Sam Cassell, who won three NBA titles in a 15-season career, announced his retirement as a player Thursday and immediately joined the coaching staff of the Washington Wizards.
Cassell and Randy Wittman, the former head coach of Cleveland and Minnesota, were hired as assistants to new Wizards coach Flip Saunders.
"After 15 seasons playing in this league, I have accomplished all that I have dreamed of as a player," Cassell said. "Now the time has come for to me to take my love for the game to the coaching ranks and pass on what I've learned. This team is loaded with talent, and it's a great way for me to start my coaching career."
Cassell played in 993 regular season games for eight teams, averaging 15.7 points and 6.0 assists. He won championships with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995 and the Boston Celtics in 2008. He made his only appearance in the All-Star game in 2004, the same season he reached the Western Conference finals with the Timberwolves under Saunders.
His former coach had been discussing the job with Cassell even before he accepted the Wizards job in April.
T-WOLVES HIRE KAHN: The Minnesota Timberwolves hired former Indiana Pacers executive David Kahn to run their basketball operations, four days after being rejected by Portland assistant general manager Tom Penn.
The move was confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday by a person with knowledge of the hire. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement wasn't planned until Friday.
Kahn fills the vacancy created when owner Glen Taylor moved vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale to the bench to replace fired coach Randy Wittman in December.
Taylor had said McHale was not a candidate to return to the front office, but the owner was hoping he would return as coach. McHale has been waiting to see who was hired before deciding on coaching. The person familiar with Kahn's hire said it wasn't clear what McHale will do.
BULLS' TOP PRIORITY IS GORDON: Re-signing guard Ben Gordon will be the top priority of new Chicago Bulls general manager Gar Forman heading into the offseason.
Forman met with reporters on Thursday, a day after being promoted to his new position, and he said he believes Gordon wants to stay in Chicago.
"There's still a lot of steps until we get to that point," Forman added.
Gordon, who becomes a free agent on July 1, played a key role in the Bulls' impressive performance against the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. The Celtics won the seven-game series that featured four overtime games.
Forman replaced John Paxson, who will remain with the Bulls as executive vice president of basketball operations. Forman is in charge of day-to-day basketball decisions, while Paxson will deal mostly with long-term organizational planning and talent evaluation.