Carmelo Anthony is in Puerto Rico to unveil remodeled basketball courts at a public housing complex and play a bit of softball with celebrity friends.
It is the third time the New York Knicks star has visited the U.S. territory in as many years to rebuild basketball courts through his charitable foundation.
“There’s plenty of kids down there who need role models,” he said during a press conference Thursday. “I grew up in a situation like that. … It was survival of the fittest.”
The two newly remodeled courts, located in the northern city of Bayamon, are used by the island’s top minor league players and have produced players now part of the island’s Superior League, said Sports and Recreation Secretary Henry Neumann.
Dwight Howard injury update: Not ready for preseason opener
Dwight Howard will not be available for the Lakers’ exhibition opener Oct. 7 in Fresno against Golden State, the Lakers announced Thursday, indicating Howard will keep taking his recovery slow before the Oct. 30 regular-season opener.
Howard is rehabilitating from April 20 spinal surgery and began workouts Monday with Lakers athletic trainer Gary Vitti and head physical therapist Judy Seto, as I reported Tuesday.
The Lakers declined to provide any update from his initial workouts, but on Thursday they announced Howard would not be ready for the Oct. 2 first practice or the Oct. 7 first game. Ruling him out already for the first exhibition is an indication that the Lakers and Howard will be conservative in bringing him back and probably not test him in many exhibition contests.
Rockets forward Jon Brockman was released from Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center on Thursday after suffering an eye injury on Monday during a training session, the team announced.
The injury did not require surgery but the team does not have a timetable for his return to basketball activities.
When video of his season-ending ACL tear injury was played during a promotional event on Thursday, Derrick Rose broke down into tears, according to multiple Chicago media outlets.
The Chicago Bulls point guard was promoting his latest shoe at an Adidas promotional event and said that rehab on his torn ligament that he suffered in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals vs. the Philadelphia 76ers was going well. He announced that he’s making steady progress by doing jumping and shooting drills, while working on his core through workouts.
Rose had surgery on May 12 and is expected to miss eight to 12 months, cutting into the 2012-13 season. It is not determined if or when he will come back but Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has made it known that he doesn’t want Rose to play unless he’s 100 percent.
— Reported by Scott Gleeson of USA Today
Rose tore the ACL late in the Bulls’ playoff-opening win over Philadelphia, a huge setback that sent them spiraling toward a first-round exit after capturing the top seed in the East. The injury is expected to keep him out for a major chunk of the season. And even when he returns, it remains to be seen when or even if he’ll regain the explosiveness that made him one of the game’s best players.
“Everybody says All-Star break (to return), but we don’t tell him that,” older brother Reggie Rose said. “It’s really just his mental psyche. That’s the major thing we have to work on and his (confidence) playing with the injury, just knowing it was an injury and it’s not still an injury.”
Derrick Rose has been rehabilitating in California. That figures to change with training camp starting in a few weeks, but the results so far have been good.
— Reported by Andrew Seligman of the Associated Press
The Miami Heat announced today that they have signed guard Garrett Temple.
Temple has appeared in 51 NBA games (four starts) over the last three seasons with five different teams and averaged 3.8 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 11.1 minutes of action. He has also appeared in 54 NBA Development League games (16 starts) over that span averaging 14.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.30 steals and 34.6 minutes while shooting 42 percent from the field, 36.9 percent from three-point range and 77.5 percent from the foul line. He spent last season with Junior Casale Monferrato of the Italian Serie A2 League, appearing in 28 games and averaged 9.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.50 steals in 27.3 minutes while shooting 39.8 percent from the field and 83 percent from the foul line.
Temple split the 2010-11 season between the Charlotte Bobcats, Milwaukee Bucks and San Antonio Spurs while also spending time in the NBA D-League with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and the Erie BayHawks. Prior to that during the 2009-10 season, he spent time with the Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs and the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Temple attended Louisiana State University, appearing in 134 collegiate games for the Tigers.
