NBA News Blog – Page 1179 – NBA Blog

Nets working hard to gain New York support

For fans seeking season tickets to next year’s debut in the Barclays Center, the Brooklyn-bound club started dishing out seats five months ago.

The results have been better than the ill-fated marriage of forward Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian: About 50% of their 100 suites — average price $250,000 — are already sold, the team said.

And season ticket sales for the 4,400 best seats in the new Brooklyn arena are about 15% ahead of expectations — with per-game costs ranging from $99 to $1,500.

The positive news comes despite the team’s inability to use its players — including stars Deron Williams and Brook Lopez — in any promotional capacity due to the ongoing lockout.

The Nets are luring buyers in other ways: the “All Access” 2012-13 season ticket holders receive unlimited complimentary food, along with first shot at seats for any of the other 180 events annually expected at the facility.

— Reported by Larry McShane of the New York Daily News

Pat Riley anxious to get back to work

In his first expansive comments since the July 1 start of the NBA lockout, Miami Heat President Pat Riley said Friday he is anxious to get back to the business of basketball.

While banned by the league from commenting directly on the lockout, Riley, during a Heat-organized event in commemoration of Veterans Day at United States Southern Command headquarters, spoke of being poised to pick up where his team left off in last season’s NBA Finals.

“(We) have been in the office getting ready to hit the ground running, when we can,” he said after addressing military personnel and their families at the youth basketball clinic. “So, we’re ready to roll when everybody else is.”

The Heat had been scheduled to host the New Jersey Nets on Friday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. The NBA instead remains on indefinite hold, although Commissioner David Stern said Thursday night he is prepared for a Dec. 15 resumption of play and a 72-game schedule if the players accept the league’s latest offer, a proposition that remains very much in doubt.

— Reported by Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

LeBron, Durant set up flag football game

According to a Thursday afternoon post on James’ Twitter feed, the Miami Heat forward will be teaming up with Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant to host a flag football game on Nov. 30.

“Its all set people!” James wrote. “Nov.30th Team @Kingjames vs Team @KDTrey5 in Flag football. Its going down. Can’t wait.”

It’s not known where the game will be held, and it’s also unclear exactly who else will be participating, but you can bet it’ll be a star-studded cast.

The players’ announcement that a game will be played is hardly a surprise, however, as both have been testing out their football chops while the labor crisis gets resolved.

— Reported by Sam Gardner of Fox Sports Florida

Milwaukee Bucks agree to one-year lease with Bradley Center

The Bradley Center and the Milwaukee Bucks have reached agreement on a new one-year lease that covers last season, but the deal also contains a provision in which the NBA team won’t get any money until professional basketball resumes.

The Bradley Center owes the Bucks $9.5 million. But in the new agreement, those payments have been extended further to as late as 2019.

The agreement, announced Thursday, is a reflection of reality given the inability of the players’ association and NBA owners to find a way to end their lockout, as well as the Bradley Center’s own challenged financial condition.

Talks between the players and the league continued Thursday night, with some signs that the lockout will end and a partial season will be played.

The new Bradley Center-Bucks agreement establishes a prorated payment plan on all concession, catering and suite-shared revenue payments to the Bucks based on the actual number of games played.

At all events at the Bradley Center, the Bucks receive 27.5% of concession sales and 13.75% of food beverage sales in the suites. The team also receives 30% of all merchandise sales at Bucks’ games.

Also, the Bucks pay no rent at the facility.

— Reported by Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

David Stern offers 72-game NBA season that would start Dec. 15

In what amounts to the league’s last and best proposal in a labor standoff now into its fifth month, NBA commissioner David Stern on Thursday offered his locked-out players a 72-game season that would start Dec. 15.

Yet the league’s latest pitch, according to sources briefed on its contents after adjustments were made Thursday night, contained what the union regards as miniscule financial inducements for the players after nearly 24 hours of negotiations this week. And that clearly disappointed union leaders who were expecting more after they made a commitment earlier in the week, for the first time since the lockout began, to accept a 50/50 split of annual Basketball Related Income.

NBPA executive director Billy Hunter struggled to mask how underwhelmed he was by the new proposal even as he was telling reporters that he would present it to the player representatives from all 30 teams as early as Monday as a possible prelude to a vote from the union’s estimated 450 members.

