That’s the equivalent to a few cases of vodka for Prokhorov, the richest
man in Russia and the 39th wealthiest in the world, according to
Forbes’ most recent list.

Prokhorov knows little about the NBA, but a lot about business. LeBron
James likes business, too. Whether the two are a match won’t be
determined until next month. Despite being the league’s worst team last
season, the Nets have the cap space and are ready to pounce on James in
this summer’s elite free-agent class.

”They’re convinced they have a shot at everybody but [Dwyane] Wade,” said one source close to the Nets, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ”They believe they have a really good shot at LeBron because they think Prokhorov’s global vision might appeal to him on some level. The tradeoff is he’ll be stuck in Newark for two seasons.”

The Nets are moving from East Rutherford, N.J., to Newark, N.J., until their new arena is completed in Brooklyn, N.Y. Construction crews recently broke ground on the new facility, which is to open before the start of the 2012-13 season. The team has a flexible deal with the Prudential Center in Newark and can return for the start of the 2012 season if the Brooklyn arena isn’t completed in time, but they will most assuredly finish the season in Brooklyn.

The question is whether James will be with them. If he intends to sign another three-year deal, he’ll probably pass on the Nets and two years in Newark. If he is ready to commit for five, the Nets might be more appealing.

Upon taking over the team, Prokhorov promised Nets fans ”a championship in five years.”

There is plenty of work to do. The Nets set an NBA record last season by beginning the year 0-18, although they have building blocks in point guard Devin Harris and center Brook Lopez. They also have the No. 3 overall pick in this month’s NBA Draft.

They finished a league-worst 12-70, but the front office quit caring about the overall record after the first 12 or 13 losses. The Nets went young — very young. The average age of their starting five, 23.2 years, was easily the league’s youngest. The focus was development, not winning.

Now they have a ton of cap space, a high draft pick and a secret weapon to lure James in rapper and close friend Jay-Z.

http://www.ohio.com/sports/cavs/95693974.html

Maybe Jim O’Brien is trying to get himself fired. Maybe he’s gone in
the tank, just as his team has done for the past few months, and is
willing to take the cash for next season and move on back to Florida.

I’ve written it before, with a mild bit of hesitation.

I’m writing it now, with no hesitation, with major emphasis, with boldfaced capital letters.

O’BRIEN HAS GOT TO GO

We can all agree, this season was stillborn before it got past the first two weeks. Even in that home opener, they played with no energy, no passion, no clue. And it hasn’t gotten any better all season.

Maybe that says more about this current group of players than it does about O’Brien, but you can’t fire the players. Ultimately, they’re not performing for this guy. They’ve checked out, zoned out, quit hearing his voice. If it was just a matter of losing, fine, but they’re losing badly, losing by double digits, getting outworked on a regular basis.

This team came into the season with the most minimal of expectations. Win three or four more games than last year, end up with 40 total and maybe sneak into the playoffs in the top-heavy Eastern Conference. Instead, they’ve regressed.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100307/SPORTS15/3070387/1034/SPORTS15/O-Brien-must-go-for-the-good-of-the-bad-Pacers

If a report is accurate that Denver Nuggets power forward Kenyon Martin
has a partial tear of his left patella tendon, he said he hasn’t been
given that information about his knee.

Regardless, the Nuggets, who had previously been looking for a big man,
will spend this weekend discussing what they might do. Agent Mark
Bartelstein told FanHouse the Nuggets have inquired about five of his
free-agent big men: Mark Blount, Mikki Moore, Brian Cook, Jake Voskuhl
and Rob Kurz.

How quick the Nuggets might want to make a move could depend on what the team learns this weekend about Martin, who sat out Friday’s 122-114 win over Indiana with what the team reported as chronic left knee patella tendinitis. However, Yahoo! Sports reported unnamed sources as saying Martin has a partial tear of his left patella tendon and surgery is among the treatment options being considered.

"I don’t know where Marc Spears got that from, man,” Martin said in an interview with FanHouse after Friday’s game, referring to the writer of the story. "It’s a little more than tendinitis, but I don’t know if it’s torn. I had an MRI (on Thursday). They looked at it. There’s a lot of speculation going on. … It’s more serious than tendinitis but I don’t know yet.”

Martin said he should know more Saturday. He said MRI results are still being evaluated, and he added no one has told him anything yet.

The doctors, they’re just now getting to the results so how does anybody else know?” Martin said. "It’s just a report. I’m going on what the doctors say. I’m waiting on Dr. (Richard) Steadman (an outside doctor Martin is seeing in Vail, Colo.) to look at it and give me a synopsis, and then we’ll go to the team doctor and everything else.”

Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien, on the road scouting, declined comment and referred questions to Nuggets athletic trainer Jim Gillen. Gillen did not offer any additional information on Martin, saying, "If I have anything to tell you, I’ll put it on a sheet of paper.”

The Nuggets distributed a release before the game that, in addition to listing the injury as chronic left knee patella tendinitis, called his condition day-to-day.

Nuggets coach George Karl said he didn’t have "enough information” and didn’t want to speculate about the health of Martin, who has been the team’s defensive backbone all season. But Karl said he’s "hoping everything is going to be OK.”

