NBA information

Warriors' Curry misses 2nd game in row with sprained ankle

2010-11-03T20:27:00.004-07:00

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Warriors guard Stephen Curry missed his second straight game Wednesday against Memphis because of a sprained right ankle.

Curry originally was hurt in Golden State's final preseason game and aggravated the injury in the season opener against Houston before rolling on it in last Friday's 109-91 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

"A lot of the swelling went down and now it's just a matter of trying to continue the rehab and strengthening of it," coach Keith Smart said. "We're going to give him some more time off before rushing into it. We have to err on the side of caution right now just because we're talking about playing the long haul and getting ourselves ready for the long push later on."

Reggie Williams started in Curry's place.

76ers coach Collins leaves game with illness

2010-11-03T20:27:00.003-07:00

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Philadelphia 76ers coach Doug Collins was not on the bench for the second half of Wednesday night's game against Indiana because of symptoms related to vertigo. His return was questionable.

Associate head coach Michael Curry took over with the Sixers holding a 26-point lead at halftime.

Collins missed two preseason games because of symptoms related to a concussion he sustained on Memorial Day. He then had neurological testing and treatment for what was diagnosed as vertigo.

Rivers bothered by tweeting of in-game comments

2010-11-03T20:27:00.001-07:00

BOSTON (AP) -- Boston coach Doc Rivers feels what is said on the court should be left on the court.

Detroit's Charlie Villanueva took it to Twitter on Tuesday night, writing on his account that Kevin Garnett called him a "cancer patient" during Boston's 109-86 road win.

Villanueva suffers from alopecia universalis, a medical condition that results in hair loss. He does not have hair on his head.

Garnett, known as a trash talker, stuck to his usual routine and did not speak to the media before Wednesday's game against the Milwaukee Bucks.

He did issue a statement before the game.

"I am aware there was a major miscommunication regarding something I said on the court last night. My comment to Charlie Villanueva was in fact: You are cancerous to your team and our league,"' Garnett said. "I would never be insensitive to the brave struggle that cancer patients endure. I have lost loved ones to this deadly disease and have a family member currently undergoing treatment. I would never say anything that distasteful. The game of life is far bigger than the game of basketball."

One of Villanueva's tweets read: "KG called me a cancer patient, I'm (mad) because, u know how many people died from cancer, and he's tossing it like it's a joke."

Rivers defended his forward while wondering why someone would need to share in-game comments.

"I actually heard what Kevin said. I was right there, what he really said is in the statement. I'm going to leave it at that," he said. "I don't like the whole tweeting thing. I'm going to state that as well. Guys talk on the court. It doesn't mean they should or shouldn't. The fact that we're talking about this, it's just silly. It really is. We had a hell of a game yesterday and we should be talking about basketball.

"Talking about what the guys said during the game, there isn't a place. I don't find a place for it."

Villanueva was bothered by what he thought he heard.

"I wouldn't even trip about that, but a cancer patient, I know way 2 many people who passed away from it, and I have a special place 4 those," the message reads.

He also wrote that Garnett talks a lot but has probably never been in a fight, and he'd love to step in a ring with him.

Boston guard Ray Allen was on the court, but didn't hear the alleged comment.

"I don't know anything about it. The first I heard about it was actually this afternoon when I was eating and ready to head over," he said. "I don't know what was said. They had words and they were kind of going at each other."

He also said players should be careful with any tweets or pictures taken off the court.

"Definitely in this day and age we come across so many people with cameras and cell phones and Twitters," he said. "The social network is such a huge thing in this day and age. You have to be consistent with your message."

Allen said he does not tweet any longer after an incident involving his account.

Madison Square Garden to reopen for Knicks' game Friday

2010-11-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (AP) -- Madison Square Garden will reopen Friday night for the New York Knicks' game against Washington following an asbestos scare that forced the postponement of a game Tuesday night.

"After receiving assurance from the city and environmental experts regarding the safety of the arena for our customers and employees, all events at Madison Square Garden, beginning with Friday night's Knicks game, will go on as scheduled," arena officials said in a statement Wednesday.

"We have been working with the appropriate experts to confirm the arena is safe since debris fell during overnight work Monday. We will announce the rescheduled date for the postponed Knicks vs. Magic game, in conjunction with the NBA, in the near future. We would like to thank the city for their assistance in this matter, and appreciate the patience of our fans."

City environmental officials who inspected the 42-year-old sports and concert hall Tuesday afternoon gave it a clean bill of health.

Debris dislodged during a cleanup of an attic space triggered two air quality detectors, but subsequent testing revealed that the particles did not contain asbestos, city officials said. The finding came too late in the day to save the game Tuesday night against Orlando, which had already been postponed.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Wednesday that even though there was no health risk, the arena's operators deserve credit for putting safety first.

"If they made any mistakes, they were mistakes in the direction of being cautious and they should be commended for that," he said. "It turns out that our Department of Environmental Protection is very satisfied that there was no asbestos there. There were no risks, and if we had more time before they had to make a decision on the game, perhaps they wouldn't have even canceled the game."

The arena is in the midst of a major renovation that will revamp the seating, add new luxury suites and create a new entrance and new public concourses. Much of the heaviest construction has been scheduled for summer months, but some work is being done year round.

Work is expected to continue through the 2013-2014 NBA and NHL seasons.

It is unclear how much of that overhaul involves abating asbestos, or whether that kind of potentially hazardous work will be confined to the offseason.

Star trio sees their stats drop as Heat's win total climbs

2010-11-03T20:24:00.002-07:00

MIAMI (AP) -- For $327 million this summer, the Miami Heat got three players whose statistics are plummeting.

The Heat are thrilled by that development.

When Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh decided to team up in Miami, each quickly said individual numbers would be irrelevant - the first time in any of their basketball lives they could have that luxury. And after winning four straight, the last three by at least 23 points, the less-is-more approach is working wonders for the Heat.

"I had too many close games last year,'' Wade said after Tuesday's 129-97 win over Minnesota. "I appreciate these.''

Your browser does not support iframes.

Through five games, Wade's scoring is down 23 percent from his early pace last season. James has gone four games without scoring more than 20 points for the first time since December 2003, and the Heat have nonetheless won all those contests. Bosh's numbers are well off his career scoring and rebounding averages.

In past years, these would represent big problems.

These days, the 'Big 3' say those are all great signs.

"I don't care about numbers,'' Bosh said. "The only number I care about is winning. You can have great games, you can have great numbers and be at the bottom of the totem pole as far as the league is concerned. I think I can speak for that, too. I've experienced it. You can do everything you want, you can average the best numbers, but if you don't win it really doesn't matter.''

The Heat are off until visiting New Orleans on Friday.

Miami's victory over Minnesota was so one-sided that James didn't get his second field goal until the third quarter, and by then the Heat had already put 77 points on the scoreboard. The Heat became the first team since Detroit early in the 2007-08 season to win three straight games by such a large margin.

True, the combined record of the four teams Miami has defeated so far - New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia and Minnesota - was just 4-9 entering Wednesday night's games. Which might be why Heat coach Erik Spoelstra walked off the court at the final buzzer Tuesday already thinking up ways for his team to get better.

"That's the sickness of head coaching in this business. It really is,'' Spoelstra said. "Because immediately, what I'm thinking after the game is we have to stay sharp. Are we building the right mental toughness in these games? We'll take these games whenever you can get them. Obviously, you want to play efficient, productive basketball.''

He can't question either of those two counts.

One of the many reasons why the Heat stars are seeing their stat totals dip is because they're simply not on the court long enough to pile up numbers. In fourth quarters this season, out of a possible 60 minutes of playing time, Wade has logged 24, James 25 and Bosh 27 - and of those 76 combined minutes, 30 came in the season-opening loss to Boston.

"We love being out on the court and if we could, we'd play 48 minutes, all three of us, the whole game,'' said James, who had 12 assists Tuesday night, the most ever by a Heat forward in the franchise's 23-year history. "But we know what's best for the team. And while we're out on the court, we just try to do it all.''

Wade is averaging 22.4 points, nearly eight points less than his league-best clip from two seasons ago. James is averaging 20.4 points, which would be a career-low. Bosh's 13.0-per-game pace is 11 points shy of his average last year.

Regardless, the system is working. Ask any of their last four opponents.

"Those guys are starting to click a little bit,'' said Minnesota forward Anthony Tolliver. "I know it's early, but they are starting to figure each other out.''

Not just that, but the Heat are proving, once again, that stat sheets hardly ever tell the entire story.

Wade and James are both former NBA scoring champions; they entered Wednesday ranked 15th and 24th respectively in that department this season. Bosh has a total of five offensive rebounds through five games; he had 12 games last season alone where he grabbed that many. Mike Miller is out until January with a broken thumb and ligament damage, and starting center Joel Anthony is the NBA's only player so far with more than 100 minutes (102) and less than 18 points (seven).

And they're flying out of the gate anyway.

"We have a goal,'' James said. "We have a high goal. Our long-term goal is, of course, to bring another gold ball to this franchise. There's going to be times where we got better one night and we still lose. But we won't be satisfied if we leave a game saying we could have done things better.''

Dudley in nail-biter for governor; Bradley falls in Utah

2010-11-03T20:24:00.001-07:00

Pro wrestling's Linda McMahon was taken down in Connecticut and two former NBA centers went before voters on an Election Day when sports and politics crossed paths.

Chris Dudley, who built a long NBA career despite some of the game's most abysmal foul shooting, was still locked in a tight contest for governor in Oregon on Wednesday. The race was among the most prominent of the some two dozen across the country featuring sports figures.

Dudley, 6-foot-11 center from Yale who once played for the Portland Trail Blazers, drew on his NBA connections and among his supporters was Commissioner David Stern.

Shawn Bradley, a 7-foot-6 former BYU star who spent 12 years in the NBA, lost his bid for a spot in the Utah Legislature on Tuesday night. He was defeated by state Rep. Tim Cosgrove, a Democrat.

Your browser does not support iframes.

McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment who presented herself as a shrewd businesswoman, was beaten for the U.S. Senate seat by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Throughout the Republican primary and general election, McMahon was questioned about the WWE's role in steroids, the health of the wrestlers and the way wrestling portrays women.

McMahon and husband Vince McMahon turned what was once a marginal enterprise into a cash-rich empire. She besieged the state with ads and is believed to have spent at least $50 million of her own money on her campaign. Now, she's wary of a return to wrestling.

"You can't step out of WWE and expect to come back in because it moves forward and it's moving forward at a great pace,'' she said. "I wouldn't try to step back in there.''

Heath Shuler, the former quarterback for the Washington Redskins and New Orleans Saints, was re-elected to Congress from North Carolina in an important race for Democrats. Shuler, part of the conservative Blue Dog coalition, held off Republican Jeff Miller in a campaign in which the football star tried to show where he broke with his party's leadership.

Republican Jon Runyan, a former Eagles lineman who spent 14 years in the NFL, defeated Democrat John Adler in a tight U.S. House race in New Jersey. Republican Jason Chaffetz, who once kicked 10 extra points in a game for BYU, was re-elected to Congress from Utah.

Alan Page, the Pro Football Hall of Famer for the Minnesota Vikings, kept his seat on the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The U.S. Senate is losing its headline sports figure with the retirement of Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning of Kentucky. Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, was not up for election.

Kendrick Meek, once a defensive lineman on Florida A&M's conference championship team, was beaten decisively in the Senate race in Florida won by Marco Rubio. Meek, a Democrat, drew less than 20 percent of the vote.

Indiana's Baron Hill, a former basketball player at Furman, was caught in the sweeping Republican gains in the House. The Democrat was assailed by Republicans for backing the federal stimulus and health care bills. Norm Dicks, an ex-linebacker at the University of Washington, easily won re-election to the U.S. House from Washington.

A Virginia congressional race featured former Virginia football player Kenny Golden. The conservative Republican lost while running as an independent. In a U.S. House race in Ohio, former Arena Football League owner James Renacci was a winner. The Republican used to own the Columbus Destroyers.

Taking a swing at politics was former lumberjack champion Sean Duffy. The Republican won a spot in the U.S. House from Wisconsin and succeeds David Obey, the longtime Democrat who announced his retirement in May.

Republican Connie Mack, the great grandson of the legendary manager, easily won re-election to Congress from Florida. And Miami Dolphins rookie Nolan Carroll will have something to talk about at practice. The cornerback's mother is Jennifer Carroll, the running mate of Republican Rick Scott, who claimed the Florida governor's race when Democrat Alex Smith conceded Wednesday.

In the Tennessee Legislature, it was hardly a close call for former American League umpire Dale Ford. He ran unopposed.

In two sports-related ballot measures:

• Voters in Mesa, Ariz., overwhelmingly approved funding for a new spring training facility for the Chicago Cubs.

• Missouri voters approved tighter regulations on dog breeders, a measure promoted by St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.

Kobe says he'll play for U.S. in 2012 if wanted

2010-11-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

(AP) -- Mike Krzyzewski has a commitment from another top recruit: Kobe Bryant.

Bryant told the U.S. basketball coach he would play in the London Olympics in 2012 if the Americans want him there.

The 32-year-old Lakers guard was a guest on Krzyzewski's SIRIUS XM radio show Tuesday when the Duke coach asked Bryant about London.

"You guys want me there, I am there and I'm ready to defend," Bryant said. "And then when you guys need me to put some points on the board, I'll do that, too."

Bryant confirmed his interest in wearing the red-white-and-blue again Tuesday night after scoring 23 points in Los Angeles' 124-105 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.

"It's a huge honor to be a part of that," Bryant said.

Bryant was a starter on the U.S. squad that won gold medals in 2008 in Beijing, but hasn't played for the American team since then. He sat out the world championships this summer, recovering from right knee surgery following the Lakers' taxing championship run to Game 7 of the NBA finals.

Bryant will turn 34 in August 2012, and his two-time defending champion Lakers appear to be loaded for two more long playoff runs after making the last three NBA finals. Yet Bryant scoffs at worries about the wear and tear on his body in the early weeks of his 15th season with the Lakers.

"If anything, I'll just be Mariano Rivera - come in in the last two minutes," Bryant said, referring to the Yankees closer.

Beijing stalwarts LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul also skipped the Istanbul tournament, while Kevin Durant led the remainder of the U.S. team to its first world championship in 16 years.

Anthony and Paul already have said they would love to return for another Olympic run. The Americans will have next summer off, already qualified for the Olympics with the world title won by Durant and a supporting cast including Lamar Odom, who's off to an outstanding start with the Lakers despite his extra summer work.

Wolves' Beasley leaves game after hard fall

2010-11-03T20:22:00.001-07:00

MIAMI (AP) -- Michael Beasley's return to Miami ended painfully for the Minnesota forward, who was helped to the locker room after a hard fall while driving for a score against his former team.

Beasley landed awkwardly after making a layup with 8:10 remaining until halftime, immediately grabbing his left hip after falling on his side to the court. He got up and took a few steps, face writhing in pain, before going down again near the Timberwolves' bench and needing assistance to reach the locker room.

Beasley was quickly diagnosed with a bruise and was getting X-rays, which were negative, the Timberwolves said.

It was Beasley's first game back in Miami after spending two seasons with the Heat, who traded him in July for second-round picks in 2011 and 2014. Beasley had been Minnesota's leading scorer through the season's first three games, averaging 14.7 points.

By league rules, his night officially ended when he was unable to shoot the resultant free throw, which was eventually taken by Kosta Koufos. Given the amount of pain he appeared to be in while being aided to the locker room, it didn't appear likely that Beasley would be returning anyway.

He finished with 11 points on 4 of 9 shooting in 10 minutes, including a one-handed slam off an offensive rebound midway through the opening quarter.

Wizards' Arenas could return to practice Wednesday

2010-11-03T20:21:00.001-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Washington Wizards expect Gilbert Arenas to return to practice Wednesday after missing the first three games of the season with a strained tendon in his right ankle.

Arenas sat out Tuesday night's home opener against the Philadelphia 76ers but looked in good form as he took shots on the court before tipoff.

Coach Flip Saunders said he thinks Arenas will practice Wednesday ahead of the team's next game on Friday against the New York Knicks.

No. 1 overall pick John Wall was in the starting lineup for the Wizards despite spraining his right ankle in Saturday's loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

Suns reward Dudley with four-year extension

2010-11-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

PHOENIX (AP) -- The Phoenix Suns have extended the contract of forward Jared Dudley, the team's hustling defender and sharpshooter off the bench the past two seasons.

The four-year, $17 million deal with a player option for a fifth year takes effect next season. That would keep the fan-favorite Dudley under contract until at least the 2014-15 season and possibly the next one as well.

New Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby called Dudley "a valued member of what makes this franchise special.''

Dudley came to Phoenix along with Jason Richardson in a 2010 trade that sent Boris Diaw and Raja Bell to the Charlotte Bobcats.

The agreement was reached Monday night just minutes before the deadline for extending contracts of 2007 first-round draft picks. If Dudley hadn't signed, he would become a free agent at the end of this season. It was the first significant move of the new front-office regime set up after Steve Kerr chose not to stay on as general manager.

Babby, a former agent, said it is difficult to negotiate long-term deals with the NBA labor situation so uncertain.

"I feel pleased because he's the kind of player and person that makes this franchise,'' he said. "It was challenging to get it done in this environment but hard work and good faith prevailed.''

Dudley will get $4.25 million each season, beginning in 2011-12, and can add additional money through incentives.

The scrappy, 6-foot-7 player from Boston College and 2007 ACC player of the year was drafted by Charlotte as the 22nd selection overall.

Richardson was considered the big prize in the Charlotte trade, with Dudley something of an add-on. But Suns coaches had heard of the player's potential and he meshed perfectly with Phoenix's up-tempo, rhythmic style.

He had a breakout 2009-10 season with career bests in virtually every category. He averaged 8.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists while playing in all 82 regular-season games and all 16 playoff contests.

One of the team's best defensive players, Dudley led the Suns in steals with 81.

But he was noticed mostly from 3-point range, where he was the most accurate of the array of sharpshooters assembled by the Suns. He led the team by making 45.8 percent, fourth-best in the NBA.

In his first three NBA seasons Dudley made 38 3s. Last season, he made 120.

Team USA Notebook: McMillan Preparing to Have Fernandez in Training Camp

2010-09-07T18:46:00.000-07:00

ISTANBUL -- Portland coach Nate McMillan wouldn't mind at all seeing Rudy Fernandez stay with the Trail Blazers.

McMillan, a Team USA assistant, was asked by FanHouse if his hope is the disgruntled swingman will remain with the team.

"He's a great player,'' McMillan said. "He's a good player. A talented player. Very talented.''

Asked further about the subject and McMillan said, "He is in my notes for training camp. All right.''

Fernandez, unhappy with his role in McMillan's offense, wants to be traded and already has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for that demand having been publicly issued. Through his agent, Andy Miller, Fernandez told The Oregonian two weeks ago he intends to not report to training camp even though he has two years left on his contract.

McMillan spoke to Fernandez, a member of the Spanish national team, two weeks ago when Team USA was in Spain to play exhibition games, but has not divulged specifics of the conversation. But McMillan said he hopes to speak with Fernandez again by this weekend in Istanbul.

Team USA and Spain both have advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Championship. The teams are on opposite sides of the bracket but could meet in Sunday's gold-medal game game at the Sinan Erdem Dome.

"We haven't talked (in Istanbul),'' McMillan said. "But we'll talk.''

McMillan cares deeply about trying to straighten out this matter.

"That's my player,'' McMillan said. "He's my player. That's how I'm approaching it. When I see him, I'll talk to him. I'll wish him luck. And if we get the opportunity to meet each other, then we're going to looking to beat each other. But that's my player.''

For how much longer is anybody's guess.

London Calling

Not that there was much doubt, but USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo figures forward Kevin Durant can make plans to spend the 2012 Olympics in London as a member of Team USA.

"I think you would assume Durant is going to be on the team. That's one,'' Colangelo said of players off this summer's Team USA outfit marked for London.

Colangelo could see a scenario in which the 2012 Olympic team is mostly a combination of players from the 2008 Olympic team and from this team. None of the players from 2008 opted to play this summer.

But Colangelo stressed it's obviously still extremely early in the process. There are 35 players in the pool now for 2012, with 22 having been on the 2008 Olympic team or on this team. There are some top players in the pool to have not participated in either event and some could be added, namely Clippers forward Blake Griffin.

"We'll always have a fluid roster,'' Colangelo said. "You're always going to have some turnover going forward because players need to look forward for that opportunity. It's not like with some of the countries that we play against, they'll have the same guys playing two or three Olympics in a row or World Championships. But that's not going to be the case with us. It just can't be. It's not realistic.

"The Olympians (from 2008) played three years, took a year off and now we have a new group. It's all about the equity and everybody's earning equity.''

Colangelo said Team USA officials could face extremely difficult roster decisions in 2012 if a good number of players from 2008 and 2010 all want to play in London.

"That's good,'' Colangelo said. "I like those kind of decisions.''

For now, Durant, Team USA's leading scorer with a 17.7 average, was pleased to hear Colengelo say his tickets looks punched for London.

"I hope so,'' said the Oklahoma City star. "So I'm going to do my best but keep that in my mind. I've got to continue to keep working hard.''

Russia Next

Team USA next faves Russia in a Thursday quarterfinal. The Americans, who got a favorable draw for the knockout round, are big favorites. But coach Mike Krzyzewski is taking no team lightly.

"We're beatable. We're not unbeatable,'' said Krzyzewski, whose team took Tuesday off and will practice Wednesday in preparation for the game. "But I've been fortunate to be the U.S. coach for the last five years, and there's no one in our country with a greater feeling of respect for the international game. I just think there are so many good teams, so many great players... We just have to work hard and be our best and that might be good enough to win.''

The Americans last played Russia in the Worlds in 2002, winning a group game 106-92. Russia defeated Team USA 66-64 in a semifinal at the 1998 Worlds, but that was an American team without NBA players due to the lockout.

For Turkish fans, Hedo Turkoglu’s still gold

2010-09-07T02:59:00.001-07:00

ISTANBUL, TURKEY—From the 20-foot-high facing of an overpass bridging a six-lane highway on the southwestern edge of this massive city, his face beams down.

In and around the Sultanahmet area — the gorgeous, centuries-old home of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, the two most recognizable landmarks of this historic city — his face adorns billboards and buildings at almost every turn.

He is there in the port and around the arena, omnipresent.

And when you mention Hedo Turkoglu’s name around these parts, people perk up.

“Hedo? He is No. 1,” said 31-year-old Bora Nebioglu. “The best.”

There are tens of thousands of Raptors fans who may not agree with the assessment of Nebioglu, a hotel worker who says he’s an avid fan of the Turkish national basketball team. But that’s a rather parochial view of the 31-year-old Turkoglu, the one-year Raptors washout who seems to be the singular face of his national team at the world championship here.

Even though he had been playing so-so, averaging about 10 points in Turkey’s first-round games while shooting just 32 per cent from the field, there can be no denying his popularity.

“Everybody likes Hedo,” Nebioglu said before Turkey routed France 95-77 in the first playoff round Sunday night. “He was our first player in the NBA. He is the captain of our team. We are all very proud. Turkish people are very proud of him.”

And very familiar with what he’s done in his career. Nebioglu, who was quick to point out that fellow Turk Mehmet Okur has an NBA championship ring (won in 2005 with Detroit) while Turkoglu is still searching, knew immediately what Turkoglu’s year with the Raptors was like.

“He was very good in Orlando but he did not play well when he was in Toronto at all,” said the restaurant worker. “He will be better with Phoenix Suns, we are sure.”

No one here seems to be the least bit concerned by what went wrong in Toronto. They know he was a Raptor, isn’t one anymore, and just revel in his time with the national team.

“For us, he brings great pride,” said Nebioglu.

Basketball may play second fiddle to soccer in this country (“It is that way in all Europe. What can you do?” Nebioglu said with a shrug) but not for this two-week period. The 15,000-seat Sinan Erdem Dome was packed for the easy win over France and the hype is never-ending. There are huge pennants bearing the likenesses of the national team everywhere and Turkoglu is front and centre on all of them. He responded with one of his best games of the tournament, scoring a team-high 20 points and dishing out a team-best three assists.

“His impact on the team is unimaginable,” said Turkey’s Sinan Guler. “The way he played today (energizes) everybody else and the country, of course. When you hear his name being said on the announcements, everybody’s screaming louder than for anybody else.”

To many, it’s as if Turkoglu never set foot in Toronto. They love him for what he does for the Turkish program. They remember what he did the year before he spent with the Raptors.

“He’s probably the No. 1 sports guy in Turkey right now because of the way he played, especially with Orlando,” said Guler.

Turkoglu was not available to reporters after Turkey’s win, blowing off a group of about 100 by taking a back exit from the court. It certainly won’t damage his reputation here, much the same way people shrug off his year with the Raptors.

“I don’t know what happened in Toronto,” said Nebioglu. “He did not play well, but we don’t care about that much as long as he does well for Turkey. He is ours.”

Offseason of change continues for Miami Heat's LeBron James

2010-09-07T02:00:00.000-07:00

On July 8, LeBron James announced he was taking his talents to South Beach'' to play for the Miami Heat. Not only would his zip code be changing, but his uniform number as well. He has chosen to wear No. 6 next season.

It's a season of change for LeBron as he has decided to revamp his signature, too. Since 2003, James has always signed his first name with a looping ``L'' that closely resembled the start of his uniform No. 23. Now he has tapered that with a more definable starting letter and added ``#6'' to each autograph.

``It just feels right. This marks a new beginning for me,'' said James in an exclusive interview with Upper Deck, the sole supplier of his authentic memorabilia. ``Miami represents a new chapter in my basketball career. I'm really looking forward to it. It's gonna be fun. And I'm gonna do what I can to the best of my ability to bring home a championship to that city.''

New state, new team, new uniform number; it only makes sense James would want to modify his autograph as well.

``LeBron's signature has always been in demand and now that he's chosen to change it, [Upper Deck] has the opportunity to completely overhaul LeBron's memorabilia lineup -- from team to number to design,'' said Steve Sloan, Upper Deck product manager.

U.S. breezes into quarters

2010-09-07T01:56:00.000-07:00

ISTANBUL - Before it can win a world championship, the United States needed to start looking like a world champion.

Kevin Durant, Chauncey Billups and the rest of the Americans finally had that appearance yesterday, powering into the quarterfinals with a 121-66 victory over Angola.

“Obviously we want to stay humble, but at the same time we have to know that we can do it,” forward Kevin Love said. “We know regardless of what people are saying, that we still are the favorites and we should play and really act like it, too.”

They did, opening the knockout round with a quick knockout.

With Billups scoring 16 of his 19 points and Durant all of his 17 in the first half, the Americans saved their most impressive performance in Istanbul for the elimination stage, overwhelming the Angolans from the start after a couple of lackluster performances to close the group stage.

“We don’t want to be a team that’s going to turn it on and off,” Durant said. “I think of course we’re playing with a little more sense of urgency when you know if you lose, you go home. Guys came out and responded from those last two games.”

The U.S. forced turnovers that led to easy baskets in transition, and when forced into the halfcourt, shot 18-of-38 from 3-point range, one off the team record for 3s at worlds.

“Our guys were sharp,” U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

Eric Gordon and Rudy Gay also scored 17 for the Americans, who will face Russia on Thursday night. Gordon was 5-of-6 behind the arc.

Joaquim Gomes, who played at Valparaiso, scored 21 for Angola, which finished fourth in Group A. The Angolans advanced on a tiebreaker by virtue of their overtime victory over Germany, but had lost by 50 to Serbia, and 21 apiece to Argentina and Australia.

They were no match for the Americans, who had won the teams’ four meetings in the Olympics, starting with a 116-48 romp in the Dream Team’s debut in Barcelona in 1992, straight through to a 97-76 victory in Beijing two years ago.

US beats Angola 121-66, reaches quarters at Worlds

2010-09-06T20:14:00.002-07:00

Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images

ISTANBUL (AP) -- Chauncey Billups scored 19 points, Kevin Durant had 17, and the United States powered into the quarterfinals of the World Championship with a 121-66 victory over Angola on Monday.

With Durant scoring 17 and Billups 16 in the first half, the Americans saved their most impressive performance in Istanbul for the knockout round, overwhelming the Angolans from the start after a couple of lackluster performances to close the group stage.

The U.S. forced turnovers that led to easy baskets in transition, and when forced into the halfcourt, shot 18 of 38 from 3-point range, one off the team record for 3s in a world championship game.

Eric Gordon and Rudy Gay also scored 17 for the Americans, who will face either Russia or New Zealand on Thursday night. Gordon was 5 of 6 behind the arc.

Joaquim Gomes, who played collegiately at Valparaiso, scored 21 for Angola, which finished fourth in Group A. The Angolans advanced to the elimination round on a tiebreaker by virtue of their overtime victory over Germany, but had lost by 50 to Serbia, and 21 apiece to Argentina and Australia.

They were no match for the Americans, who had won the teams' four meetings in the Olympics, starting with a 116-48 romp in the Dream Team's debut in Barcelona in 1992, straight through to a 97-76 victory in Beijing two years ago.

This quickly became one of those no-contests.

The Americans lacked some focus against Iran and Tunisia in their last two games, knowing victory was certain and not wanting to embarrass opponents or get any of their own players hurt.

But they expected to be sharper after a couple of days of practice, knowing they would press, substitute frequently, and raise their overall level of play with the games finally becoming important.

The U.S. won the opening tip for the first time in Istanbul and scored the first five points. Billups and Durant nailed consecutive 3-pointers to cap a 10-0 spurt and make it 22-7, and the Americans led 33-13 after one.

Billups is playing out of his normal NBA position as a shooting guard, and he made only 4 of 19 3-point attempts in preliminary play. U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski was asked last week if he would consider a lineup change, and he said he would look at it.

The lineup stayed the same, but Billups looked much different.

The lead ballooned to 29 late in the second quarter. Durant shot 7 of 10 in the half and Billups was 4 of 6, all from behind the arc, and Durant's 3-pointer with 7 seconds left sent the Americans to the half with a 65-33 advantage.

Derrick Rose made two straight 3-pointers and Billups added another to start the U.S. scoring in the third quarter, and the lead grew to 37 late in the period. The Americans were 6 of 9 behind the arc in the period, which ended with them leading 91-56.

Felizardo Ambrosio finished with 12 points and Roberto Fortes 11 for Angola.

Russia beats New Zealand 78-56 to gain quarters

2010-09-06T20:14:00.001-07:00

ISTANBUL (AP) -- Russia reached the quarterfinals of basketball's world championships against the United States, beating New Zealand 78-56 Monday after Andrey Vorontsevich had 18 points and 11 rebounds.

Timofey Mozgov , Russia's 2.16-meter (7-foot-1) center who recently signed for the New York Knicks, added 16 points and seven rebounds. Russia outrebounded New Zealand 41-25 and had five blocks to the Kiwis' one.

Kirk Penney led New Zealand with 21 points.

Russia used a 13-0 run to jump ahead 29-21 in the second quarter. In the second half, a frontline led by Vorontsevich overpowered a much smaller New Zealand.

"We played great defence," Vorontsevich said. "We played like a giant fist."

New Zealand power forward Pero Cameron agreed.

"Defensively, Russia pushed us out of what we wanted to do and sometimes we settled for the outside shot a little early," he said.

It was the teams' second meeting. In 2002, New Zealand beat Russia 90-81 on the way to its record fourth-place finish at the worlds in Indianapolis.

