The Warriors remain without a head coach as the agreement to bring Stanford?s head coach Mike Montgomery to the Warriors is unfinished.

Chris Mullin formally announced the firing of Eric Musselman as head coach but would not confirm the many reports that Montgomery had been hired to replace him.

"Let me wait on that," said Mullin. "That's for another day. I don't want to get ahead of myself."

Mullin explained that one of his reasons for dismissing Musselman was the uncertainty that would have been created when the coach entered the final year of his contract next season.

Montgomery did reportedly meet with his Cardinal players and told them that he was taking the Warriors? job.

"He's very appealing," Mullin said. "Winning is appealing. And professionalism. There are a lot of good attributes, no question. We'll see what happens with that."

The Golden State Warriors, less than 24 hours after firing head coach Eric Musselman, announced today that they have promoted scout Rod Higgins to general manager.

Higgins, 44, will report directly to Warriors Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Mullin.

Higgins spent seven of 13 NBA seasons as a player with the Warriors, six more as an assistant coach, and one as a part-time scout.  Higgins served as an assistant general manager with the Washington Wizards from 2000-03, working under then-Wizards President of Basketball Operations Michael Jordan and then-General Manager Wes Unseld.

Eric Musselman was fired Wednesday after just two seasons as coach of the Golden State Warriors. He will be replaced by Stanford's Mike Montgomery, a source told The Associated Press.

Musselman told the AP in a phone interview that he received the news of the firing from executive vice president of basketball operations Chris Mullin around 7:15 p.m.

Stanford spokesman Gary Migdol told the AP that Montgomery met with his players Wednesday to discuss the Warriors' situation. A Pac-10 source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Montgomery told the players he accepted the job.

Calls to Golden State officials were not immediately returned. Montgomery could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Warriors missed the playoffs for the 10th straight year in an injury-plagued season, finishing 37-45.

"It's been a great two years. The players have played their hearts out," Musselman said by cell phone Wednesday night. "The organization's headed in a great direction."

"The Golden State Warriors are expected to fire head coach Eric Musselman on Wednesday night and have targeted Stanford coach Mike Montgomery as his replacement, league sources told ESPN.com on Wednesday."

Musselman was 75-89 in his two seasons with Golden State.

Thirty different names were left off of the eligibility list for the NBA Draft because the league judged their applications to be, more or less, an exercise in absurdity.

94 apparently legitimate names were released from the early candidate list on Friday, including 13 high school kids and Wyoming junior point guard Jay Straight.  

There will be 59 Draft picks this year.  Early-entry candidates without agents can withdraw from the draft by June 17.

The Denver Nuggets pick number 20 in this year?s NBA Draft and will work out about 30 players starting May 25.

Included in this group are Croatian forward-center Damir Omerhodzic, Louisiana State freshman forward Brandon Bass, Cal State Fullerton senior forward Pape Sow, Texas Wesleyan center David Johnson, Colorado junior center David Harrison, Brigham Young senior center Rafael Araujo, and 7-foot-3 Korean center Ha Seung-Jin.

"I don't know if you're going to get somebody that can impact your team immediately," Nugget GM Vandeweghe said. "But who knows, he may go over to Europe for a couple years and then come and play."  

The Nuggets will also take a look at Europe?s brightest stars, including Russian 7-3 center Pavel Podkolzine and Lithuanian 7-1 center Martynas Andriuskevicius, who is projected to be a lottery pick.