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Detroit Pistons center Ben Wallace has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and possessing a firearm while under the influence of alcohol.
Wallace entered the plea Tuesday in Oakland County Circuit Court in Pontiac. Sentencing is Dec. 13. He faces a maximum penalty of 93 days in jail.
In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop a felony carrying a concealed weapon charge.
— Reported by the Associated Press
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Jamaal Tinsley hopes to return to the NBA, and he wants to use the Development League to help his efforts.
Tinsley has sent in the needed paperwork to enter Thursday’s NBA Development League draft, sources told Yahoo! Sports. Tinsley, 33, averaged 9.8 points and 6.6 assists per game through eight NBA seasons while starting 366 of 436 career regular-season games. He last played in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2009-10 season. The deadline to enter the D-League draft is Tuesday.
— Reported by Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports
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On Sunday, Portland forward LaMarcus Aldridge will host the Rip City Basketball Classic, an event in which teammates and other NBA players — including Thunder star Kevin Durant — will play in a charity game at the University Portland’s Chiles Center.
Other participants include Blazers players Brandon Roy, Wesley Matthews, Raymond Felton and Jeff Pendergraph, along with the former Blazer Steve Blake, Pacers guard T.J. Ford, Hawks guard Jamal Crawford and Wizards forward Josh Howard.
Tickets for the event go on sale at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Chiles Center box office, and on the web at www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets are priced at $50 for lower level sideline seats, $40 for upper level sideline seats, $25 for upper level end zone bleacher seats, and $100 for courtside seats. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. while tip off is slated for 7:30.
— Reported by Matt Calkins of the Columbian
Knicks owner James Dolan is frustrated the lockout rages on and the club’s season opener tomorrow against the Heat at the Garden has been wiped out. But Dolan, part of the owners’ negotiating committee, is content about one of the agreed-upon aspects of a new collective bargaining agreement: the size of the salary cap will not go down.
More than any team in the NBA, that will benefit Dolan’s big-market Knicks the most, ironically.
According to multiple sources, one of the resolved issues in a new CBA is the 2011 salary cap will remain at the level as it was in 2010 — $58 million.
“That’s what we’ve been discussing, though the exact dollar amount is not set until the new deal is done,’’ said one league source, who added no new talks have yet been scheduled.
Economic projections from sources say the salary cap will then grow to about $60-$61 million in 2012, when the Knicks will have the largest cap space in the league and have room to woo either Chris Paul, Deron Williams or Dwight Howard, who are slated to become free agents. The Knicks could be at least $20 million under the projected 2012 cap.
— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post
The NBA came down hard on Miami Heat owner Micky Arison on Monday, fining him $500,000, according to league sources, after he used his Twitter account as a sounding board about the lockout last Friday.
The league did not issue an official announcement, but an NBA spokesman confirmed to ESPN.com that Arison had been fined.
The $500,000 fine, first reported by Yahoo! Sports, is five times the amount other owners have previously been fined for public comments about the ongoing labor situation.
According to multiple league sources, commissioner David Stern was lobbied by some of Arison’s fellow owners to levy the stiff fine. Arison and several of his peers have been at growing odds as the lockout has deepened — a rift which spilled over into cyberspace last week.
Arison sent out a series of tweets from his verified account following the latest breakdown in talks between owners and players.
— Reported by Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com
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Derek Fisher denied a rift in union leadership in a letter to NBA players Monday, telling them there have been “no side agreements, no side negotiations or anything close” with league officials.
A story Saturday on Foxsports.com titled “Is Fisher in Stern’s pocket?” said there was a disagreement between Fisher and players’ association executive director Billy Hunter and that the Lakers guard had promised NBA Commissioner David Stern that he could deliver a deal with a 50-50 split in basketball-related income.
The story said Hunter confronted Fisher last Friday, the day talks with the league broke down and led to the cancellation of the entire November schedule.
“Usually I wouldn’t even dignify absurd media reports with a comment.
But before these reports go any further, let me say on the record to each of you, my loyalty has and always will be with the players,” Fisher wrote in the letter, obtained by The Associated Press and other media outlets. “Anyone that questions that or doubts that does not know me, my history, and what I stand for.
“And quite frankly, how dare anyone call that into question. The Players Association is united and any reports to the contrary are false. There have been no side agreements, no side negotiations or anything close. We are united in serving you and presenting the best options and getting everyone back to work.”
— Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press
That was fast!
Kim Kardashian filed for divorce Monday just 72 days after tying the knot with Kris Humphries in a lavish ceremony that was taped for her reality show.
“I’ve spoken to her briefly and she says she’s sad and got caught up in all that was going on,” Ryan Seacreast, who produces her show, said on his KIIS-FM radio program Monday morning.
Kardashian, 31, lists the date of separation as today, Oct. 31, 2011, and cites the usual “irreconcilable differences,” according to her Los Angeles Superior Court filing.
She also says the couple has a prenuptial agreement and she doesn’t want to pay spousal support to Humphries.
— Reported by Jennifer Garcia and Mike Fleeman of People.com
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A part owner of the Sacramento Kings might be in danger of losing his stake in the team after filing for personal bankruptcy.
Veteran Sacramento developer Bob Cook, who’s been a part owner of the Kings since the 1980s, is buried under millions of dollars of debt and could surrender his 7 percent share of the team.
Cook’s financial troubles stem from the construction of Le Rivage, the upscale hotel he opened on the Sacramento River in 2008. The hotel defaulted on its debt last year, and Cook filed for Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy protection in August.
Ramping up the financial pressure, one of his creditors is trying to drag into Bankruptcy Court the partnership through which Cook holds his Kings ownership stake.
— Reported by Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee
David Stern proclaimed officially Friday there is no longer a chance of squeezing in an 82-game schedule with a Dec. 1 starting date. However, multiple sources predict a 78-game slate will be staged if the sides compromise on the revenue split by next weekend. The final schedule has to be an even number, sources said.
“Anything is possible,” one union source said. “If the handshake is a week later, it’s a week less of games.”
As The Post reported earlier this month, the schedule does not pick up where it leaves off on the original document. Several contingency schedules have been compiled by NBA schedule-maker Matt Winick, pending the season’s starting date. The schedule is made from scratch, pending the availability of arenas. Many dates are the same, but opponents have changed. Any lost games for the Knicks would be West Coast opponents, according to sources.
— Reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post
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The Chicago Bulls finished 62-20 to secure the No. 1 seed in the NBA last season, advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals and Derrick Rose became the Bulls’ first league MVP since Michael Jordan played for Phil Jackson in the 1990’s.
What does all of this mean to Jackson?
“I think they overachieved last year as far as record and how they got to the spots they got to in the playoffs,” said the former NBA coach on ‘The Waddle & Silvy Show’ Thursday.
He commented that Bulls need to help Rose and “They just can’t be one-dimensional in that regard. They have to have those complementary pieces to assist Rose in his game.”
The Bulls struggled with the Indiana Pacers and the Atlanta Hawks and if it weren’t for Rose would they have honestly made it as far as they did? Were they overrated?
— Reported by CSN Chicago
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