Oklahoma City Thunder center Nenad Krstic underwent successful surgery this morning to repair a fracture to the second finger on his right hand. The surgery was performed in Oklahoma City by Thunder team physicians.

Krstic suffered the injury in the final game of the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. Krstic averaged 13.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in 23.6 minutes per game while helping lead Serbia to a fourth place finish at the World Championships.

The 7-0 center is expected to be ready for the Thunder’s opening night contest against the Chicago Bulls.

Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee reports:

The Sacramento Kings’ groundbreaking agreement with ARCO oil company for local arena naming rights is over after 24 years.

The contract expires next year, team officials say, and the search already is on for a new company willing to pay to have its name in lights on the Natomas sports and entertainment arena.

Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

The Bucks should have a much deeper team than the one they finished with last season, when coach Scott Skiles had to use Primoz Brezec for important minutes at the center spot in Game 7 of the playoffs against Atlanta (with Bogut injured and backup Kurt Thomas in foul trouble).

“No disrespect to our guys on the bench, but we didn’t really have guys we could rely on coming off the bench,” Bogut said. “Kurt when he was backing me up was a great backup, and we had a couple guys.

“But this year there are questions for us. Does Maggette come off the bench for us or does he start?

“Coach is going to have his work cut out for him figuring out rotations. We genuinely have 10 or 11 guys who can play and on an NBA team you can’t play that many guys. You’ve got to narrow it down to eight or nine guys and the rest pick up feeder minutes. Coach has a tough deal on his plate.”

The AP reports:

Dear Emmy voters, Baron Davis regrets to inform you that he won’t be able to attend the awards ceremony for his documentary film on L.A. gang life.

By then, he’ll be busy with his other passion.

The Los Angeles Clippers point guard will already be at training camp when the Emmy awards for news and documentaries are handed out in New York City next Monday.

From afar, though, he’ll be rooting for the film “Crips and Bloods: Made in America,” which is up for best documentary. Davis served as executive producer, putting up the money and providing entree into a world that he escaped from - largely because of basketball - but hasn’t forgotten.

Jonathan Abrams and Howard Beck of the New York Times report:

The Denver Nuggets are lending an open ear to N.B.A. suitors clamoring for Carmelo Anthony, a potentially distressing development for the Knicks in their efforts to land the three-time All-Star.

In preliminary conversations, the Nuggets have told the Knicks that they do not possess the assets they are seeking if they decide to trade Anthony, according to a Knicks official. The official did not want to be identified because he was describing private conversations between the teams.

For the moment, the Knicks are left hoping that Anthony remains in Denver through this season, which would allow his contract to expire. If that happens, the Knicks could then pursue him in free agency with cap room that will be created by the departure of Eddy Curry.

Marc Berman of the New York Post reports:

Eddy Curry has claimed another dubious distinction — last one in.

The Knicks’ 7-foot center still has not shown up at the team’s Westchester compound to participate in pre-training-camp voluntary workouts/scrimmages, according to multiple sources.

With new Russian center Timofey Mozgov arriving in New York last night, Curry will become the last Knick to report, according to sources. The official reporting date is Friday, with two-a-day practices starting Saturday.

Knicks brass hasn’t seen or heard from Curry in more than three months. Curry, in the final year of his contract, also blew off the July summer league in Las Vegas, where he was expected to work out. Curry has spent most of the summer in Chicago, where a warrant was out for his arrest for failure to pay a judgment. He’s also been seen at the Jersey Shore.

Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

Bucks coach Scott Skiles said at the team’s annual golf outing Monday that Bogut will be ready for the start of training camp in one week.

But Maggette, who underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle during the off-season, will be brought along slowly at the start of camp.

“He’s not quite ready yet,” Skiles said of Maggette, whom the Bucks acquired in a trade with the Golden State Warriors. “He’s made great progress, but our camp is tough.

“We don’t want that to be his first action. We’ll ease him into it a little bit. We have the non-contact practices and we’ll have some days throughout October where we won’t go as hard based on our schedule. The first week of camp can be a shock to anybody’s system.

SportsDayDFW reports:

Mavericks  owner Mark Cuban  is joining ABC’s “Shark Tank” for the show’s second season, the Hollywood Reporter reported on its Web site.

The owner will be a guest venture capitalist for three episodes, in which regular folks pitch ideas with hopes of getting an investment.

The New Orleans Hornets announced today that they have signed free agent forward Joe Alexander.  Per team policy, terms of the contract were not released. The addition of Alexander puts the training camp roster at 15 thus far.

Alexander (6-8, 230), the eighth overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, has played in the NBA for two seasons. During his rookie season with the Bucks, Alexander appeared in 59 games, averaging 4.7 points, 1.9 rebounds and 0.7 assists in 12.1 minutes per game. Alexander, the first-ever Taiwanese-born NBA player, missed the first 41 games of the 2009-10 season with a hamstring injury before being assigned to the NBA D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants in January. While in the D-League, he averaged 10.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 26.8 minutes per game over six D-League games (three starts). Shortly after his stint in Fort Wayne, Alexander was traded to the Chicago Bulls along with Hakim Warrick for John Salmons on February 8, 2010. Alexander played in eight games for the Bulls, registering 0.5 points and 0.6 rebounds per game in 3.6 minutes of play.

Alexander, 23 years old, played three seasons for West Virginia University before declaring early for the NBA Draft. He was named All-Big East First-Team and a All-American Honorable Mention his junior season for the Mountaineers after averaging team-highs of 16.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

The Toronto Raptors announced Monday that rookie forward Ed Davis underwent arthroscopic surgery this morning to repair a meniscus tear to his right knee. He is expected to be participating in basketball-related activities within six weeks. Davis sustained the injury last Wednesday playing basketball.

The procedure was performed by team medical director/orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Paul Marks at Sunnybrook Hospital.

The Raptors’ first-round selection in the 2010 NBA Draft (13th overall), Davis finished third on the team in scoring (12.6) and second in rebounding (6.0) during the Las Vegas Summer League. He tied for the team lead with nine blocks. Davis had 15 points and eight rebounds in his professional debut vs. Phoenix.