NBA News Blog – Page 1079 – NBA Blog

No Amare Stoudemire return for Knicks anytime soon

Despite recent reports Amar’e Stoudemire hoped to return from his back injury by next weekend, Knicks coach Mike Woodson said he does not plan on having the power forward anytime soon.

Stoudemire has missed the past six games with a bulging disk in his back and originally was given a timetable to return of 2-4 weeks — Wednesday marks two weeks since the diagnosis — but Woodson said he has no new information to suggest a return is imminent.

“At this point, I’m not counting on Amar’e right now to come back,” Woodson said after yesterday’s practice, declining to give a new timetable. “You’ve got to ask the medical people that, but the bottom line is he’s not going to be in uniform for a while.”

— Reported by Howie Kussoy of the New York Post

Antoine Walker announces retirement from basketball

Antoine Walker is hanging ’em up.

The former Celtics forward, who had been playing for the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League, announced his retirement in the locker room on Saturday night, according to the team.

Walker, who played 12 seasons in the NBA, is reportedly expected to make a formal retirement announcement in the coming days.

The 35-year-old’s most notable playing days came as a member of the Celtics from 1996-2003. He was named an All-Star three times while forming a potent duo with Paul Pierce.

— Reported by Ricky Doyle of NESN

Knicks hire Larry Johnson as Basketball and Business Operations Representative

Once a Knick, always a Knick. Or so the saying goes.

The New York Knicks announced today that Larry Johnson has been named Basketball and Business Operations Representative.

“I consider coming back to work for a franchise that I had so much success with a great honor,” Johnson said. “As I move onto the next phase of my career, I have been given an opportunity to touch so many different areas of the organization – helping develop young players, connecting with the community and actively involving myself in the business of basketball. I couldn’t be more excited to get going and learn as much as I can.”

In this new role, Johnson will work closely with the basketball operations department, focusing on player development; the community relations department, working to support the Garden of Dreams Foundation and on fan development; and the marketing and partnership departments, with involvement in numerous business initiatives.

The author of perhaps the most famous play in franchise history, “LJ” converted a four-point play with :05.7 remaining en route to a 92-91 victory over the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Madison Square Garden on Jun. 5, 1999.

In five seasons in the Blue & Orange, Johnson, a four-time Knicks captain, averaged 12.3 points and 5.5 rebounds over 330 games from 1996 through 2001, and led the team into the playoffs each year before announcing his retirement on Oct. 10, 2001. Once acquired from the Charlotte Hornets on Jul. 14, 1996, Johnson’s reputation as being a great teammate and a player willing to sacrifice for the team’s greater-good quickly became evident to the Knicks’ faithful.

Johnson currently joins an extensive list of Knicks alumni employed by The Madison Square Garden Company, including: Mike Woodson (interim head coach), Darrell Walker and Herb Williams (assistant coaches), Allan Houston (assistant general manager/general manager Erie BayHawks), Cal Ramsey (director, special projects and community relations representative), John Starks (alumni relations and fan development advisor) and Walt “Clyde” Frazier (Network broadcaster).

Grizzlies take big early lead, hold off Mavericks

Rudy Gay scored 25 points, Zach Randolph added 15 points and 11 rebounds, and the Memphis Grizzlies built a big early lead and held on to beat the Dallas Mavericks 94-89 on Saturday night.

Gilbert Arenas added 14 points and made three 3-pointers, while Mike Conley finished with 12 points for Memphis, which won its second straight and seventh in the last nine games.

Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 17 points and eight rebounds, and Brandan Wright added 16 points. Vince Carter had 14 points, while Shawn Marion finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds in the Mavericks’ second straight loss.

Memphis led 29-10 after one quarter and moved two games ahead of Dallas for fifth place in the Western Conference, also claiming the head-to-head tiebreaker by winning the season series 2-1.

The Mavericks weathered an early 20-point Memphis advantage and pulled close midway through the third period.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Celtics defense shuts Pacers down

The Indiana Pacers beat Oklahoma City on Friday night, proving that they indeed are one of the league’s up-and-coming teams.

A day later, the Boston Celtics showed the Pacers what the next level looks like. Paul Pierce scored 24 points to help the Celtics beat Indiana 86-72 on Saturday night.

The veteran-laden Celtics did what winning playoff teams do. They controlled the tempo, played stifling defense and made timely shots all night. Indiana matched its lowest point total of the season…

Ray Allen added 19 points, Kevin Garnett scored 15 and Rajon Rondo had 12 assists for the Celtics.

