Notebook | Hawks sign coach Mike Woodson to extension

ATLANTA — Rick Sund's first two weeks as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks convinced him the team is moving in the right direction and should keep Mike Woodson as coach.

Woodson, who in his fourth season led the team to its first playoff berth in nine years, has signed a two-year extension, Sund announced Friday.

"What I really felt was that each year the club had improved and got better," said Sund, the former Sonics GM who was hired by Atlanta on May 28.

Woodson's record is just 106-222, but the Hawks' win total has improved in each of his four years. They ended the NBA's longest playoff drought this season, when they were 37-45 before stretching the Boston Celtics to seven games in a first-round series.

Former Hawks general manager Billy Knight's authority appeared to be weakened when he lobbied unsuccessfully with the owners to fire Woodson at the trade deadline. Knight resigned after the season.

Sund said he talked with players and members of the management team and ownership group before making the recommendation to offer the extension.

"I also wanted to spend time with Woody to make sure he would be happy working with me and I would be happy working with him," Sund said.

Notes

• The Cavaliers have declined permission for C Zydrunas Ilgauskas to play for Lithuania in the Olympics. Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry said Ilgauskas is a higher-risk player because of his injury history. The 7-foot-3 Ilgauskas was plagued by foot injuries early in his career, and the Cavs are concerned about his lower back.

• Jazz F Matt Harpring had surgery to remove two bone spurs from his right ankle. The team wasn't sure how long Harpring's recovery would take.

• The Pistons should have Michael Curry's coaching staff in place by early next week, team president Joe Dumars said. One man is already on board — former Detroit assistant Pat Sullivan, who spent the past three seasons on Lawrence Frank's staff in New Jersey.

• The Heat hired David Fizdale as an assistant coach, bringing the 34-year-old back to where he began his NBA career. Fizdale was an assistant in the Heat video room during the 1997-98 season. He spent the past five seasons as an assistant with Golden State and Atlanta.

• A Pennsylvania woman who says Michael Jordan fathered her child despite two DNA tests to the contrary has been barred from contacting the basketball great, his family or his representatives.

Judge Gordon Miller on Thursday granted the permanent injunction against Lisa Miceli. Earlier this year, Jordan filed a lawsuit to enforce a 2005 agreement that required Miceli to stop contacting him after a pair of DNA tests that year proved he was not the 4-year-old boy's father.

The Detroit Free Press contributed to this report.