Sean Sweeney's wait to become a head coach is about to be over. The Orlando Magic are set to give him the shot he's wanted for years.
Sweeney is in the final stages of completing a deal that will make him the next coach of the Magic, according to a person with knowledge of the move who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday because the hiring has not yet been revealed publicly.
The Magic declined comment. ESPN first reported that an agreement between Sweeney and the Magic was being finalized.
Sweeney — currently the associate head coach for the San Antonio Spurs — is getting the job over, among other candidates, longtime coaches Billy Donovan and Jeff Van Gundy. The 41-year-old Sweeney will replace Jamahl Mosley, who was let go by the Magic after five seasons and three consecutive first-round playoff exits. Mosley has since been hired as coach of the New Orleans Pelicans.
Sweeney is expected to remain with the Spurs through the end of their season. The Spurs play Oklahoma City in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals on Saturday night, and if they win would meet the New York Knicks next week in the NBA Finals.
Sweeney is a defensive guru, widely considered one of the brightest young coaches in the league on that side of the ball. In his lone season with the Spurs, he turned what was a porous defense a year ago into one of the league’s most airtight — his scheme centered around Victor Wembanyama, the unanimous winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award this season.
Wembanyama has spoken highly of Sweeney all season long. So, too, has Spurs coach Mitch Johnson — who thought so much of Sweeney that he made him the associate head coach on his first staff in San Antonio.
“I just took a liking to his ability to articulate his basketball philosophy and what he thought about the game and NBA coaching in general, in terms of competitiveness and how hard you should coach and holding guys accountable,” Johnson said earlier during this postseason, in comments published by the San Antonio Express-News. “But also the modern, creative part and thinking outside the box.”
Sweeney is technically set to become a first-time head coach, just as Mosley was when Orlando hired him in 2021. Sweeney is 41 and in his 13th season as an assistant; Mosley was 42 and had spent 15 years as an assistant when Orlando hired him.
Sweeney does have some experience. He had two separate, brief stints filling in for then-Dallas coach Jason Kidd because of illness and the health and safety protocols put into place during the COVID-19 pandemic. And he’s said in the past that he may have coached more Summer League games than anyone in NBA history.
But this fall, when the Magic start their season, Sweeney will be coaching for real.
He started in the NBA as a video coordinator for the then-New Jersey Nets, and has since had assistant stints with the Nets, Milwaukee, Detroit, Dallas and San Antonio. Sweeney was among the handful of assistants who seemed to perpetually be interviewed for top jobs in recent years, but never got the offer — until now.
Sweeney also spent time with Luka Doncic as part of Slovenia’s coaching staff for the Paris Games in 2024. He’s a Minnesota native whose coaching career began with various stops at Northern Iowa, Evansville, Anoka-Ramsey Community College and the Academy of Art University.
Sweeney will become the 15th coach in Magic history — 16th if counting Donovan, who briefly accepted an offer to take over in Orlando and leave the University of Florida in 2007, then changed his mind about a week later.
Donovan parted ways with the Chicago Bulls earlier this spring. Van Gundy also interviewed for the Orlando job; he’s the brother of former Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy.
Mosley was let go in Orlando one day after the Magic were eliminated by the Detroit Pistons in Round 1 of the Eastern Conference playoffs — after blowing a 3-1 series lead. When Orlando lost Game 6 of that series, Magic fans booed the team off the floor after a game where the team wasted a 24-point second-half lead by missing 23 consecutive shots.
There is no shortage of talent, led by forwards Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Orlando won 22 games in Mosley’s first season, improved to 34-48 in Year 2 and has been .500 or better in all three seasons since — 47-35 in 2023-24, 41-41 last season and 45-37 this season.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
FILE - Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Sean Sweeney directs the team during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Dec. 19, 2022, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, the president proclaimed “TRUMP’S MAKING FOOD AFFORDABLE," and cited falling prices for a range of groceries, including avocados, fresh berries, and a variety of pantry staples. Yet just two weeks earlier the Labor Department had released inflation figures showing grocery prices up nearly 3% in April from a year earlier.