Allen came off the bench for just the second time this season. He made 5 of 11 3-pointers, including 3 of 5 in the second half. He had missed six games with an ankle injury and has been back for just three games…

Danny Granger scored 20 points, David West had 16 and Hibbert added nine points and 17 rebounds for Indiana. The Pacers had won four in a row and had scored more than 100 points in five consecutive games. Indiana shot 35 percent from the field, made just 5 of 22 3-pointers and committed 19 turnovers.

— Reported by Cliff Brunt of the Associated Press

Kobe Bryant sits out Suns game with injured left shin

Kobe Bryant sat out the Los Angeles Lakers’ game against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night with an injured left shin.

Lakers longtime trainer Gary Vitti says he decided to put Bryant’s left foot in a protective boot to rest the injury. Vitti says the All-Star guard has been playing through the very painful injury, an inflammation surrounding a tendon, but it hasn’t gotten any better.

He says the only way it will improve is with rest.

— Reported by Bob Baum of the Associated Press

Bobcats forward Eduardo Najera out for season after surgery

Charlotte Bobcats forward Eduardo Najera underwent successful surgery this afternoon to repair the fractured frontal bone in his forehead he suffered last night from an inadvertent elbow during the game against the Milwaukee Bucks. The surgery was performed at Presbyterian Hospital by Dr. Daniel Spagnoli, who specializes in maxillofacial surgery.

The injury occurred at the 11:07 mark of the second quarter and Najera was immediately taken to Froedtert Hospital, where a CT scan showed no brain trauma but confirmed the fracture. He was later released and flew back to Charlotte with the team.

He is expected to miss the remainder of the 2011-12 season.

Nets GM Billy King says Nets are headed in right direction

The Nets general manager has been all in from the beginning, trying all season long to leverage Dwight Howard’s obvious desire to play for the Nets into convincing the Orlando Magic to trade the six-time All Star to New Jersey. And when that fell apart, well, then, King went all in on trying to convince Deron Williams that even if the team doesn’t still end up trading for Dwight Howard, it will still be worth the All-Star point guard’s while to re-sign with the Nets and move to Brooklyn with the team next season.

Getting Gerald Wallace — and potentially giving up this year’s first round pick in order to make that happen — was part of that, as King told reporters Friday, after he broke the news that Brook Lopez is done for the season.

“I think we’re headed in the right direction, and if you look at our team this year, being as banged up (as it was), to beat Chicago in Chicago, Philly in Philly, New York in New York… we won some games in tough places,” King said. “And you see things getting in the right direction. Winning is important. And that’s what I told Deron: ‘We’re not rebuilding this year. We’re going to build this team to win next year.’”

— Reported by Colin Stephenson of the Newark Star-Ledger

Grizzlies snap Heat 17-game home streak

Dwyane Wade knew during pregame warmups that the Miami Heat were going to have a long night. By the end of the first quarter, the Memphis Grizzlies let everyone else know that Wade was right.

Rudy Gay scored 17 points, Zach Randolph had 14 points and 14 rebounds off the bench, and the Grizzlies put seven players in double figures to snap Miami’s 17-game home winning streak by beating the Heat 97-82 on Friday night.

Memphis led wire-to-wire, the first team to do that on Miami’s home floor since Boston on Nov. 11, 2010…

Mike Conley and Marreese Speights each scored 15, and Marc Gasol and O.J. Mayo added 10 apiece for the Grizzlies, who have won six of eight.

LeBron James finished with 21 points, six assists and six rebounds for the Heat, who failed in a bid to match the franchise’s longest home win streak, set in the 2004-05 season. Miami committed 11 turnovers in the first quarter—its most in any period since Feb. 14, 2006—and never recovered…

Wade scored 20 points, Chris Bosh added 19 and Terrel Harris scored 10 for Miami, which last lost at home on Jan. 22 to Milwaukee.

— Reported by the Associated Press

FIU has fired coach Isiah Thomas

FIU Executive Director of Sports and Entertainment Pete Garcia announced today that Isiah Thomas has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the FIU men’s basketball program.

“We want to thank Isiah Thomas for his three years here at FIU,” Garcia said. “However, we have decided to take the program in a different direction.”

A national search for the Panthers’ next head basketball coach will begin immediately.

According to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press, “Thomas signed a five-year deal with FIU, taking nothing in base salary for his first season and agreeing to a deal where he would receive nearly half of any gross revenues from ticket sales, commissions collected on food and beverage concessions and sponsorships. But FIU never generated the buzz it and Thomas envisioned. The Panthers averaged 1,071 fans at home this season, nearly four times that many on the road. “We just needed a break here or a break there, and it’s not happening for us,” Thomas said last month, shortly after FIU’s 8-21 season ended with a loss to eventual Sun Belt tournament champion Western Kentucky. “I know we’re getting there. We’ve had so many close games. If we keep working, good things will happen.”