“It’s not the greatest proposal in the world,” Hunter said. “But I have an obligation to at least present it to our membership. So that’s what we’re going to do.”

— Reported by Marc Stein of ESPN.com

Nic Batum named Euroleague Week 4 MVP

SLUC Nancy forward Nicolas Batum was at his best against on Thursday with a brilliant all-around performance to lead the French champs to a 90-85 win over previously unbeaten Caja Laboral. The victory made Nancy 2-0 at home this season and just like in their previous win in front of French fans, Batum was the star of the show and subsequently earned Week 4 bwin MVP honors. Batum amassed an impressive stat line of 21 points with just 3 missed shots in addition to 9 rebounds, 4 assists and a block en route to a performance index rating of 35. Beyond the numbers, Batum was also crucial to the Nancy effort in that he played all 40 minutes – his average 39:26 minutes per game is most in the league – and was clutch down the stretch with and 7 points in the game’s last 5 minutes. Batum also becomes the first player to win the weekly MVP award twice this season. He did face stiff competition this week for the highest index rating from FC Barcelona Regal swingman Chuck Eidson who tallied a 34 index in a 92-75 win over Montepaschi Siena.

— Reported by Euroleague.net

Shaq wishes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a better mentor

It turns out Andrew Bynum has already accomplished something that Shaquille O’Neal never will.

The current Lakers center received personal instruction from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, while the former Lakers center wishes he could have benefited from such teaching. Although he notes in his book that LSU Coach Dale Brown once brought Abdul-Jabbar onto campus to teach O’Neal the sky hook, the Big Fella believes Cap didn’t offer much support as a pro.

“Kareem was never around,” O’Neal wrote in “Shaq Uncut: My Story,” co-written by Jackie MacMullan. “And, whenever I did see him, he usually ignored me. The disappointing thing to me was, being in LA all those years and trying to fill those shoes, I would have liked to have a conversation with him.”

This episode has everything to do with both Abdul-Jabbar’s introverted and often downright unfriendly personality as well as Shaq’s own insecurities. After all, Abdul-Jabbar sounded more than willing to help Bynum as a Lakers special assistant coach when he was approached about it. It also reveals the mixed reception O’Neal received among former and current centers.

— Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times Blog

Heat forward Mike Miller selling his home

The NBA lockout is real. So is amnesty. And for Mike Miller so is rehab from a pair of offseason surgeries.

So, yes, that is Miller’s Hillsboro Shores estate that recently was placed on the market for $9 million. And no, the Miami Heat forward is not looking to move. Or at least is hoping there is no need.

The veteran forward said Wednesday he is just taking stock of the current situation in both his career and the NBA. And that means taking stock of his 9,968-square-foot estate with the $180,000 in annual property taxes.

“It’s a couple of things,” Miller said. “Just preparing myself; never know what can happen.”

Among the expected provisions in the post-lockout NBA is an amnesty clause that would allow each team to remove one contract from its salary-cap and luxury-tax obligations, with that player still receiving his full salary upon his release.

— Reported by Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Security guard sentenced for bomb threats at NBA office

A private security guard who called in bomb threats to a National Basketball Association office in northern New Jersey that he was hired to protect has been sentenced to six months in prison.

Jose Quesada also must serve six months of home confinement once he’s freed and then three years of supervised release under the sentence imposed Wednesday.

He had pleaded guilty in November 2010 to knowingly providing false information indicating that malicious damage by means of an explosive would take place.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Orlando cuts part-time Amway Center workers, jobs privatized

About 70 part-time Amway Center employees working for the city of Orlando have been informed that their jobs have been cut and the work turned over to private firms, the city said Wednesday.

Although the NBA lockout drags on, officials say the cuts were the result of a review comparing operations at the new home of the Orlando Magic with its predecessor, the Amway Arena.

City spokeswoman Heather Fagan said in a statement Wednesday that staffing the new arena is “very different” from the old one, and the review bore that out.

“It was determined one of the changes, should be the shifting of part-time, in-house security staff to the outside security firm of Andy Frain,” Fagan said.

— Reported by Jeff Weiner of the Orlando Sentinel