Russia next plays Thursday, pitting coach David Blatt against his native country in what could be his final game after five years as Russia coach.

"I remember watching as a kid and crying when the U.S. lost to the Soviets in the 1972 Olympics," Blatt said. "It's kind of a circle of irony. It is kind of special and not a little bit sad."

Russia went to halftime leading 31-27, having trailed 21-18 and allowing New Zealand only seven field goals in 24 attempts.

Having forced New Zealand's best players to the bench, including Penney, Russia had a 22-10 rebound advantage after halftime.

"We really focused on attacking inside and we did get them in foul trouble," Blatt said.

After much-needed rest, U.S. is ready for elimination play

2010-09-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

Sunday's practice was shorter than the previous day's full-contact session.

ISTANBUL -- It has been a while since the U.S. National Team felt the rush of playing a meaningful game. After escaping with a win over Brazil on Monday, they played two non-competitive contests against Iran and Tunisia, followed by three days off.

The time between pool play at the 2010 FIBA World Championship and their round-of-16 matchup with Angola (Monday, 11 a.m. ET, ESPN2) allowed them to get some much-needed time on the practice floor. But now, they're ready to get back to action.

"We're highly anxious to play," Danny Granger said Sunday. "The last two games weren't exactly two really good teams, and we didn't play too particularly well. So we're definitely anxious to get back to meaningful games."

Sunday's practice in Istanbul was shorter than the full-contact session they went through on Saturday, but the team did get some work done. And at this point in the tournament, head coach Mike Krzyzewski says that he doesn't want to make things too complicated.

"We might add a certain set, because we want to go to a certain guy to highlight him," Krzyzewski said. "You don't want to add too much now, like over-coach them. You want to prepare them, but not over-coach them."

Your browser does not support iframes.

But with no margin for error in the single-elimination format of the knockout rounds, it's now time to go full throttle.

"The last two games, especially, you can't blow it all out against those teams," Krzyzewski said. "You've got to pace yourself a little bit. But now, when you're one and done, you don't hold anything back."

So starting with Monday's game against Angola, the U.S. will press more defensively, making quicker substitutions to stay fresh and aggressive.

"We'll kind of show how we're going to play every game the way we play the first one," Krzyzewski said.

Angola has been the best team in Africa for a long time, but they've never had much success at the Olympics or World Championships. Here's a profile of Monday's matchup.

Recent History

2004 Olympics - USA 89, Angola 53
2008 Olympics - USA 97, Angola 76

How Angola got here (4th place, Group A)

• Lost to Serbia, 94-44
• Defeated Jordan, 79-65
• Lost to Argentina, 91-70
• Defeated Germany, 92-88
• Lost to Australia, 76-55

The win over Germany was for fourth place in the group and what got Angola to the knockout rounds. Germany led the game by 10 with less than four minutes to go, but Angola scored 14 points in the final 3:19 of regulation to send it to overtime. They took control early in the extra period and held on for a four-point win.

Angola's offense

92.5 points scored per 100 possessions (21st of 24 teams in pool play)

Offensively, Angola is a contrast to the European offenses that flourish on ball movement. The African champions are very much a one-on-one team. They'll run pick-and-rolls, but mostly to free themselves up for a quick shot or drive to the basket. They recorded assists on just 41 percent of their field goals in pool play, the third lowest ratio of the 24 teams in the tournament.

Krzyzewski: "I think they'll attack on offense. That's their nature. That's what they do. They've been a very good attacking team."

Angola's defense

Angola plays both man and zone, and they will utilize a 2-2-1 press at times.

Krzyzewski: "Their big guys play off big guys to clog the lane. They have done zone, but their man-to-man, if they clog up, is like a zone. So I would expect more of a sloughing defense, whether it be in man or zone. We have to come down and not overpenetrate against that, but rather make passes and get movement."

Numbers of note

From a statistical point of view, Angola was the worst team to qualify for the elimination rounds. They were outscored by 19.1 points per 100 possessions in pool play.

The U.S. should attack the glass. Angola was the second worst defensive rebounding team in pool play, securing just 62 percent of available defensive boards.

Angola was above average in two key statistics defensively. They ranked sixth by forcing 20.8 turnovers per 100 possessions. And they ranked seventh by allowing their opponents to attempt just 24.5 free throws per 100 possessions.

Key players

Olimpio Cipriano -- The wing was Angola's leading scorer in pool play, averaging 14.8 points in four games. He dropped 30, hitting four of his six attempts from 3-point range, in the big win over Germany. Andre Iguodala will likely get the assignment of containing him.

Joaquim Gomes -- The big man averaged 11.6 points in pool play and had a double-double against Germany. He's a center who can step out and shoot from the perimeter, a contrast from most big men in this tournament who like to roll to the basket.

Carlos Morais -- The combo guard doesn't shoot particularly well, but he can get to the rim.

Loyalty wins out as Thomas returns to the Big D

2010-09-05T19:57:00.002-07:00

Tim Thomas missed most of last season, his first with Dallas, to care for his wife Tricia.

If there ever was a summer to be a free agent, this was it. There were plenty of jobs to go around and teams looking to spend.

Tim Thomas didn't want any part of the craziness. A few informal discussions took place here and there, but Thomas knew what he wanted.

The Mavericks felt the same.

"Loyalty is definitely the best word for it," Thomas told NBA.com in his first extensive interview since re-signing with Dallas on Aug. 18.

Thomas missed most of last season, his first with Dallas. Knee surgery sidelined him initially before leaving the team in late January to deal with something much more serious. Thomas' wife, Tricia, had become ill and Tim requested a leave of absence to care for her and their family.

He never returned. He also wasn't forgotten. Thomas said every one of his Dallas teammates reached out during the trying times, as did players from around the league. Even though he had only been with the Mavericks a few months and played just 18 games, the outpouring of support from all corners of the organization touched him deeply.

"That was all I could ask for," said Thomas, who decided along with Tricia to keep the nature of her illness private.

Thomas kept tabs on the Mavericks from their home in Los Angeles. Watching the first-round exit to San Antonio was especially hard.

"It was about taking care of my wife, but I watched basketball as much as I could and I always kept up with what Dallas was doing," he said. "I reached out to everybody right before the playoffs and wished everybody well.

"Of course I watched the playoff games and thought about situations where I could have helped. It was tough to know that the guys were going to war and I wasn't there to help, but at the same time everybody was reaching out with their prayers for my wife."

When the offseason rolled around, Thomas' competitive juices were flowing again. Tricia had improved to the point where she could care for their two daughters and run the household again. Thomas was ready to give it another go.

"I wanted to come back and help my team, but things happened in the household," he said. "The team allowed me to go and to try to work things out. When things started going downhill, they allowed me to stay home and take care of what's most important -- your family. I really appreciate that from them. I'm happy that everything worked out as far as my wife's health."

Thomas began to work out and talked to his agent, Bob Myers, about his options. Most teams were hesitant to look into the 14-year veteran with seven teams on his résumé, though some were interested given Thomas' track record. The Mavericks were one of those interested teams.

"There were a lot of talks, but nothing got as far as an actual contract," Thomas said. "When my agent talked to Dallas and Dallas said they would love to have me back, it was a no-brainer. I definitely wanted to put myself in a situation where you have a chance to win an NBA championship."

The two sides agreed on the same contract Thomas signed last summer -- a one-year deal for the veteran's minimum ($1.35 million). Whether more money was out there, Thomas wasn't about to chase it. There was unfinished business and the chance to repay a debt in Dallas.

Loyalty won out.

"That's the right word -- loyalty," he said. "Everything I went through, the organization was just great. From being hurt and having surgery to my wife's health, they were just great. From the basketball side of it, they know what I'm capable of doing if I'm healthy and they know also I just want to sacrifice for the team. I just want to win. That's the bottom line."

The Mavericks are just glad to get Thomas back.

"We knew it was tough on Tim and his family last year," owner Mark Cuban said. "Our policy is that family always comes first. So we certainly were trying to offer any help we could and to stay on top of the situation. With the new season getting ready to get started, we are excited to have Tim back. His size and ability to stretch the court will be a big help to us."

Thomas isn't a difference-maker, but the Mavericks are counting on the 6-foot-10 forward to shore up some shortcomings that arose last season. He brings much-needed depth behind Dirk Nowitzki, giving Dallas length and the ability to space the floor with his 3-point range.

And while the absence was unintended, it did his body some good. Thomas, 33, has only played close to a full season once in the last five years.

"I've had a long time off, so I have fresh legs, but then again it's been 14 years, so time will tell," he said. "I feel great right now. I'm ready to go and I want to get back into the whole flow of practicing and playing and being able to compete. I want to be around the guys and enjoy the game."

When it came down to deciding where, Thomas couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

"I just felt loyal to Dallas for what they did last year letting me take care of my family," he said. "I just want to give it another shot. I feel I can help. I keep going back to that word -- loyalty."

Forward-thinking Collins already dreaming big in Philly

2010-09-05T19:57:00.001-07:00

Doug Collins says he's got the plan to re-ignite the spark between Philadelphia and the 76ers.

If he had been one of the Wright brothers, he'd have invented the jet engine before the propeller plane. If he were a caveman, he would have thought of the radial tire before the wheel.

Thus, it should surprise no one that Doug Collins is a few steps ahead of the pack in his return to Philadelphia as coach of the Sixers.

"It will feel great to have old excitement and electricity back in the city and back in the building," he said. "We're gonna have a team that the people will respond to. We're gonna have meaningful games late in the season. We're gonna have a playoff atmosphere and all that brings."

Never mind learning to crawl when you can simply stand up and break into an all-out sprint. That has always been the Collins way from the time he was an All-American at Illinois State, the No. 1 overall pick in the 1973 Draft and a brilliant but star-crossed guard for the Sixers to all of his three previous three NBA coaching stops.

On the court and off it, he's always been an exposed nerve end, someone who practically hums like a tuning fork when you stand next to him, the equivalent of a fireworks display that lights up the sky and then quickly dissolves into the night.

Your browser does not support iframes.

"I think at 35 years old, you could say that, maybe at 45," Collins said, nodding his head. "I don't think that's the case at 59. I'm a grandpa now with four grandkids and I think you see things differently. I think you get older with vision and a perspective that changes.

"When you're younger you just roll up your sleeves and you're gonna fight the world and make it all right and stuff. Then, in the words of the late Chuck Daly, you learn to pick and choose your battles."

Daly, the Hall of Famer who guided the Pistons to back-to-back NBA championships and the Dream Team to Olympic gold in 1992, used to call it "selective hearing."

Collins calls it just one of the things he's gleaned from all of the other coaches he came in contact with during his past seven years as a TNT analyst after being fired by the Wizards following a two-year stint during Michael Jordan's comeback in 2003.

"I always knew I was gonna do it again," he said. "I always knew I was gonna coach again. I was not gonna rush back into it. It was gonna pick a situation that I thought fit who I am and what I do as a coach. I've always gone to teams that have been down and have some talent. I feel like I'm a teacher. I feel that I create an environment where guys get better.

"The one thing I've felt is that wherever I've gone, the teams have gotten better. We won more games. I've always felt that wherever I've left has been better for me being there and I don't mean to say that in an arrogant way."

Collins took over a Chicago team with Jordan and Scottie Pippen that finished 30-52 in 1986 and had them at 47-35 and in the Eastern Conference finals when he was let go in 1989. Detroit was 28-54 the season when he arrived in 1995 and he had them at 54-28 two years later. In Washington, during Jordan's comeback, the Wizards had consecutive 37-45 seasons under Collins, but that was up substantially from the 19-63 team he inherited.

Now the Sixers, after consecutive playoff first-round losses in 2008 and 2009 that many believed was underachieving, are coming off a loud 27-55 belly flop of a season that got coach Eddie Jordan fired after less than one year on the job.

The right opportunity came along just when Collins was ready to scratch that itch again.

Your browser does not support iframes.

"I wasn't going just anyplace," he said. "I'd had five or six other opportunities in recent years and just said no. There are only two cities -- Philadelphia or Chicago -- that I said I would go to. I almost went to Chicago two years ago. Then [Bulls owner] Jerry Reinsdorf and I talked and he said, 'I don't want to turn our personal relationship into a business' and I understood.

"That left Philly. I waited and this came out. It was right because of my wife and my family. My wife and I had lived there before and were comfortable. My daughter lives just outside the city. The grandkids are there. I have friends in Philly."

Not to mention memories having helped pick the Sixers up off the floor once before. As a rookie, Collins joined a team that had set the NBA's worst ever record of 9-73 the year before. He soon became a vastly underrated four-time All-Star on a star-spangled lineup that included Julius Erving, George McGinnis and Darryl Dawkins that won all the headlines but no championships.

He looks now at a roster that features talented young pieces in Andre Iguodala, Jrue Holiday and No. 2 draft pick Evan Turner. He sees a Boston team that is still the class of the Atlantic Division, but getting older, along with New York, New Jersey and Toronto that are either in transition or in trouble.

He was a fiery bundle of optimism walking into each of those previous jobs, but left burned and wilted like a used candle. So at a time when Steve Kerr was quick to jump from the hot seat of being the general manager in Phoenix to taking over Collins' job behind the TNT microphone, the question is why would he want to put himself through it again?

"I just feel like I'm in the best spot I've ever been as a coach," Collins said. "I'm driven. But so are Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, Gregg Popovich and Jerry Sloan."

The head bobs, the eyes dance and that high-pitched voice can still go up another octave when he's running down the young roster and over all of the plans he has for his old/new town this season.

"It's ready, the city is so ready," he said. "I do know and understand the emotion and excitement when things are right. I've been in this situation before. I know what it feels like in Philadelphia to get it going again."

Doug Collins, ahead of the pack as usual, is already there again.

These players could be looking at big decline this season

2010-09-05T19:55:00.000-07:00

For differing reasons, Lamar Odom (left) and Kevin Garnett could be staring down a tough 2010-11 season.

One year, a player seems on top of the basketball world, enjoying the high as well as the view below. The next year, he's falling without a parachute, wondering when he'll finally land, and how hard.

This happens. This is sports. Everyone declines, even the greats, unless they leave before their feet touches the ground. Just like taxes and a Mark Cuban rant toward a referee, it's inevitable. And it usually doesn't happen suddenly; most of us can see it coming, for a variety of reasons: age, competition or a change in team dynamics.

That said, here are 10 players who appear most vulnerable to a slide in 2010-11, and why:

Amar'e Stoudemire (Knicks): He lost Steve Nash and he gained a potentially hostile crowd. Those are the hazards facing Stoudemire in his new digs. The Nash factor is very real; Stoudemire owes a bunch of his highlights to a point guard who excelled in the pick-and-roll and knew how to deliver the ball. As for the New York atmosphere, it might get gruesome should the Knicks falter and/or their new big man fail to meet the steep expectations. If you recall, Stoudemire was a bit touchy last spring when he was called out in the postseason. Therefore, is he too sensitive to deal with media that's triple the size of what he saw in Phoenix, and twice as skeptical?

Your browser does not support iframes.

Vince Carter (Magic): This may be a contract year for Carter, and if that doesn't motivate him, nothing will. The scenario in Orlando doesn't favor his odds of getting an extension. He shot 43 percent during the season and 40 in a poor postseason. Plus, J.J. Redick is poised to make a push for the starting job. Clearly, the Magic are ready to move on, if Redick does cut significantly into Carter's minutes. Anyway, Carter's best years were in Toronto and New Jersey. His stop in Orlando mirrors many others who migrate to Florida. They come to slow down and eventually retire.

Yao Ming (Rockets): After missing all last season and limping through stretches of recent seasons, can he ever be a 20 and 10 guy again? It is possible Yao can shake off the rust and be an All-Star. Or, his best years are well behind him. Nothing is certain for a player who could have revolutionized the center position had he stayed healthy from foot and knee issues. Instead, his health will remain a question until his body demonstrates otherwise. Also, his surroundings are a bit different than the years spent with Tracy McGrady, a tandem wrecked by injuries to both players.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Tony Parker (Spurs): It's a contract year for Parker, and therefore, risky to say he's headed for a spill. But it's also undeniable that his numbers fell across the board last season. And would you say, without hesitation, that this is the same Parker of two seasons ago, when he posted career highs of 22.0 points and 6.9 assists a game? If Parker were still on top of his game, would the Spurs think about listening to offers for him (as they supposedly did this summer)? Or wait before giving him an extension? Parker is certainly not old (only 28) or in his twilight (he's one of the top five or six point guards), but perhaps not as dangerous as before. With George Hill hungry for playing time (and eventually, money), Parker has every reason to turn back the clock.

Baron Davis (Clippers): In two seasons with the Clippers, Davis has shot 39 percent and averaged 15 points a game. That's not the kind of production the Clippers thought they'd get after handing him the big bucks. Just the same, Davis thought he'd be playing with Elton Brand. Regardless, something's seems amiss in this marriage, at least so far. The Clippers can only hope Davis is motivated by a lineup that welcomes Blake Griffin.

Your browser does not support iframes.

J.R. Smith (Nuggets): Great skills, fragile maturity. Those warring factions have kept Smith from his true potential. One episode is usually followed by another with Smith, who can't seem to shake drama. He averaged 15.4 points a game last season, the highest of his career, and was a legit sixth-man candidate. Then he followed it up with a scuffle this summer. He's in a contract year, but can money set him straight?

Kevin Garnett (Celtics): KG managed to ignore body aches and the persistent pull of gravity to come up big in spurts during the playoffs and The Finals. But anyone can plainly see KG is slowly regressing from All-Star level. He still has the will and the smarts to outplay most big men, but is exposed over the season and playoffs. At this point, the days of KG getting 20 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks a night are likely gone.

Lamar Odom (Lakers): His shooting percentage and scoring average has dipped the last three years, and he seemed noticeably average during the championship run. Odom still has value to the Lakers as a rebounder, but the rest of his game has faltered. Once the Lakers cease winning championships, his weaknesses will become magnified. And that could happen this season.

Mo Williams (Cavaliers): Does he take on added importance and responsibility with LeBon James gone? Or does the absence of LeBron, who opened lanes and gave teammates open looks, mean fewer easy baskets for Mo? Suspect the latter. Williams must create his own chances now, and also feed Anderson Varejao and Antawn Jamison because, for the most part, LeBron was Cleveland's point guard. Now, it's Mo's "team," so to speak.

Elton Brand (Sixers): For the fourth straight year, Brand's scoring average dropped (from 24.7 in 2005-06 to 13.1 last season) along with his rebounding (once double-figures, then 6.1 rebounds a game last season). He blamed the system, which will be changed by new coach Doug Collins, whose priority is making Brand a top-10 power forward again. Maybe Brand was a victim of bad coaching the last few years. Or perhaps Brand, who'll turn 32 this season, is past his prime. With three years left on a roughly $16 million-a-season contract, Brand carries a hefty price as a second or third option.

Riley keeps plugging along as Warriors iron out their future

2010-09-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

Larry Riley is interested in staying put as the Warriors' GM ... if that's what the new management wants.

Larry Riley isn't interested in a conversation about his job status. Sure, Riley wants to stay on as Warriors general manager through the upcoming ownership swap, but campaigning or justifying his work isn't his style. A humble and straight shooter, Riley prefers to do his job. Not talk about it.

"I'm just going to do my job until it's over," he told NBA.com this week.

That's fine. Others are doing the talking for him.

A number of columns in the Bay Area this summer have praised the job done by Riley to reposition Golden State for this season and in those to come. The Warriors have undergone a personality shift by beefing up the roster, while adding financial flexibility.

They've done so in a climate of uncertainty, as the franchise waits for its new owners to assume control. A group led by Celtics minority owner Joe Lacob and Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber reached an agreement to buy the Warriors on July 15. League approval is expected to take 60-90 days, meaning it could be mid-October before the issue is resolved.

That's two weeks before the start of the regular season. Not exactly the optimum time to make wholesale changes like firing your GM and coach. That would appear to bode well for both Riley and coach Don Nelson.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Riley, especially. As Nellie hangs in an odd limbo as the league's all-time wins leader, Riley continues to win support. Riley freely admits all that Nellie has done for him through the years, including bringing him to Golden State as an assistant coach four years ago.

The Don hated losing Riles to the front office as assistant GM in 2008. Many close observers speculated that Nellie would lose the stomach for coaching -- again -- without his trusted confidante on the road. The Warriors were losing. Nellie's misery needs company, Bud Light and cigars. Riley shared in all three.

Riley's worth to the bench is one thing. His value since moving upstairs should mean a gig through the Warriors' next coaching change, whenever that may happen. The Warriors haven't enjoyed an offseason of Miami proportions, but it's energized the fan base and started to balance the roster.

David Lee is on board, giving the Warriors a legit power forward who averaged about 20 points and 12 rebounds last season. Lee, 27, was acquired in a sign-and-trade that cost Golden State former lottery pick Anthony Randolph.

Riley understood the risk in giving up on Randolph, a 6-foot-11 jumping jack who's only 21. He stands by the decision, which was his.

"I made the evaluation and decided that's the way I wanted to go," he said.

Riley made the deal, which included signing Lee to an $80 million contract, with the full blessing of current owner Chris Cohen. Riley hasn't been handcuffed by Cohen or hesitant to pull off a deal that the new owners might second guess.

Riley is doing his job until someone tells him not to. Until that day comes, he's looking for ways to improve. Twice this summer he sent assistant Stephen Silas to work with Monta Ellis in Jackson, Miss. Assistant Keith Smart was dispatched to Latvia to tutor Andris Biedrins.

"I don't know how far we can go, but I know we're going to be better," Riley said.

Lee's addition gives Golden State potentially three frontline players along with Stephen Curry and Ellis. The Warriors also signed Dorell Wright to shore up the small forward position and traded for guard Charlie Bell.

"I like the way our locker room looks right now," Riley said. "I feel like we've changed the team and we've added some dimensions we didn't have previously."

That chiefly being rebounding and toughness. There were losses this summer, mainly Anthony Morrow and C.J. Watson. But Riley isn't done dealing. Another veteran presence to the bench is a priority, with free agent Louis Amundson being a top target.

There's also $14 million in expiring contracts -- a sizable asset come February. And then there's Carmelo Anthony. Reports last week that listed Golden State as a possible destination Melo. If the Nuggets do decide to field offers for Anthony, expect the Warriors to be aggressive.

"We are going to look for ways to improve our team," Riley said.

As for Nellie, he wants to finish out his Golden State contract. He's got a year left and has remained engaged -- to the point Nellie remains engaged -- in the team's offseason activities. Nelson wasn't part of the Draft, by design, but did attend Summer League team in Las Vegas to evaluate the team's prospects.

Nellie repeatedly says he "knows nothing" when it comes to his future with Golden State's new owners. It's probably best to keep it that way. Riley is Nellie's best ally if a case is made for a less complicated coaching transition to take place after the season.

Riley's voice has been heard for a while now. No reason that shouldn't continue.

Turkoglu helps Turkey rally past France

2010-09-05T19:53:00.003-07:00

ISTANBUL (AP) -- Turkey used a 21-4 run spanning the second and third quarters on Sunday to eliminate France from the basketball world championship with a 95-77 win.

Phoenix Suns forward Hedo Turkoglu scored 20 points and Sinan Guler added 17 for Turkey, which played its first tournament game in the new Sinan Erdem Dome. A nearly capacity crowd of 15,000 -- including 22 members of Turkey's national football squad sitting courtside -- watched the home team make shoot 35 of 55 from the field in the round of 16 game.

Turkey's reward is to play Slovenia on Wednesday in the quarterfinals.

"Everybody knows the fans in Turkey are loud," France's Boris Diaw said. The red-clad masses didn't disappoint in this one, constantly cheering their team from before the tipoff through Guler's layup at about three minutes left in the first half to put Turkey up 32-24.

Turkoglu, who more than doubled his points-per-game average from Turkey's five preliminary round wins, then sparked the decisive run as he flashed the same point forward skills that helped propel his former NBA team, the Orlando Magic, into the 2009 NBA Finals.

He drove past Diaw and whipped a pass over Ali Traore to a diving Oguz Savas for a layup. Savas was fouled on the shot and made the free throw. On Turkey's next possession, Turkoglu drove around France's defense again, this time for a layup of his own.

"We did make mistakes, especially on defense. We missed our defensive rotations two or three times and gave them easy layups," French coach Vincent Collet said.

The Turks took a 43-28 into halftime, then scored ten straight points - including back-to-back Turkoglu threes - to open up the second half.

"At this time it was almost over," Collet said.

About the only bad news for the Turks came with 5:13 left in the third, when guard Kerem Tunceri apparently hurt his right foot in a collsion with Nando de Colo and limped off the court with help from teammates.

By the end of the third quarter, the game had taken on more the feeling of a fiesta than competition. The Turkish players slapped hands, chest bumped and smiled as they went to the bench for the break, and the crowd chanted and did the wave. Not even two consecutive Batum dunks to close the gap to 71-49 early in the fourth quarter stopped their singing.

Turkey made nine of 19 three-pointers, while France made 12 of 24, but scored ten fewer field goals.

Diaw, who plays for the Charlotte Bobcats, scored 21 points. De Colo added 15 for France, which had started strong in the preliminary round with three straight wins but fell to its group's fourth-seeded spot after losing its last two games. Collett said he wished France could have played other teams from Turkey's preliminary round group.

"It would have been better to play Russia or Greece, but not Turkey this year. Not this Turkey especially," Collett said.

Slovenia trounces Australia 87-58 at Worlds

2010-09-05T19:53:00.001-07:00

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Jaka Lokovic scored 19 points and Slovenia hit 16 of 33 3-pointers to eliminate Australia 87-58 Sunday in the round of 16 at the World Championship.

Lokovic's corner 3-pointer in the game's opening seconds sparked a 12-0 run and Slovenia never looked back. Primoz Brezec of the Milwaukee Bucks had 12 points and Goran Dragic added 10 points and eight assists for Slovenia.

Slovenia's guards cut into Australia's interior defense all game for easy looks or passes to wide-open perimeter shooters.

``We did a poor job of getting to their 3-point shooters,'' Australian coach Brett Brown said. ``We pride ourselves for playing hard, tough defense. We don't have great athletes, we aren't very quick.''

Australia didn't score until Joseph Ingles' layup 4 1/2 minutes into the game. Australia's 6-foot-6 Brad Newley blocked 6-10 center Gaspar Vidmar's two-handed dunk from behind as time ran out in the first quarter with Slovenia leading 16-8.

``We chased the whole game, defensively, offensively from start to finish,'' Brown said.

Lakovic led Slovenia with 11 points in the first half as Slovenia hit 8 of 17 3s.

``Our tactic was to shoot a lot from 3-point because the Australia defense was playing very tight'' inside, Slovenian coach Mehmed Becirovic said.

The Australians, meanwhile, couldn't get on track. When Patrick Mills of the Portland Trail Blazers threw up an airball with seconds left in the half it was the seventh miss of seven 3-point attempts for the Boomers in the half. Australia made only 18 of 58 from the field for the game.

Ingles and Mills had 13 apiece for Australia.

Slovenia made 5 of 8 three-pointers in the third quarter to build a 71-45 lead. Lakovic and guards Sani Becirovic and Dragic continued to carve into the Australia's defense. Slovenia finished with 18 assists to five for Australia.

``There's not much to say when you look at these stat sheets,'' Australia forward Matthew Nielson said.

Navarro scores 22 as Spain eliminates Greece

2010-09-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

ISTANBUL (AP) -- Juan Carlos Navarro scored 22 points for Spain in an 80-72 victory that eliminated Greece from the basketball World Championships on Saturday.

The Spaniards made 8 of 18 3-pointers and used a 13-3 run in the fourth quarter to push ahead during the game in the round of 16.

Greece closed within 72-68 on Vasileios Spanoulis' layup with 1:01 left in the game, but Ricky Rubio answered with two free throws.

Rudy Fernandez of the Portland Trailblazers scored 14 for Spain.

Dimitrios Dimantidis and Nikolaos Zisis each had 16 points for the Greeks, which has lost to Spain seven straight times. Sofoklis Schortsanitis added 13 points.

Game comes down to free throws as Serbia nips Croatia

2010-09-05T19:50:00.001-07:00

ISTANBUL (AP) -- Oklahoma City Thunder center Nenad Krstic had 16 points and Aleksander Rasic scored five points in the last 21 seconds to help Serbia edge Croatia 73-72 in the round of 16 at the basketball world championship Saturday.

Croatian guard Marko Popovic made two free throws with 5 seconds left to tie the game at 72, but Rasic was fouled by Davor Kus as he attempted a shot with 1 second left.

Rasic made a free throw and Croatia was eliminated when Popovic's full-court shot fell short as time expired.

"The game was very, very tough this night,'' Serbia coach Dusan Ivkovic said. "It was necessary to play 40 minutes just to beat a very good team like Croatia.''

Rasic finished with 15 points for Serbia. Popovic led Croatia with 21 points, and Roko-Leni Ukic and Marko Banic 10 apiece.

"I'm not satisfied that we have made just the round of eight,'' Ivkovic added.

Croatia was 5 of 24 on 3-point attempts, while Serbia hit 5 of 15.

Serbia made eight of its first eleven field goals in the first major international basketball game between the Balkan neighbors who fought a war in the early 1990s. But Croatia outrebounded Serbia 10-2 and took a 27-19 lead going into the second quarter.

Serbia narrowed the gap to 34-36 at halftime, and in the third quarter the teams traded the lead eleven times.

Serbia took a 65-57 advantage with three minutes left in the game, but Popovic had seven points down the stretch to lead Croatia back.

After Popovic missed his last attempt, he slid into the opposing bench, and laid still, face down, as the Serbs celebrated. Serbian coaches helped him stand.

"You can't be happy when you lose like this,'' Croatia coach Josip Vrankovic said. "It's a really hard game, but what can we do?''

Bucks sign second-round draft pick Hobson

2010-09-05T19:49:00.001-07:00

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- The Milwaukee Bucks have signed second-round draft pick Darington Hobson.

The 6-foot-7, 210-pound junior was taken 37th overall out of New Mexico in this year's draft.

Terms were not disclosed when the signing was announced Friday.

Hobson averaged 16.4 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists over three college seasons, the first two at Eastern Utah. Last season at New Mexico, Hobson averaged career-highs in rebounds (9.3) and assists (4.6) while scoring 15.9 points and shooting a career-best 36.1 percent from 3-point range (39-108).

Hobson was the Mountain West Conference's Newcomer of the Year and Player of the Year. He was also named a Third Team All-American by The Associated Press.

Hawks beef up frontline, add veteran center Thomas

2010-09-05T19:48:00.002-07:00

ATLANTA (AP) -- The Atlanta Hawks have signed free agent center Etan Thomas to add bulk in the frontcourt.

The 6-foot-10 Thomas spent most of his career with the Washington Wizards but finished last season with Oklahoma City. He's averaged 5.8 point and 4.8 rebounds per game over his eight-year career, which includes 74 starts.

Hawks coach Larry Drew says Thomas will add veteran leadership and physical toughness.

Terms of the contract were not released.

Penney scores 25 to guide New Zealand into next round

2010-09-05T19:48:00.001-07:00

IZMIR, Turkey (AP) -- Kirk Penney scored 25 points to help New Zealand surge into the knockout round of the basketball world championships with an 82-70 win over France on Thursday.

New Zealand has won three straight games after losing its first two to clinch third place in Group D. They will face Russia on Monday.

Mika Vukona finnished with 15 points for New Zealand, which built a 39-25 halftime lead by hitting 8 of 17 3-point attempts.

