Timberwolves forward Ryan Gomes is also Cape Verdean, and while the ex-Celtic was considering playing for the country, impending fatherhood led him to decline the invitation.
 
"My goal is to definitely play for the team in 2012 and hopefully
qualify for the Olympics," said Gomes. "It’s an honor to have been
asked to play for the team and represent where my family and I are
from."
 
 
 
Think about one other person. Think about Maria Contardo, a student advocate at East Side High in Newark, N.J. She has two kids of her own, but also helped raise Randy Foye, once a star at Villanova and now a guard for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, after Foye was abandoned on the streets as a young kid.
 

The day before the 2006 NBA draft — a draft in which Foye would be selected seventh — she could scarcely contain herself.
 

”There’s no blood running,” she said, ”but it can’t be any better if he was a blood relative. It can’t be.”
 
 
 
Now the Bulls will move on to the next round of interviews, certain to
include Johnson this week. Paxson has revealed his desire to connect
personally with his hire, though. And despite certain shared
philosophical beliefs, it’s hard picturing Johnson and Paxson hitting
it off.
 
Sources said Casey interviewed along with Rick Carlisle because the
latter talked about making the former Timberwolves coach his lead
assistant should Carlisle land the job. That same scenario could play
out in Dallas, which just hired Carlisle, should Casey not land the
Bulls job.
 
  
 
Marc Stein/ESPN on the Bulls coaching search: 
They will continue to consider former Minnesota coach Dwane Casey, who
has already interviewed once with the Bulls and is bound for Dallas as
an assistant to Rick Carlisle if he can’t get the Bulls’ job.