Mike Dunleavy involved in group close to buying New Orleans Hornets

Former NBA coach Mike Dunleavy is part of a group zeroing in on purchasing the New Orleans Hornets, ESPNLosAngeles.com reports. The group, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, is led by California-based businessman Raj Bhathal and also includes Larry J. Benson, the brother of New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson. Dunleavy has taken a lead negotiating role for the group, sources told ESPN.

NBA commissioner David Stern said during his state of the league press conference on Saturday that there are two groups lined up to buy the Hornets, which have been under NBA ownership since the league purchased the franchise from George Shinn in December 2010 for about $318 million, ESPN noted. Stern would not name the people involved in those bids but said he believes the transaction should happen within the next week to ten days.

Gary Chouest, who held a minority share of the Hornets when Shinn still owned the team, is reportedly heading the second group. Chouest’s deal to purchase the team from Shinn fell through in 2010, a development that led the league to take the franchise off Shinn's hands.

"We're optimistic that we will make a deal with group one," Stern said. "And we're a little bit behind here because we haven't concluded our deal with the state yet, but I think it's moving closer day by day. It's progressing well, but it's not finished. We expect to have it finished, I'm told, in the next week or ten days, and that's the period of time that we would like to hopefully have this deal for the sale of the club come into much sharper focus."

Dunleavy coached four different teams over 17 NBA seasons—the Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks and Portland Trail Blazers.