Yannick Bokolo had 13 points and Nando de Colo added 10 for France, which finished fourth after losing its last two games and will face Turkey on Sunday.

Germany breezes past Jordan in final FIBA game for both

2010-09-05T19:47:00.002-07:00

KAYSERI, Turkey (AP) -- Tibor Pleiss scored 23 points to give Germany a 91-73 win over Jordan on Thursday in a match between two eliminated teams at the basketball world championship.

Lucca Staiger had 16 points and Jan Jagla 14 for Germany (2-3), which finished fifth in Group A.

Osama Daghles had 22 points for Jordan (0-5).

Varejao key as Brazil clinches third place in Group B

2010-09-05T19:47:00.001-07:00

ISTANBUL (AP) -- Marcelo Machado scored 18 points, Anderson Varejao grabbed 12 rebounds in his longest stint at the world championship, and Brazil clinched third place in Group B with a 92-74 victory over Croatia on Thursday.

Brazil (3-2) bounced back from a pair of narrow losses to earn a meeting with South American rival Argentina on Tuesday. Brazil coach Ruben Magnano guided the Argentines to the 2004 Olympic gold medal.

Leandro Barbosa added 17 points and Alex Garcia 15 for the Brazilians, who had lost by two the United States and by three to Slovenia in their last two outings. They took control by hitting 7-of-10 shots in the second quarter, ensuring they wouldn't have another one go to the wire.

Varejao, who missed the first three games while recovering from a sprained right ankle, started and played 24 minutes Thursday, providing the usual energy on the backboards that he gives the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Marko Popovic scored 15 points for Croatia (2-3), which will play Group A champion Serbia on Saturday.

Turkey stays undefeated, wallops China by 47 points

2010-09-05T19:44:00.000-07:00

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Oguz Savas scored 20 points as Turkey beat China 87-40 on Thursday in its final group game at the world championship.

Turkey, which had already won Group C, had a 20-0 scoring run to lead 39-13 at the break. Omer Asik's slam dunk gave Turkey a 41-point lead in the final seconds of the third quarter. Semih Erden widened the gap to 47 points with 50 seconds to go in the game.

Turkey (5-0) plays fourth-place New Zealand of Group D in the knockout stage in Istanbul.

China (1-4) reached the next round in Istanbul on points differential ahead of Ivory Coast and Puerto Rico. Russia (4-1) finished second and Greece (3-2) third.

Welcome to the biggest summer in NBA history (or maybe not)

2010-06-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

New Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov is poised to make a big splash this summer.

Now that a champion has been crowned, we make a natural transition to the very next season, a more important season, and reveal the team best equipped to navigate through this season.

We go from the Lakers to ... the Nets?

Yes. The Nets. A team with both a high pick in the Draft and money to spend on the most coveted free-agent class in history. In what's shaping up as potentially the craziest two weeks (or three or four or even longer) in recent offseason memory, the Nets are No. 1. And yes, we already checked: The last time "Nets" and "No. 1" appeared together was when Julius Erving and "Super John" Williamson suited up.

This doesn't mean the Nets will be declared the winner of NBA Summer 2010. Just that they, more than any team, are what the summer will be all about: drafting, signing and trading on the fly. Remaking your team, basically, if you have the tools, the guts, the smarts and, of course, the money to spend.

We could see anything happen in the next month. It could be thrilling, or it could be mild. The balance of power in the league could shift or just tilt slightly. Superstars could change addresses or stay put. Some teams will be flushed with funds and cut checks, others will cite the economy and hold tight.

The Draft and the start of the free-agent signing period will be separated by only 10 days. Expect another 10 days of recruiting, where in some cases teams and the cities they represent will conspire to make something happen. And then the signing will start in earnest.

You need a guidebook to make it through. Or maybe just an examination of the key principals involved:

LeBron

He will temporarily replace Will Smith as the king of summer blockbusters. Along with Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan, he's the best free-agent catch of the last decade-and-a-half. Only difference is neither Shaq nor Duncan appeared on Larry King to talk about it. Nor did they have the back of their hand kissed by the Knicks, which will happen at 12:01 a.m. come July 1 for LeBron. If he re-signs in Cleveland, then it's officially a boring summer. If he leaves, drama. Everyone will see what he does, then react. In the free-agent game. His domino will cause all others to fall.

The New York Knicks

They did the right thing by clearing cap room for two years and putting themselves in position to buy somebody. Even if they get nobody. The big mistake was passing on Brandon Jennings in last summer's Draft and blowing a chance to strengthen their case with LeBron and other free agents. Having celebrities beg on their behalf will only go so far. The Knicks better not overpay for Carlos Boozer if all the A-listers turn them down. There is a chance they might be forced to wait for Carmelo Anthony in 2011.

John Wall

The 19-year-old will be asked to save the Wizards. The last man who arrived in Washington with a bigger burden was Obama. Wall is a flashy player with NCAA cred who will be an instant gate attraction initially. He will either push Gilbert Arenas out the door or convince the Wizards that both can co-exist together in the backcourt. Finally, he's fully expected to be a better No. 1 overall pick than the Wizards' last, Kwame Brown.

Your browser does not support iframes.

The Chicago Bulls

It's the best destination for a franchise free agent, based on talent and available money. The team has much to sell: big city, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah. The only drawback: Michael Jordan played here. They might swing a sign-and-trade involving Kirk Hinrich and/or Luol Deng. They would become an instant championship contender with an A-list free agent. If they come up dry, they'd be just another team. The Bulls must either sign a free agent or add a solid starter before it's time to pay Rose and Noah.

Pat Riley

The Heat must convince Wade to stay in Miami and either Chris Bosh or LeBron or Joe Johnson or Amar'e Stoudemire to join. Miami must decide what to do with Michael "Super Cool" Beasley; is he a keeper or better off somewhere else? They deliver big this summer -- like in 2004, when Shaq was heisted from the Lakers -- and another championship might not be far behind.

Chris Bosh

He's widely assumed to be the FAMLTG: Free Agent Most Likely To Go. It is no secret that he loves Toronto, but hates his team. He might be better off as the No. 2 player on a team, rather than the hoss. He never took the Raptors anywhere special during his time, but at least one suitor will ignore that. Bosh will probably get max money although there's no consensus that he's worth it. Not sure if he was yanking chain or not, but did ask fans their opinion on what he should do.

Collective bargaining

It's the Elephant in the room. It has everybody but the Knicks scared to death about what the next labor agreement might bring, or might not bring. Teams are wisely expecting the worst and therefore staying financially flexible. The uneasy dance between players and owners might be the primary reason why some free agents will not see anything more lucrative than the mid-level paycheck.

DeMarcus Cousins

The next superb big man, or team headache? Lottery teams are still trying to decide which is the truth. Nobody wants to be the one who passes on him and nobody wants to be forced to take him. He has wonderful hands and touch around the basket. His maturity is in question, yet his upside is so enticing. Sounds like he's destined to be a Clipper.

Gordon Hayward

Does the half-court shot at the buzzer fall in his next lifetime, here in the NBA? He became famous for carrying Butler to the title game against Duke, in a real-life Hoosiers moment, and nearly making the heroic game-winner. However, was hardly a bold-faced name on the scouting and Draft charts before the Tourney. He could turn into a one-hit wonder, or keep the Cinderella sneakers on for 10 more years.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Joe Johnson

He's probably not cut out for the Hawks, considering he insulted the fans during an uninspired playoff run. He's a very good scorer who's respected around the league, but not a game-changer. Johnson wants max money, but lacks max charisma or max credentials. He's the best player on the second-tier free-agent level, and could be a considerable help in Chicago or Miami or New York should he become teammates with a first-tier free agent.

Dan Gilbert

The point man in the LeBron Sweepstakes. He could see his franchise's value drop as much as $100 million should LeBron pack and flee Cleveland. The Cavs' owner took it upon himself to dump Mike Brown and part ways with Danny Ferry, two key figures in the Cavs front office. Has he turned the keys to the club over to LeBron? He says no, but July 1 will tell.

Mikhail Prokhorov

The billionaire Nets owner wants to make a big splash. He must first do it in Newark. He came up with the cash to hire Avery Johnson. If free agents shun New Jersey, then Rutgers might draw more fans next season than Nets. With a savvy hand, could make the franchise a winner in time for the move to Brooklyn. Or Nets will simply get lost in a sea of Knick fans.

These questions matter most during offseason limbo period

2010-06-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

Free agents like Dwyane Wade (right) and Joe Johnson could reshape the NBA landscape this summer.

Almost no one remembers the Weimar Republic. Or Gerald Ford. Or the Gemini Space Program. Or 1980s music. (Trust me. I came of age in the '80s. People remember disco, even though they claim they hated it, and they remember the emergence of grunge and rap, and hip hop, but generic, Huey Lewis and the News Heart of Rock and Roll '80s music? I defy you.)

These are all examples of bridges, of people and times that were the halftime act between great or infamous periods in time. They got you from Point A to Point B in history, but they hold little or no historical significance of their own -- or, at least, history that anyone who's not a German studies major can recall.

We are at such a period in NBA history.

We are just coming off one of the great Finals in recent history, between the league's two most celebrated teams, a championship series that produced the highest TV ratings in 12 years, and an exciting if not well played seven-game classic. We are 10 days away from the start of the most anticipated free-agent negotiating period in league history, with a half-dozen of the NBA's biggest stars all becoming free agents, able to change the landscape of the league with a single nod of the head -- or nods, if they decide to go somewhere together.

And this next week and a half?

The von Hinderburg Era.

We know that what we've just gone through was something big, and that something even bigger is on the horizon. We are in a holding pattern, a waiting room, stuck on the telephone, on hold for the next 240 or so hours.

So, where are we now? What are the questions that will begin to be answered Thursday night in New York with the Draft, where some teams will begin to fill in the blanks, and others will keep their powder dry for another week?

Here are 10 questions that are unanswerable now, in Huey Lewis' NBA, but whose answers will become very clear around Independence Day.

1) Can the Lakers three-peat?

Yes, if Phil Jackson comes back. We should know the answer by Friday; Jackson reiterated after Game 7 that he would take about a week to decide whether he wants to return to L.A. next season. Even if that means a pay cut, as has been rumored for weeks, with owner Jerry Buss unwilling to shell out another $12 million -- even for a guy that now has won the Finals 11 times in 13 tries.

Kobe Bryant said he's been begging Jackson to give it another go, but Jackson has a lot of issues to sort through. More than one source indicated during The Finals that Jackson grew quite weary this season keeping Ron Artest in the fold, watching Artest struggle mightily in the Triangle, begging him not to hoist ill-advised threes. Artest even copped to it in the Lakers' locker room after Game 7: "my coach didn't want me to shoot it!,", he squealed after making the biggest shot of his life, a 3-pointer with a minute left that kept the Lakers' lead at six points and just about ended Boston's rally hopes.

Even if the Lakers opted to move Artest, or Lamar Odom, or don't keep Jordan Farmar or Luke Walton off the bench, as long as they have Bryant and Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum and Derek Fisher, the roster isn't the issue. The head coach is.

2) Can the Cavaliers put a representative team on the court without LeBron James?

Boy, it's hard to see a way out of that one. But it's possible.

J.J. Hickson (left) and Mo Williams would be two of the Cavs' cogs if Cleveland ends up LeBron-less.

It's conceivable that Cleveland could find takers for all of the one-year or partially guaranteed contracts on its books for '10-'11, a list including Anthony Parker, Sebastian Telfair, Leon Powe and Delonte West (only $500,000 of his $4.2 million for next year is guaranteed if he's waived by August 2). That would clear $10 million off of Cleveland's cap total. But the Cavs would have to renounce their rights to LeBron and Shaquille O'Neal to get their respective eight-figure cap holds off the books, and they would certainly do that if it became clear to them that James was bolting (it would seem highly unlikely a team with enough room to offer James a max deal would then agree to a sign-and-trade deal with Cleveland, since that would likely result in that team having to sacrifice several players to the Cavs to make the numbers work -- which would defeat the whole idea of bringing James aboard).

If all that happened, Cleveland would have a little bit more than $38 million committed to six players: Antawn Jamison, Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao, Jamario Moon, Daniel Gibson and J.J. Hickson. But you can't go into a season with six players, obviously; you need a minimum of 12 players under contract. So even though Cleveland would technically have enough money under the cap to go after a max player, a significant portion of that room would have to go toward minimum contracts for enough players to be in compliance with league rules, or second-round draft picks, assuming the Cavs have no desire to trade into the first round by Thursday and thus have to pay guaranteed first-round money to someone.

There's the skeleton of a reasonable competitive starting unit in Williams, Jamison and Hickson. But there's certainly no one that causes opponents to stay up nights.

3) Who would coach the Celtics if Doc Rivers takes a year off?

For all the talk about my NBA TV colleague Kevin McHale, why wouldn't Wyc Grousbeck insist that GM Danny Ainge take over? In a time when owners throughout the league are trying to save as much scratch as possible, and are extremely reluctant to pay what coaches have been used to getting in recent years, it's hard to see a scenario where the Celtics would lock themselves in for three or four years of paying top (or, close to top) dollar for a coach presiding over an aging roster that everyone acknowledges is hard to handle. What big-name coach would take $2 million or so per year for that?

So, Ainge, who has experience as a head coach, knows the quirks of his personnel better than anyone on the outside possibly could and wouldn't break the bank if he added bench duties to his management portfolio.

4) How do the Pistons rebuild their frontcourt?

They're taking a look at Baylor forward Ekpe Udoh and Georgetown forward Greg Monroe in the final days before Thursday, and while that doesn't mean for certain that they're taking one of those bigs with the seventh pick in the first round, it would seem odd to waste precious time before the Draft looking at two guys you have no intention of selecting. So the guess here is that if the Warriors, picking sixth, take Monroe -- who they gushed over after his workout this weekend -- the Pistons would take Udoh. If Golden State is throwing up a smokescreen to get Detroit, the Clippers (picking eighth) or Utah (ninth) to try and move up to take Monroe, the Pistons may not bite and just take Udoh, whom they know very well from his first two years at the University of Michigan before he transferred to Baylor.

Trading Tayshaun Prince is one way the Pistons might go to beef up their frontcourt.

Failing that, it would be a shock if Detroit didn't move Tayshaun Prince and his expiring contract soon after July as part of a package to get the Pistons the size (Carlos Boozer?) they need.

5) Do the Clippers need yet another young player on their roster?

No, which is why they're trying to move the eighth pick as we speak, which would clear even more cap room for L.A.'s still-active fantasy that it can get James to come to Tinseltown.

6) Will the Wizards do more than just draft John Wall? They have major cap room.

They do, but new owner Ted Leonsis is loath to go after big-ticket free agents, seeing how poorly that worked for him early in his stewardship of the NHL's Capitals (if you want to see him jump, sneak up behind him and yell "Jagr!" at the top of your lungs). Leonsis has instructed management that he wants to build through the Draft, which is why Washington, which already has three of the top 35 picks Thursday, is looking for another pick. There are some who would love to use that extra pick, likely another second-rounder, on DaSean Butler, the dynamic West Virginia forward who tore his ACL in the Final Four and is hard at work rehabbing to be ready for next season.

7) What does Riles have in his back pocket?

All I know is that every time he's had major cap room, or time to come up with a plan, he's found big-time talent: Alonzo Mourning (trade with Charlotte in 1995), Tim Hardaway and Juwan Howard (1996, though Howard had to go back to Washington after the league accused Riles of breaking cap rules to come up with the loot for Howard's offer), and Shaq (trade with the Lakers in 2004). Miami's been too quiet for any other team not to have the heebie-jeebies.

Pat Riley has a history of coming through with a big move when he has the resources.

8) Who is the player that will almost certainly be traded on Draft night?

Minnesota forward Ryan Gomes. His 2010-11 salary of $4.23 million is only guaranteed for $1 million for next season, so a team that acquires him on June 24 can save $3.23 million in cap room by July 1 if he's released. You can't find that kind of savings anywhere east of your area Target on President's Day. It may well wind up that Gomes is traded on Thursday, released on Monday and re-signed by Minnesota to a new contract later in the summer.

9) You still think the 76ers may not take Evan Turner?

Not as much as a week ago. Even though last week's trade of Samuel Dalembert for Spencer Hawes and Andres Nocioni would clear a path for Philly to draft Georgia Tech forward Derrick Favors, I'm hearing that Doug Collins really is impressed with Turner, the Ohio State guard. It's just too easy to plug Turner in at shooting guard where he and Jrue Holliday can grow together as a young, improving backcourt, leave Andre Iguodala at small forward and Elton Brand at power forward, with either Mareese Speights or Hawes at center. The Sixers' major improvement next season won't come through the Draft, and certainly not through free agency, but with Collins on the bench.

10) Didn't you say there would be 10 questions?

Yes, I did. But it's 5:07 a.m. My brain is congealing into a puddle. Would you settle for nine? Unless someone has a question about the Von Papen Deal.

Dribbles

Politics, Chris Dudley recalls, rarely came up in an NBA locker room when he was a player.

"Really, guys would talk about cash," Dudley said on the phone last week. "They were shocked, especially the rookies when they got that first paycheck. Politically, it wasn't something that was a major source. When (President) Clinton had his issues it was definitely a big topic, but they would also have conversations. I remember talking to Terry Porter about how do we get schools to do a better job? How do we help to break the cycle in the African-American community? They weren't necessarily Republican-Democrat conversations; they were more life conversations. How do we do better?"

It is a question the 45-year-old Dudley is now trying to answer for an entire state. The 16-year veteran, who played for five teams as a shot-blocking, lane-clogging, free throw-butchering big man, is a neophyte politician, but he's started off with a bang, winning the Republican nomination for governor in his native Oregon in his first foray into statewide politics.

Dudley beat out two other major challengers and got 40 percent of the Republican vote in the May 19 primary, setting up a November showdown with Democratic candidate and former governor John Kitzhaber to succeed incumbent Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who is leaving office early next year after serving two terms, as required by state law.

Until last year, Dudley was safely ensconsed in his post-playing life. His NBA career, which included becoming secretary of the players' union, featured stops in Cleveland, New Jersey, Portland, New York and Phoenix, as a physical 6-foot-11 center with good timing who developed a terrible hitch at the free throw line that got so bad he often drew opponents into the lane before he let go of the ball.

(I covered a 1989 game when Dudley missed five free throws in one painful trip to the line -- he missed the first, missed the second, got a third because of a lane violation, missed that, got a fourth because of another lane violation, missed that, then missed the fifth after a third lane violation.)

He had started the Chris Dudley Foundation in 1998 to help fellow diabetics like himself (he was diagnosed in high school and played with the disease in the NBA without incident) and had put his economics degree from Yale to good use as a wealth management partner in his native Lake Oswego, Oregon. In Lake Oswego, he volunteered as a coach at the local high school, which had a rising star forward named Kevin Love in 2006.

"I would just say that Chris is an amazing human being," Love, now the Timberwolves' rising star forward, texted late Sunday night. "Comes from a great area and a great family. He has impacted and influenced my life and other people's lives from a basketball perspective. But now he is impacting people on an even greater level."

Ex-NBA center Chris Dudley aims to make a big impact in politics.

Indeed, politics called to Dudley from a distance. His grandfather, Guilford Dudley, was the U.S. ambassador to Denmark during the Nixon and Ford administrations in the 1970s. Chris Dudley had twice testified before Congress about diabetes research and funding. And he'd gotten increasingly frustrated, he said, with the state of affairs in Oregon. After raising more than $300,000 in donations for a speculative political committee, Dudley decided to think big instead of starting out on a city council or in a mayor's office.

"Nonprofits do great, great work, but you realize how much is done by government," Dudley said. "Governor was kind of something that came up. The more I explored it, the more it made sense. Our state is at a critical juncture and it needs help and needs help now."

Oregon's unemployment rate has hovered above 10 percent for most of the last 18 months, after falling from a high of 11.5 percent in April, 2009, according to recent employment figures. Mass layoffs hurt the state throughout the winter of 2008-09.

Dudley's own political philosophy, he says, evolved from his admiration of several politicans. He eschews specific labels when it comes to his politics, saying that he's planning a campaign that appeals across party lines.

"I guess it comes from Lincoln and the rights of individuals," he said. "A belief in small government, or at least government that's closer to the people. My family's split. Some are Republicans, some are Democrats. I think it really comes back to the fundamental belief of believing in the individual instead of a bigger government ... my inspirations growing up were JFK and Ronald Reagan. Different ends of the political spectrum, and in a lot of ways they were more similar. The bottom line is big ideas and optimism. As a country we can do so much better. That was our generation in a big way."

In seeking the governor's office, Dudley is the latest ex-NBA player who turned to politics after his playing days ended. Bill Bradley, of course, served three terms in the U.S. Senate from New Jersey and sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000 after winning championships with the Knicks in 1970 and 1973. Former player Tom McMillan served three terms as a Congressman from Maryland. Hall of Famer Dave Bing followed a very successful business career in Detroit with victory in the mayor's race in 2009. And former Suns All-Star guard Kevin Johnson is in his first term as the mayor of Sacramento.

Dudley has spoken with Johnson -- his former teammate in Cleveland at the beginning of their careers, and in Phoenix near the end -- about the pitfalls and challenges of political life.

"Obviously, we're contemporaries," Dudley said. "K.J. was involved in the non-profit world. I've had mine for 15 years. We've been ... trying to have a positive impact and realizing you can do a lot on the government side. That's probably pretty similar."

Dudley has also gotten help, he says, from his former Trail Blazers teammates like Porter and Jerome Kersey, who retired in the Portland area. NBA commissioner David Stern and deputy commissioner Adam Silver have also provided advice. Former NFL star quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who grew up in nearby Walla Walla, Wash., and relocated to Oregon in retirement, has also helped out, and Dudley was planning to speak with Bradley on the phone late last week.

He had to learn about politics on the run, taking part in 15 debates during the Republican primary season and learning to chop his speeches into 30-second bites. He worked six or seven days a week, crisscrossing the state time and time again to push his message of private-sector job growth. Dudley will have at least two debates with Kitzhaber, who served from 1995-2003.

"We're going to have to deal with spending issues, because we're having real problems," Dudley said. "We're on an unsustainable path. And education and trust. People just don't trust the government right now ... in the state of Oregon, we've had 23 years of one-party rule, and we need to go in a different direction. Things aren't working. We're only leading in unemployment, hunger and homelessness."

Being a pro basketball player was very helpful in helping him understand how a campaign works, Dudley said.

"You start off with the idea of a team, where you're working with people from completely different backgrounds," he said. "On a team you're going to have people from every which-way. In the NBA it's (the goal) to win a championshp; in Oregon it's doing the best for the state. But you have to work within a team structure. I think the discipline from sports is very important. The discipline, the dedication. And I'd also say the idea of beliving in yourself and sort of dreaming big things.

"You have to really believe and have a sense of optimism to be successful in the NBA. Being involved during the labor negotations was helpful as well. That was a good background for me, having those tough negotiations and having that expireince, but also being able to see issues from both sides."

Top O' the World, Ma!

(Final Finals edition)

1) L.A. Lakers (2-0): Who'da thunk it: Ron-Ron was the best player on the floor in Game 7 of the Finals? Incredible.

2) Boston (0-2): Big decisions looming for the Cs, starting with Doc Rivers.

3) Orlando: Can Magic find a young backup point guard with the 29th pick?

4) Phoenix: Search for new GM will not include long-time assistant David Griffin, who is also leaving the organization.

5) Utah: Mehmet Okur (Achilles') may not be ready for training camp, making a big at No. 9 even more likely.

6) Cleveland: Byron Scott to the rescue? Somebody has to right the ship, and fast.

7) Atlanta: Hawks ownership continues to insist that the team is not for sale, only seeking minority investment.

8) San Antonio: Huge news: Tiago Splitter, the Spurs' 2007 first-round pick, may finally come over from Spain next season.

9) Chicago: Thibodeau officially introduced on Wednesday.

10) Oklahoma City: Thunder, at 21st and 26th in the first round, can add to their young nucleus.

11) Denver: If Nugs are talking Ty Lawson for the 10th pick, they must be in love with someone specific.

12) Portland: Kevin Pritchard is going out fighting, saying he's the best man for the job.

13) Dallas: Mavs surely will move up from 50th overall, hoping to find another Roddy Buckets.

14) Milwaukee: Bucks deny making a promise to VCU center Larry Sanders with the 15th pick.

15) Miami: Picked up Mario Chalmers' option ($854,000) without impacting ability to be major free agent players.

16) Charlotte: Hope this works out for Darius Miles. My expectations aren't high.

Nobody Asked Me, But ...

Why does God allow one person to suffer so very, very much?

Rest in peace, Manute.

Words can't express the sorrow that your family and friends and former teammates must be feeling today.

Manute Bol, who'd made helping people in his native Sudan the cause of his life as an NBA player and after his retirement, died Saturday morning n Virginia, the victim of kidney disease and a second disease that had caused his skin to flake off. After looking like he'd turned the corner last week, Bol's condition worsened suddenly, and he died at 47.

"I will never know how he carried on with so many physical problems but I do know that if a man's wealth can be measured by endurance of pain, determination to help the poorest of his friends and family as well as total strangers, and the dignity to carry on against all odds, Manute is the richest man to ever have played in the NBA," wrote John Zogby, the president of Zogby International and a board member of Bol's charity, Sudan Sunrise, on the charity's website Sunday.

There is nothing left to say but to again ask that the NBA family come together now and do something to help Manute's cause and organization (www.sudansunrise.org), which seeks to promote reconciliation between warring religious groups in his native Sudan. Manute was trying to raise money to build 41 schools in Sudan that would teach any children who enter, regardless of their ethnic background or religion.

He needed $18,000 as of last week to complete construction on the first school. That is, literally, nothing to players and coaches who make millions. I will happily donate the first $250 toward reaching the goal of $18,000, but I need help. Here is a link to the donations page of Sudan Sunrise. If you love the NBA or were ever in any way entertained by Manute Bol, whose smile masked his incredible pain and suffering in this world, give. Now.

... And Nobody Asked You, Either

Some folks wear the same glasses as I do. From Thomas Grooms:

Being an African-American, I really enjoyed your writing on the racial changes in Boston, and with the Celtics. I was born and raised in the Roxbury/Dorchester area. I'm now living in South Carolina. But to be an outsider you are correct. I was part of the migration to East Boston in the 1970s and the busing issues security. Been on the receiving end of unfair police misconduct because of my race. I have not been to a Celtics game since 1985, when fans used to yell "I smell a cigar, no its a Ni----". They never acknowledged what [Robert] Parish, [Cedric] Maxwell, Tiny [Archibald] or the late Reggie Lewis did. Reggie Lewis was always a visible Celtic in the inner city ... he would (be there) on Thanksgiving, give out meals to those in need at Northeastern University. He would go there to work out. He never shunned you if you said hello. Though I was not a Celtic organization fan. I did admire, and respect the individual players. I recall how they always made it seem like Larry Bird did everything. But because of the help he had, he was able to do that. If he did not have the players around him. He would have been like Jordan when he 1st came to Chicago. I am happy for the new Celtic staff, and players. And I continue to pray not just in Boston (b)ut all around, that change is coming.

The Celtics' more diverse crowd is just a snapshot of a sliver of progress, I think we'd both agree, Thomas. But it's still progress.

But the Redhead should get his due. From Jon Duke:

Memories of the Celtics' Big Three of the 1980s brought out differing viewpoints from readers.

I want to commend you on taking a very difficult issue and very nearly threading the needle on the role of race and the Boston Celtics. However, I do feel you missed, as most of our generation does, the incredible steps made by Red Auerbach and the Celtics of the 1960s in advancing the role of African-Americans in sport, let alone the NBA. Though I am a tad younger than you, I grew up watching the '80s Celtics and couldn't help but notice the racial divide between the Celtics and Lakers. It helped define the fans who rooted for their respective teams, but I also think that it is far too easy of a device in determining the character of the franchise ...

Your article accurately relates that the vast majority of fans follow the view that the Celtics were the "white team" and that belief continued until the arrival of [Paul] Pierce and [Antonie] Walker. My only beef is that while the number of fans who followed the Russell Celtics were minute, the progress made by Red [Auerbach] and that crew is unrivaled in American sport by one franchise ...

My only wish is that there is a fuller discussion of race and the Celtics that admits the race identification of the '80s Celtics, but also celebrates the actions by the team in the '50s and '60s. Certainly there were significant problems with this time period (you correctly note the vile and reprehensible behavior in Russell's bed in 1965), but the same could be said of the treatment of Jackie Robinson and yet the Brooklyn Dodgers and Branch Rickey are celebrated for the progress they brought to baseball.

David, I am by no means an expert on this subject. I'm a 31-year-old white guy from Maine who loves the Celtics and appreciates fine writers like yourself who cover the world of sports. We did not have one African-American in my entire high school, so your experiences far outweigh my own through your travel of various points across the sporting map. I only feel that a reasoned and thoughtful take such as your own on this issue was worthy of my own two cents.

None of us are experts on this, Jon, and you're certainly allowed your opinion. We go by our own experiences in everything. But you are right in pointing out that Auerbach was indeed a pioneer when it came to putting African-American players on the court and believing that Russell was the only person that could succeed him as coach -- and not thinking twice about the implications.

And now, an opposing view. From GW Welsh:

Keep playing the race card David I'm disappointed in your article and your motives. One of the first black coaches in NBA. I'm so sick of this Celtics are racist (stuff) and now the team is all black that makes it ok to like them ... that statement is racist. I'm Native American and give two craps about the color of skin your blood is carried in this is the NBA that got an A in that dept.

Seems like your the one that harbors ill will still "So I rooted. Oh, how I rooted for Ewing, and Mark Jackson, and Mo Cheeks, who led the Knicks to an upset victory on the road to win the series. That it was quiet rooting didn't make it any more ethical, and it's not a memory that makes me especially proud. But that day, I wasn't a sportswriter for The Washington Post; I was a black man in Boston, and you had to choose sides, and I made my choice." Oh and do your research: three out of the five officers were African-American and the guy that eventually got arrested for the robbery looked like Dee Brown.

Shame on you! We love our players and Bill [Russell] is still my favorite he did more than you'll ever do because he isn't hateful. I'm not African-American or Irish-American ... I'm Native American. And if you do your history lessons, all three were hated on everywhere during the early times. If you ask me, you're a racist and it will never change you can't even root for a team with a white player on it but now that it is mostly African-American then its ok, lame and outdated and that, my friend, is scary.

Wow, G-Dub, where to begin? It's racist to point out that Boston had a terrible history when it came to race? The "early times," I guess, stopped around 1989, when Charles Stuart said a black man shot him and killed his wife and black men of every size and shape were stopped and questioned in Mission Hill. Did you not read the part where I said that white sportswriters in Boston were nothing but generous and friendly to me, and that the Celtics were nothing but professional to me, up to and including Red Auerbach? And that things are much, much better now? And where you got the idea that I said I can't root for a team with a white guy on it. ... well, I don't know where you got that. But you're entitled to your opinion. One thing, though: as my friend David Steele wrote so eloquently years ago, race is not a "card" to be played in any "game."

Let's argue about something else. From Kevin Sanders:

Are the Hawks trying to save money with the selection of [Larry] Drew as the coach? This does not seem like an upgrade to [Mike] Woodson and other candidates probably took themselves out of the running due to the compensation. These are not the power moves that I would expect from an organization trying to be in the top six teams in the league.

