar Schmidt &mdash; the Olympic standard for just about every men&rsquo;s scoring mark &mdash; averaged 42.3 per game at Seoul in 1988.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re making history for our country,&rdquo; Doncic said.
His impact is all over the court.
Nobody in this men&rsquo;s tournament has drawn more fouls, by a wide margin, than Doncic. He&rsquo;s also tied for the Olympic lead in blocked shots, is shooting a ridiculous 75% on 2-pointers, is one of five players in the Olympics with at least 10 makes so far on 3-pointers.&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/luka-doncic-dazzles-with-48-points-for-slovenia-in-olympic-debut-vs-argentina" target="_blank" rel="noopener">He had a 48-point Olympic debut,</a>&nbsp;tying him for the second-highest scoring game in Olympic history, and&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-sports-spain-slovenia-spain-olympic-team-f1d1076d62e86449f8c46bb03e4b7ce3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was one assist shy on Sunday against Spain</a>&nbsp;from posting what would have been the third triple-double ever at a games.
&ldquo;He is the best player in the world, including the NBA,&rdquo; Argentina coach Sergio Hernandez said. &ldquo;If there was any doubt in my mind, it is there no more.&rdquo;
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For as good as Doncic is with the Dallas Mavericks, he&rsquo;s been impossible to beat in his nation&rsquo;s colors.
Slovenia&rsquo;s senior team is 16-0 with Doncic in the lineup. He was a teenager on the team that captured the European championship in 2017 behind Goran Dragic&rsquo;s MVP performance, a win that remains, for now anyway, the top achievement in Slovenia&rsquo;s basketball history. Dragic insisted &mdash; not predicted &mdash; when that tournament was over that Doncic would be an NBA &ldquo;superstar.&rdquo;
&ldquo;They could win this,&rdquo; Dragic said earlier in these Olympics, watching from his Slovenia home.
Doncic is why.
Slovenia surrounded Doncic for these Olympics, and the six-team qualifier it had to win last month just to get to Tokyo, with plenty of shooters who space the floor for his game and a big man like Tobey &mdash; who played at Virginia &mdash; to provide the inside help needed. The formula has worked all summer; Slovenia is 7-0 with an average winning margin of 26.4 points per game.
A win over Germany on Tuesday, and they&rsquo;re in the medal round in their debut Olympics.
&ldquo;Playing with him is just amazing,&rdquo; Tobey said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s so talented. At this type of basketball, maybe every type of basketball, he&rsquo;s the best in the world. I don&rsquo;t know what he does. You try not to be in awe too much.&rdquo;
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The U.S. came to Tokyo with 12 NBA players, a past MVP and NBA Finals MVP in Kevin Durant, seven players who have played for an NBA title, five of them who have actually won championships. Top to bottom, the talent the Americans have overshadows every team, Slovenia included.
But Doncic grew up playing the international style, obviously. He knows how the game is called. He knows the nuances. He&rsquo;s used to playing with a ball that differs from the feel and bounce of the NBA ball. For him, the transition between playing for Dallas and playing for his country has been seamless. Not every NBA standout in Tokyo can say the same.
&ldquo;Luka Doncic is one of the best four or five players in the world right now,&rdquo;&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-slovenia-japan-basketball-518f71485c91c54ec6fb2a61c6205474" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Japan coach Julio Lamas said.</a>&nbsp;&ldquo;But he plays very comfortably in FIBA with the spacing and the rules. Some other NBA players feel uncomfortable sometimes in FIBA. He don&rsquo;t. He is excellent in all the game situations.&rdquo;
Doncic wants no part of the best-player conversation. He won&rsquo;t even discuss an offseason of change with the Mavericks &mdash; Jason Kidd taking over for Rick Carlisle as coach, changes in the front office, changes to the roster &mdash; until the Olympics are over. He&rsquo;s locked in solely on playing for gold, nothing else.
Besides, he doesn&rsquo;t need to rave about his own play. Everyone else already is doing that for him.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy that I can witness and play with him,&rdquo; said Slovenia guard Zoran Dragic, Goran Dragic&rsquo;s brother. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s such an awesome guy and it&rsquo;s so easy to play with him, because he&rsquo;s just an unbelievable person and basketball player. Yeah, we can be all happy that he&rsquo;s Slovenian.&rdquo;
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Luka Doncic has been outstanding in his first Olympics. "He is the best player in the world, including the NBA," said a rival head coach.

Luka Doncic's Olympic debut earns praise: 'He's the best in the world'