The Brooklyn Nets have signed forward Josh Childress, Nets General Manager Billy King announced today.
Childress played in 34 games for the Phoenix Suns in 2011-12. The 6-8 forward averaged 2.9 points and 2.8 rebounds in 14.4 minutes per game.
The Stanford alum was selected sixth overall in the 2004 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks. A six year NBA veteran, Childress owns career averages of 9.5 points and 4.9 rebounds in 27.6 minutes per game. In 373 career NBA games, including 70 starts, with Atlanta and Phoenix, he has shot .524 (1,337-2,550) from the field, .329 (98-298) from three-point range and .779 (762-978) from the line. In seven postseason games, all with Atlanta during the 2007-08 playoffs, Childress averaged 7.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 29.3 minutes per game.
In 2008 Childress signed a contract to travel overseas and play for the Greek professional club Olympiacos Piraeus. In two seasons with the organization, he averaged 12.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.
After arriving in Dallas a month ago to work on his game, O.J. Mayo was stunned to see a certain 7-foot German dude sweating on the American Airlines Center practice court.
Rest assured that there won’t be a repeat of a rusty, out-of-shape Dirk Nowitzki showing up at training camp.
“He was in here working out and staying in shape,” Mayo said. “It was a crazy, crazy thing to see because he’s a franchise player and he was here early like it’s his first or second year. I think that’s enough said there.”
LeBron James has parted ways with agent Leon Rose of Creative Artists Agency and will now be represented by his longtime friend, Rich Paul, who also has left CAA to start his own company: Klutch Sports Management, sources told Yahoo! Sports. James made the move official when he filed paperwork with the NBA Players’ Association Wednesday afternoon.
Paul will be James’ third representative since James entered the league in 2003 as a client of Aaron Goodwin.
Paul began working for CAA in 2008. Los Angeles Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe, Cleveland Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson and San Antonio Spurs guard Cory Joseph are among his clients, along with Charlotte Bobcats rookie forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist who is jointly managed by Paul and Rose. Paul is working to soon become officially certified as an agent. His new agency will be based in his hometown of Cleveland, where James played for the Cavaliers from 2003-2010.
The Brooklyn Nets have signed forward Andray Blatche, Nets General Manager Billy King announced today.
Blatche played in 26 games for the Washington Wizards in 2011-12, making 13 starts. The 6-11 forward averaged 8.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in 24.1 minutes per game. As a starter, Blatche posted averages of 11.5 points and 7.4 rebounds in 31.0 minutes per game. Due to a calf injury, Blatche was forced to miss the last 40 games of the season.
The South Kent High School (South Kent, CT) alum was selected 49th overall in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Wizards. In seven NBA seasons, all with the Washington, Blatche holds career averages of 9.9 points and 5.4 rebounds in 409 games, including 176 starts. During the 2010-11 season, Blatche posted career-highs of 16.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 steals in 33.9 minutes per game. Blatche has made postseason appearances twice, in 2006-07 and 2007-08. In eight career playoff games, he averaged 3.9 points and 3.4 rebounds in 14.1 minutes per contest.
The Oklahoma City Thunder signed guards DeAndre Liggins and Andy Rautins to contracts, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti.
Liggins (6-6, 209 pounds) saw action in 17 games during the 2011-12 season as a member of the Orlando Magic where he registered averages of 1.9 points and 0.9 rebounds in 6.8 minutes.
After spending three years at the University of Kentucky, Liggins was selected in the second round (No. 53 overall) of the 2011 draft by the Orlando Magic.
Rautins (6-4, 190 pounds), a second round pick of the New York Knicks in 2010 (No. 38 overall) spent the 2011-12 season playing in Spain for Lucentum Alicante where he appeared in 17 games and averaged 7.3 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 15.4 minutes per contest.
The former Canadian National Team member appeared in five NBA games with the Knicks after concluding his four year collegiate career at Syracuse University.