Maybe they are, but that has nothing to do with Drew's qualifications, Kevin. He's been on an NBA bench as an assistant coach for almost 20 years. And he deserved a chance to succeed or fail on his own, with a good team, instead of being put behind the eight-ball with a terrible squad, as so many first-time coaches are.

As always, send your Finals interrogaries, Draft illuminations and snark to daldridgetnt@gmail.com. If you write it (first and last name, please), and we like it, we just might print it -- though we might also trim it for space reasons. You da men and women.

Playoffs MVP Watch

(6/14/10-6/17/10)

1) Kobe Bryant (2 games: 24.5 ppg,13 rpg, 2.5 apg, .349 FG, .818 FT): Captured his second Finals MVP award with a strong fourth quarter, though he struggled mightily throughout the series and through most of Game 7 to find a shooting rhythm. But Bryant's focus and will, playing through injuries that would have crippled most others without complaint or excuse, was the iron upon which the Lakers built a back-to-back championship season. He now has a leg up on Tim Duncan and Shaq for Player of his Generation, and it's hard to see anyone catching him now that he's in front.

2) Pau Gasol (2 games: 18 ppg, 15.5 rpg, 2.5 bpg, .400 FG, .632 FT): His scoring effectiveness against Boston lessened as the series went on, but Gasol was huge in Game 7, getting on the glass early and often in helping Los Angeles bludgeon the smaller Celtics when it counted. With two NBA titles to now go with his gold medal and MVP award at the 2006 World Championships for Spain, along with a silver with Spain at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and his 2003 NBA Rookie of the Year award, is it not unreasonable to opine that Gasol is now the most accomplished international basketball player of all time?

3) Rajon Rondo (2 games: 12 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 8 apg, .458 FG, .250 FT): It was fitting that the Celtics' last shot of Game 7 was Rondo missing a 3-pointer, because his inability to consistently shoot from the perimeter was his Achilles' heel against L.A., and the one thing he needs to master in order to make himself unguardable. The Lakers dared him to shoot anywhere beyond the foul line. Otherwise, Rondo had a brilliant postseason and was by far the Celtics' best player. There may be some rebuilding approaching in Boston but it won't involve the C's quicksilver point guard.

4) Paul Pierce (2 games: 15.5 ppg, 7 rpg, 2 apg, .379 FG, 1,000 FT): The Truth only made his mark in one game of the Finals, but was clutch against Miami, Cleveland and Orlando in leading Boston through the playoffs. Will he now void the final year of his contract -- a gargantuan $21 million -- to join the rest of Free Agent NBA? Or can he afford to do that at age 32, with a lockout looming after next season?

5) Ron Artest (2 games: 17.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 2.5 spg, .448 FG, .800 FT): You can snicker, but who was bigger in the last two games against Phoenix in the Western Conference finals and throughout The Finals with his lockdown 'D' on Paul Pierce? Who was the only guy in Forum Blue and Gold that didn't play Game 7 like there was a piano on his back? Queensbridge's own Ron-Ron, who hit a monster three with a minute remaining to help clinch the title, and then engaged in hilarity afterward here and here. I have no idea if he was at all coherent during any of it, but God, it was fun to watch.

Dropped out: Ray Allen

By the Numbers

7 -- Number of teams in NBA history that have come back from a 3-2 deficit to win the championship, after the Lakers rallied to win the last two games of the Finals against Boston to capture their 16th franchise title.

$2,000,000 -- Cost of the Lakers' victory parade Monday, which will be picked up by the team.

28,203,000 -- Viewers for Game 7 of the Finals between the Lakers and Celtics, making it the most-viewed Finals game since Game 6 of the1998 championship series between Chicago and Utah, when Michael Jordan won his last championship with the Bulls.

I'm Feelin' ...

1) Look, nobody's told me anything officially yet, but any sentient being that's been paying attention believes Steve Kerr will ultimately wind up back with us at TNT. I hope that's right. Steve was always a pleasure to work with and, like a lot of his management brethren going into the Summer of '10, was under incredible pressure the last two years to keep his team competitive while saving his owner as much money as possible. Working in TV is work, but it's not the same thing. Hopefully he's back annoying Marv and Reggie real soon.

It may not be long before Steve Kerr (left) is back working with TNT's NBA crew again.

2) Nobody wins or loses with more class than Derek Fisher, who also got a fifth ring with the Lakers last week, and continues to make anyone who doubts his postseason abilities look real, real dumb.

3) Ditto Doc Rivers. Selfishly, it would be great if he returned to coach the Celtics next season, but the pull of being there for his son Austin as he navigates the waters of big-time recruiting -- Austin, a rising high school senior in Florida, is considered by many college scouts to be the top shooting guard prospect in the nation -- is strong.

4) Kendrick Perkins sat there for almost half an hour Wednesday, the night after he wrecked his knee and lost a chance to play in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and answered variations on the same question over and over, with tears in his eyes. One of the gutsiest things you'll ever see.

5) There is hope in the world.

6) Desperation, meet Eliot Ness.

7) TV work is great. Writing is necessary. But nothing's more important to me than being a good father to my two sons and emulating the example that my dad, James, set for me. Happy Father's Day to all the guys who put in a day's/week's/month's/year's/lifetime's toil for no other reason than that it is the right thing to do for their families.

Not Feelin' ...

1) The season is over? We have to wait 17 weeks or so until Opening Night, 2010 (and why do I think Oklahoma City, Los Angeles, Orlando and wherever LeBron winds up will be involved)? Dang.

2) 'Sheed. Don't retire.

3) We missed Javie, Wunderlich, Forte, Palmer and Bavetta during this playoff run. And, frankly, the officiating wasn't as good night in and night out in the postseason without them in some combination.

4) I will never understand why a team winning a sporting event triggers the riot/burn the car/jerk gene in so many people.

5) Probably too much to expect Tiger to win the U.S. Open on Father's Day, right? Karma and all.

Tweet of the Week

NO ONE ... And I mean NO ONE should EVER com par kobe Bryant to my dad an say that is anywhere near close to my dad He's jagging this game
-- Marcus Jordan (@SASBMJ), Thursday, 9:11 p.m., Michael Jordan's youngest son, during the first the first half of Game 7, when Bryant shot just 3 of 13 from the floor and forced several shots against Boston. Bryant rallied with 10 fourth-quarter points to lead the Lakers to an 83-79 victory and the Finals championship, and was named MVP of the series.

They Said it

"He absolutely will try and play next year."
-- Gary Moore, Allen Iverson's longtime personal manager, telling the Associated Press last week that the 35-year-old Iverson, who left the 76ers for good in March after missing several games to deal with his daughter's illness, will try it again next season.

"And I am pleased to say that I am here for life at Michigan State."
-- Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, 55, announcing last week that he was turning down the Cleveland Cavaliers' five-year, $30 million offer to stay in college basketball.

"That's a good question."
-- Happy Walters, the agent for Amare Stoudemire, when I asked who in the Suns' organization would be handling negotiations with him about his client after the decision of former GM Steve Kerr to no longer seek a contract extension of his own.

Bosh wanting to be 'the man' in free agency

2010-06-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

The Raptors can offer Chris Bosh a max contract of six years and $130 million.

Chris Bosh isn't waiting for some summit to determine his landing spot next season. The soon-to-be Toronto Raptors free agent is determined to chart his own course and forge his own identity apart from the star-studded field of peers also entering the open market.

"I don't want to be mentioned as an addition to a team," Bosh said prior to the season [video below]. "I want to be mentioned as the guy that people want to center their team around."

Your browser does not support iframes.

Bosh hasn't changed that stance, adding recently that he's making his decision separate from LeBron James or anyone else. Bosh is frequently mentioned as the bronze medal in the Free Agency Olympics headlined by LeBron and Dwyane Wade. Bidders can do a lot worse than bronze. While the pairing of Bosh with one of his former Team USA teammates could form the foundation of a title contender, the 26-year-old power forward could just as easily strike out on his own.

Bosh's independent streak is a significant variable in a marketplace that so many assume will be dictated by LeBron. Bosh could be the first domino to fall if he decides to leave Toronto when free agency begins July 1, causing a ripple effect among the teams with significant cap space and those angling for a premier free agent through a sign-and-trade.

Unlike the situation facing James in Cleveland, Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo acknowledged that he would be agreeable to a sign-and-trade if a new deal isn't worked out with Bosh. Toronto's first priority is to re-sign its five-time All-Star and career scoring leader. The Raptors can offer a max contract of six years and $130 million.

There's no inkling that such a sign-and-trade agreement exists between James and the Cavaliers, a franchise currently without a coach and with a new general manager. Bosh's willingness to negotiate with several of the nine teams that have significant cap space (more than $14 million) and those putting together attractive sign-and-trade packages could create a feeding frenzy more dynamic than what LeBron is heading into.

The list of realistic suitors for LeBron appears to be more exclusive, led by Cleveland, Chicago and New York, with several long shots such as New Jersey, Dallas and the Los Angeles Clippers possibly in the mix. While those squads focus their energy on James and most assume Wade is staying in Miami, the rest of the league looking to upgrade could zero in on Bosh as its most practical superstar alternative.

As long as Bosh settles on at least two teams as a possible destination for next season, the bidding war can begin. The more teams, the more heated it becomes. That would benefit Colangelo in his hunt for the best possible package -- players, draft picks and/or cap space -- should Bosh split town.

Bosh is keeping his options open. Reports have surfaced of a list of teams, ranging from five to much more, that Bosh would be amenable to in a sign-and-trade. His agent, Henry Thomas, has shot down the existence of such a list coming from the Bosh camp, adding that his client is evaluating his choices. Thomas and Bosh have also said that a "free agent summit" isn't on the horizon.

"I haven't closed the door on anything," Thomas told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. "I haven't given Bryan any lists. There is no list. This is a process that is ongoing."

Your browser does not support iframes.

Several league insiders believe Bosh will eventually land in Miami to team up with Wade. He could also join Derrick Rose with the Bulls or pair up with LeBron. The two-time champion Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets are reportedly among the sign-and-trade hopefuls.

Or Bosh could choose his own way.

"I'm not an addition. I'm a centerpiece," he said. "I have to have that confidence in myself, and I want people to know that, because I'm not somebody that helps out. I'm the guy you get like, 'Yo, we're going to win a championship, you're gonna take us there.'

"I want to hold onto that because I think every kid when they dream about playing basketball, they don't dream about being a role player. They dream about being the man. I have that position in Toronto and to give that up and go somewhere else to be an addition would kinda defeat the purpose of my dreams."

Favors, Cousins work out for Nets

2010-06-21T20:45:00.004-07:00

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Derrick Favors and DeMarcus Cousins have been playing against each other since high school, so working out for the New Jersey Nets three days before the NBA Draft was nothing new.

Your browser does not support iframes.

The stakes were a little higher Monday.

The Nets have the third pick overall in Thursday night's draft, and they likely will have to decide whether to take Cousins or Favors.

The Washington Wizards are expected to take Kentucky point guard John Wall with the first pick, and Philadelphia likely will grab Ohio State shooting guard Evan Turner with the second choice.

Although New Jersey has some interest in Syracuse forward Wesley Johnson, its biggest need is at power forward. Favors of Georgia Tech and Cousins of Kentucky are the top big men, despite having only played their freshmen seasons in college.

The two big men worked out for about an hour at the Nets' headquarters, showing their shooting, agility and stamina.

"It would have made it easier if one guy came in and did very little, and you were extremely disappointed," said Gregg Polinsky, the Nets' director of player personnel. "But we are not disappointed. I think we all walked out of here going, 'these are going to be two very fine NBA players going down the road."'

Cousins, the Wildcats' center, showed the Nets he has the talent to play the power forward, hitting shots up to 20 feet.

Your browser does not support iframes.

A true power forward, Favors' shooting range is limited to about 15 feet, but he has more 'pop' in his leaping ability, Polinsky said.

Neither player saw the workout as a one-shot deal for the third spot.

"Me and DeMarcus have been playing each other since high school," said Favors, who averaged 12.4 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.1 blocks last season. "It isn't a competition between us. We are good players. They have seen us both in college. I think they wanted to bring us in to get a feel for both our games, and to see which one fits better in New Jersey."

Favors, who will turn 19 next month, is 11 months younger than Cousins, who averaged 15.1 points and 9.8 rebounds with Kentucky last season.

This marked the third time in recent weeks that Favors and Cousins have worked out against each other. They also did it in Sacramento and last week in Philadelphia.

Cousins, who played at LeFlore High School in Mobile, Ala., said he and Favors first played in the ninth grade in a tournament in Atlanta with South Atlanta winning big.

"To be honest, me and Derrick we've been in competition our whole career," Cousins said. "It was always who's better? Me or Derrick? After college I thought those days were pretty much over, but we're back at stage one. So I guess you can say that."

When asked who was better, Cousins laughed.

"I'll let you all answer that," he said.

Blazers, Warriors swap second-round picks

2010-06-21T20:45:00.003-07:00

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- The Portland Trail Blazers are paying the Golden State Warriors to move up 10 spots in the second round of the draft.

The Warriors announced Monday that they traded the 34th overall pick to Portland for the 44th pick and cash considerations.

Golden State also has the sixth pick in the first round. Portland has the 22nd pick in the first round.

Rivers: Wallace said he plans to retire

2010-06-21T20:45:00.001-07:00

BOSTON (AP) -- Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers says that center Rasheed Wallace is probably going to retire.

Rivers said on WEEI-AM on Monday that Wallace told him before Game 7 of the NBA finals that he believed it was the last game of his career.

Wallace has two years left on the contract he signed with the Celtics last summer.

The 35-year-old would finish with 15,860 points and 7,321 rebounds in a 15-year career. The volatile big man was also the most ejected player of his era, with 30 ejections since such records started being kept in 1992.

He played with four teams, winning the NBA title with the Detroit Pistons in 2004.

The Celtics lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the NBA finals 93-89 on Thursday.

Minor league team taking swing at LeBron

2010-06-21T20:42:00.004-07:00

CLEVELAND (AP) -- A minor league baseball team is taking a swing at signing LeBron James.

The Lake Erie Crushers plan to offer James a maximum contract under Frontier League rules on "Keep LBJ in the C-L-E Night" next week. The team said the contract is worth $1,600 a month and will include a host family so the NBA superstar won't have the "stress of a potential commute" from the Akron." Also available will be a luxury suite.

The Crushers will wear Cavaliers-themed jerseys June 30 and each player will wear No. 6 to honor James' switch from No. 23. The team is renaming its park LeBron James Field at All Pro Freight Stadium for the game. Anyone named LeBron gets free tickets.

James becomes a free agent the next day.

Hayward finishes Draft workouts in hometown

2010-06-21T20:42:00.003-07:00

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Gordon Hayward felt right at home auditioning for Larry Bird and the Indiana Pacers.

Your browser does not support iframes.

After traveling to 10 cities, Hayward woke up at his parents' place in nearby Brownsburg, hopped in his own car and made the 20-minute drive to Conseco Fieldhouse.

He's hoping his first job comes the same short commute.

"It would be a dream come true to play for the Pacers," Hayward said Monday. "I'd be close to home, close to my friends and family. Sometimes people say it would be more pressure, but I don't see that as a negative."

Certainly not when virtually every big moment in Hayward's basketball career has occurred within these city limits.

Two years ago, his buzzer-beating lay-in gave Brownsburg High School the 4A state basketball title in the same building where he worked out for Bird. He brought home the Horizon League's freshman of the year and player of the year awards over the last two seasons while attending school just six miles down the road at Butler. In April, Hayward had two chances in the closing seconds to beat Duke in the national title game at Lucas Oil Stadium, within walking distance of Conseco. But he missed both shots.

The 6-foot-9 sophomore is making one exception Thursday night.

Hayward will take his parents, his girlfriend, his sister and her boyfriend to New York City for the NBA draft. Most experts expect him to go in the top 20, and some have him projected to go as high as No. 8.

"You know I only had one suit because I was growing so fast, and that was for my senior picture," he said. "So I do need to get one, but I think the agency is taking care of that. I hope they're taking care of that."

For Hayward, this is serious business.

He learned the rigors of NBA travel while going from workout to workout by himself and passed the idle time in his hotel room by doing push-ups and sit-ups. Along the way, he figured out a few things.

"I forgot the charger to my laptop," he said, drawing laughter. "I learned that, definitely, all these guys are great players, so, at times, you're going to get beat. I don't want to get beat, but it happens."

The biggest questions heading into the draft were whether Hayward was strong enough or a good enough outside shooter to play in the NBA.

On Monday, Hayward showed up with a more defined upper body, something he attributed to the strength and conditioning program he went through at St.Vincent Sports Performance on Indy's west side. He acknowledged adding both weight and muscle, though Hayward couldn't say how much he weighed or how much he was lifting.

The Pacers also got a firsthand look at how much better Hayward's shooting touch could be after seeing his 3-point percentage drop from 44.8 percent in his freshman season to 29.4 percent last year. Hayward, running from one side of the court to the other, put on the best shooting exhibition of the six players in town for the workouts.

Heck, even Alabama-Birmingham's Elijah Millsap told Hayward "nice job" after he made 4-of-5 3s from the corner.

"Everyone's been asking about my shot, and it's definitely improved just being in the gym all this time," Hayward said.

Which leaves only one question for Thursday night: How high will Hayward go?

Indiana holds the No. 10 pick, and if he's there, local fans will be pulling hard for Hayward, even though the Pacers have greater needs at point guard and power forward. Hayward knows there's a greater likelihood he'll be moving away from Indy for the first time in his life.

"I'll be happy to go with whoever takes me," he said. "For me, this has been a dream of mine to play at this level, and once I decided to come out I never looked back."

Nuggets coach Karl shows up for pre-Draft workouts

2010-06-21T20:42:00.001-07:00

DENVER (AP) -- With his health steadily improving, Denver Nuggets coach George Karl is starting to feel more like his old self again.

So much so that he said Monday he fully expects to be back on the bench next season -- health permitting, of course.

Karl, who has battling throat and neck cancer, feels "a little better" with each passing week. He still uses a feeding tube because of the sores in his mouth caused by efforts to kill the tumor and he has lost a lot of weight.

But he's taking more brisk walks and spending more time involved in team meetings.

He showed up Monday for a predraft workout, just to take a look at a few of the players brought in to town even though the Nuggets currently don't have a pick in Thursday's NBA draft.

Cavaliers' new colors are deeper, brighter

2010-06-21T20:41:00.002-07:00

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Without knowing if LeBron James will ever wear a Cleveland jersey again, the Cavaliers have slightly changed their team colors.

The Cavs have deepened the original wine and brightened the original gold colors the team used exclusively from 1970-83.

The team made the alteration partly because of the popularity of the "old" colors with fans. The team's primary and secondary logos have been updated with the new color shades, which will be included on the Cavs' uniforms next season.

After several color, logo and uniform changes, the Cavs switched to their current designs before the 2003-04 season, James' rookie year. James becomes a free agent July 1.

Fans line streets for Lakers' toned-down title parade

2010-06-21T20:41:00.001-07:00

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Thousands of screaming fans saluted the world champion Los Angeles Lakers Monday in a two-mile parade that left no doubt that expectations for a three-peat are high.

Laker starters Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher, Andrew Bynum and Ron Artest waved to the crowd from a flatbed truck festooned in purple and gold and surrounded by a white picket fence.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Bryant has five titles, but "this is the best one by far because it was the hardest one to get," he said.

Looking ahead, Bryant told reporters, "When next season starts, we'll be ready, that's for sure."

The parade capped a season that ended Thursday with an 83-79 Game 7 victory over the Boston Celtics and a 16th NBA title for the Lakers.

The two-mile toast took the Lakers from Staples Center downtown south to the Galen Center at the University of Southern California. The Laker Girls, riding in a fire truck, preceded the players along the parade route.

Officials estimated the parade might attract as many as two million fans. Police did not offer a crowd estimate. It was a parade only -- no rally, no speeches, no music and no other hoopla at beginning or end.

Bernard Hinson, 50, and his 8-year-old son, Aaron, came from Oakland to watch the parade. Hinson said he chose a spot close to the beginning because he thought it would be safer. Of the crowd, he said: "Ninety percent are true Lakers fans. Ten percent are here to cause trouble."

It was Aaron's second parade and last year he only got a glimpse of the players. "This one's going to be better because we'll see the players," the youngster said.

There was a heavy blue line, with police lined up every few feet on both sides of the parade route. Officers in cars and helicopters added to the police presence.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Police Chief Charlie Beck held an early morning news conference to warn troublemakers that police would not tolerate a repeat of the violence that occurred Thursday when the Lakers won the NBA championship. There were no serious injuries, but a lot of damage from vandalism and fires.

"If you're coming here to vandalize, if you're coming here to disrupt, well, then you're going to stay because we are going to put you in jail," Beck said.

The Lakers were footing the bill for the Figueroa Street parade.

Along the parade route, one fan hoisted a foam tombstone reading "RIP Boston." A woman carried a homemade poster boasting: "Back to back without Shak."

The high-energy, flag-waving crowd sat in lawn chairs, snuggled in blankets and dodged Silly String and confetti. The shrill blare of bull horns and other spontaneous buzz took place amid splotches of purple, gold, blue and white jerseys.

Ana Zavalza, 26, of Whittier, arrived to take part in her first Lakers victory parade. "I'm disappointed they are not going to have a rally at the end. I expected more."

Tickets to playoff games were too expensive for Teresa Howe, 42, of Simi Valley. "I get to see the players for free," she said. "Twenty dollars for parking doesn't compare to thousands of dollars for Lakers tickets."

She said she enjoyed sharing back-to-back memories with fellow fans. "I'm just as excited this year because it's the second time in a row. I'm looking forward to a threepeat. And I'll be here next year."

Fan Jimmy Baskom, 58, said he took the day off from his job as a window washer in Palmdale because he wanted to see his longtime basketball heroes in person. He wore a purple and gold jacket and hat.

"I've been a die-hard fan all my life and I watch every game but this is my first opportunity to see them in person," he said.

Bobcats looking to buy or trade way into Draft

2010-06-21T20:40:00.002-07:00

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- The Charlotte Bobcats are talking with teams about either purchasing a pick or making a trade that would yield selections in Thursday's NBA Draft.

Coach Larry Brown said Monday that several teams are looking to give up picks. The Michael Jordan-owned Bobcats don't own a selection in either the first or second round.

"Michael might buy a draft pick. I don't know," Brown said. "We might be able to move a contract to get a draft pick. I don't know. It might be a trade involved that could do that. You better be aware of the talent and what value you have on a pick."

While Brown has shied away from saying for certain that he'll return for a third season in Charlotte, he's been busy putting dozens of players through pre-draft workouts over the past few weeks.

Jerome Randle of California, Lance Thomas of Duke, Deon Thompson of North Carolina, Ryan Thompson of Rider, Ben Uzoh of Tulsa and Jeremy Wise, who played at Southern Mississippi before spending a year in the NBA Development League, worked out Monday.

"It's a miracle that we've got so many kids in without having a pick," Brown said. "We're real fortunate in that respect. With 50 underclassmen declaring, you might find a lot of kids under normal circumstances would have gotten selected that maybe would be available if they're not drafted. We have to be active in that regard."

There are several incentives for Charlotte to acquire picks. Starting point guard Raymond Felton will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and it's possible the Bobcats won't re-sign him. With D.J. Augustin the only other point guard on the roster, general manager Rod Higgins has said they'll have to get another point guard if Felton doesn't return.

The Bobcats are also close to the luxury tax, a payroll threshold that Jordan said the money-losing Bobcats won't go over.

"We have a lot of roster spots potentially. We're kind of limited because we're close to the luxury tax," Brown said. "A draft pick might be a valuable thing to have because it won't affect the luxury tax this year."

The Bobcats have made seven trades involving 21 players since the start of the 2008-09 season.

Organizers: 'LeBron Appreciation Day' draws 8,500 fans

2010-06-21T20:40:00.001-07:00

AKRON, Ohio (AP) -- Turns out LeBron James wasn't the only late arrival to an event celebrating his contributions to his hometown.

Organizers of "LeBron Appreciation Day" are now saying 8,500 people attended Saturday's event at InfoCision Stadium on the University of Akron's campus. Initially, school officials estimated the crowd at nearly 4,000, but event planners raised that number based on T-shirts handed out.

James arrived as the event was wrapping up, causing some fans on their way home to turn around and return to see the two-time NBA MVP, who accepted a "Hometown Hero" award from the city. James addressed and thanked the crowd but did not say anything about his impending free agency.

Don't look now, but Magic-Celtics could become a series

2010-05-25T23:51:00.001-07:00

J.J. Redick scored 12 points, htitting three of his five 3-pointers, in Game 4.

ORLANDO -- When he walked off the Amway Arena floor last week, chin up and chest out, Paul Pierce poked a verbal finger in the eye of a fan by saying with a sneer: "See you next year."

Well. The days, weeks and months flew by, you think? Same for any thoughts of the Celtics sweeping the Magic out of the Eastern Conference finals. Pierce and the Celtics did not finish the job in Boston. They have to go back to Orlando. And while the Celtics are up 3-1, there is the sense the Magic will bring a different team to this series.

Your browser does not support iframes.

So say the Magic. And logic.

"This is the team we've been all year," said J.J. Redick, referring to Game 4, when the Magic finally figured out the Celtics and themselves. "The first three games, that wasn't us. That's not how we got here and that's not the way we've been playing."

So where do we go from here? Besides Amway Arena, that is?

Let's start by admitting the obvious, that the Celtics surprised many, including themselves, when they went up 3-0. No offense to the Celtics; they're healthy and focused and a level up from the way they finished the regular season. But Redick's right. The Magic aren't as bad as they showed, especially in Game 3, an embarrassment. They took three out of four from the Celtics during the season, destroying the notion of Boston being a bad matchup for them. They have Dwight Howard. They have 3-point shooters. They have a good coach. They swept through the first two rounds.

And they can make this a series.

"You have to have the belief somewhere that you can win the series," said Stan Van Gundy. "Otherwise, there's just not enough to sustain you."

They're back home. Back at a place they've owned, prior to dropping two straight to the Celtics. What are the odds of losing three straight to Boston on their home floor? Not great. Orlando will draw comfort, then, from winning Game 4 and now playing the next one at their place. This is why they fought to get home-court advantage. For situations like this.

Their 3-point accuracy eventually must return. Or so you'd think. They made 36 percent in Game 4, still a notch below their average. But an improvement in this series. The Celtics' perimeter defense has been tight, but that's largely because Howard never gave them a reason to double down in the post.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Well, he did in Game 4. He broke free for too many layups and baby hooks, and was in position for too many offensive rebounds (six). He scored 32 points. The Celtics had no choice. They broke from their strategy. Kevin Garnett was forced to offer help, along with other Celtics. Orlando shooters were left open.

"There's a lot of things we can do better," said Redick. "We still haven't played a great game yet in this series. A lot of that has to do with them, but I think we have a great game inside of us, waiting to get out."

They're getting a lift from Redick. He was on the floor in the fourth quarter Wednesday night, in place of slumping Vince Carter, and shot well enough that the Celtics had to respect him. If Carter insists on coming up light -- he missed 8-of-9 shots, finished with three points, would've been the goat had the Magic lost Game 4 -- at least there's some insurance. At least there's an emergency shooter. Redick saw 33 minutes, three more than Carter.

Also: Orlando is still on edge in this series. The Magic are one game away from vacation, not the Celtics. So there's a heightened sense of urgency.

"We still feel like we're a championship team, felt like that since Day One," said Carter. "Why should we stop feeling that now?"

Plus: The Celtics, smooth as they've looked the last six or so games, are capable of a flop. They lost a game by 29 points in this postseason, you know. They dropped seven of their final 10 of the regular season and were mediocre following the All-Star break. A collapse can happen.

"You never know what could happen," said Rashard Lewis. "You just never know."

Finally, the Magic are due to play smarter than what they've shown. They had 19 turnovers, and despite that, still won Game 4. Again, the Celtics are forcing turnovers. But that's partly due to sloppy ball movement by Orlando, something the Magic avoided in the first two rounds. Actually, much of the season.

So that's where this series stands. The Celtics managed to pull the city of Boston from the ledge after the Bruins lost a 3-0 lead to the Flyers in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Can history repeat itself in such a short time span?

That's unlikely. But by winning Game 5, the Magic can make the series close enough to put Boston on edge. "We didn't win a game just to say we're in this series," said Howard. "We want to win this series."

They bought themselves a chance.

Kobe rages against time to stake claim as best there is

2010-05-25T23:50:00.002-07:00

Kobe Bryant has played in more than 1,200 NBA games in his career.

Have you noticed that folks (fans, media, players) are back to calling Kobe Bryant the "best player on the planet" again? The shift began earlier this month, while many were questioning LeBron James' head and heart and Kobe was toying with the Utah Jazz. Now, with LeBron at home in his sweats, humbled by another early playoff exit, and Kobe two wins from his third straight trip to the Finals, it seems Kobe has reclaimed the public's "best player alive" crown.

Now, here's where some of you will say, "I never stopped thinking Kobe was the best player in the world." A few you will be telling the truth. Many will be lying. I, for one, was one of the folks saying that Kobe -- while still great, and, possibly, still the best in the world -- had lost a discernible step. He was not the force he once was, wasn't and couldn't be as consistently impactful as he was as recently as 2008. Kobe, as seen through my eyes, was getting old.

Kobe's absolute No. 1 mission for these 2010 playoffs is winning a championship. We know that. But it seems that Kobe's also on a "Y'all Must've Forgot" mission. Remember that joint? It was boxer Roy Jones Jr.'s lead single from his debut rap album Round One: The Album. It was 2002, Roy was turning 33, younger fighters were on the come-up and Roy wanted to remind everyone that he was the baddest man on the planet. Two years later he began the twilight of his career, losing six of his next 11 bouts.

Your browser does not support iframes.

That seems to be where Kobe is at right now. He's reminding us that he's still the baddest man on the planet -- at least he thinks so. Several times this postseason, Kobe has, with his trademark smirk and snark, made a tongue-in-cheek comment about how "old" he is. Kobe told reporters that his "old age" was responsible for his recent string of 30-point games. Comical, yeah, but telling. Kobe wasn't so cavalier about things in late-April when he was hobbled and tired and his shot wasn't clicking and he couldn't get to the line and the young Thunder had him looking more like 2002 Michael Jordan than 1998 Jordan.

Sekou Smith and I had fellow dotcom columnist John Schuhmann on the Hang Time Podcast (which you can subscribe to here for free) the week the playoffs started. The three of us got into a heated exchange about Kobe. Schuh and I asserted Kobe was still great, but on the decline. Sekou didn't notice anything decline'ish about Kobe. Even with Kobe's recent play, I still think Schuh and I were right.

To me, it wasn't about Kobe's game. He remains, probably, the most skilled player in the league. Kobe's problem was exactly what Kobe tweaked us media folk about: "old age." Kobe is not real-life old, but he is getting "basketball-old." At this point, Kobe has played more games and minutes than MJ when he retired in '98.

For Kobe, the wear and tear started in December when he fractured his right index finger. Then he sprained his left ankle in January. In Februrary the back spasms came. And on and on and on. Five years ago, Young Kobe probably would have recovered more quickly. But this was a body that had played around 1,000 games and 37,000 minutes. So what happened? After coming out of the gate killin' it MVP-style, the last three and half months of the season -- especially January and February -- were Kobe's least productive and efficient since he started winning championships 10 years ago.

