The NBPA has "spent the past month identifying four candidates" to succeed former Exec Dir Billy Hunter, and has "narrowed its options" to former NBA Exec VP/Basketball Operations Stu Jackson, Basketball HOFer Isiah Thomas, former MSG Sports Teams President of Business Operations Steve Mills and Bobcats President Fred Whitfield, according to Jason Whitlock of FOXSPORTS.com. But Nets G and NBPA VP Jerry Stackhouse yesterday said, "I'm totally denying we are down to those four prospects. Those are just four well-known guys, guys who know our business, guys who have ideas we wanted to hear from." He added that the timetable for the union to name Hunter's successor is "between Christmas and NBA All-Star Weekend" in February. Stackhouse said the union's "long-term deadline is to have our guy in place around the same time" as when NBA Deputy Commissioner & COO Adam Silver succeeds Commissioner David Stern on February 1, 2014. Whitlock writes Mills has been "considered the front-runner ever since Hunter was ousted." Like Jackson, Mills has a "strong rapport" with Silver. NFL Coaches Association Exec Dir David Cornwell is "said to be a longshot candidate." Regardless of who gets the job, it is "clear the NBA and the NBPA want to usher in a spirit of cooperation and shared goals that were missing during the Stern-Hunter era" (FOXSPORTS.com, 7/29).
