Mo Williams suffers strained groin muscle.
A tough week for Cavaliers' guard Mo Williams got worse Friday with the announcement he will be slowed by a groin injury for the next couple weeks. Mo Williams isn't having the greatest week, and now it's gotten painful.
The Cavaliers announced Friday that their point guard suffered a strained groin muscle in workouts leading up to the start of next week's training camp. An MRI at the Cleveland Clinic revealed no tear but the team expects him to not be able to fully return to practice until mid-October. He will take part in some low-impact team activities until then.
This is the second consecutive year a preseason groin injury has slowed Williams down. He missed some practice time and a preseason game last October with a groin strain.
Williams' name has been in the news all week. He was quoted by Yahoo! Sports in an interview released Monday that he considered walking away from the final three years of his contract after LeBron James left in free agency.
"I contemplated it," Williams told Yahoo. "I really sat down and envisioned life after basketball. . . . I really saw myself not playing."
Within hours Williams posted a gloomy message on his Twitter feed that read: "This has been the worst time of my life. Dealing with family issues and everything with the team has been very hard."
Then Thursday Williams seemed to back off his comments and claimed via Twitter that he was misunderstood saying: "Just need to put this out there to all my fans about the Yahoo story about me retiring, since it's getting a little out of hand. I was misquoted or misunderstood however you want to put it. I will clear everything up Monday on media day. I was never considering walking away right now. And especially because [James] left."
Cavs announce hirings: General Manager Chris Grant has been in the process of replacing several members of the front-office staff over the last six weeks. He announced all of his hirings Friday. As was reported last week, Grant has hired former Phoenix Suns executive David Griffin to be his chief assistant as vice president of basketball operations. Griffin replaces Lance Blanks, who left to become the general manager of the Suns.
The team also released the hiring of Michael Blackstone of the Shapiro Negotiations Institute in Baltimore, where he's been a consultant with numerous pro sports teams including the Indians. Blackstone replaces Michael Winger, who left to join the Oklahoma City Thunder, and becomes the team's de facto salary-cap specialist and lead negotiator.
Grant also promoted Wes Wilcox to Director of Player Personnel. Wilcox, like Griffin and Grant, is a former video coordinator who has worked his way up. Grant also announced the hiring of Derek Millender as assistant strength and conditioning coach, Stephen Spiro as assistant athletic trainer and Kwame Graves-Fulgham as video coordinator.
Several other current staff members were promoted within the team's scouting department including David Henderson, Trent Redden and Dan Vincent.
Ticket dates set: Single-game Cavs tickets will go on sale to the general public starting Oct. 2 at 10 a.m. at cavs.com, The Q box office, by calling 800-820-CAVS or at area Discount Drug Mart stores. Fans who sign up to become an "insider" at cavs.com can purchase tickets starting Sept. 29.