And it wasn't just the numbers. Yeah, Kobe barely averaged 24 ppg in January and shot less than 42 percent, but you could literally see it. I probably watch about 70 of the Lakers regular season games every year. Never had I seen Kobe's shot get blocked so frequently or someone rip him on the drive or some rotation player blow by him with a first step. Kobe was front-rimming a lot of shots late in games. He'd get the ball on the break and, if there was man between him and the basket, he'd hesitate, when the Young Kobe would have charged to the bucket and done something jaw-dropping. You didn't see a lot of Black Mamba out there. Kobe rarely "wreaked havoc." And it wasn't because he stopped knowing how to play basketball. He was getting basketball-old and the games and minutes and injuries were taking a conspicuous toll.

Kobe and the Lakers figuratively limped into the playoffs and I wondered, "Is Kobe capable of carrying this team for four series and two months?"

We know what's happened since. The Young Thunder challenged him. The Lakers escaped. He got some rest, drained a knee and BOOM -- the Mamba's back. Lately, Kobe is playing a brand of basketball so skilled and wise and calculated and productive that it's majestic to watch. But for how long?

Allow me to get ahead of myself and be the bearer of bad news. With all respect due to the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns, they ain't the Boston Celtics. Did you see what they did to LeBron? Are you watching them shut down Vince Carter? Dwyane Wade was an efficient scorer against them in the first round, but they forced him into, like, 87 turnovers per game. They make it hard for great players to be great.

Eight months after his first regular-season game, balling against a physical, grown-man squad like Boston, we'll see if Kobe is like that new Jay-Z track, "Forever Young," still the best player alive.

Blogger Q&A with TNT analyst Kenny Smith

2010-05-25T23:50:00.001-07:00

NT analyst and former NBA player Kenny Smith answered questions from some of the nation's top basketball bloggers on Tuesday. Here is a transcript of that session:

• Neil from www.Basketball-Reference.com/blog

As someone who played in The Finals twice, what kind of impact do you think the 2-3-2 formats has after playing 3 series under the 2-2-1-1-1 format? Does it make a difference from a mental standpoint to know that you'll have to play 3 straight in the same building, and which team do you think it favors in the big picture of a series -- the team that gets to play those 3 games at home, or the team that knows if it can survive those games it will have back-to-back opportunities to close out the series at home in Games 6 & 7?

Kenny Smith: It's difficult because I've been on both ends of the spectrum where we were the two and I've been on the spectrum where we were the three. If you win on the road, it doesn't matter [what] the format of the series is. Winning on the road seals the confidence."

• www.LayUpDrill.com

Of the four coaches remaining in the playoffs, who is under the most pressure to win it all this season?

Smith: Probably the Orlando Magic's Stan Van Gundy. If the Magic don't win it they have questions to answer that the other teams don't about if they make the right moves in the off-season. So their personnel and their coaches would be questioned more than the other teams if they don't win it. --

• Jordan from www.LibertyBallers.com

What would another ring and Finals MVP do for Kobe's legacy? Does it solidify his status as a top 5 player all-time?

Smith: Well, I think he's already kind of solidified that. It's hard to say it across eras, but in his era, he's a top five player. It's hard to compare Kobe Bryant to Oscar Robinson or Kobe Bryant to Magic Johnson or even a Michael Jordan who they never really played against or played at the same time. But, in his era he's solidified himself as a top 5 player already. This would just mean he's moving up from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 in his own era.

• www.YouBeenBlinded.com

What advice would you give to fellow Tarheel Vince Carter about performing well in big games?

Smith: Vince has already performed well in big games, I think he's just at a stage in his career where his physical abilities don't match his mental abilities anymore. But, he's performed already in big games, so Vince knows how to do it. He just can't take over a game like he used to.

• John from www.ScoresReport.com

Is Amar'e Stoudemire playing himself out of a max contract against the Lakers?

Smith: Well I guess this was before he had 42 points and 12 rebounds so we might want to disregard that question.

• Regnard from www.BigLakersFan.net

Assuming the Los Angeles Lakers advance past the Phoenix Suns, how do you think Ron Artest will impact a match up against the Boston Celtics or Orlando Magic relative to how the Lakers fared against them in the past two Finals?

Smith: I think the first time they saw the Celtics, the physicality was just too much for them. That's what Ron Artest does, so I think he'd have a huge impact if they played the Celtics.

• Rashad from www.HoopsAddict.com

What makes a good point guard?

Smith: First, a point guard is defined by their ability to control the tempo of the game. Their second criteria are the ability to understand who should shoot and when they should shoot. The third is the ability to lead. So if you have all of those three qualities, and all the other things: scoring, a good shot, ball handling those are important but it's the other three that you have to be good at. --

• Chris from www.FanScribe.net

When I was a kid I attended your basketball camp in Houston. You put a lot of stress on shooting form and fundamentals. In your opinion, who is the best pure shooter in the NBA?

Smith: Draft Class? That's a hard one for me because I don't think I've seen enough guys that much. The best shooter in basketball is Ray Allen. If you look at him when he shoots the basketball, he's always off balance. Shooting is all about balance. You can appear to be off balance, but if you go straight up, straight down, even if you're leaning and you're controlling the lean, actually he's controlling it more than shooting off balance- he's the best shooter in basketball, no question.

Brown pays the price for Cavs' playoff flameout

2010-05-25T23:49:00.000-07:00

The best record in the NBA (61-21) couldn't save Mike Brown after an early playoff exit.

The lead was going to be about Mikhail Prokhorov this morning, but Mike Brown was fired by the Cleveland Cavaliers late, late Sunday night, which ESPN first reported and I got confirmed at 3 a.m.

It's unfortunate, but it wasn't surprising, not after the Cavs got run out by the Celtics in the second round, two rounds before they were supposed to be in the Finals. With everything at stake this summer with LeBron James, such an implosion couldn't occur without someone paying the price, and because there's no one left to trade, and no cap room to sign a big-time free agent, this was the last card the Cavaliers had left to play.

There is only one question Dan Gilbert, who gave Brown the news Sunday in Detroit -- where Brown was watching his son play in an AAU tournament and where Gilbert lives -- can ask James Monday: Who do you want? Phil Jackson? Larry Brown? Pat Riley? Give me a name and I will try to get them.

As I told you last week, Jackson may have told L.A. reporters that he was 90 percent certain he would coach the Lakers next season or retire, but someone who is very close to Jackson said that he would be watching what happens this summer like everyone else, and that he has not ruled out anything. Which would, logic dictates, include coaching somewhere else, like Cleveland or Chicago, if James is on board -- as long as the money is right. (I doubt the Bulls would get any kind of hometown discount.) We know that Brown is still undecided about where he will call home next year, and Riley made it quite clear after the Heat's season ended that he's tanned, rested and ready if the right free agent comes calling.

For his part, Mike Brown will go right to the top of almost everyone's search list, unless he wants to take a year off and enjoy his severance. A head coach who pays attention to defensive detail, sprouts from the Popovich Tree and boasts a .643 regular season winning percentage won't be out of work long.

Now, as Casey Kasem used to say, on with the countdown, which includes a wrap of the preraft camp in Chicago, and why I think John Wall and Gilbert Arenas can play together in Washington. But first comes the Big Russian and how he's about to turn the Nets into Manchester United.

The Nets Go Global

Mikhail Prokhorov is as advertised: tall, affable, somewhat scripted, cryptic, and secure like you'd expect a man sitting on $17 billion to be.

Your browser does not support iframes.

We sat down on Tuesday night, minutes after a gust of wind broke the 45-year-old billionaire's heart, leaving his team with the third pick overall in next month's Draft -- just as it jump-started the hearts of Washington Wizards employees and fans. (Flip Saunders showed me video of the team's scouts and other personnel erupting into cheers and hugs in the Wizards' locker room Tuesday, seconds after deputy commissioner Adam Silver announced Washington would get the first pick. The crazy man in the dark sweatsuit jumping up and down like a banshee, Saunders pointed out, was Saunders).

The interview was part of Prokhorov's official rollout after being approved as the Nets' majority owner by the league's Board of Governors two weeks ago ("He said, 'Call me Mike,'" Stern said). Prokhorov spent Tuesday morning and afternoon in Manhattan, then came to Secaucus -- the last time the Nets will do official business in Secaucus before moving to Newark for two years, then Brooklyn and a new arena -- in hopes of securing the first pick, as the odds suggested the Nets should. But, as befits this star-crossed franchise, the Nets finished third. But if Prokhorov was upset afterward, he didn't show it.

It is his personality.

Mikhail Prokhorov

Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

"I never lost my cool" before, he says. "It's my day-to-day practice ... I can blame only but myself."

His assistant put no limits on the questioning, only insisting that we'd get only a half-hour. (No, I didn't ask him about the 2007 party in Courchevel, France, when he was detained for four days after being suspected of bringing in prostitutes. He was never charged, and the French apologized to him. If you can figure out how that's germane to whether he's going to pay luxury tax, drop me a line.)

But I did want to know more about Prokhorov than we've heard and read in the handful of media appearances he's made in the last two years, since he's become one of Russia's richest men. I wanted to know how his family's relative comfort -- his father worked for the Soviet Sports Committee -- amidst the decaying Communist structure of late-1970's Russia -- affected his worldview.

"Truly, I never think seriously about my role in the world," he said in his heavily accented but perfectly understandable English. "I like the global view of the picture. I think those people who have a global view, they can take advantage of what is going on now. I feel lucky that I became the owner of the NBA team. I am the first foreigner. I am really fired up to expand the NBA reach all over the world. I want to make from that, this team, transglobal team, from the fans from New Jersey to Brooklyn to Moscow and from Asia to Europe. That's a great story."

How, I asked, will you make New Jersey known in Moscow?

"You know, this is often times the contradiction of the world," he said. "Local and global mentality. I think I can, being the first foreign owner, I can mix the culture. The excellent culture of NBA and global vision, and some element of surprise coming from Russia."

And the surprise?

"Wait and see."

Prokhorov clearly sees the Nets' growth opportunities in Europe and Asia much like soccer teams such as ManU that have followings around the world. The marketing possibilities that can be created by someone with his bankroll -- by contrast, the Glazer Family, which owns Manchester and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is worth $2.4 billion, according to the latest Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans -- are probably endless. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson already have huge followings in China, but Prokhorov has deeper pockets than each of their respective owners -- and each of the owners of the shoe companies that arranged their China tours.

"We're talking about the globalization of the game," Prokhorov says. "And there's no limits. If you are limited in the country in the future, you are dead. To really understand this, and to create globalized franchise, is more effective. And I think I'm a part of the global world, and I want to share my views, to help not only NBA as a franchise, but the Nets, to be a real global team. And I am confident we can reach the goal ...

"There is a business model. We call it diversification. On the right side, it's different industry, diversification, and on the other side is different countries to do diversification. The more global you are, the more strong you are, because you can find the best people all over the world, who are the same as you, who have the same ideas. But you have different ideas. And if you can mix all the cultures, you are the strongest."

In 30 minutes, Prokhorov used the words "global" or "global view" a half-dozen times. It's the centerpiece of his pitch for free agents to be this summer, when he hopes to use the $24 million in cap room the Nets will have to make a splash. He did not back down from his video pledge to Nets season ticket holders that the 12-70 team from this past season will be in the playoffs next season and will win a championship within five years.

"We have two competitive advantages," Prokhorov says. "We are creating the history practically from scratch now. And it's really exciting. And our desire to win is really great. And our second competitive advantage is, being the first foreign owner, is to create a really global team, with fans all around the world. And I feel pretty sure to persuade the very best of the best that the Nets is the place to be."

A child of Perestroika -- the series of changes that introduced capitalism into the Soviet republics (glasnost, or openness, was the political equivalent set in motion by former premier Mikhail Gorbachev) -- Prokhorov came out of college believing, literally, in a new way of doing business.

"Can you imagine?," he asks. "I was never born into capitalism. We have no people, no experts, know nothing about market economy. But we have willpower, we were good educated, we have passion to develop our own business. So it was a great time."

He made his first real money making stonewashed jeans in a laundromat. (Don't judge -- it was the '80s.) Prokhorov's company grew to 300 employees by the time he moved into the financial sector.

"My first business was to unload railroad cars, because it was the first legal -- the only legal opportunity -- for the student to have legal money," he says now. "That was because there was no private business in the Soviet Union, and as soon as Perestroika came, the legislation was changed, and we had the right to open private enterprise. It was a lucky chance, at the time we looked at the market, what was the craze? It was stonewashed jeans ... And we just, for years, we see enormous (profit) margins. Enormous margins."

And that made Prokhorov a marked man. The early '90s were not for the timid in Russia. Prokhorov has acknowledged he had to pay the occasional bribe to get through some of the red tape, but bureacracy was hardly a businessman's biggest concern in those days. Organized crime stuck its tentacles into almost all aspects of Russian life; as money began to be made, the mob began taking its cut from banks and other economic engines in the country, through corruption and murder.

Did you ever fear for your safety, I asked Prokhorov.

"From time to time, I used security," he said after a pause. "But the basic problem, you need to be transparent. Not only for public, but always in your company or in the group you're coming (into). If you follow the rules, you can survive. It doesn't matter in what situation. But those people in Russia who had experience of this, in '90s, they're real, they're real capitalists."

Prokhorov survived, and soon thrived, winning big on investments in minerals and energy funded by money made with his longtime financial partner, Vladmir Potanin, as the duo took advantage of the hyperinflation that decimated Russian currency in the late '90s and early 2000s. Like another businessman -- name of Cuban --Prokhorov also was fortunate, selling his share of Norisk Nickel, the country's largest mining company, for $7 billion in 2008 -- just before the global recession sank the fortunes of many of his competitiors. (Cuban became a billionaire by selling his stake in Broadcast.com, the internet radio company he co-founded, to Yahoo! in 1999 for $5.7 billion, just as the dot-com bubble was about to burst.)

With his billions, Prokhorov has fed his love of sports with big investments in soccer teams abroad, the Russian biathlon program and by buying CSKA Moscow, the celebrated Russian basketball club, in 1997. During his decade as principal owner, CSKA spent lavishly on national and international players and won the Euroleague title twice (2006, 2008) and finished second in 2009. (When Prokhorov sold his interest in Norisk, he no longer was financially involved with CSKA.)

There are parallels, Prokhorov says, between his CSKA experience and what he expects in New Jersey.

"Business is business," he said. "And you need to have a good management structure, team spirit, and to be very predictable in the team. You can be unpredictable outside. You need to know where you are better than others, and if you have people who are better than others, and lots of team spirit, you have a winner. And, of course, some luck."

They did not get that luck last Tuesday, winding up with the third pick instead of the chance to take a franchise changer like John Wall. But Prokhorov was nonplussed. He will not go to the Finals in June ("It's better next year, with the Nets") and he will only be in Newark for 25 percent of the home games next season, spending much of his time back home, attending to his many other businesses. He will empower Rod Thorn, who will take over general manager duties from Kiki Vandeweghe, to make the decision about the team's next coach, and he will, he said, allow his employees to make mistakes without looking over their shoulders.

No nightly phone calls, a la Steinbrenner.

No handful of computers to return e-mails lightning fast, a la Cuban.

'Cause Prokhorov doesn't have a computer.

"He retains information like no one I have ever seen in my life," says his director of international projects, Ellen Pinchuk. The season ticket holder video, she says, was done in one take.

Oh, come on! He has to have a computer! How, I asked him, does he research companies he wants to buy?

"You don't need computer to buy company," he said. "Can you imagine, a lot of fake information in the computer. And if you have a global view, you have a strong team, you have the opportunity to filter all of the fake information, and to turn it off, and to have a clear picture of what's going on. We have a big press of information coming every day. It's impossible, you have no time to test if it's true or not. You need to feel it or it doesn't matter in business. That's why I have my own system, to protect my brain and to get rid of this fake information."

It's organic, almost?

"Maybe," he said. "For the time being, results are not bad."

Dribbles

• Crowded D.C. Backcourt

The texts came to Ted Leonsis Tuesday night.

Gilbert Arenas, the Washington Wizards' guard, fresh off a month of house arrest, had seen what occurred earlier, when the Wizards jumped from fifth to first in the lottery, with the opportunity to take Kentucky's John Wall. And that would mean Wall would move to point guard, and Arenas would move to shooting guard.

And oh, the trouble that would cause!

There is a school of thought that says the Wizards shouldn't have Arenas within a mile of Wall, such is Arenas' supposed toxicity. Arenas, the argument goes, will drag down Wall with him, into his world of bringing guns to the locker room, and suspensions, and unmentionable acts with teammates' footwear. Wall has no chance to resist the devilish charms of Arenas, the anti-teammate depressant, and the Wizards will sink deeper into the morass.

John Wall

Jim McIsaac/NBAE via Getty Images

Could go that way, one supposes. But not me.

"It's the same thing I'm going to say: Look how me and Eric Bledsoe did," Wall said last week at the pre-Draft combine, referring to his Kentucky teammate. "Guys said we both needed the ball, and it wasn't going to work together. Eric did a great job of not pressuring, not worrying about having the ball. He knew I was going to find him and I was the point guard. And just like that, Eric can score just like Gilbert. So if I go there with that pick, I'm going to find him with the ball. He's a scoring person and he's been in the league for a long time. He's a veteran. He's going to help me out and give me advice while I'm going through the process."

First of all, there aren't horns growing out of Arenas' head. Did he do a dumb, dumb thing, and lose millions of dollars as a result? Yes and yes. Is it possible he's so thick-headed he learned absolutely nothing from that? Possibly. But that would be surprising. Arenas is immature at times, but he's not stupid, and he's not Lucifer. He knows that David Stern won't need much to throw the book at him, kick him out of the NBA forever. If Arenas isn't on his absolute best behavior next season it will be shocking. And career suicide.

Second, Arenas played off-guard at Arizona, where he first made a name for himself, and throughout his first few seasons in the NBA. He was very effective in Washington with Larry Hughes, with Hughes initiating the Wizards' offense as much as Arenas did from the point. A two guard front like Saunders implemented after Arenas' suspension would make a world of sense with Wall and Arenas.

Third, there has never been a hammer in the history of hammers like the one the Wizards have over Arenas. If they're too frightened to wield it, and he's too dumb to see it hanging over his head, then a pox on both their houses. He has no rights. He's a plebe. If they tell him to drop and give them 20 pushups he better get to huffing and puffing. And if they tell him he's moving to shooting guard, and he gives them any guff about it, they should Tinsley his rear end and forget about it. They'd have to pay him the rest of his $80 million, but they can lose without Arenas just as easily as with him. If Flip Saunders doesn't set him straight about there being a new sheriff in town from minute one of training camp, then Saunders isn't worth the $5 million annually he's getting.

This scenario also presupposes that Wall is soft as chewing gum, easily pliable. Not so. The kid is comfortable in his own skin, but he's nobody's lackey. He's come to his own maturity the hard way, having had to deal with the death of his father at 9, and all the pain, confusion and anger that caused.

"My mom, I didn't see her as much, working three to four jobs," Wall said. "She had to take care of me and my sisters. This is a dream come true for me. This is all I want to do for my mom. Seeing her work so much, and doing everything she could, and my sisters making all my games. I just want to do it all for her."

But the path was rocky. He was cut as a sophomore from his high school team in Raleigh, in part, because of his bad attitude.

"It was tough," he said. "I didn't really know too much about what death was, and why people was going away, and why God was taking them. Now, I understand. But at that point, it was frustrating. I had so much anger and frustration come into me, that's when my anger problems started building up. I couldn't trust people. So it was pretty tough. But my mom sat down and told me one day, 'If you want to play basketball, if you want to do something special that changes your life around, you have to change your attitude, and your dad is going to be watching.' And once I figured it out, I said basketball is my escape. And this is the best way for me to do that."

Wall has promised his family that he will return to college and be the first in his family to get a degree. This is a tough kid, one whose skills, star power and promises made are not going to be run over by anyone. He wants to be a good teammate, but he wants to be great, too. Whether Arenas is around or not, that's not going to change.

• Avery's Choice

If Avery Johnson wants to be general manager as well as the next coach of the Hawks, it's news to the Hawks.

Johnson did want both positions when he interviewed with the New Orleans Hornets last week, and some reports said that demand turned the Hornets off, though the Hornets denied it. But similar rumors came out after Johnson's interview last week with the Hawks, which begins to smell like the agenda of someone who doesn't want Johnson to get head coach jobs.

Avery Johnson

Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images

Johnson met with Hawks GM Rick Sund for five hours Monday, and, according to a source who was involved with the meeting, Johnson "never mentioned a word" about wanting front office duties.

"He never gave us any indication he wanted a say in personnel," the source said. "If he had, Rick would have said, 'Thanks, but you're out.'"

Johnson is also up for the Nets' job (which would explain his rather ham-handed insistence on ESPN after the Cavs' demise that James should play in Newark next season), but New Jersey isn't in any hurry to name its next coach after the big events of the last couple of weeks, with the sale of the team to Prokhorov getting finalized and Thorn adding general manager to his executive duties. Thorn is just beginning the process of going through names. But New Jersey also is likely to wait until July, when it knows what James is going to do, before picking a coach.

Chicago and the Clippers also look like they're willing to wait on James before finalizing a new hire. As for the Hornets, they'll have to almost certainly wait until after the Finals if they want to hire Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau (and this story explains why prospective owner Gary Chouest may not have time right now to finalize either a new coach or his purchase of the team from current majority owner George Shinn).

Top O' the World, Ma!

(Conference finals edition)

1) Boston (2-0): Six straight wins against the two best east teams.

2) Washington (DNP): Getting the first pick in the Draft (JohnWallJohnWallJohnWallJohnWall) makes for a good week.

3) L.A. Lakers (2-1): Lamar Odom is a better barometer than mercury.

4) Phoenix (1-2): STAT of the night: 42 points.

5) Philadelphia (DNP): Restored credibility with Doug Collins hire; restored hope with second pick in the Draft.

6) Orlando (0-2): It's ugly in the Land of the Mouse. Ugly.

7) Utah: Gone Fishin', but will Boozer be Sent Packin'?

8) Cleveland: Gone Fishin'. Up until the minute he was fired Sunday night, Mike Brown was actually comforting people close to him instead of the other way around.

9) Atlanta: Gone Fishin'.

10) San Antonio: Gone Fishin', but hoping help will come from Europe next year with Tiago Splitter.

11) Chicago: Gone Fishin', and in no hurry to hire the next coach.

12) Oklahoma City: Gone Fishin'.

13) Denver: Gone Fishin'.

14) Portland: Gone Fishin'.

15) Dallas: Gone Fishin', and I wouldn't worry too much about the Diggler intending to file for free agency. It allows him to get a no-trade clause in his next contract with the Mavericks.

16) Milwaukee: Gone Fishin'.

Team of the Week

(Conference finals edition)

Boston (2-0): The Celtics have been ahead of Orlando following 11 of the first 12 quarters of this series. Their dominance of what had been the league's best team the second half of the season has been as remarkable as it was unexpected. Everyone that had written off Rasheed Wallace as out of shape, too old and too disinterested to make a contribution during the playoffs, raise your hands. Keep 'em up. And, maybe, acknowledge that he can contribute in a big way to a championship contender.

Team of the Weak

Orlando (0-2): It's not about Vince Carter, who is an easy target because he's never been what everyone demanded he be. The Magic are not winning at the two most important spots in basketball: point guard and center. Rajon Rondo is dominating Jameer Nelson just as he dominated Mo Williams, and one Dwight Howard has not equalled or bettered Boston's trio of Kendrick Perkins, Rasheed Wallace and Glen Davis. Nor has Orlando gotten anything of significance out of its bench. Orlando is better than this. It has one game to show it.

Nobody Asked Me, But ...

Who's ready to gamble their job on DeMarcus Cousins?

The Kentucky freshman center -- and he is a center, no question, don't even think about playing him at power forward -- passes every eyeball test known to man. He is enormous, from head to toe, and at 6-foot-9, 290 pounds, with a 7-5 3/4" wingspan, should have no problem playing in the hole in the NBA against most non-Yao pivots. He averaged nearly a double-double at perhaps the nation's toughest college, still, to live up to expectations.

So, why isn't he the consensus first pick in the Draft? And why on earth are so many teams scared to death of taking him, whether its second, third or fourth?

DeMarcus Cousins

Jim McIsaac/NBAE via Getty Images

"That's been the question the whole year, my so-called red flags," Cousins said at the Chicago pre-Draft camp last week. "I'm misunderstood."

The red flags? His body, which he acknowledges needed work after the Kentucky season, but has tightened up noticeably after a seafood and salad diet; his on-court demeanor, which occasionally was on the edge; his off-court attitude, which tends not to open up to strangers. This doesn't make him unique, but other people aren't about to be offered tens of millions; he is. And so, NBA teams have spent a lot of time trying to figure out just who is inside this kid from Mobile, Ala.

If you get Zach Randolph production out of Cousins, what's so bad about that? Except you may have a player that takes as long to mature as Randolph did.

One personnel guy, on Cousins: "Of all the big men that played this year, he played the hardest."

Another personnel guy, on Cousins: "I don't think he's a malicious kid. But there are some issues there."

The Sixers, picking second, are assumed to be taking Evan Turner from Ohio State. But if new coach Doug Collins sees a need at center, with Samuel Dalembert entering the last year of his deal and on his way out, could the 76ers take a flier on someone as talented as Cousins, or take the safe pick in Turner?

With Brook Lopez set at center, New Jersey (three) won't pick Cousins. But Minnesota, with a rather desperate need at center, picks fourth, and the Wolves are doing their homework on him. Ditto Sacramento, which picks fifth, and Golden State, which is sixth. Cousins interviewed with the Timberwolves and Golden State, and with teams all the way down to the Raptors (13th). They probed and picked at his question marks, and he says he welcomed the opportunity to clear the record, to let people know that their impressions of him are so, so wrong.

"I want them to ask me, so I can tell them the truth," Cousins said. "I'm not that type of person."

... And Nobody Asked You, Either

Are you not entertained by the Dalembert/Chandler era? From Pim Stuurman:

• I have a question concerning the lack of talented centers in the league at the moment. The past few drafts have had very weak groups of centers, in my opinion. Dating back to the 2007 draft, the following true centers were picked in the top 20 (I'm leaving Al Horford off of this list, who's just a misplaced power-forward in my opinion) :

2007: Oden (1), Noah (9), Hawes (10), Smith (20)

2008: Lopez (10), Hibbert (17), McGee (18), Ajinca (20)

2009: Thabeet (2)

I think most people will agree that Smith and Ajinca can be taken of the "high potential" list (some may even argue the same can be said for Thabeet, but I feel he still has a lot of potential). This leaves a very small list of 7 raw talents in what I feel will be the most important position in 2 or 3 years.

The reason I feel this way is that the league has so many talented guards and forwards at the moment, that every team will have a superstar at at least one guard spot in a couple of years. However, only a few will have a supercenter...

Pimster, I have to disagree. Almost all of the rules changes in recent years were designed with the goal of increasing scoring, because that's what the NBA thinks fans want. And scoring has gone up, both in points per game and Offensive Rating, over the last seven seasons. So there's no turning back; the game is increasingly going to be a small man's game, even though, as you mentioned later in your letter, teams with quality bigs like the Lakers and Magic went far in the playoffs. It's just easier to find a great point guard than a great center.

It's been a rough few years for everyone in the Motor City. From Ricardo Vaz:

• Has Joe Dumars blown it? Gordon is a scoring machine if the conditions are right, but wasn't that 40M contract given to Charlie V a blunder? With so many different style PF's in the league, from Rashard Lewis to Amare Stoudemire, I don't think an "unconventional PF" as he is described will do the job. Do you see them making another move in free agency next season when Prince comes off the books? Because they don't have that much cap space right now and besides aging Ben Wallace they don't have any other big men.

I'm sure if you gave Joe some sodium pentathol he'd 'fess up that maybe he should have stopped at Gordon. But the Pistons have some assets -- like that soon-to-be expiring contract of Prince's that you mentioned -- and they'll certainly look at going big in the first round, whether they stay at seven or try to move up.

As always, send your column critiques, draft questions and snark to daldridgetnt@gmail.com. If you write it (first and last name, please), and we like it, we just might print it. You've been warned.

Playoffs MVP Watch

(5/17/10-5/23/10)

1) Kobe Bryant (3 games: 32.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 9.7 apg, .515 FG, .958 FT): If the Suns have an answer for Bryant, it's in Sanskrit.

2) Rajon Rondo (2 games: 18 ppg, 4 rpg, 10 apg, .467 FG, .615 FT): You think Danny Ainge wakes up some mornings and thinks, "Thank God Rondo isn't a free agent this summer?"

3) Pau Gasol (3 games: 24.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 1.7 bpg, .696 FG, .692 FT): Unstoppable in the post against Stoudemire through three games.

4) Kevin Garnett (2 games: 10 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 1.5 apg, .409 FG, .500 FT): Don't look at how much he scores, look at when he scores. The defense is always there.

5) Steve Nash (3 games: 13.7 ppg, 3 rpg, 14.3 apg, .500 FG, 1,000 FT): Good screens in Game 3 got the Nasty One some much better looks Sunday than he saw in the first two games against the Lakers.

Dropped out: LeBron James

By the Numbers

302.6 -- Weight of University of Texas center Dexter Pittman, the heaviest player at the Chicago pre-Draft camp last week. Pittman also topped all players with 20.8 percent body fat. (Pittman had to leave the camp on Friday after his half-brother was shot and killed Thursday in Houston.)

5 -- Number of times since the lottery process was altered in 1992 that the team with the highest percentage chance of getting the first pick in the Draft has gotten the first pick after the Nets were shut out last Tuesday.

.050 -- Shooting percentage (1 of 20) of the Suns' Channing Frye -- who shot 45 percent from the floor during the regular season, and 44 percent from 3-point range--in three games against the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.

I'm Feelin' ...

1) "Havlicek stole the ball! It's all over!" "There's a steal by Bird! On the lead to D.J.; he lays it in!" "And it's picked off! Off to Henderson, and he lays it up and in!" And, now, this.

2) My NBA.com colleague John Schuhmann pointed out that the lottery was good news for the Interstate 95 North corridor, where Washington, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York (the Knicks didn't have a pick, but at least Utah, which had New York's pick, didn't get a top-three selection) have been doormats for years. Maybe the 2010 draft will plant the seeds of an Atlantic and Southeast Division renaissance down the road.

3) Best wishes to veteran assistant coach Phil Hubbard, who collapsed during Thursday's pre-Draft camp in Chicago. Hubbard went home to North Carolina for the rest of the week and I was told he was feeling better.

4) Nice to see Tom Penn in Chicago. The Blazers' former assistant GM, fired for still-inexplicable reasons in March, was at the pre-Draft camp, did some work with us on NBA-TV and is trying to figure out whether to stay in the game or do something outside of basketball for a while. Either way, someone will treat him better than Portland did.

5) Somebody in the top 10 is gonna get a good player in Ekpe Udoh.

6) What would LeBron make in an NBA world with absolutely no salary restrictions? One writer takes a stab at answering.

7) I guess Lost ended Sunday night. I gave up midway through Season Two. I've slept well.

Not Feelin' ...

1) Let's be honest: These playoffs have been terrible so far. There has been only one seven-game series -- Milwaukee and Atlanta in the first round -- and there has been precious little competitive play between supposedly good teams. A Celtics-Lakers Finals, hopefully, will provide some kind of drama.

2) Rashard Lewis is not coming up large, either in his or the other guy's buildings.

3) Calvin Murphy? You're on a steep, steep ledge. Climb off, now.