So where's the reality?
The graphic shared by President Donald Trump may be correct about the specific items he listed. It's hard to know because he used data that isn't publicly available and he didn't specify what time frame he used.
But specific grocery items go up and down all the time, and his post ignores the broader reality consumers are facing at the supermarket: Overall, food prices have risen since his inauguration, and at a faster pace than they typically did before the pandemic. Most economists expect them to continue to do so in the coming months as a spike in diesel fuel prices lifts the cost of shipping groceries to stores around the country.
The April gain in grocery prices was the largest in 2 1/2 years. The 2.9% increase is only modestly above the 20-year average of 2.6%, though in the decade before the pandemic, grocery prices rose an average of just 1.1% a year.
And the increase comes after much larger, painful spikes that took place in 2021-22 under former President Joe Biden. Grocery costs soared nearly 28% from just before the pandemic in February 2020 until Trump took office in January 2025.
In his social media post, Trump focused on nine specific items without looking at overall grocery costs. He said that avocado prices have fallen 19%, cheese has dropped 5.6%, fresh berries and butter have dropped 13%, olive oil prices are down 16%, while chicken breasts are down 2.4% and eggs 90%.
Trump's post cited data from Circana, a private company, as published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Neither Circana nor USDA responded by press time to requests from The Associated Press. The White House also did not respond to an email seeking comment on the post.
Still, many of Trump's figures are in the ballpark of those in the government's consumer price index, compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest-profile gauge of inflation. That data shows cheese prices falling 3.1% in April compared with a year ago. Egg prices have dropped 39% from a year earlier and 60% from the peak in March 2025, short of Trump's 90% claim.
Many of the items Trump cited have gotten cheaper for reasons that have little to do with broader economic trends. Egg prices have fallen because chicken flocks have recovered after being devastated by the avian flu, and in part because the Trump administration allowed nearly 1 billion eggs to be imported last year.
The price of olive oil has declined recently because its production has recovered after a two-year drought.
Chicken breasts, according to the consumer price index, averaged $4.17 a pound in April, up from $3.97 when Trump was inaugurated. Still, chicken breast prices are down 0.3% from a year earlier. Butter has fallen 5.8% in price in the past year, according to the BLS.
Yet the president left out all the items that have jumped in price and kept grocery costs elevated. Many factors are pushing up food costs, including Trump's own policies: His tariffs have made many imported items more expensive, while droughts are also pushing up prices. A jump in oil prices from the Iran war has made fertilizer more expensive, but the impact of that will take months to show up on grocery store shelves. Pricier diesel fuel is pushing up shipping costs, which effects nearly everything on store shelves.
Consumers paid 6.5% more for fresh fruit and vegetables last month than they did in April 2025, and 8.8% more for meat, according to the Labor Department.
Tomato prices have shot up 40% in the past year after the Trump administration imposed a 17% duty on fresh tomatoes imported from Mexico in July 2025.
And dry weather in the Western U.S. has pushed up beef prices, which in April were 15% higher year-over-year. Coffee prices were up 18.5%, partly due to drought and other weather conditions that have hurt global coffee production.
In consumer confidence surveys, Americans still cite high prices as a top concern. Those surveys have found that consumers generally have a dim outlook on the economy, even as the unemployment rate stays low and the economy continues to grow at a modest pace.
Polls also find that most Americans have soured on Trump's economic policies, and Democrats have benefited in recent elections by raising “affordability” concerns, an issue that is also likely to play a role in this year's midterm elections.
FILE - Chicken is displayed for sale at a grocery store Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)
FILE - Bacon is displayed for sale at a grocery store Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)
FILE - Coffee is displayed for sale at a grocery store Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)
FILE - Beef is displayed for sale at a grocery store Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)