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/03/06/martin-in-dark-about-possible-knee-tear/

With Zydrunas Ilgauskas reaching agreement on a contract buyout with
Washington, Ilgauskas’ agent, Herb Rudoy , said Thursday that the Jazz
have expressed interest in signing the veteran center.

The Jazz have a roster spot to fill following the Feb. 18 trade that sent Ronnie Brewer to Memphis. Rudoy said Ilgauskas was waiting until he clears waivers to start discussing the next step of signing with a team.

Ilgauskas has spent his entire 12-year career with Cleveland and is widely expected to return to the Cavaliers, who traded him to Washington in acquiring Antawn Jamison . The 34-year-old Ilgauskas has averaged 7.5 points and 5.3 rebounds this season.

Rudoy acknowledged that Ilgauskas has a "huge investment emotionally in the Cavaliers and that’s part of what’s factoring into this thing."

Should he sign with Cleveland, Ilgauskas would have to sit out for 30 days before being eligible to return, though he could play immediately by signing with another team. Rudoy was asked about Ilgauskas’ interest in the Jazz.

"He knows the league and he knows every team after all these years," Rudoy said. "He’s going to make the decision that’s best for himself. They are a terrific team with a great coach."

Along with Cleveland and Utah, Atlanta, Dallas and Denver reportedly are interested in signing Ilgauskas. The Jazz are expected to consider a host of players around the league who already have or will be bought out by Monday.

http://www.sltrib.com/jazz/ci_14472150

Weeks of speculation that almost never pan out and aren’t anchored by
any kind of reality. If it’s not an agent looking to place his
client(s) somewhere else, it’s a GM, on orders of his silent owner,
looking to create a market for a player he wants to to ditch. Even the
"truth" of something, like Team A is shopping a player, is normally
calculated by Team A for its own self-interest. Plus, almost everyone
is lying this time of year; the teams that are really looking to do
something deny it even when they’re caught red-handed.

Hate them.

But you love them, and I get that. Nothing beats bar talk (How good
would the Cavs be with Jamison?), and it’s fun when it’s not your job
to check out every rancid, ridiculous rumor. But we are within two
weeks of the Feb. 18 trade deadline, so I guess spending a few minutes
dipping into the water isn’t going to kill me.

So … by this time next week, it’s almost a certainty that Caron Butler will be gone from Washington, and highly likely that Tyrus Thomas will no longer be a Bull. By the 18th, Indiana’s Troy Murphy and Philly’s Andre Iguodala are certain to have new addresses as well, though those teams may well go right up until the 3 p.m. deadline to max out their suitors’ offers.

Amar’e Stoudemire? For all the talk that a trade is a done deal, two people who should know swore to me Sunday that it’s much more likely the Suns hold onto STAT than make a trade.
iguodala2300.jpg
Is Phoenix the next stop for Andre Iguodala?
Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images

Stoudemire’s declaration to Yahoo! Sports that he might well not opt out of his deal after this season and play the final season at $17.68 million next year, though, would seem to make him more likely to be traded than not; teams will be much more willing to take on one year of salary before a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is worked out than try to sign a free agent like Stoudemire not knowing what the new rules would be on new contracts.

Would Philly bite the bullet anyway, and make a deal, sending Iguodala out West? Not without some certainty that Stoudemire wouldn’t opt out after next season, and the Sixers still believe he will, meaning they’d get probably wind up with nothing, as they certainly aren’t going to be in a position to give him the $60 million for three years that he’s been seeking. That’s a non-starter for Philly.

Would Chicago mind if Stoudemire opted out? Probably not. He’s not their target next summer; I remain convinced Dwyane Wade and/or Chris Bosh are. So if the Bulls deal for Stoudemire and he walks, that’s just $17 million more in cap room for them.

http://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/david_aldridge/02/08/morning.tip

It’s the NBA way, due in part to the fact that team executives are
looking to assess their current roster as long as possible before
making changes. It’s also because the 11th-hour approach is written
somewhere in the general manager’s unofficial handbook.

Despite being able to trade since the end of last season’s playoffs (and teams that weren’t in the postseason could trade amongst each other), the majority of deals are done either in the summer or as the trade deadline approaches.

League sources polled this week said Philadelphia and New York are the most active. The 76ers are shopping the likes of small forward Andre Iguodala (four seasons and combined $56.5 million beyond this season) and center Samuel Dalembert ($12.9 million next season), with the Kings having shown some interest in Dalembert.

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/story/2502629.html

NBA commissioner David Stern has suspended Washington Wizards guard
Gilbert Arenas for the remainder of this season, the league
announced Wednesday.

League sources told Yahoo! Sports that Stern had been considering two
suspension scenarios for the former All-Star: the remainder of this
season or a full 82-game ban that would extend into next season.
Sources said players association executive director Billy Hunter and association
attorneys had negotiated the suspension terms with Stern over the past
several days. If the association vowed to appeal the shorter penalty, sources
said, Stern was prepared to suspend Arenas for the full 82 games.
Legal counsel made it clear to Arenas prior to his Wednesday meeting with Stern that he risked the longer suspension if he didn’t accept a ban for the remainder of this season. The Washington Post reported that Arenas told Stern he would ask the association not to fight the suspension.