4) My God, has it really been 10 years since Malik Sealy died? What a good brother. I still have one of his ties from his nascent clothing business.

5) I don't know if Worldwide Wes was peddling John Calipari around. I heard that rumor a month ago and wasn't able to confirm it or shoot it down. But I do know that Calipari desperately wants to get back to the NBA someday. Who knows if someday is next season or two years from now? But I know he wants it.

6) This is tampering: "Hi, I'm Owner Jones. I'm planning to offer LeBron James $75 kajillion dollars on July first. I had dinner with him last night and told him so. I am telling you, we're coming hard after LeBron. I'll also be throwing in a pony." That is not what Mark Cuban said when he was being interviewed by CNNMoney.com last week, and it's certainly not what Steve Kerr said in a radio interview earlier this month. Cuban was asked if he could see the Mavericks getting involved, and he gave a hypothetical way they could; Kerr was shooting down his team's chances of getting James with the mid-level exception. The league has better things to do than hand out (relatively) penny-ante fines.

7) I'm not a big cycling guy, 'cause I don't know who could possibly trust any result that comes out of that sport, given its un-ending string of doping by almost all of its top performers. Nor am I a big Lance Armstrong fan, though I obviously respect and admire what he's been able to accomplish. But how could you possibly believe anything that comes out of Floyd Landis' mouth now, when he's been lying about everything for years?

Tweet of the Week

Wow, Vince, u gotta make those.
-- Bucks guard Charlie Bell (@flintstone14), Tuesday, 10:33 p.m., after Vince Carter missed two free throws in the final seconds of Game 2 against Boston.

They Said It

"I interviewed with Washington. It was kind of, I don't know, I don't think they're going to take me with the number one pick."
-- Butler forward Gordon Hayward, wondering why the Wizards went through the trouble of bringing him in when he'll certainly fall somewhere between one and 30, Washington's bookend first-round picks.

"Not to be arrogant or cocky, but I won every national player of the year award."
-- Ohio State swingman Evan Turner, who was, indeed, neither arrogant nor cocky in complying with a request to make the case for why he should be taken ahead of John Wall with the first pick in the Draft.

"Who wouldn't want to play with Deron Williams?"
-- Georgetown big man Greg Monroe, asked about mock drafts and the like linking him to the Utah Jazz, which has the ninth pick in the Draft.

Jackson shuts door on Bulls, intrigued by Nets

2010-05-25T23:48:00.000-07:00

PHOENIX (AP) -- A cagy Phil Jackson said Tuesday he has "no desire at all" to return to Chicago to coach the Bulls, though would "like to have a vodka" with the new owner of the New Jersey Nets.

The Los Angeles Lakers coach addressed two reports by ESPN that the Bulls and Nets have worked through back channels to gauge his interest, saying those channels haven't reached him.

Jackson, who has coached teams to 10 NBA titles, is on the final year of his contract with the Lakers and has said there was "a 90 percent" chance he would either return to the team for an 11th season or would retire.

His comment on the Nets referred to the billionaire new owner of the franchise, Russian Mikhail Prokhorov.

"I'd like to have a, you know, vodka with him at some point," Jackson said. "He seems like a very interesting young man."

When someone pointed out that the Nets won 12 games this season, 45 fewer than his Lakers, Jackson said, "I've never lived in Brooklyn, or Newark, so." He didn't end the sentence.

Pressed to say that it would be the Lakers or nothing next season, the 64-year-old Jackson said, "I have trouble making commitments," a response that drew a big laugh from reporters at the coach's pregame news conference before the Lakers met the Phoenix Suns in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.

He added, though, that "the probabilities are great" that he would coach the Lakers if he coaches at all.

Jackson's coaching future is a subplot to the high-stakes competition to lure free agent LeBron James. There is no doubt that Jackson as coach would be a significant lure for the NBA's MVP, especially combined with the big money Prokhorov brings.

But it also could be a bit of posturing for Jackson, who has directed the Lakers to four NBA titles and has a 1,094-453 regular-season record with the franchise. Owner Jerry Buss reportedly has indicated he would want Jackson to take a pay cut from the $12 million he earns this season.

Despite his "vodka" comment, Jackson said coaching elsewhere would be highly improbable.

"I've not entertaining any conversation about that right now," he said. "I just can't imagine it, not to say it's beyond your wildest dreams and never would happen. I mean, the strangest things do. I mean it's just not part of my conscious thought right now. We're down this path," indicating the current playoff series against Phoenix.

"I'll leave it open and just say as of now I have not made up my mind about coaching or not coaching next year," he said. "That's all I can say really truthfully."

Jackson was with the Nets for the final two years of his playing career, which ended in 1980. He was with the New York Knicks his first 12 seasons as a player and was on the team that won the NBA title in 1973.

Dumars: Pistons must rebuild softened roster

2010-05-25T23:47:00.004-07:00

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- Joe Dumars knows what went wrong with the Detroit Pistons last season.

Now he just has to find a way to fix it.

Detroit finished 27-55 -- its worst record since 1994 -- and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2001.

"Any time you don't have the season you expect, there is going to be disappointment," Dumars said Tuesday in his annual postseason meeting with the media. "This is the first time in a decade that we've had a season like this, and we learned a lot from the experience."

Dumars won two championships as a player on teams that were built around defense and hard work, then built the 2004 title winners in the same mold, but didn't see that intensity in this year.

"We had some slippage in terms of the toughness and grit that we've had for the last 10 years," Dumars said. "We drifted some from what we were when we were successful."

Dumars has several ways to change that, starting with the No. 7 pick that Detroit received in last week's lottery.

"The key with that pick, and with any player we add to this team, is that we have to find guys that can fit into the type of team we want," he said. "We know there are several players out there with the basketball skills to help us at No. 7, but until we get them in here, work them out and talk to them, we don't know which of them are going to be a good fit for us."

Dumars made no secret of the team's priority with the lottery pick.

"There's no question that we are looking to add a young big player," he said. "We're not going to pick someone just because they are young and big, but we need a player like that who works with our team."

That doesn't mean he's locked into keeping the pick, though.

"In this job, you always have to keep your options open," he said. "If someone comes to me with a great offer, I'm going to strongly consider it, and I may go to other teams with what I think is a great offer. You do whatever you can to make your team better."

After the draft, Dumars will face a free-agent market that will be waiting for the NBA's biggest decision in decades -- where LeBron James decides to play. Despite that, Dumars doesn't think he can afford to wait for all the dominoes to fall before he makes his moves.

"If there's someone out there that gets caught up in that, and we have to wait to go after them, we'll wait," he said. "But you still have to go out there and build your team. There are a lot of moves that we can make that won't depend on that, and we'll be making them. Trust me, the GMs are talking the same way they always do at this time of the year. Things are going to keep happening, no matter what one person does."

Dumars is dealing with a different situation after the death of longtime owner Bill Davidson and the team now up for sale, but doesn't think it will affect his ability to make moves.

"I've always been able to sign players, and I still am, but I've always had to discuss it with someone else first," he said. "In the past, that was always Mr. D, and now it is a different group of people, but we'll make that work. That's the key -- if things change with ownership, I just have to make them work."

Regardless of that situation at the top, the Pistons won't be players for the big-ticket free agents. They used up their cap space last year on Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon, both of whom had disappointing debuts with the Pistons.

"I wish we could have gotten more from Ben and Charlie, but they were both fighting injuries and adjusting to a new situation," he said. "I really think both of them will be better this year."

Dumars was also willing to give head coach John Kuester a second chance despite the poor start to his coaching career.

"I thought Kue did a pretty good job, given all of the circumstances," he said. "I haven't brought this up, because I don't want to hide behind it as an excuse, but let's be honest -- this team was decimated by injuries, especially early in the season. I think if Kue gets a healthy team for 82 games, he will do a very good job with it."

Pacers' Price has knee surgery, out 4-6 months

2010-05-25T23:47:00.003-07:00

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Indiana Pacers guard A.J. Price has undergone surgery on his left knee and will go through the rehabilitation process in Indianapolis.

The Pacers said Price had successful surgery Tuesday to repair a fractured patella. He is expected to be out four to six months.

The second-year guard averaged 7.3 points, 1.9 assists and 1.6 rebounds in his rookie season with Indiana. He started twice in 56 appearances and was a regular part of the team's rotation during the second half of last season.

Price was injured Saturday night while playing in a charity game in New York.

Day 3: Wade back on stand in restaurant trial

2010-05-25T23:47:00.001-07:00

MIAMI (AP) -- Dwyane Wade finally got his chance to play offense in his $25 million breach-of-contract trial.

The Miami Heat star spent about two hours Tuesday answering questions from his attorney, Michael Kreitzer, in the trial where two of Wade's former business partners are suing for damages over a failed restaurant deal. Wade stepped down later in the afternoon, having spent parts of three days on the witness stand.

In all, Wade was questioned for about seven hours by Richard Bales, the attorney for Mark Rodberg and Lauren Hollander, including a period of redirected questions Tuesday. Bales needed only about five minutes to finish his direct examination, at which point Kreitzer took over.

That gave Kreitzer and Wade their first chance to present the story their way. Kreitzer started by questioning the 2006 NBA finals MVP about his role in marketing and promoting the planned chain of D. Wade's Sports Grill restaurants. Kreitzer also asked Wade if he combined the marketing of the restaurants with some of his other off-court endeavors, including basketball camps for children.

"Well, yeah," Wade said. "The kids got to eat."

Wade also told Kreitzer, as he said in response to a question from Bales under direct examination, that he was committed to making the restaurant project work, and that he believed his now-scorned partners were the right people to make that happen. He also detailed how the restaurants were marketed at Heat games and how he looked forward to bringing family and friends to the establishments.

"I wanted to have successful restaurants," Wade testified. "I leaned on them. I leaned on our partners to lead us there."

Rodberg and Hollander contend that they lost millions when Wade walked away from their arrangement, a move sparked by Wade and longtime associate Marcus Andrews not getting a significantly higher ownership stake than first agreed upon. Hollander testified earlier in the trial; Rodberg took the stand late Tuesday.

Wade and Andrews originally were to receive a combined 12 percent, then ultimately asked for a 30 percent share after Wade said he and Rodberg came to a "mutual agreement" that another former partner, Richard von Houtman, did not fulfill his responsibilities regarding the deal.

Von Houtman is expected to testify later in the trial.

"Mark was the biggest reason I wanted to be a part of these restaurant concepts," Wade said. "Not only did I know Mark had knowledge ... but also he's helped certain restaurants become what they are. I had a comfort zone with Mark to the point where I remember taking my mom to the restaurant to meet Mark. I really had a lot of confidence in him that he knew what he was doing."

Wade is seeking damages as well, saying his name and likeness were used in ways he did not approve, which would have violated the original agreement between the sides.

"That was the provision that I thought was the most important ... that I had the right of approval," Wade testified.

The case will take a break Wednesday so a juror can attend a family funeral, then resume Thursday before taking a four-day recess. Wade is due in Chicago on Friday for another hearing in his ongoing divorce and custody battle; he is seeking sole custody of his two sons.

Prior to court beginning Tuesday, Bales again expressed reservations to the court about aspects of media coverage of the case, asking Judge Peter Adrien to question jurors individually about whether they had been exposed to written or electronic reports about the trial.

Adrien granted such a request Monday. He denied Bales on Tuesday.

Budget for Thunder arena upgrade clearing up

2010-05-25T23:46:00.002-07:00

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- An oversight board charged with keeping renovations of the Oklahoma City Thunder's arena under budget now has a clearer picture of a multimillion dollar shortfall in funding for the project.

Members of the city board were told Tuesday that the final budget for the renovations will be $112 million, or about $9 million less than anticipated when voters approved a one-penny sales tax intended to upgrade the arena and lure the Thunder away from Seattle.

The 15-month sales tax actually produced about $103.6 million in funds for the renovation, with the final check arriving last week. The city also can draw from an additional $8.4 million tax fund to cover part of the shortfall, but the board has been working for months to scale back the upgrades of the Ford Center and a new Thunder practice facility to keep from overspending.

"We want to deliver the quality we promised but I think we have to look at the money we've got here as an iron cap," said City Councilman Patrick Ryan, the board's chairman. "There's no more money. Our source of funding has ended. I think we'd be on thin ground if we could even go back to the City Council and ask for additional money."

Estimates now call for the city to spend about $91.7 million on the Ford Center upgrades instead of just under $100 million, and $14.4 million on the practice facility instead of $20 million.

The arena renovation will continue this summer with a series of minor updates to concession stands, restrooms, a green room and the offices of the arena's management company. Some of those projects could begin in the next 10 days.

Construction on a final phase that will feature a grand entrance will begin during next season and require the closure of the arena after the season is over. That phase, estimated to cost about $39 million, is scheduled for completion prior to the 2011-12 NBA season.

The practice facility is expected to be finished by Sept. 10.

AP source: Thibodeau is Hornets' top choice

2010-05-25T23:46:00.001-07:00

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Boston Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau is the leading candidate to fill the New Orleans Hornets' coaching vacancy and the team could offer him the job this week, according to a person familiar with the process.

After interviewing eight candidates, the Hornets began working on a contract for Thibodeau, the person told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the offer has not yet been made.

The Hornets also interviewed Portland assistant Monty Williams, former Dallas coach Avery Johnson, Mavericks assistant Dwane Casey, former NBA coach Mike Fratello, former New Jersey coach Lawrence Frank, former NBA player Mark Jackson and Utah assistant Tyrone Corbin.

In nearly two decades as an assistant coach in the NBA, Thibodeau has developed a strong reputation as a defensive strategist, and was part of the Celtics' staff when they last won an NBA title in 2008.

The Hornets struggled defensively last season, allowing 102.7 points per game, which ranked 20th in the league.

After firing Byron Scott nine games into this season, the Hornets missed the playoffs for the first time in three years. General manager Jeff Bower coached the club from the time Scott was fired until the end of the regular season before going back to the front office full-time and leading the coaching search along with team president Hugh Weber.

Thibodeau began his NBA coaching career as an assistant with Minnesota in 1989. He later worked as an advance scout with the Seattle SuperSonics before going back to coaching as an assistant with San Antonio, Philadelphia, New York, Houston and now Boston.

His stock has continued to rise with the Celtics' performance in this year's playoffs.

Yahoo! first reported the Hornets' decision to make Thibodeau their top coaching candidate on Monday night.

The Celtics granted the Hornets permission to interview Thibodeau before Boston had eliminated Cleveland earlier this month.

Thibodeau could wind up with his choice of jobs. Several other NBA teams are looking for a new coach, including Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, New Jersey and the Los Angeles Clippers.

Cavs fire head coach Mike Brown after five seasons

2010-05-25T23:45:00.000-07:00

Mike Brown went 314-177 in his five-year tenure and was the league's coach of the year in 2009.

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Of the many reasons the Cleveland Cavaliers had for firing coach Mike Brown after five seasons without an NBA title, one mattered most.

They can't lose LeBron James.

Less than two weeks after their stunning, second-round loss to Boston in the playoffs, the Cavaliers fired Brown on Monday, an expected move that perhaps indicates the team believes it can re-sign James, the two-time MVP and free agent-in-waiting.

Brown was the most successful coach in franchise history. In five seasons, he led the Cavs to the playoffs every year, to the finals in 2007 and to 127 wins in the past two seasons. But Brown failed to win a championship, and after Cleveland's second straight early exodus from the postseason -- a collapse that included two blowout losses at home and dissension in the Cavs' locker room -- and with James about to explore free agency, owner Dan Gilbert decided to make a change.

"After a long and deep analysis of all of the factors that led to the disappointing early ends to our playoff runs over the past two seasons, we concluded that it was time for the Cavaliers to move in a different direction," Gilbert said in a statement. "The expectations of this organization are very high and, although change always carries an element of risk, there are times when that risk must be taken in an attempt to break through to new, higher levels of accomplishment.

"This is one of those times."

The Cavs did not hold a news conference to explain their decision to relieve Brown, who went 314-177 and was the league's coach of the year in 2009.

Brown was not immediately available for comment. No one answered the door at his home in Westlake, Ohio.

A James family publicist said the superstar is out of town on vacation and would not be available to comment on Brown's dismissal.

Boston's Doc Rivers and Orlando's Stan Van Gundy, the coaches who knocked Brown and the Cavs from the playoffs the past two years, expressed disappointment in Cleveland's decision.

"Obviously, I was not thrilled to see it," Rivers said before Game 4 in Boston. "I wonder what you have to do to keep your job -- back-to-back 60-win seasons. Our profession is tough."

Said Van Gundy: "Franchises have the right to make any decisions they want. You can't do a hell of a lot better. There's not a coach in the league that has done better than Mike Brown."

The Cavaliers were under a deadline to dismiss Brown. If they had waited beyond 10 days after the season, they would have had to pay the 40-year-old coach his salary for next season. Cleveland's assistant coaches remain under contract for 2010-11.

The team now faces an even more pressing deadline. James can become a free agent on July 1, when he'll head a free-agent class unlike any other in league history. He will hit the market with fellow superstars Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and others, and while the expected bidding wars are weeks away, the speculation and suspense are hanging over the NBA playoffs.

James has said winning will be the most important factor in choosing a team. In building around him, the Cavs have already shown their commitment to giving the 25-year-old James the tools he needs to win multiple titles.

Now, by firing Brown, who won more than 66 percent of his games, the Cavs have again demonstrated a willingness to go beyond the norm to make James happy. While the All-Star forward did not call for Brown's head, it was clear during the Boston series that James and his coach were not on the same page.

The Cavs, though, are in a bind as complex as any defense they saw in the playoffs.

James will likely keep his options open until free agency begins, and without an agreement from him, it will be almost impossible for the team to land a high-profile coach since any prospective coach can't be assured he'll have James.

Beyond that, general manager Danny Ferry's contract expires next month and there's no guarantee he wants to stay around.

If Ferry isn't re-signed, the Cavs face the prospect of preparing for the NBA college draft and free agency without a coach or GM -- hardly the position they thought they'd be in after winning 61 regular-season games and dispatching Chicago in the first playoff round.

It gets even trickier. Gilbert will undoubtedly try to make a big splash to convince James to stay, but to do so he'll likely have to land a high-profile coach. There's no indication Gilbert has reached out to anyone yet but the top-tier candidate list would include people like Phil Jackson of the Los Angeles Lakers, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, Michigan State's Tom Izzo or Kentucky's John Calipari, a close friend of James, whose seat near Cleveland's bench added awkward drama to the Cavs' loss in Game 5 to the Celtics.

Jackson's contract with the Lakers expires after this season. The 10-time champion has talked about retirement and recently said he can't imagine himself coaching anywhere else, but that may not stop Gilbert from making him a strong pitch -- especially if James is part of the package.

Krzyzewski and James formed a strong bond in three seasons together on the U.S. Olympic team, winning a gold medal in Beijing two years ago. Krzyzewski came close to leaving Duke for the Lakers in 2004, and if he's ever going to test his mettle in the pro game, the opportunity to coach James could be enough to pry him from campus.

Also, assuming he stays, Ferry is close with Krzyzewski, whom he played for in college and still calls "coach."

"The NBA rumors have been addressed several times in recent years by coach Krzyzewski," Duke spokesman Jon Jackson said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "He has repeatedly stated that he will be the Duke head coach for the remainder of his career."

Gilbert has always been impressed with Izzo, who fits the tough-minded defensive profile the owner was looking for when he hired Brown in 2005. Also, Gilbert is a Michigan State graduate. Izzo has turned down previous NBA overtures, but maybe none as big as what Gilbert might offer.

And then there's Calipari, who has insisted he'll stay at Kentucky. But that's not likely to stop the Cavs from reaching out to Calipari to gauge his interest in coming to Cleveland, a move that could keep James home.

Brown, meanwhile, did everything in his five seasons with the Cavs -- everything but win a title. In the end, that meant Gilbert had little choice but to let him go.

The Cavs owner can't let James walk away as easily.

Knicks' Curry ordered to pay $1.2 million debt

2010-05-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York Knicks center Eddy Curry defaulted on a $570,000 personal loan while keeping up a lifestyle that included a $17,000-a-month suburban New York home, a $6,000-a-month personal chef and a dozen cars he'd bought for himself and relatives, a judge said.

On Friday, a Manhattan court ordered Curry to pay $75,000 a month to lender Allstar Capital Inc. to resolve a debt that swelled to $1.2 million with interest. The court also has issued an order letting Las Vegas-based Allstar seize three of the cars: a Rolls Royce Phantom convertible and two Land Rover SUVs, all 2009 models.

Lawyers for both Curry and Allstar said Monday they were headed toward a settlement that would make the order moot. They wouldn't disclose terms.

Curry's lawyer, Mercedes Colvin, would say only that she believed the two sides had reached "a mutually satisfactory resolution of the matter."

Curry earned $10.5 million this season and is scheduled to make $11.3 million next season in the final year of his contract. But the former No. 4 pick in the NBA draft has been dogged by financial and legal problems in recent years.

He took out the $570,000 personal loan in February 2008, promising to pay it back in five months at a nearly 85 percent annual interest rate -- legal in Nevada, according to Allstar lawyer Donald N. David.

Curry argued he couldn't pay off the debt at $75,000 a month because of his existing bills, which include $30,000 a month in household expenses at his family's White Plains, N.Y., home, nearly $17,000 a month in payments to various other relatives and more than $1,000 a month in cable and satellite TV service, according to the court order. It said his wages already are garnished for more than $207,000; the order didn't explain why, and lawyers wouldn't elaborate.

The 7-foot center also suggested the vagaries of his basketball career should keep him from paying, noting his ending contract. State Supreme Court Justice Jane S. Solomon pronounced those concerns "irrelevant."

Curry has played only 10 games over the last two seasons, sidelined by injuries, illness and ineffectiveness.

Much of his time off has been spent fighting legal problems. He was sued by his former limo driver, who alleged verbal abuse and sexual harassment; that case is headed for court-ordered arbitration. He also was drawn into a custody battle over his then 3-year-old son, Noah Henry, after the murder of his former girlfriend last year.

Curry also sued his former agent and business manager after a bank moved to foreclose on Curry's $3.7 million home near Chicago.

Bill Russell attends U.S. World Cup team practice

2010-05-25T23:43:00.000-07:00

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A special guest stood out at U.S. World Cup practice -- former NBA great Bill Russell.

The 76-year-old member of the basketball Hall of Fame looked on as the Americans worked out at Rentschler Field on Monday, a day ahead of an exhibition game against the Czech Republic.

"It's pretty special to see him," said goalkeeper Tim Howard, a high school basketball star at North Brunswick High School in New Jersey. "To be an ultimate great -- we work so hard and feel you've got a little bit of success -- and then you look at a guy like him and it's like, how the heck do you do that?"

Howard was hoping to meet Russell after practice. Russell helped the Celtics win 11 NBA titles in 13 seasons from 1956-69.

"It's pretty awesome to be around those type of people," Howard said.

Nash has broken nose, says he will be fine

2010-05-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

PHOENIX (AP) -- Steve Nash has a broken nose but says he doesn't expect it to be a problem for him in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.

Your browser does not support iframes.

The Phoenix playmaker sustained the slight fracture in a fourth-quarter collision with Derek Fisher in the Suns' 118-109 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night.

He spoke briefly with reporters after practice on Monday before leaving to have the nose put back in place by a specialist.

Nash played the fourth quarter of Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals with his right eye swollen shut after taking an inadvertent elbow from San Antonio's Tim Duncan.

"I'm lucky. I've had a couple bumps or bruises that haven't affected my play," Nash said. "Those don't bother you. It's the ones that limit you that you hope you don't have to face."

He said he had broken his nose "a handful" of times and wasn't planning to wear any protective gear or Manu Ginobili-style tape job for Tuesday night's game.

The 36-year-old point guard and two-time league MVP had 17 points and 15 assists on Sunday night with one turnover in 38 minutes. He could be seen on television trying to slide his nose back into place during the game.

"I was trying to move it while it was still fresh," he said. "I know that once it sets it's harder."

Lakers coach Phil Jackson was asked if he thought the injury would affect Nash's performance.

"This guy's gone through a lot of stuff the last two or three years in the playoffs. I don't think it's going to bother him," Jackson said. "On second thought, Ginobili, it really curtailed his game. I thought his game really tailed off after the broken nose, so it's probably an individual thing."

Nash is Canadian, and he joked after his eye injury that his hockey-loving friends make fun of what a soft sport basketball is.

"I think we would have been surprised if he would have gone out of the game," Nash's teammate Grant Hill said. "He's fine. No Friday the 13th mask, no Rip Hamilton mask, no Ginobili tape. He'll be ready to go, so it wasn't that bad."

'Confident' Suns have the Blazers on the ropes

2010-04-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

Steve Nash and the Suns have the Blazers on the ropes.

PHOENIX -- You get the feeling that if the Suns jumped from an airplane without a parachute, they'd expect to land smack in the middle of somebody's backyard pool. And maybe have Jessica Simpson waiting there to hand them a cold drink.

They're the guys who put the Lamborghini and the yacht on the credit card, then go out to buy the lottery ticket.

"We're confident," said Grant Hill.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Confident enough to practically fall out of bed in the biggest game of their season and somehow still not wind up sprawled out on the floor.

"We're very confident," said Jared Dudley.

The only way the Trail Blazers might have hit the Suns harder at the start of Game 5 was if Tiger Woods teed them up on a par 5 and pulled out that large Nike driver.

Four minutes into the game, the Blazers had taken eight shots and made every single one. Six minutes into the game, the Blazers had scored on 10 consecutive possessions.

"We take the first timeout and get a stat sheet and it says (they have) 100 percent shooting. What can you say?"

If you're the Suns, you say: What, me worry?

They've never seen a whole they think is too deep to climb out from? They've never seen a lead the figure they can't erase.

"You have to know who you are and be true to who you are," said Dudley. "Who we are is a team that can put a lot of points on the board."

It's part offensive talent, part faith and part dogged determination to stick with the up-tempo philosophy that has made them the most entertaining bunch in the NBA and carried them so far in this season when they keep surprising and exceeding expectations.

"It wasn't what we desired coming out of the gates," said Steve Nash. "But I think they made some shots -- I think they made every shot -- and you know it's never going to be like that and we didn't quite have a rhythm yet. I personally wasn't really concerned.

"They were making everything, so it made it feel like we were running uphill. But I felt that we had to think of this thing as long-term and think of it as the stock market. We're not day traders. We want to be very conservative and long-term in our investment in transition. You've got to stick with it from start to finish and can't think: 'Oh, this isn't working. We've got to walk the ball up and try to get a good shot.' Let's keep the tempo going to our pace and I think that's how we got it back to a point at the end of the quarter."

Indeed, they had, wiping out Portland's 23-9 early advantage and turning it into a landslide 107-88 win in the other direction.

It is certainly a curious series, the only one in the Western Conference where the higher seed is actually leading at this point. The Suns three wins have all been blowouts, coming by an average margin of 22.3 points. They have, in fact, matched LeBron James and the revered Cavaliers as the only clubs with three double-digit wins so far in the playoffs.

Your browser does not support iframes.

What's more, this was the 12th time this season that the Suns had rallied from double-digits for a comeback win and it keeps reinforcing the mantra that it's what the Suns themselves do that matters. They want to act, no react. They want to play their own high-octane, scrambling transition game and get you sucked into the jet-wash.

"I thought we fell into their tempo," admitted Blazers coach Nate McMillan.

It is so easy to succumb to the temptation to play with the Suns and so easy to get burned.

This one was about reserves Channing Frye (20 points, eight rebounds) and Dudley (19 points, 5-for-9 on 3-pointers) regaining their absent offense. It was about the Phoenix bench outscoring the Portland bench 55-23. It was about the Suns recommitting themselves to the backboards for a 41-29 command.

But mostly this one -- and in truth all of them -- is about the Suns commitment to a style and a philosophy that doesn't allow them to worry about the wall that someone has erected in front of them, only see it as an opportunity to jump higher.

"NBA games are such long games," said Gentry. "Our guys were great. They didn't panic at all."

Ho-hum, they barely flinched when the Blazers landed their early haymaker.

"We didn't think they were going to blow us out," Hill said. "It was the way they were beating us. The hit shots by the people we wanted to take shots. If they beat us, then we shake their hand and move on.

"But you can't just scrap everything that's been working after three minutes, though I'm sure people thought about that. You don't scrap it. Stick to it and be confident it will work and it did.

"Offensively we hadn't quite found our rhythm...It's the playoffs. It's the NBA. It seems like you've seen it all in this series and you saw a little bit more out there at the beginning of the game."

You saw the unflappable Suns as the bombs fell and the bullets whizzed by, wearing tuxedos and sipping martinis. Stirred, not shaken.

With series tied, Lakers take heart in past playoff stumbles

2010-04-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

Pau Gasol and Co. aren't stressing too much after dropping their last two playoff games.

LOS ANGELES -- Competition freak Kobe Bryant was asked Monday if part of him relishes the challenge of the Lakers having their backs against the wall, and with a harrumph he answered, "Who said our backs are against the wall? It's a 2-2 series. What the hell is going on around here?"

As if he didn't know.

The Lakers are going on around here. The Lakers are always going on around here, exhilarating highs and demoralizing lows in a typical existence of wildly swerving emotions in the city that tracks them like no other, complete with breaking-news updates.

This just in: Panic in the streets!

Your browser does not support iframes.

The 2-0 advantage over the kids from Oklahoma City that once seemed insurmountable, the Thunder too inexperienced in the ways of the playoffs to beat the defending champions four times in five games, is suddenly gone. The Lakers had a bad couple nights at the Ford Center. Or at least that's how it went down in the record books. Back here, it practically started a run on water and canned goods.

Thus, a 2-2 series, but it looks worse than that. The Lakers couldn't put away a young team. They gave away a size advantage by jacking up 31 shots from behind the arc in Game 3. They got run out of the building in Game 4 as the Thunder dictated the tempo. And now Bryant is getting questions about growing old before our eyes and, as Kobe himself noted, Oklahoma City is playing with house money at this stage. The pressure is all on L.A.

If the Lakers aren't seeing it the same way, it's because they've been down this road of potholes before. Twice. In the last year.

In the 2009 first round, they wandered around in disinterested fashion, needing only five games to dispatch the Jazz but blowing leads along the way and looking like anything but a team capable of a title push. In the second round, against the Rockets without Yao Ming, the Lakers lost the opener at home and later eventually tied 2-2. A 40-point win in Game 5 seemed to restore order, until a 15-point Game 6 loss that forced L.A. all the way out on to a Game 7 ledge.

From that came a championship. The Lakers won the decider against Houston, were much sharper in beating the Nuggets in the conference finals, and ultimately handled the Magic to win the title. A regular season later, here they are again.

"I think we have the experience that we faced adversity before," All-Star Pau Gasol said. "We understand that this team [the Thunder] is playing really well and plays well at home. We had to face that last year and probably the year before, too."

Never has a history of underwhelming become such a source of confidence.

"The same thing happened to us," forward Lamar Odom said. "Houston in the second round. Right? Remember? Got our butts beat, convincingly. And they didn't have Yao. We were like, 'Damn.'

And now they're worried?

"Worried is the wrong word," Odom said. "Aware. Aware's the right word."

Said Gasol: "I'm not worried. I'm just with a lot of strength inside of me, just ready to play again in that Game 5. I think we need to regain ourselves, regain our confidence, regain our momentum in the series. We kind of lost it a little bit [Saturday]. It's just one game. It's 2-2. We still have home-court advantage. We're going to go home and do what we need to do."

