Utah Jazz: Tyrone Corbin focused on playoffs

LOS ANGELES — There are multiple NBA head-coach openings, and Tyrone Corbin says he's ready to fill one.

Jerry Sloan and Deron Williams wholeheartedly agree.

But Corbin will not interview with the New Orleans Hornets — or any other NBA team — as long as Utah remains alive in the ongoing NBA playoffs, the ex-Jazz forward and current Jazz assistant coach said Tuesday.

"I can't do nothing now," Corbin said after morning shootaround for Tuesday night's Game 2 in the Jazz's second-round postseason series with the Los Angeles Lakers. "I mean, I'm too embedded in this stuff here, so it would be a little distracting.

"It's too much stuff right now," he added. "It's an honor to be considered, you know, but right now I don't think it's fair to be distracted from what I'm doing here, what we're working for. So, hopefully they can wait."

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported late Monday night that the Hornets "have contacted" the Jazz "to request permission to interview" Corbin, but Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor on Tuesday night denied that that was the case.

"I have not heard a word from New Orleans," he said.

In any event, O'Connor embraces Corbin's wait-until-after-the-playoffs stance.

"That's the philosophy that we appreciate from Ty," he said.

Corbin — who spent three of his 14 NBA seasons in Utah, from 1991-94 — does consider the Hornets job especially attractive, though.

"It's a head-coaching opportunity, so, for a young guy trying to move up all of them are appealing," he said. "And I think that team actually is a pretty decent team. Some of the other opportunities are not as good."

The longer the Jazz fend off elimination in the playoffs, though, the fewer openings there will be.

"You may miss an opportunity because you've got to wait. But it is what it is," Corbin said. "You know, I'm in a good situation here (in Utah). I like where I am. And if things work out, they do; if they don't, I'm happy to be where I am."

Corbin also was identified late Monday by Yahoo.com as being among several "possible candidates" to replace the fired Vinny Del Negro in Chicago, along with Boston assistant Tom Thibodeau and former NBA head coaches Avery Johnson, Doug Collins and Lawrence Frank.

The Chicago Sun-Times, however, reported that Collins, Oklahoma City assistant Maurice Cheeks and University of Kentucky coach John Calipari are "leading candidates" for the Bulls job.