Wizards guard Javaris Crittenton(notes), who was involved in the incident with Arenas, also was suspended for the remainder of the season.

“The issue here is not about the legal ownership and possession of guns, either in one’s home or elsewhere,” Stern said in a statement formally announcing the suspension. “It is about possession of guns in the NBA workplace, which will not be tolerated.”

Including the 12 games he has already missed, Arenas will be suspended for a total of 50 games, costing him nearly $7.4 million in lost salary.

The players association had held out some last-minute hope that Stern would allow Arenas to return to the NBA sooner than next season if the association would concede to amending the current Collective Bargaining Agreement to include a zero-tolerance gun policy. No formal proposal on the specifics of possible penalties for the policy was exchanged, sources say, but the association was open to the idea had the commissioner been willing to shorten the suspensions of Arenas and Crittenton.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AhFzdC_H1SOn7SEfuzFhYW28vLYF?slug=aw-arenasstern012710&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

As short-term investments go, a Knicks season-ticket plan might seem
rather ill fated. Fans last summer were asked to send thousands of
dollars to a 32-win team that had added no significant talent and was
trudging toward the second year of a wait-now, rebuild-later plan.

Yet Anthony D’Inverno happily spent $2,500 for a seat in Section 329 at Madison Square Garden. It was a small leap of faith in the present, and a huge leap of hope for the near future.

In July, the Knicks will be flush with salary-cap space and chasing LeBron James. D’Inverno, a 29-year-old investment banker, saw an opportunity, and an urgency.

“It’s the right year to do it,” said D’Inverno, a first-time season-ticket buyer. “It’s, ‘We might not be able to if we don’t grab them now, if they get LeBron.’ ”

D’Inverno said he was also encouraged by the Knicks’ direction under Coach Mike D’Antoni. They are not profoundly talented but they play hard most nights — “It’s been enjoyable to watch,” he said.

Optimism, apparently, is contagious. The Knicks have signed up more than 3,000 new full-season subscribers since last spring, a 10-year high for the franchise and the third-highest total in the league.

Despite a devastating recession and the malaise of eight straight losing seasons, the Knicks are averaging 19,604 people per game, a 3 percent increase over last season and the fifth-best mark in the league. They sold out 15 of their first 22 home games and should easily surpass the 23 sellouts they had last season. The Garden has been filled to 99 percent of capacity, on average.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/sports/basketball/24knicks.html?ref=basketball

Ron Artest is always good for a laugh, even the night after the Lakers
lost to the Cavs for the second time this season. But in this case, he
has a point.

Asked before the Lakers played the Knicks Friday night if the Cavs
would be a playoff team without LeBron, Artest didn’t hesitate.

“Actually I thought about that [Thursday],” Artest said. “If you take LeBron off that team, no. They’re not. They’re nothing. Not that they’re nothing, they’re still human beings. But you take him off that team, no. I guess that’s why they got me, to take him out of the game. [Thursday] it didn’t work. They got us this year, so all we can do is move on from that and see what happens in the playoffs.”

Artest, who is from Queensbridge – a rough neighborhood just across the East River from Manhattan – always attracts a crowd of reporters when he plays at the Garden. He still represents one of many might-have-beens for the Knicks after the team passed on the former St. John’s star in the 1999 draft, when they picked Frederic Weis instead.

“No disrespect to Cleveland, but we need some star power here in New York,” Artest said. “We need some legit star power, so I can come down and beat up on ‘em. We still need some star power here in New York. We need one of those big-time players to come here and get a great team, and when the Lakers play the Knicks, we beat ‘em by like 40 or 50 points. It would be great hopefully one day to see a New York-L.A. championship. I don’t have any power to do that, but it would be nice.”

http://ken-berger.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/11838893/19717327

Bosh’s future could be decided before July 1, as trade reports continue to swirl around the Raptors’ All-Star forward, who entered Friday night’s game averaging 24 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. The theory is that if the Raptors are convinced that they can’t re-sign Bosh in July, they will attempt to trade him next month.

Asked if he believes he’ll still be with Toronto after the Feb. 19 trading deadline, Bosh said Friday night: "I have no idea. I don’t know. I just play basketball and whatever happens. It’s a business and the business of basketball can take over at times."

The Knicks’ first priority is James, and if he re-signs with Cleveland, then Wade would be the Knicks’ second choice. The Knicks are interested in Bosh, but the club may decide that re-signing David Lee at a lesser contract is a better deal.

Last summer, Bosh was caught on a video phone laughing when a fan approached and asked Bosh if he was going to the Knicks. Bosh cautioned reporters Friday not to read into his reaction.

"If I said something then you can read into it," he said. "People ask me in every city I go to. They have their video phones. That’s all I can do without offending anyone and that’s to laugh."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/2010/01/16/2010-01-16_msg_stall_tactics.html#ixzz0cw9bISJd