The chance comes Tuesday night at Staples Center. A Lakers victory puts them back into control and the Thunder on the verge of elimination. An Oklahoma City victory becomes the latest worst-case scenario for the Lakers -- returning to the madness of the Ford Center on Friday night with their season, their title defense, their reputations on the line.

That, to answer Bryant's question, is what's going on around here.

Missing these special people, places as playoffs roll on

2010-04-27T19:20:00.001-07:00

Not seeing Chris Paul in the postseason robs the playoffs of some sweetness.

Brandon Roy took us all by surprise, didn't he?

Just eight days after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscusin his right knee, my man was on the Rose Garden court, helping hisBlazers win Game 4 to even up the series with the Suns. The Portlandcrowd was delirious as Roy's return was easily the most shocking andemotionally palpable moment of these young playoffs.

Beforethe playoffs began, I was miffed that I wasn't going to see Roy inaction. And, truthfully, although he's technically back, he's notreally "back." As an individual, Roy's one of the NBA's clutch, marqueeperformers. You want as many of those leading men in the playoffs aspossible. But based on Games 4 and 5, it doesn't seem like that's theRoy we'll see anytime soon.

It got me to thinking about a few other people and places that we're missing this spring ...

Chris Paul:It was CP -- not Roy -- that I really wished was balling in theseplayoffs. He's right there with Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade, Dwight Howard andMelo as a dude that I want participating in every postseason. Hisvirtuosity is doing us no good in street clothes. It seems that we allhave a short memory. As recently as this time last year -- after he hitus with a memorable "22.8 ppg-11.0 apg-5.5 rpg-2.8 spg" season -- CPwas a consensus pick as the game's best point guard. The year beforethat, he finished second to Kobe in MVP voting.

But after aninjury-derailed season, he's suddenly an afterthought as everyoneanoints Deron Williams the new king. Shoutout to Deron and hisincredible performances against Denver (and a stellar season), but inmy opinion, ain't nuttin' changed: CP is still the league's best pointguard. Last week, some friends and I had a "CP vs. Deron" argument onGMail.

My boy Tony summed it up best: "CP plays on a worsesquad, averages more points, assists, steals, rebounds, and typicallymore wins. He is a better leader, has a stronger personality -- he isthe coach of the Hornets. Deron plays in a system in Utah. In Nola,Chrissy is the system."

Amen.

Get healthy, CP, and get the Hornets back to the playoffs.

Andrew Bogut:This series is already a "series" -- but only because the Hawks turninto some different, terrible version of themselves on the road. IfBogut -- the second-best center in the league this season -- wasdropping in his customary 15 points, 10 boards and three blocks ...well, then this really would be a series.

A young Shaquille O'Neal:Man I miss the young, destructive, fear-inspiring, "Most Dominant Ever"Shaq of 2000-02. Dwight Howard was nailed to Orlando's bench because offoul trouble against Charlotte. Shaq is averaging 19.3 minutes a game,mostly because the Cavs obviously feel like they don't have much usefor him against Chicago. The reduced role is nothing new for the BigWitness Protection.

Shaq's last four postseason's have gone likethis: first-round ousters in '07 and '08; chilling on a couch in '09and now this reduced-role Shaq in 2010. Going even further back, Shaqdidn't average 20 ppg for the 2006 Heat championship run. In fact, hescored 30 or more only once during the '05 and '06 postseasons withMiami. Even the 2004 Shaq -- party to L.A.'s upset loss to Detroit inThe Finals -- was only periodically dominant.

I miss thatvintage Shaq we witnessed during the Lakers threepeat. Rememberwatching Dikembe Mutombo in slow-mo, grimacing as he ricocheted off thegreatest physical force in the game's history? Remember the Shaq teamsthat simply could not be stopped? Double-team, triple-team -- it didn'tmatter, Shaq was scoring. He'd ram dunks down the hoops' throat like hewas mad at it ... with two 270-pound, 7-footers draped on his back. Imiss that Shaq.

The Oracle Arena in Oakland: The 2007playoffs was a tease I could do without. Yeah, the Oklahoma City fanshave been getting down and putting even the best playoff crowds toshame the past week. But let us not forget the preposterous atmospherethat the Bay Area folks gave the overachieving 2007 Warriors. Itcombined the volume and delirium of OKC with an astuteness and hoopssophistication that comes from several generations of fans that hadbeen rooting for the Warriors since they came to the Bay Area back in1962. Plus, as is easily seen with Raider Nation -- folks in Oaklandare psycho. We need a good, competitive team in Oakland so we can getat least two games at the Oracle each postseason.

Steve Javie:A "Get well soon" to Javie, because -- be honest -- when Javie makes acall you don't like, you react with a little more anger ... and youlike it that way.

George Karl: And, finally, a super "Getwell soon" to coach Karl, who's been away from the team undergoingtreatment for throat cancer. The Nuggets obviously need him, but thisis also his fifth decade as part of the NBA family. He's coached 22seasons and missed the playoffs just three times. So, yeah, theplayoffs are a little weird without Karl, especially under thesecircumstances. We'll all be glad when he's back on the sidelines in amock turtleneck, flashing his trademark smirk.

Wizards' sale to Leonsis moves closer to completion

2010-04-27T19:13:00.001-07:00

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- The family of lateWashington Wizards owner Abe Pollin has agreed to the "major economicterms" of a deal to sell its stake in the NBA team to WashingtonCapitals owner Ted Leonsis.

Leonsis, a former AOL executive, and the Pollins ran into some snagsin talks this year. But in a statement Tuesday, Pollin's sons, Robertand James, said they and their mother, Irene, congratulate Leonsis onthis "near-final step in a long negotiation."

A person familiarwith the negotiations confirmed to The Associated Press last month thatthe two sides agreed to value the franchise and the arena at slightlymore than $550 million.

Pollin died at age 85 in November,setting in motion what was expected to be a smooth transfer of theWizards and the Verizon Center to Leonsis.

Pollin anointedLeonsis as his heir when the two became partners in 1999. Leonsis'group already owns 44 percent of the team and the arena, and was giventhe right to get the first chance to purchase the remaining 56 percent.

"It'snot a 'done, done' deal, but it's fairly close," Robert Pollin said ina telephone interview Tuesday. "A signed deal should be a matter ofdays."

The NBA Board of Governors will need to approve the sale,but Robert Pollin said, "There's really no question that they will.They know Ted. ... It's a foregone conclusion they will approve it."

A representative for Leonsis' group had no comment Tuesday.

AbePollin was the NBA's longest-tenured owner, having bought the BaltimoreBullets in 1964. He renamed his NBA team in 1997 because of the violentconnotation of the word "Bullets." A builder by trade, Pollinconstructed the Verizon Center, which helped revitalize Washington'sdowntown area.

Pollin previously sold Leonsis the NHL's Capitals in 1999, and the WNBA's Mystics in 2005.

"Obviously,very sad feelings about transitioning out of it, but compared to losingmy father, it's not the same category," Robert Pollin said. "It was hisproject for most of his adult life. I was 13 when we bought theBullets."

The Wizards are coming off consecutive last-placefinishes, including a 26-56 record in 2009-10, a season marred by thesuspension of star Gilbert Arenas for bringing guns into the lockerroom.

Rose says ankle feels fine, will play in Game 5

2010-04-27T19:12:00.001-07:00

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Chicago Bulls guardDerrick Rose says his injured right ankle has improved and he will playin Game 5 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Rose jammed his ankle in the first half of Game 4 on Sunday. He saidfollowing Tuesday's shootaround that rest, treatment and medication hasworked and that his ankle feels "fine." Rose, who underwent aprecautionary MRI, said he'll wear a brace as the Bulls, trailing 3-1in the series, try to fight off elimination.

Bulls forward Luol Deng will also play Tuesday night despite a sore knee and calf.

Rosesaid he slept with an immobilizing cast on his ankle. He's averaged25.8 points in the first four games of the first-round series. Deng isaveraging 17 points and 4.8 rebounds.

Former Bucks player Restani dies at 58

2010-04-27T19:11:00.001-07:00

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Former Bucks power forwardKevin Restani died in San Francisco after returning from Milwaukeewhere he had attended Game 3 between the Bucks and Atlanta Hawks onSaturday night. He was 58.

The Bucks didn't say how Restani died on Sunday night. While inMilwaukee, he had participated in the North American Association ofClub Athletic Directors basketball tournament.

Restani was playing for a team representing the Olympic Club of San Francisco.

The6-foot-9 Restani was nicknamed "Big Bird" by then Bucks play-by-playman Eddie Doucette and played in Milwaukee from 1974-79. He averagedsix points and 4.6 rebounds with the Bucks and played eight totalseasons in the NBA, making stops in Kansas City, San Antonio andCleveland.

Hill first-ever three-time NBA Sportsmanship Award winner

2010-04-27T19:08:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK -- Grant Hill of the PhoenixSuns is the recipient of the Joe Dumars Trophy presented to the 2009-10NBA Sportsmanship Award winner, the NBA announced today.

A15-year veteran, Hill (Pacific) was one of six divisional winners,which included Atlanta's Al Horford (Southeast), Boston's Ray Allen(Atlantic), Cleveland's Antawn Jamison (Central), Denver's ChaunceyBillups (Northwest) and Houston's Luis Scola (Southwest).

Past NBA Sportsmanship Award winners

1995-96: Joe Dumars, Pistons (Inaugural award)	1996-97: Terrell Brandon, Cavs
1997-98: Avery Johnson, Spurs	1998-99: Hersey Hawkins, Sonics
1999-2000: Eric Snow, Sixers	2000-01: David Robinson, Spurs
2001-02: Steve Smith, Spurs	2002-03: Ray Allen, Sonics
2003-04: P.J. Brown, Hornets	2004-05: Grant Hill, Magic
2005-06: Elton Brown, Clippers	2006-07: Luol Deng, Bulls
2007-08: Grant Hill, Suns	2008-09: Chauncey Billups, Nuggets
2009-10: Grant Hill, Suns

Hill received 96 first-place votes (2,485 total points) of a possible 315.

Hill becomes the first three-time winner in the award's history (2004-05, 2007-08, 2009-10).

Forthe sixth consecutive year, NBA players voted on this award, witheleven points given for each first-place vote, nine points for eachsecond-place vote, seven points for third, five points for fourth,three points for fifth and one point for each sixth-place votereceived. Each team nominated one of its players for the award. FormerNBA players Mike Bantom, Mark Jackson, Tom "Satch" Sanders, Kenny Smithand Eric Snow then selected the six divisional winners.

The NBA will make a $10,000 donation on behalf of Hill to the WellCare Foundation.

TheNBA will also make a $5,000 donation to each of the divisional winner'scharities of choice: The Ferst Foundation on behalf of Horford; Ray ofHope Foundation on behalf of Allen; Hammer and Nails and ClevelandPolice Athletic League on behalf of Jamison; Porter-Billups LeadershipAcademy on behalf of Billups; Manu Ginobili Foundation on behalf ofScola.

The annual award reflects the ideals of sportsmanship --ethical behavior, fair play and integrity -- in amateur andprofessional basketball, a key focus of the league's NBA Cares programefforts. The trophy is named for former Detroit Pistons guard and Hallof Famer Joe Dumars, the award's first recipient.

2009-10 NBA SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD VOTING TOTALS

Player (Team)	1st-place votes	2nd-place votes	3rd-place votes	4th-place votes	5th-place votes	6th-place votes	Points
Grant Hill (Suns)	96	88	47	45	22	17	2485
Chauncey Billups (Nuggets)	79	48	64	53	35	36	2155
Ray Allen (Celtics)	48	72	63	37	43	52	1983
Antawn Jamison (Cavs)	45	43	67	72	53	35	1905
Al Horford (Hawks)	13	37	49	68	90	58	1487
Luis Scola (Rockets)	34	27	25	40	72	117	1325

Mieuli -- architect of Warriors' title team -- dies at 89

2010-04-27T19:07:00.001-07:00

Franklin Mieuli (center, wearing hat) was instrumental in the Warriors arriving in Oakland.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Franklin Mieuli,whose deerstalker cap, substantial beard and casual style made him oneof the NBA's most colorful figures in his 24 years as owner of theGolden State Warriors, died Sunday. He was 89.

Mieuli died of natural causes in a San Francisco Bay Area hospital, the Warriors said in a statement.

Mieuliwas the principal owner of the Warriors from the time they moved to theBay Area in 1962 until he sold them in 1986. He won an NBA title withthe team in 1975, still the club's only championship in nearly ahalf-century in California.

"Franklin was truly one of theinnovators in our league, who was so proud of the Bay Area and hisability to maintain a team there," NBA commissioner David Stern said ina statement Sunday night. "I have always fondly remembered ... hiswarmth and his belief in the importance of sports to a community."

Leveraginghis way into sports ownership through a business producing Bay Areasports broadcasts, Mieuli also once owned a small percentage of the SanFrancisco Giants. He still had a five percent interest in the 49ers,purchased in 1954.

Mieuli was a fixture at Warriors games wellinto his 80s, wearing his distinctive hat and watching from hiscourtside seats at Oracle Arena. He became a beloved figure to fans whofondly remembered his ownership tenure with the long-struggling team,which has made the playoffs just once since 1994.

"He was one ofthe most unique and eccentric individuals that I have ever met, and I'mnot sure there will ever be anyone like him again," said Al Attles, theformer Warriors guard who coached Golden State to its sole title.

Mieuligrew up in San Jose and attended the University of Oregon. He became anadvertising executive for a San Francisco brewery which, at hisinstigation, began sponsoring 49ers radio broadcasts.

Thatassociation with 49ers founders Tony and Vic Morabito led to hispurchase of an interest in the team. He also founded a radio productioncompany, Franklin Mieuli Associates, which produced the broadcasts ofthe Giants after they moved to San Francisco from New York in 1958.

In1962, Mieuli headed a group of Bay Area investors, who along withDiners Club bought the Philadelphia Warriors and moved them to SanFrancisco. After one year of disappointing attendance, Diners Club andseveral investors wanted out, even threatening to fold the team.

Mieulibought the shares of all who wished to sell and kept the team in theBay Area. With no suitable playing venue in San Francisco, Mieulieventually moved the club to the Oakland Coliseum Arena and changed itsname to the Golden State Warriors in 1971, initially playing a handfulof home games in San Diego as well.

While Mieuli never had thefinancial resources of many NBA owners, he kept the Warriorscompetitive for much of his tenure. They reached the playoffs 10 timesbetween 1962 and 1977, advancing to three NBA finals.

Thehighlight of Mieuli's ownership was the 1974-75 season. Led by Hall ofFame forward Rick Barry and Jamaal Wilkes, the underdog Warriors wonthe NBA title, sweeping the heavily favored Washington Bullets in fourgames.

"He always called me his prodigal son after I had left theWarriors to go to the ABA," said Barry, who played four seasons in theABA before returning to the Warriors in 1972. "He vowed to doeverything in his power to get me back. Thank goodness he did, becausewithout his perseverance, I would never have had the opportunity toreturn to the Warriors and experience an NBA championship."

Inaddition to his NBA title ring, Mieuli had a fistful of Super Bowlrings from the 49ers, often wearing one ring from each team in public.Mieuli played an instrumental role in Eddie DeBartolo's purchase of the49ers, leading to their halcyon days in the 1980s.

Besides thedifferences in bank balances, what really set Mieuli apart from otherNBA owners was his lifestyle. The free-spirited Bay Area native wasmore likely to travel by motorcycle than by limousine, and by the 1960she had shed his suits and ties for dungarees and colorful shirts,making him distinctive among the buttoned-up businessmen at leaguemeetings.

After the Warriors won the title, he put the trophy inthe back seat of his sports car for a year, taking it out whenever hevisited a public place so the fans could see it up close.

"FranklinMieuli was one of the most colorful and passionate individuals I haveever met and basketball fans in Northern California certainly owe adebt of gratitude to him for helping establish NBA basketball in theBay Area," Warriors owner Chris Cohan said. "I don't think anyone willever forget the 1975 championship team and the excitement that Franklinand that group of underdogs brought to fans of all ages."

Mieulieventually sold the Warriors to Jim Fitzgerald, reportedly for lessthan $20 million. Cohan is exploring another sale of the club, whichwas judged to be worth $315 million by Forbes magazine late last year.

Beyondprofessional sports, Mieuli's company, still a thriving concern,produced the English language radio broadcasts from the 1960 WinterOlympics in Squaw Valley, Calif.

Mieuli is survived by hislongtime female partner Blake Green, son Peter Mieuli, daughter HollyBuchanan and seven grandchildren.

Mavericks' Dampier fined for criticizing officials

2010-04-27T19:05:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK -- Dallas Mavericks' center ErickDampier has been fined $35,000 for publicly criticizing game officials,it was announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President,Basketball Operations.

Dampier was fined for comments made to the media following theMavericks' 94-90 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of the EasternConference first round on April 23.

Hawks' team bus in accident, no injuries reported

2010-04-27T19:02:00.001-07:00

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A car collided with theAtlanta Hawks' bus as the team was leaving a shootaround session indowntown Milwaukee early Monday afternoon. A team spokesman says no onewas injured.

Hawks spokesman Arthur Triche says the accident happened around12:30 p.m. Monday as the team was leaving the Bradley Center. Trichesays the side of the bus received "quite a jolt" in the accident, andair bags deployed on the car that hit the bus, but everyone was OK.

TheMilwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the incident on its Web site Mondayafternoon, displaying a photograph of a white car with significantfront-end damage and a dent in the side of the bus.

The Hawksplay the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 4 of a first-round playoff seriesMonday night. Atlanta holds a 2-1 edge in the series.

Bulls' Rose, Deng banged up for Game 5

2010-04-27T19:00:00.001-07:00

CHICAGO (AP) -- Chicago's Derrick Rosemissed practiced Monday to have an MRI performed on his right ankle andLuol Deng sat out with a sore knee.

The results of the MRI were not immediately released by the Bulls.Both Rose and Deng are expected to play in Cleveland on Tuesday nightwhen the Cavaliers try to wrap up the playoff series they lead 3-1.

Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro says Rose was limping and sore. The ankle has bothered the point guard since preseason.

DelNegro says Deng is suffering from a sore knee and calf. He says hethink both will be ready to play and the Bulls need them to play "at ahigh level."

Teammates jokingly nickname Howard 'Foul on You'

2010-04-27T18:56:00.001-07:00

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Move over Superman, a new nickname is catching on for Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard.

You can call him "Foul on You."

"That's my new nickname.They've been killing me all day calling me 'Foul on You,"' Howard saidof his teammates after shootaround Monday before their playoff gameagainst Charlotte. "So I've accepted by new role."

The teasingstems from the four-time All-Star being called for 16 fouls in thefirst three games against the Bobcats, who have used three centers tofrustrate him.

Howard fouled out with 3:32 left in Game 3 onSaturday, but the Magic still rallied to win to take a 3-0 series leaddespite Howard playing just over 82 of a possible 144 minutes.

"Myteammates say when we wrestle I shouldn't use 100 percent of mystrength. They said I should use 50 or 40 percent," said Howard,smiling. "So that's been the main focus today, using 40 percent of mystrength to hold guys off."

Coach Stan Van Gundy was a littlemore serious, knowing the Magic can't afford Howard sitting on thebench later in the playoffs. He showed Howard video on Sunday of hisfrustration elbows and shoves that have put him in chronic foul trouble.

"Wewatched I think nine clips, maybe 10 clips, just trying to get anunderstanding of what's going and what their strategy is in the wholething," Van Gundy said. "He's a very smart guy, but you're in verydifficult, very physical situations out there. He's got to take a lotof hits and a lot of grabbing and holding. Obviously, he has to handlethat in the right way."

Maybe levity will help. As teammates andothers shouted "Foul on You" at the end of Monday morning's workout,Howard raised his arm and clenched his fist to mimic a referee's foulsignal.

Forward Mickael Pietrus then walked by with some advice.

"Maybe you need your own whistle," he said.

Earlier,Howard indicated he was going to walk back to their nearby hotelbecause he might be whistled for a foul on the team bus.

"It'sbeen frustrating, but everything happens for a reason. That's the onlyway I look at it," said Howard, who has 18 blocks in the series. "Maybethis situation has to happen for me and my teammates. We're justlooking at all the positive things that can come out of this situation."

Howard wins Kia Defensive Player of Year honors again

2010-04-20T20:45:00.002-07:00

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Dwight Howard turned to Orlando Magic general manager Otis Smith, somewhat unsure how to answer the question.

Already the youngest player ever with two NBA defensive player of the year awards, just how many could he eventually win?

Your browser does not support iframes.

Smith raised his hands, all 10 fingers dangling. Howard laughed, smiled and nodded his head.

"That's not enough?" Smith asked. "I don't have enough hands."

At this rate, it might not be so far fetched.

The Magic's All-Star center won the award for the second straight year Tuesday after becoming the only player to lead the league in blocks and rebounds in the same season twice -- let alone two years in a row.

Now 24, perhaps the next step for Howard is improving his offensive game enough to sway voters that he should win the Most Valuable Player award. Cleveland's LeBron James seems certain to take that honor again, and Howard said voters should factor in defense more.

"I think most people look at Most Valuable Player as somebody who scores a lot of points, which is great. I believe that defense wins championships, wins games," said Howard, who averaged 18.3 points per game. "I've always thought about it like that, and I'll continue to think about it like that."

That mentality helped him runaway with the defensive award again.

Howard received 576 total points, including 110 first-place votes from a panel of 122 writers and broadcasters. Atlanta's Josh Smith was second with 136 points, and Charlotte's Gerald Wallace finished third with 113 points.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Howard averaged 13.2 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game this season, powering the Magic (59-23) to the league's second-best record behind Cleveland. Only Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ben Wallace each led the NBA in those categories once in the same season.

"I think it speaks very highly of him, at 24, he's winning the award twice," Van Gundy said.

Howard has long preached defense first.

He has studied Bill Russell for years, reading books and newspaper articles on the player many consider the greatest defensive center in history. Howard is also good friends with defensive standout Dikembe Mutombo and assistant coach Patrick Ewing.

The former centers challenged him from the beginning to be a great defender above all else.

"Not all good players in this league, and not all great players in this league accept challenges, and that's probably the biggest growth that you see in him is that he accepts the challenge that's put in front of him," Smith said. "The challenge that's put in front of him is being the best defensive player night in, and night out."

So far, so good.

The man they call Superman swooped in to effect more shots than he blocked this season, changing games with his presence in the paint. Howard has been a matchup nightmare against almost every team, the main reason the Magic kept opposing shooters to an NBA-low 43.8 percent shooting.

The No. 1 overall draft pick out of high school in 2004, Howard has quickly become one of the most dominant centers. His chiseled, 6-foot-11, 275-pound physique makes him one of the most intimidating players, and his incredible vertical leap is even rarer for a big man.

Certainly not a player easy to get around.

"I was always trying to dunk on Dwight," teammate Vince Carter said of his time before he came to the Magic this season. "If you ask him, he'll say, no, but it happened a few times. But whatever, we won't talk about that.

"You always have to know he's going to be there. He has great instinct. It's always on your mind. You know if you beat your man, you still have to get around Dwight."

Your browser does not support iframes.

Howard led the Magic to the NBA finals last year, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. The Magic also have won three straight Southeast Division titles.

Orlando leads Charlotte 1-0 in the first round of the playoffs. Howard blocked nine shots in the opener, enough for Bobcats coach Larry Brown to call him the "most valuable player" of the game despite scoring just five points.

Game 2 is Wednesday night.

"Congratulations to him," Gerald Wallace said. "I don't care about awards right now. I'm just trying to get a win."

Howard is the seventh player to win the award in back-to-back seasons, joining Ben Wallace, Olajuwon, Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning, Dennis Rodman and Sidney Moncrief. Ben Wallace and Mutombo each won the award a league-record four times.

Howard might get there one day.

The gold NBA title trophy would be even more special.

"It means a lot, but there's just one trophy that we all want here," Howard said. "Everybody in this city wants it, and it's on us. It starts with me blocking shots, rebounding and being a big defensive presence."

Durant pledges to OKC, waits patiently for pledge back

2010-04-20T20:45:00.001-07:00

Kevin Durant wants to stay in Oklahoma City, but he's not pressuring anyone.

Kevin Durant is surrendering his bargaining position. Flat out giving it up. Maybe forfeiting millions of dollars, even tens of millions, in the process. And get this: He doesn't care.

This is about sending a message to a franchise and a city while ending what to him has become a surprising level of guesswork on his future. So, in a move that makes little business sense but every bit of common sense -- and in the process says more about him than any scoring title or playoff appearance ever could -- Durant goes for direct.

He is taking a long-term contract with the Thunder. If the reasonable offer comes this summer, he will sign. But if it doesn't -- and this is where it gets good -- he will not be upset. He will not try to pressure, guilt, cajole, debate or threaten the team into a deal.

Your browser does not support iframes.

He will merely wait until the next summer and sign then, if that's the Thunder's preference.

Wanting to halt the mounting speculation that owner Clay Bennett and general manager Sam Presti will forever alienate him if they refuse to offer a max contract at the earliest possible moment, Durant is committing himself to Oklahoma City no matter what.

"If it doesn't happen this summer, as long as I know I'm going to be here, then I'm happy," Durant said. "And if it happens the summer after that, fine. I would like to get it tied down as quick as possible. But if it doesn't happen like that, then everything happens for a reason. I'll still be happy to be here and come to work every day and be a great person and the great teammate that I am. It's all about just knowing that where there's a will there's a way. I'll get done if it's in the plans."

But ... but ... the snub. What about the slap of being the NBA's newest superstar, the face of the franchise, the hero in a region passionate about its sports and being told to take a place in line?

Durant simply must be disappointed at the front office. He must already be planning an exit strategy.

"I wouldn't, I wouldn't," Durant said. "I have faith that it'll hopefully get done. I have faith that these guys want me to be here for a while. Just as long as I'm playing the game of basketball."

But ... but ... what if there is no offer this summer? That obviously will drive a permanent wedge between you and the team.

"I'm not going to get upset at all," he said. "Not at all."

This is so Durant. He carries a low-maintenance greatness in the Tim Duncan mold, he's a dedicated worker and a willing listener with a rare combination of skills. He wants to remain part of Oklahoma City, the team and the place, so he says it. No mess.

The surprise to Durant, in the latest lesson of how life changes with this kind of ascension, has been reading and hearing about how this summer is shaping up as the Shootout at the O.K.C. Corral. Sign him or risk losing him. That's the presumption going around, untrue as it may be.

Many people simply can't imagine him wanting to stay in Oklahoma City which, in fact, is exactly what he wants. The intrigue now is how the Thunder will handle the situation, now that it's about to be front and center, now that Durant has blown up into a top-five player and has become the closest to a sure-thing investment in this universe.

The calendar is the major consideration. Durant can sign an extension this summer, coming off a scoring title and the team's jump to 50 wins and the playoffs. Or the Thunder can put off the decision until summer 2011. Also known as the summer with a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, or the early days of the lockout that will result in a new CBA. A CBA that players and owners recognize will be with much tighter restrictions on salaries.

The difference between Durant signing in another few months or another year could be tens of millions of dollars. Presti has done a masterful job of managing the salary cap, but the Thunder are aware of the financial drawbacks of being in a small market. They're very budget conscious.

Wanting to lock up Durant is a no-brainer. When they will do it is not as clear, with team officials offering no hints. But they want him, obviously.

More importantly, Durant wants them -- no matter what.

'Cool dude' Miller perfect guy to get best of Suns

2010-04-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

Andre Miller diced up the Suns for 31 points in a Game 1 victory.

PHOENIX -- Everybody tries to slow the Suns down. The Trail Blazers succeed.

During the season, the Suns rolled up more than 110 points a game against the entire NBA. They've averaged just 99 against the Blazers.

The difference?

LaMarcus Aldridge nodded across the floor and grinned.

"Andre Miller," he said, "that's one cool dude."

Miller could teach diamond cutters not to fidget, tightrope walkers not to look down, penguins not to sweat. In the opener of the playoff series where an aging point guard was supposed to be the focus of all the attention, Miller was the blur racing across your TV screen.

OK, maybe not a blur as much as a freight train barreling down the tracks for his destination with a full load of 31 points and eight assists.

Your browser does not support iframes.

In Game 1 on Sunday night, Miller was headed again and again and again for the basket through the teeth of the improved Phoenix defense. In the longer view of the playoff series, he is looking to finally advance.

This is Miller's 11th season in the NBA, and his sixth trip to the playoffs. He has never won a series.

"It's the past, really," said the 34-year-old Miller. "I just haven't won a series. I've had good experiences in my times with Denver going to the playoffs. It was fun in Philly going to the playoffs both years. It's the past. You definitely want to move forward and learn from the past, but it's tough when you're playing against good teams that are trying to do the same thing."

Miller played three seasons with those Denver teams that were full of talent yet lacking in the details to succeed in the postseason. Then he was traded to Philadelphia in the deal for Allen Iverson and helped the 76ers build 2-1 leads over Detroit (2008) and Orlando (2009) only to fade and lose in six games both times.

"You learn things," Miller said.

Such as?

"Against Orlando, that's when Sam Dalembert got elbowed by Dwight Howard," he said. "I felt he should have been ejected. But they didn't eject him. They suspended him for the next game and I think that lapse (we had) when they put (Marcin) Gortat into the lineup, he brought so much energy. We didn't take him for granted, but that team thrived on proving they could play without Howard."

A year earlier against Detroit?

"The experience," Miller said. "That team had been to the conference finals I don't know how many years in a row and we were up 10-plus points in Game 4 and could have gone up 3-1 in the series and a whole different team just came out. They buckled down and everything was very tough to do from then on."

Call them learning experiences or call them scars, but know that Miller carries them up and down the floor on every possession this time around.

Suns coach Alvin Gentry had Miller on his team for one season with the Clippers.

"He's a real smart player and he loves playing basketball," said Gentry, who coached the Clippers for 2 1/2 seasons. "He'll play anytime, anywhere. He's really taken care of his body. The guy has played (612) straight games, so he's a guy that doesn't get hurt. What he does, he does well. What he is is a post-up guard that can get the ball down there and do some things."

Your browser does not support iframes.

It is more than just his ability to go down the throat of the lane, get to the hoop and score baskets that makes him dangerous to Phoenix. It is the way Miller can control the pace of the game like a yo-yo that makes the go-go-go Suns often feel that they're the cogs in a machine without oil.

Every team that tries to slow the Suns down cautions itself against getting caught up in a track meet. But only the Blazers consistently make the Suns look and feel like they're lugging around a shot put.

"You want to use the clock, slow the game down, not give Phoenix a lot of shots," Aldridge said. "But that's easier said than done. You need to have a point guard who won't get sucked into that style. You need a guy who's smart enough to resist those temptations to take the quick shots and stay with his game.

"I always knew he was good. We played him when he was in Philly and he killed us every time. So when we signed him and he came over here, it wasn't like I was surprised and suddenly said, 'Oh, he's this good!' He's been this good. He makes the guys around him so much better."

And he keeps them calm even in a season when the Blazers could have been buried under and avalanche of injuries.

"He always talks to us," Aldridge said. "He's been through so much, him and Juwan (Howard). They talked to us all year, saying things happen, you're gonna have injuries. They've been little birds in our ears keeping us advancing and telling us what to do."

Now the little birdie tweets a simple message for the Blazers from the scars and experiences of his past.

"Just play and move onto the next game," said Andre Miller.