Win or go home. Those are the stakes entering Tuesday&rsquo;s clash between the American and Spanish national teams. These squads will meet again in what has become the best international-basketball rivalry since the Soviet Union was in existence.
These teams played in the 2008 final at the Beijing Olympics (won by the &ldquo;Redeem Team&rdquo; in a 118-107 shootout); the 2012 gold-medal game in London (won by the Americans 107-100) and the 2016 semifinals in Rio de Janeiro (also won by Team USA 82-76). Spain is 0-12 in Olympic history against the United States, and 2-4 in World-Championship and World-Cup games.
Like Team USA, they are 2-1 in these Olympics. However, the Americans are averaging 105 points and shooting 51.4% compared to Spain&rsquo;s 85.3 points per game and 43.6% shooting. But the Spanish national team is clever, as evidenced by a box-and-one defense against Luka Doncic in the group phase that held the Dallas Mavericks star to just 2-of-7 from the field (although Slovenia did get the 95-87 win).
Ricky Rubio, Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Victor Claver and Sergio Llull have the longest tenures with the Spanish federation and have been through most (if not all) of the battles, but that makes Spain a much older team than the Americans. Whether that is a benefit or a hindrance remains to be seen.
But it is a certainty that Spain will try to trick the game up somehow and keep it close through the midpoint of the fourth quarter. If they can do that, it&rsquo;ll be a toss-up since the Americans are inconsistent in closing tight games (as seen during their exhibitions and pool play).
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"[Spain] is a team that's been legendary in the world of basketball for being able to compete throughout the years, regardless or players who were in, regardless the generations which were involved," Spanish head coach Sergio Scariolo said. "We just have to keep being ourselves, keep our identity, that's it."&nbsp;
The American federation has been at this for 32 days now, though in different forms. Because of the late finish to the NBA Finals, Jrue Holiday, Devin Booker and Khris Middleton did not join the team until the eve of their opener, a loss to France. Team USA looked very good against Iran and the Czech Republic, but neither of those teams are as accomplished or experienced as Spain.
Spain enters the medal-round elimination game with a 2-1 record but suffered its first defeat against Slovenia 95-87 in its final pool-play game on Sunday night. Doncic&rsquo;s team scored 12 of the final 14 points.
Rubio, 30, whom the Americans got their first look at when he was a teenager leading Spain at the 2008 Olympics in China, is averaging 21.3 points and 7.3 assists a game while shooting 43.8% from three-point range. Spain&rsquo;s attack is very balanced: Llull is averaging 9.0 points per game, Pau Gasol is contributing 8.7 points and 5.3 rebounds, Claver is chipping in 8.7 points and 5.7 rebounds, and Marc Gasol is posting 7.7 points and 4.3 rebounds.
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Since France had success playing two centers (Rudy Gobert and Vincent Poirier) together in its win over Team USA, the Americans should expect to see both Gasol brothers on the court at the same time.
The Spain-USA game (tipoff is at 12:40 a.m. EDT) is the second of the quarterfinals following Germany vs. Slovenia in the opener. Italy plays France and Australia plays Argentina in the other two quarterfinals.
Oddsmakers have made the Americans a 12-point favorite, but that is not the largest line. Slovenia, playing in men&rsquo;s basketball at the Olympics for the first time, is favored by 14.5 points over Germany. Australia and France are both favored by 8.5 points.
The Americans have already shown themselves capable of losing. They fell to Nigeria and Australia in glorified scrimmages in Las Vegas, then lost their opener to France.
&ldquo;It would be disingenuous if you said we wanted to lose on purpose so we could learn things. That's kind of ignorant, if I said that. But circumstances should be taken advantage of no matter what, win or lose,&rdquo; head coach Gregg Popovich said. &ldquo;We were behind the eight ball in the beginning, and we're making some fast progress. We still have a lot of improvement that we must and can make. But I think the losses in the beginning put a laser focus on how you have to play with these rules in this environment against these talented teams, who execute wonderfully. And if you do not have respect for your opponent, you're going to be in big trouble. So, we learned that the hard way.
&ldquo;But it also was a difficult beginning, not being able to have a team together. And so, under some unusual circumstances, I think our guys really focused well and did a good job in gaining ground day-by-day, practice-by-practice, and hopefully we'll continue that as we move forward. And we have to if we want to be successful.&rdquo;
Four teams are going home early, and one of them will be either the top-ranked team (U.S) or second-ranked team (Spain) in the world. The planet waits four years for basketball games of this caliber to be played, and this one should not disappoint.

Win or go home. Those are the stakes in Tuesday's game between the world's top-ranked team (U.S) and second-ranked team (Spain).

Team USA and Spain to clash again in an epic Olympic quarterfinal

LAS VEGAS (AP) &mdash; Spain power forward Juancho Hernang&oacute;mez, who was ruled out of the Tokyo Games earlier this month because of a left shoulder injury, has made the team&rsquo;s Olympic roster after all.
The Spanish federation had said Hernang&oacute;mez, who plays in the NBA for the Minnesota Timberwolves, would need significant time to recover from a dislocated left shoulder. He got hurt in an exhibition game against France on July 8.
But when Spain revealed its Olympic roster Monday, he made the cut &mdash; a clear sign that the national team believes he will be able to play in Tokyo.
Hernang&oacute;mez averaged 7.2 points and 3.9 rebounds in 17 minutes per game for Minnesota this season.
The rest of Spain&rsquo;s roster: Marc Gasol, Pau Gasol, Ricky Rubio, Alberto Abalde, Alex Abrines, Victor Claver, Rudy Fernandez, Usman Garuba, Willy Hernang&oacute;mez, Sergio Llull and Sergio Rodriguez.
Spain is the reigning Basketball World Cup champion and ranked No. 2 in the world behind the U.S. by FIBA. Spain has medaled at each of the last three Olympics &mdash; silvers in 2008 and 2012, bronze in 2016 &mdash; and heads to Tokyo seeking its first gold medal.

Minnesota's Juancho Hernangómez has officially made Spain's roster for the Tokyo Summer Olympics.