Danny Ferry was set to become the new general manager of the Cavaliers on Saturday, but while he was on his way to catch a plane to Cleveland, he held up on finalizing the deal for undisclosed reasons.

Ferry initially agreed to a five-year deal worth close to $10 million, according to two league executives. The deal also included incentives.

Before the negotiations hit a snag, Ferry, director of basketball operations for the San Antonio Spurs, was scheduled to start work today to get the Cavs involved in Tuesday's NBA draft.

The Cavs had been expected to announce a news conference introducing Ferry to the media early next week.

The Cavs talked to Ferry for several weeks. Those talks intensified when Ferry interviewed with the Cavs twice last week when the Spurs were in Detroit for the NBA Finals.

According to a league source, Ferry did not want to make a decision until the finals were over. Ferry initially accepted the Cavs' offer two days after the Spurs won the NBA championship.

Ferry has been in the Spurs' front office since September 2003 after playing 13 NBA seasons. He was selected by the Clippers with the second overall pick in the 1989 draft. Ferry held out and played overseas before signing with the Cavs, who received his rights from the Clippers following a trade that included Ron Harper. Ferry spent 10 seasons with the Cavs.

Despite having its first Game 7 in over a decade, a matchup that saw the San Antonio Spurs defeat the defending champion Detorit Pistons, the NBA Finals only received an 8.2 rating on ABC, down 29% from last year?s Pistons/Lakers series which saw the NBA highest rating of 11.5.

The numbers are not precise however, as the NBA is becoming more popular around the globe due to the success of foreign-born players like Frances Tony Parker and Argentina?s Manu Ginobili to name a few.

Now that the San Antonio Spurs' season has drawn to a close, Danny Ferry is expected to give Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert an answer today on whether he'll become the team's next general manager writes Brian Windhorst of the Akron Beacon Journal.

Two people close to Ferry said Thursday that he still wasn't 100 percent sure he would take the job, but was leaning that way.

If Ferry does accept the position, it might increase the chance the team will re-sign center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Ilgauskas and Ferry have been close friends since they were Cavalier teammates. It is also believed coach Mike Brown and LeBron James have told ownership they'd like to see Ilgauskas re-signed.

The Cavaliers were potentially dealt a setback in the free-agent market Thursday, when the Phoenix Suns sent guard Quentin Richardson to the New York Knicks for forward Kurt Thomas.

The move clears the deck for the Suns to match any offers for Joe Johnson, whom the Cavaliers were targeting as a free agent.

In addition, the team had previously been in talks with the Knicks about trading Drew Gooden for Thomas.

According to league insiders, the Cavaliers also have been actively trying to trade swingman Jiri Welsch before next Tuesday's draft, either to acquire a pick or a free up salary-cap space.

Larry Brown and his Detroit Pistons has just lost a thrilling Game 7 to the San Antonio Spurs and now the coach is going to the Mayo Clinic to address a medical problem that developed from complications following hip surgery in November.

"Shelly has it set up for Wednesday morning," he said, referring to his wife.

The San Antonio Spurs have won their second World Championship in three years, defeating the Detroit Pistons by a final score of 81-74 in Game 7.

Manu Ginobili was 8-13 from the floor, finishing the game with 23 points, while Tim Duncan was big in the 3rd quarter and finished with 25 points and 11 rebounds.

Robert Horry had 15 points off the bench on his way to winning his sixth ring.

Rip Hamilton played 47 minutes and scored a team-high 15 points, one of five Pistons in double-figures.

The Pistons were up by nine in the third quarter, but when Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess each picked up their fourth personal foul, Larry Brown was forced to go with a small line-up, and the Spurs made a run on the champs that Detroit couldn't recover from.

With 23 points from Rip Hamilton and 21 from Chauncey Billups, the Detroit Pistons defeated the Spurs by a final score of 95-86, forcing a game 7 to be played on Thursday.

The Spurs only scored 19 4th quarter points, as they were unable to find a scorer with Robert Horry being closely guarded by the Pistons' defense.

Manu Ginobili had 21 points, but suffered a block shot by Ben Wallace in the closing minutes that came off his foot and turned the ball over.

Tim Duncan had 21 points as well, along with 15 rebounds, but missed several layups down the stretch and also shot poorly from the free throw line, missing 5 of his 10 attempts.

Rasheed Wallace only played 23 minutes due to foul trouble, but scored 16 points, while Antonio McDyess had 10 points off the bench.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are close to finalizing a deal that would make former Cavs and Duke standout Danny Ferry their new general manager in place ousted GM Jim Paxson.

The deal between the Cavs and Ferry is expected to be done following the end of the NBA Finals between the Detroit Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs.

Ferry spent 13 seasons in the League and has worked in the Spurs? front office since September 2003.

Although he pretty much made it clear that he was out of Detroit at season?s end (a distraction whose timing could not have come at a more inconvenient time) before Game 5, coach Larry Brown hinted that he may stay with the Pistons after all.  When asked if he thought that Game 5 was his final home game with the Pistons he produced some very mixed signals.

"I did during the Miami series, Game 6 when I came over here. But since then, you know, my goal is to come back," Brown said. "I'm confident that I'll figure out a way to be well enough to do this. And if not, you know, it's been great. But I haven't really thought about it nearly as much as I did maybe two weeks ago."

The San Antonio Spurs pulled out an improbable 96-95 win on the back of Robert Horry, who scored 21 points, including a 3-pointer with 5.8 seconds left in overtime.

Tim Duncan shot 4-11 from the free throw line, including several misses down the stretch, as well as a crucial dropped pass.  Duncan was stellar, however, on the glass, finishing the game with 19 rebounds.

Chauncey Billups had 34 points, but when Bruce Bowen switched to guard him at the end of the game, he was unable to put the ball in the basket.

Ben Wallace had 13 points and 12 rebounds and Rasheed Wallace had 12 points, but when he went to double Manu Ginobili in the corner, he left Horry wide open to hit the game-winning 3-pointer.

Ginobili had 15 points, as he has been hampered by nagging injuries, and hasn't been able to drive to the basket like he did earlier in the season.

Yet again the home team was dominant, as the Detroit Pistons cruised to a 102-71 thrashing of the San Antonio Spurs to even the series at two.

"They really pressured us, and they didn't let us do anything on offense. We've got to find a solution," Spurs guard Tony Parker said.

Lindsey Hunter scored 17 points on 7-10 shooting and it was his stellar 3rd quarter, which put the game out of reach for the Pistons.

"We've got a lot of guys who can score. Tonight, Chauncey recognized I had it going, and like I said before the game, I still know how to put it in the hole a little bit," said Hunter, a 12-year veteran averaging just 3.3 points in the postseason. "My dad always taught me the only way you know if the next one is going in is to put it in the air. So I've always lived by that."

Larry Brown was very pleased with his squad's performance.

"We were phenomenal tonight," Brown said. "I really believe in all honesty this is the best game on a team I've been involved with at this level, this is they best we've played. This was a pretty special game."

Tim Duncan had 16 points and 16 rebounds, but shot 5-17 from the floor and sat beside Gregg Popovich during the final minutes of the game with a look of extreme dejection.

"I don't feel frustrated at all. There would be some other words that would be a lot more accurate," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "It's disappointing that their physical play and their defense has taken us away from everything that we normally do."