Like even the penguins say ... one cool dude.

Righting past wrongs, changing perception drive Jackson

2010-04-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

Stephen Jackson is well aware his reputation isn't sterling among some fans.

ORLANDO -- Stephen Jackson is trying to run from his troubled past, and he often wonders what will give way first, his weary legs or the public's perception of him. It's almost like he's in a sprint and a marathon all at once. The more ground he covers, the longer the journey, it seems.

"It's gotten to the point where it bothers me," Jackson admits.

Oh, yes. He'll put up a brave front, all the bravado about not caring what people think, blah, blah., blah. That's not true. There are some things he wants you to know.

He's more than someone who threw a flurry of roundhouse rights in the stands in a bloody fight that had folks cavalierly using the word "thug" as they tsk-tsked while watching the replays. He's beyond the person who fired a few rounds in the air outside an Indianapolis nightclub to settle a dispute (peacefully, in a way). And the scowls you see, the yapping he does and the constant flare-ups on the basketball court? That's him, and yet, not really completely him.

"People don't look at me as a great player," Jackson said. "They're looking at the mistakes I made 5-6 years ago. I have moved on. I've done well for myself."

Now Jackson is on a roll, and almost pleading his case.

"Look at what I've done since then. I haven't gotten kicked out of games. I've never gotten into a fight in a game. I've made a lot of changes. I started my own school (the Stephen Jackson Academy), my own foundation (the Jack1 Foundation).

"It's what you do after your mistakes is what counts. But people aren't looking at that. They say: `That's Stephen Jackson from the brawl and the incident in the club.' I don't think that's right. I'm a person who wants to do right."

Let's add something else. Anyone who ever had a bad word for Jackson never had him as a teammate. Or ever coached him. Or even traded him. Yes, Larry Bird, the general manager of the Pacers, dumped Jackson after he followed the fight at the Palace with the night at the club, leaving Indianapolis' citizens up in arms. Bird will tell you he loved Jackson, and how trading Jackson wasn't as easy as it looked.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Why?

Surely you saw Jackson wobbling around the court in the second half in Game 1 of the Bobcats-Magic series, dragging a left knee he hyperextended just before halftime. Some players would've changed into street clothes or stayed nailed to the bench. Jackson, though, returned and went to the basket. Strong. Against Dwight Howard. He was absolutely livid when Charlotte coach Larry Brown, worried about long-term damage to the knee, took him out of the game in the fourth quarter to basically protect Jackson from himself.

That's why.

Jackson comes to play, no matter the circumstances or the foe, because the one rap Jackson wants attached to his name is this: Jack's got your back.

"He might be the best teammate," said Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace, "that you could possibly have."

Jackson received an MRI yesterday and should play in Game 2, although Brown said: "If the MRI said he had a torn ACL, he'd play anyway."

Jackson will play because he's still caught up in the race, him against his history, and the only way he can win (meaning, change perceptions) is to play. Brown said, quietly: "I know how important this is to him."

Your browser does not support iframes.

Jackson is, by all accounts, a guilty pleasure. Maybe it's not fashionable to like him. But you do. Immensely, even. He's funny and sensitive, combative yet caring, and fiercely loyal to those who wear the same uniform. And he's vulnerable because he's hardly perfect, not even close. He still can't control his emotions in the heat of competition.

"He's crazier than I thought," said Brown. "And I don't mean that in a bad way. He hates when you take him out. When things happen to him and he gets frustrated, it takes him a while to get back on track.

"I teased Stephen, `There's nothing you're gonna do that I haven't seen before.' I think God helped me for coaching Allen (Iverson) for six years, which allowed me to be able to deal with Stephen. They have a lot of the same qualities. They compete."

Like Iverson, Jackson's personality is culled from a difficult life. He was challenged growing up poor in Port Arthur, Texas. He played in the McDonald's All American game with Kobe Bryant, but took a harder path to the NBA. He was recruited by Arizona but poor grades sent him to junior college. He bounced around various leagues, countries and training camps until his NBA career finally took root.

"I sat in the hospital and watched my brother die when I was 16," he said. "There's a lot of reasons I have a chip on my shoulder. The lack of respect. I love being under-rated but I want my props. I think it's time. Those things that Tim (Duncan) and others say about me being a great teammate? I want everyone to understand what those legends are saying about me is true."

Jackson will play the rest of this series, bum knee or not, because he can't afford to take a pit stop in a race that, in his mind, never ends.

Like legends before him, LeBron sporting 'The Look'

2010-04-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

With a championship as his sole focus, LeBron James has the look of a winner-in-waiting.

CLEVELAND -- He has The Look.

It is the look that Larry Bird had in 1983, and Magic Johnson had in 1985, and Isiah Thomas had in 1988, and that Michael Jordan had in 1990, and that Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant had in 2002, and that Tim Duncan had in 2007.

It is the look of imperviousness, of arrogance, of inevitability. It is the look that states, silently, that whatever has come before no longer matters, and what is yet to come isn't a challenge. It is the look of now, that a championship is coming, and maybe several before the run is done, and there is nothing that anyone, or any team, can do about it.

LeBron has The Look.

It is a look born from heartbreaking, searing playoff losses, forming callouses to cover the pain -- the pain of losing in the Finals in 2007, when James was precocious as a teenager -- he damn near still was a teenager -- but his Cavaliers really weren't ready for Prime Time, their halfcourt offense strangled slowly on national TV by the veteran Spurs; the pain of losing Game 7 of the conference semifinals in Boston two years ago, when the Celtics had the Look and Paul Pierce had the game of his life, and the pain of losing Game 6 of the conference finals in Orlando a year ago, when James walked off the court as the Magic celebrated their conference title.

It is the way of the NBA, the crucible, where almost every championship team in the last three decades had to pay its dues, show its mettle, prove that it was worthy. The Cavaliers have paid, and shown, and proven.

"We have the look of a champion," James allowed after Game 1 Saturday. "We have a couple of guys that have rings on this team. Shaq has four, and Leon (Powe) has one. We have a couple of coaches that's been (to the Finals) and has won NBA championships. We're looking forward to the challenge. This is why we're here and this is what we've prepared for."

But Dwight Howard has The Look, too, and that's why, for all the talk about how hard the Western Conference is -- and it is -- the East's playoffs figure to be a titanic struggle of wills, James' and Howard's, the second act in a play that may run for years and years and years, like the Fantasticks. Each has been to a Finals, and knows now what it takes to make another one. Unless you have James or Howard, you're looking up, with James 25 and Howard 24. (As one executive pointed out this weekend, even if Dwyane Wade stays in Miami this summer, and the Heat adds another piece to play with him, it still won't have a player capable of guarding Howard.)

Having The Look does not always mean your team is going to win the championship. The Cavaliers of a generation ago, of Mark Price and Brad Daugherty and Larry Nance, had it. Karl Malone had it in his MVP season in 1997. But Michael Jordan patented The Look in that generation of players, and his Look trumped their Looks. (I still, to this day, regret there wasn't a Game 7 in Salt Lake City in the 1998 Finals, just to see what would have happened. Jordan never played in a Game 7 of the Finals. He deserved a Game 7. So did that Utah team.) But it does mean that the team with the best chance of beating you is your own.

LeBron James (center) is determined to impose his will upon whoever crosses his playoff path.

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

O'Neal has deferred to James all season, let him do most of the talking to the team. But in the last month, even though he hasn't been playing, teammates have noticed a difference in his demeanor and focus.

"Big Fella is a beast down there," Powe said, "and always talking to everybody about the playoff basketball experience, what he had and how he got it done, and how his team got it done. And he said he seen the same thing in us."

Shaq has had his time as the Man -- "my track record has stated that I've run a lot of Fortune 500 companies," he said Sunday. "Laker Corporation, Miami Corporation. Took the Orlando Corporation where it's never been" -- and with his background, O'Neal appreciates how close the Cavaliers are this season. He came to Cleveland as the last best hope to solidify the Cavs, make them title-worthy. He knows the stakes; win, and James is much more likely to stay. Lose, and all bets are off. That's why Shaq was working out at 11 at night on his own at the end of the regular season, after working out at the team's facility during the day, and why he hasn't had a cheeseburger in seven weeks.

"This run, there's no room for mistakes," O'Neal said. "And I'll be damned if I'm going to be the mistake."

The last decade has been building to this moment, from the years when James dominated at St. Vincent-St. Mary's, to when the Cavs, to put it charitably, tanked a season to make sure they got James with the first pick in 2003, to the years with Carlos Boozer and Ricky Davis and Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall and Drew Gooden and Sasha Pavlovic. Though many have come to town to try, it may be impossible to accurately state how important James is to the collective psyche of the city.

"I went to watch him in high school," O'Neal said. "Ron Harper, we came to play the Cavs, and he said, 'Why don't you come see this kid?' Went to watch him in high school. He was sort of like me in high school. If he wanted to, he could have scored 60, 70 points. But what I liked about the kid is, he had a little guy over in the corner. Not going to go to college. Never going to go to the pros. LeBron crossed his man up and he could have thrown it down and gotten the crowd in the game. But what did he do? He kicked it to his dude for the three. And that's why his team won the state championship."

Mike Brown often states, as his mentor Gregg Popovich states about Tim Duncan, that James allows him to coach him. The two are now hand in glove. When Brown wanted to use the first part of the season to experiment with different lineups, to see who could and couldn't play with one another, James was on board, even if it meant a few losses that could have cost Cleveland home-court advantage. But it helped. Now the Cavaliers know they can play O'Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas together against the Lakers, or against Boston, because it worked in the regular season.

"There was a concern (about home court)," James said. "As a competitor, of course. But when you've been in this league for a long time, and you understand what this league is all about, you understand situations like that. Team chemistry, to try and find that as quickly as possible, is more important than wins and losses, and that's what we were trying to find at the beginning."

Today, it's closer to the end. So many moving parts, all leading to this moment, when LeBron flashes the Look and a whole state holds its breath. Eight weeks. Sixteen wins.

"It's game time now," James said. "Right now's the time."

Dribbles

Friday's announcement by the Commish following the Board of Governors meeting that the league's salary cap projection for next season is now a much healthier $56.1 million instead of the $50 to $53 million the league had predicted last summer was a potential game-changer for a number of teams that planned to be players in the 2010 offseason. Not only that, but with an increase in the luxury tax threshhold likely to follow, fewer teams will be writing checks -- for less money -- for exceeding the luxury threshhold. And some owners were counting on being able to pocket that additional loot.

Was it good news? Yes, in the sense that it meant teams did a yeomans work selling more tickets, sponsorships, suites, etc. than the league thought possible a year ago, and limited the damage done as the recession finally seemed to be ebbing. Even though the cap is still going to go down compared to last year's $57 million, a drop of two-tenths of a percent is not at all bad.

But it was bad news in the sense that owners remain as determined as ever to force major concessions from the players when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires, meaning the possibility of a long, protracted lockout in 2011 hasn't dissipated one bit. A Players Association source told Yahoo! Sports Friday that the union would examine whether there was grounds for a collusion lawsuit, based on the league's pessimistic numbers last summer -- which the union will no doubt argue led to a freeze on team movement.

There could be as many as eight teams -- including a couple we don't know about -- that are currently for sale or being sold, according to a very, very high team source that has knowledge of such things. You could argue that that is a good thing, as it means owners with deeper pockets may be coming into the game. But the mere fact that so many teams may be up for bid also means a lot of the league's current owners are looking to cash in and get out.

In the meanime, though, the cap raise will be great news for the Knicks, Nets, Heat, Wizards, Clippers and Bulls, all expected to go hot and heavy into free agency July 1. (The Kings, Thunder and Wolves also will have enough room to go after the big fish, but OKC is saving all its coin to extend Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, Minnesota is unlikely to be anyone's free agent destination at the moment and Sacramento , slowly rebuilding its fan base, would be an unlikely candidate to raise its payroll significantly in the near future.)

"It was good news, because it adds to what we have if it bears out," Knicks president Donnie Walsh texted on Friday evening. "This gives us more flexibility."

A breakdown of some of the key players:

KNICKS

The Knicks were operating with an assumptive cap number of $53.5 million. With only four players -- Eddy Curry, Danilo Gallinari, Toney Douglas and Wilson Chandler -- under contract for next season, the Knicks had, by my count, around $31 million in projected cap room if the cap came in at $53.5 million, enough to sign one max free agent at around $16 million, but not two. At $56.1, though, New York would have just enough to get two max players -- though it still would have to renounce its rights to free agent forward David Lee to sign two max players.

Now, the Knicks can sign one max player and re-sign Lee at the $12-14 million it would probably take next season to keep him, and still have a couple million left over to sign a veteran player above the veteran's minimum. The Knicks would still have to sign several players at the minimum in order to fill out their roster, though. They could also use that room to trade for a player under contract. (Cap Avatar Larry Coon breaks it down further here.)

NETS

With Brook Lopez, Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, Yi Jianlian and rookie Terrence Williams under contract for next season, and the Nets picking up the third-year option on guard Chris Douglas-Roberts, New Jersey has around $27.5 million in committed salaries for next season (and that already counts more than $4 million set aside for a high lottery pick, which will be no worse than fourth and could be first overall). That gives New Jersey $26 million in cap room, not enough for two max free agents, but enough for one max player and $10 million in additional room for other moves.

But the Nets could add another $3.2 million in room if forward Kris Humphries doesn't exercise his player option for next season, and reach $30 million or so total in room. They still wouldn't be able to sign a second max, but they would be players for a lot of free agents just under the max level, and they could make a deal for just about anyone. And that room could increase further if New Jersey gets the first pick, and takes John Wall. That would make Harris expendable, and a lot of teams with room would probably be quite interested in a still-young (27) point guard with a reasonable (three years, $26.8 million remaining) contract.

HEAT

The Heat might be able to find a willing trade partner for Michael Beasley this summer.

Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images

Many agree that if -- if -- Miami cuts to the bone and frees up as much money as possible, that it could stand to gain the most from the additional cap room. If, for example, Miami was to renounce its rights to all of its free agents, including Udonis Haslem and Jermaine O'Neal, the Heat could be anywhere from $35 to $40 million under the cap next season, an Eastern Conference executive said Sunday. That's more than enough to re-sign Wade at a max level, add a second max player in free agency and have as much as $8 million available to entice a third free agent at a salary greater than the expected mid-level price. (This year's mid-level was $5.854 million.)

But Pat Riley could also use that extra room to try and re-sign Haslem, considered the heart and soul of the team. Haslem made $7.1 million this season and it was going to be hard to keep him at the old projections. Now, Miami could keep him and Wade and add another superstar. Riley's often taken the mid-level exception and split it up to sign two players; no reason he couldn't do the same with $8 million.

It is even conceivable -- though not likely -- that Miami could find a trading partner for second-year forward Michael Beasley, sending Beasley's salary into the room of a team under the cap for draft picks and no salary in return, and have enough room to re-sign Wade and add two max free agents. The Heat's longtime beat writer, Ira Winderman, explored this possibility here.

Whatever it decides, Miami will be a force this summer.

WIZARDS

Washington has one big ticket -- Gilbert Arenas's $17.7 million next season -- and little else on its cap going forward. Only Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee, Al Thornton and Nick Young are on the books for next season (Javaris Crittenton, obviously, won't be back, the Wizards aren't going to pick up Josh Howard's option and guard Shaun Livingston, rejuvenated in his stay in D.C., has probably played himself onto a better team's roster next season), giving the Wizards only $25 million in committed money.

Add a few cap holds here and there and the Wizards were expecting to have around $18 million total in cap room under the $50-$53 million cap projections. At $56.1 million Washington will have more than $20 million available -- a lot of room, but still enough for only one max player.

It's much more likely, given Washington's uncertainty on the court and in ownership, that the Wizards will have to be trading partners. They have to make some tough decisions about Blatche, who was a 20 and 10 guy after getting more playing time, but still exhibited some of the tendencies that made him unworthy of more playing time and responsibility in his first four NBA seasons. Building around him is far from a foregone conclusion, and his more than reasonable salary (two years and $6.7 million left) could make him a very desirable piece elsewhere.

Of all the teams with significant cap room, the Wizards are the one that most needs some good fortune in the lottery, to assure them of at least one major, low-salaried building block to start reconstructing their team.

CLIPPERS

L.A. only has five players -- Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Baron Davis and DeAndre Jordan -- under contract for next season, though the Clippers would like to bring back free agents Rasual Butler and Craig Smith. Including cap holds on those two, the Clippers would be over $40 million in committed salaries, with not quite enough room to make a max offer under the old projection (though renouncing them would have created enough space). With the new one, they can make an offer for a max player, and the Clippers have leaked out word (clumsily) of their desire for James to be that max player.

If the Clips can't lure a premier free agent, they could re-sign Butler, Smith or guard Steve Blake and add a veteran player for higher-than-mid-level prices, and filling out the roster with quality depth wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, considering L.A. will add another young player via the draft with a high Lottery pick. At the least, the Clippers certainly could be aggressive trade partners with teams that might be looking to lower their own luxury tax bills next season, and there will be no shortage of those.

Playing with Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose is sure to lure some free agents to Chicago.

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

BULLS

Chicago mortgaged its immediate future, trading John Salmons at the deadline to Milwaukee for expiring contracts, in order to clear enough cap room to go after a max player. The Bulls succeeded, but now that they have the extra room, one wonders if they would have held onto Salmons (a bargain at $5.45 million, less than the mid-level) if the revised projection had come in two months earlier.

Chicago has Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich and rookies Taj Gibson and James Johnson under contract for next season. That's about $31 million in salary, give or take a few hundred thousand. Even with the increase in the cap projection the Bulls will only be able to make one max offer, albeit with a nice chunk of $8-9 million available for a second, less expensive free agent if they can land the superstar. One would expect there will be any number of people who'd like to play with Rose and Noah for the next 10 years, which means that Chicago, if not everyone's first choice in free agency, will certainly be somewhere on every blue-chipper's wish list. And that will make Chicago a player in any number of potential sign-and-trade scenarios.

Top O' the World, Ma!

(Playoff edition)

1) Cleveland (61-21): No matter what you do, they have a counter. And they have LeBron. Top that.

2) Orlando (59-23): But they have Dwight Howard. Deal with that.

3) L.A. Lakers (57-25): Not writing them off yet by a long shot.

4) Phoenix (54-28): I may be getting ahead of myself, but a second round with Nash and Cuban mixing it up for two weeks would be pretty compelling stuff.

5) Dallas (55-27): Can a team that doesn't dominate any major statistical categories win it all? This one could.

6) Atlanta (53-29): Thirteen straight and counting at the Highlight Factory.

7) Denver (53-29): Melo set a pretty high bar (42 points) in Game 1 against Utah

8) Utah (53-29): No Kirilenko, no Okur, and a dinged-up Boozer, for the Nuggets. Tall task.

9) Oklahoma City (50-32): Nothing takes away from an incredible regular season. Nothing.

10) Boston (50-32): KG can make liars out of all of us, starting with the Heat.

11) San Antonio (50-32): Can Parker, Ginobili stay healthy at the same time?

12) Portland (50-32): Don't know if the Blazers can beat Phoenix four times without B Roy, but man, they have a lot of heart.

13) Milwaukee (46-36): A fairly good playoff debut for Brandon Jennings.

14) Miami (47-35): We gonna see, Michael Beasley. We gonna see.

15) Charlotte (44-38): Gerald Wallace made some man-sized plays against Dwight Howard in Game 1.

16) Chicago (41-41): Say this about Joakim Noah: he ain't scared.

Team of the Week

(Final regular season edition, with limited results from a shortened week)

Orlando (2-0): While most teams rested most of their star players down the stretch, Stan Van Gundy kept Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, et. al., out on the court for their normal minutes. Most coaches, rightly, don't want to take any chances by playing stars with even a hint of physical malady just before the playoffs; the Lakers rested Kobe Bryant's knee and finger, the Heat sat Dwyane Wade. But the Magic went into the playoffs without any letup, winning six in a row overall entering the postseason, and that's a good thing to do for fans who wanted to see one of the league's best teams at full strength.

Team of the Weak

Minnesota (0-2): Lost seven straight to finish the season, including one last 20-plus point beatdown, this one by the Spurs last Monday. This is a team with a lot of questions, from whether it's worth it to keep Al Jefferson and Kevin Love on the same team to whether it can afford to slog through another awful season waiting for Ricky Rubio, or whether it should deal his rights this summer for someone, anyone who can help right now.

Nobody Asked Me, But ...

Now that Conan O'Brien is part of the Turner family, agreeing to a new late-night show on TBS starting in the fall, when can I expect the invite to come to L.A. to sit on the couch? Of course Chuck and EJ and the Jet are going to be on the first week; I get that. But how about hooking a working man up in, say, December? (True story: I was invited by a friend to the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004, where I was interviewed in the hall by Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog. He wanted me to say bad stuff about Kobe, as I recall. Didn't take the bait. Mama didn't raise no fools, now.)

The kids still love hearing my Walter Mondale impression. (Right, kids? Kids?) I can do the wild and the wacky highlights like Marv. If you need to see highlights of my work, we have two years of "The Beat" on TiVo and years of sideline interviews and studio stuff with the guys, like 'Where He Come From?' and 'Who He Play For?'

Call me.

... And Nobody Asked You, Either

A lot of responses to last week's awards column, and a lot of disagreements. You have the floor.

MVP -- (My pick: LeBron James)

From Brandon Blueford:

Look how far (the) Thunder has improved from last season. They are inches away from finishing the year off with 50 wins. But that would not have happen without the play of Kevin Durant. The guy has been a beast this year and a consistent one at that. With similar numbers as LeBron but stats aren't everything in a MVP. Not trying to knock on LeBron -- the guy is hands down the best entertainer out there. But Durant has turned a falling organization into a threat when playoff time comes to push.

From Carina Centeno:

I think that Carmelo should be MVP. LeBron is just too arrogant and just not that good. The self-pronounced "King" that couldn't win it if his life depended on it.

ALL-NBA TEAMS

(First team: LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard; Second team: Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Deron Williams, Andrew Bogut; Third team: Pau Gasol, Amar'e Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, Jason Kidd, Tim Duncan)

From Sam Sharpe:

It is shocking to me that in no part of your article do you mention Chris Bosh's 24 ppg and 11 rpg season.

No, I don't think he should be in the conversation for MVP, but I find it hard to believe that he actually had a worse season than both of Amar'e Stoudemire and Pau Gasol in not making your Third Team All-NBA list. Bosh's numbers are indisputably better than Stoudemire's 23 and 9, and Gasol's 18 and 11. Furthermore, Bosh has gotten his number with greater efficiency than either of Stoudemire or Gasol. I understand, that there is more to these awards than good numbers, but even if you don't reward Bosh in your All-NBA list, AT LEAST give hive some love somewhere else.

Fans were left wondering why Chris Bosh didn't make any of David Aldridge's All-NBA teams.

Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

I spy your "All-Depth Charge team," that seems to be the appropriate place to put a player like Chris who plays in another country on a bad team, and therefore has limited exposure aside from free-agency rumors. But no, not even some kind of "Honorable Mention" is given to him. How someone can rationally believe that either David Lee or Andre Iguodala is a better player than Chris Bosh is beyond me (as is how David Lee can be considered a center).

Mr. Aldridge, How do account for this major oversight?

From Sheldon Mafia:

Bosh should be in an All-NBA Team or at least in the honourable mentions. You put Iguodala and Granger over him? C'mon now, that's not right.

From Shawn Desrosiers:

I usually like your pieces but you totally forgot about Chris Bosh...the guy averaged 20+ and 10+ again. He was leading the league in double-doubles for awhile and lets face it is one of the best (if not the best) power forwards in the league.

From Alex Doyle:

All-NBA Third Team: Rajon Rondo, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace, Amar'e Stoudemire, Pau Gasol. Rajon Rondo has been known as the best defensive guard in the NBA. Kidd is solid defensively,but he doesn't possess Rondo's speed or intensity. Rondo and Kidd are equal passers. In my understanding, Kidd's only advantage over Rondo is in outside shooting. Gerald Wallace is a very balanced player because he averages almost 20 points and at the same time pulls down over 10 boards per game. I am content with him knocking out Duncan even though they are basically equal in stats. My reason is that Duncan has faltered significantly on the offensive end during the second half of the season.

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER -- (Aaron Brooks)

The Phoenix, rising. From Kevin Keim:

I'm disappointed to not see Goran Dragic's name at least mentioned in your picks for M.I.P. award. His game has improved so much that has allowed Coach Alvin Gentry to rest Steve Nash for entire fourth quarters of games. He also stepped up to the plate and led the team to a win in OKC when Nash was out.

From Kyle Mitchell:

Russell Westbrook should be Most Improved but not even a mention? What about George Hill?

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR -- (Tyreke Evans)

From Justin Mathew:

I agree mostly with your picks, and iIcan see why you chose each one. But there are a few things i would change in my ballot. On rookie of the year, Tyreke will win it, but as of late i think Stephen Curry has been better and deserves the award.

COACH OF THE YEAR -- (Jerry Sloan)

From Zain Rehmani:

I have a concern with your article concerning the COY. How, I repeat, HOW on earth does Scott Brooks not deserve COY? We are talking about a team that more than doubled its winning percentage, and has turned into a team that I truly believe can pull some HUGE upsets in the first round.

MVP Watch

(PLAYOFF EDITION, WEEK 1)

LeBron James (24 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 9-19 FG, 6-7 FT): Got a little perimeter happy in Game 1 with the Bulls sagging off, but when Chicago made it close in the third quarter, LBJ went hard to the bucket and made two big shots to re-establish order. Doesn't have to shoot it great any more for the Cavs to win playoff games.

Dwight Howard (5 points, 7 rebounds, 9 blocks, 2-4 FG, 1-6 FT): Came out in Game 1 against the Bobcats like Ewing in the '82 title game with Carolina -- swat everything, even if it's a goaltend. You're making a point, marking your space and letting 'em know the paint is yours.

Kobe Bryant (21 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 6-19 FG, 7-12 FT):
Kevin Durant (24 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 7-24 FG, 9-11 FT):
You knew the Lakers weren't going to give Durantula any open looks Sunday. Magnificent team defense, building a wall to keep him on the perimeter, and Ron Artest was outstanding on the ball. But the playoffs are all about the adjustments you make. How does Scott Brooks help Durant get open, and how does Durant help himself?

By the Numbers

$648,946 -- Amount of money the Cavaliers received from the league's playoff pool for finishing with the best record in the NBA and for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

$15,400,000 -- Annual amount the Pacers pay to run Conseco Fieldhouse -- an arrangement that the team said last week had to end, with the city picking up the yearly tab. Otherwise, Pacers Sports and Entertainment president Jim Morris told the Indianapolis Star that the team would keep all of its options open, including moving out of Indianapolis.

$27,897,430 -- Share of the film and television production and studio Lion's Gate Entertainment that Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has purchased since late last month, approximately 5.4 percent of the company, according to the stock website Seeking Alpha. Cuban already owns the high-definition television network HDNet (and its companion HDNet Films), part of the movie distrbution company Magnolia Pictures and part of the art and independent movie theatre chain Landmark Theatres.

I'm Feelin' ...

1) My only problem with the NBA's fine of Phil Jackson for saying Kevin Durant gets favorable treatment from referees is that it wasn't high enough. Jackson is an unrepentant recidivist when it comes to flogging officials in the postseason; his teams have never lost a playoff game, they have only been cheated by incompetent officiating. I know that this gamesmanship is designed to influence the officials, but most people lose that subtlety, and those that are listening for dog whistles in the first place only hear their conspiracy theories validated.

Phil Jackson deserved a stiffer fine for his verbal barb directed at Kevin Durant.

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

2) Speaking of which, don't take the bait , Durantula.

3) If you expect objectivity on this item, honestly, you should look elsewhere. Hurrah. (Though I will not be objective if my beloved AU Eagles play Washington State next year in that crucial 10-23 first-round matchup.)

4) This is, simply, a magnificent read on Kevin Garnett by the Boston Globe's Jackie MacMullen, one of the best who's ever covered the NBA. Ever.

5) Every time I turn on a playoff game, Mickael Pietrus is draining a big shot.

6) Of course Coby Karl wants to be judged on his skills as a player. That's understandable; he's worked his butt off. But it's still heartwarming that the Nuggets signed him last week, in part, because it will help his dad in his recovery, knowing if he can get off the deck, he can coach his son.

7) You can laugh if you want, but at least Derrick Coleman tried to do something positive and real to impact the lives of people in his community after he was done playing.

Not Feelin' ...

1) Afraid KG had to sit out a game after that elbow to Q-Rich's noggin Saturday night. Intent doesn't matter. Nor does it matter if Richardson provoked him, or if he was throwing the 'bow just to clear himself or didn't see Richardson: the league has said that contact with the head, whether with a punch or an elbow, gets you suspended. To have any credibility, Stu Jackson had to make this call.

2) Never pleasant when a good man gets fired. You will persevere, Eddie Jordan.

3) You're Bryan Colangelo, the Raptors' team president and GM. Your boss, Richard Peddie, calls you in this week. He says, "Bryan, we spent $52 million on Hedo Turkoglu, and $20 million on Jarrett Jack, and traded for Reggie Evans, and traded for Marco Bellinelli, and traded for Amir Johnson, and traded for Antoine Wright, and kept Jay Triano on as coach, all on your say so, to keep Chris Bosh happy and make sure we make the playoffs. And we didn't make the playoffs. And Bosh isn't happy." What do you say?

4) The Jazz can't catch a break, can they?

5) Fairly certain this is the first time I've put the following combination of letters together: Eyjafjallajokull. (By the way, that's pronounced, Eyjafjallajokull.) Saw a guy on TV saying if this thing really fires up, we could have severe winters here in the U.S. for two or three years. Great. Just great.

6a) Even if half of what the prosecutor is Georgia believes is true about Ben Roethlisberger, he has to sit out at least three games. The Steelers stand for something besides just winning football games -- or, I believe they do. They can prove it by putting what's right ahead of what's convenient.

6b) Hova. Papi. Hug it out, brothas.

7) Best wishes to Nick Charles, a top-flight sportscaster who is in a very tough battle.

Tweet of the Week

I got so much swagger I swear swagger tryna sue me!!!!
--Spurs rookie forward DeJuan Blair (@DeJuan45), Friday, 3 a.m. Who knows why?

They Said It

"I think we had a lot of guys that played like dogs."
-- Gregg Popovich, following his Spurs' Game 1 loss Sunday night to Dallas. Yikes. You either love this guy, or hate him. I love him.

"As I speak today, yes."
-- Sixers GM Ed Stefanski, asked on Thursday if he would be around to finish the search for a new coach after the team fired Eddie Jordan.

"Y'all want me to blame the coach so bad & I'm not. The media is even trying to get me to throw him under the bus. Never point the finger."
--Nets guard Chris Douglas-Roberts, tweeting his support for interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe, who is not expected to be retained by New Jersey under new owner Mikhail Prokhorov.

Trail Blazers sign Camby to two-year extension

2010-04-20T20:41:00.004-07:00

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Marcus Camby has signed a two-year contract extension with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed Tuesday.

The 6-11, 235-pound center was acquired from the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 16 in exchange for Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake. He started 23 regular season games for the Trail Blazers, reinforcing a position depleted by injuries to Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla.

Portland went 17-6 with Camby in the lineup, and the 36-year-old grabbed 17 rebounds Sunday as the Trail Blazers beat Phoenix in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

In a statement, general manager Kevin Pritchard said Camby has been a "great fit for us."