Florida coach Billy Donovan hasn't ruled out coaching in the NBA next season. Donovan wouldn't guarantee he would be coaching the Gators next season, leaving open the possibility of NBA teams - such as the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks - pursuing him this summer.
Donovan, who has two NCAA championships to his name and is coming off a trip to the Final Four, hasn't been a regularly-mentioned name in the cycle of NBA coaching rumors. That now could change.
The 48-year-old coach told reporters at the SEC Spring Meetings on Tuesday that he planned to return as the Gators' coach next season, but he wouldn't guarantee it.
"I think when you start making guarantees about life and start making guarantees about where you're going to be, that's not good," Donovan said, via the Orlando Sentinel. "If for some reason I ever change my mind and did something, I wouldn't want (people) saying, 'Well, he promised, he guaranteed, he said this on record.' I just think when you start doing that, that's a mistake.
"I've seen a lot of coaches over the years come out and say, 'No, no, no, no, I'm not going anywhere, I'm not going anywhere,' and then all of a sudden they go somewhere and it's like, 'Well, this guy is a complete liar.'
"I don't want to get into that situation. There's been some teams that have called, but that's really it."
While Donovan acknowledged he's happy at Florida, he did call the opportunity to coach in the pros "intriguing."
"All I can say is I love Florida, I'm happy here, (athletics director Jeremy Foley has) been great, the school's been great to me," Donovan said. "But at the same point, some of the NBA stuff, as I've said before, is intriguing in a lot of ways - the basketball part of it.
"That's not to say that I'm not unhappy here; that's not the case at all."
The Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Utah Jazz, Lakers and Knicks all are among the teams needing to fill head coaching vacancies.
Los Angeles and New York, where Donovan is from, could be the most enticing for him.
Their level of interest in Donovan, though, is uncertain: Los Angeles reportedly wants an experienced coach and Knicks president Phil Jackson is thought to want a coach familiar with the triangle system.
