NBA Teams – Page 1443 – NBA Blog

Ex-Bull Horace Grant in brokerage battle

Former Chicago Bulls forward Horace Grant said facing 7-foot-1, 325-pound Shaquille O’Neal on the basketball court would be preferable to the years-long legal struggle he has waged to collect $1.46 million that securities arbitrators say a brokerage owes him.

“I would rather play against a guy like Shaq any day than to chase something that is mine that was taken,” Grant told Reuters last week. Lawyers for brokerage Morgan Keegan & Co had just argued in a California appeals court that Grant’s award for losses tied to a group of troubled bond funds should be overturned.

Arbitrators awarded Grant $1.46 million in 2009. Since then he has had to battle Morgan Keegan’s efforts to overturn the ruling in court.

The years spent battling Morgan Keegan, a unit of Raymond James Financial, have been “some of the most frustrating in my life,” said Grant in a telephone interview.

— Reported by Suzanne Barlyn of Reuters

Sacramento Kings waive center Cyril Awere

The Sacramento Kings requested waivers on center Cyril Awere, it was announced by Kings’ President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie. The Kings’ updated preseason roster now stands at 17 players.

The 6-11, 268-pound center from Nigeria did not play in the Kings’ lone preseason game.

Lots of players signed for NBA training camps or preseason were not signed to regular season deals, and will be released in the coming weeks.

Nets set to play first-ever game at new Barclays Center

The Nets are ready to finally take the floor at Barclays Center.

After months of preparations, the team will play its first game inside its new home Monday night against the Wizards.

“Everybody’s super-excited, I think,” said Joe Johnson prior to the team’s shootaround Monday morning. “We all feel as if this is a fresh start, and we want to make the best of it.

“We want to get off to a great start. We’ve had a great training camp, and we want to keep working hard to get better.”

The Nets will have plenty of opportunities to get used to their new home this week, as they’ll play three games here in the next five days. But while that will allow them to feel a little more comfortable in their new digs, coach Avery Johnson admitted it’s going to take awhile before it feels like they belong here.

— Reported by Tim Bontemps of the New York Post

Andrew Bynum to have another knee injection

Coach Doug Collins said Sunday that 76ers center Andrew Bynum will receive another injection in his right knee before the season begins.

Collins was not exactly sure of the specifics of the injection, but Bynum’s agent, David Lee, spoke about the treatment later in the day.

“Just look at it as lubrication for his knees,” Lee said of the Synvisc-One injection that Bynum will receive. The drug is used to treat knee osteoarthritis.

“He’s had them in previous years,” Lee said.

— Reported by John N. Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer

Pistons rookie Andre Drummond impressive through three exhibition games

Drummond capped off three games in four nights Saturday night with 19 points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots in 25 minutes in a 108-91 loss at Milwaukee.

The performance comes behind a solid game in the exhibition opener Wednesday against the Raptors and a promising 6 minutes Friday night at Toronto.

“I can’t do it without the help of my teammates,” Drummond told Pistons.com after the loss to the Bucks.

— Reported by Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press

Lakers TV problems drag into preseason

Time Warner, the Lakers’ new $3 billion TV partner, is locked in negotiations with other area providers – including DirecTV, Charter, Dish, Cox, Verizon and AT&T U-verse – to pick up its two new Laker-centric channels, SportsNet and Deportes.

The asking price is reported to be $3.95 per subscriber per month. The providers, however, are holding out for a better deal in hopes of keeping rates low for customers.

This is still just the preseason – the Lakers play Utah on Tuesday night at Honda Center – but fans who can’t find their team on their TV are, in some cases, a bit uneasy and, in other cases, flat ornery.

During the Lakers exhibition Saturday at Staples Center, fans booed every time a Time Warner commercial was shown inside the arena.

— Reported by Jeff Miller of the Orange County Register

Cleveland Cavaliers waive Kelenna Azubuike

The Cleveland Cavaliers have waived guard Kelenna Azubuike, Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant announced today from Cleveland Clinic Courts.

Azubuike appeared in one preseason game, scoring six points and adding three rebounds in 14 minutes.

The Cavaliers roster now stands at 17.

It’s NBA preseason, and lots of players around the league who were signed to “training camp” contracts will be let go between now and the start of the regular season.

Timberwolves waive training camp invitees Phil Jones and Seth Tarver

The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced the team has waived training camp invitees Phil Jones and Seth Tarver. Neither player saw action in the team’s three preseason games.

Jones, a 6-10 forward/center, played overseas for the past two years after playing collegiately at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has made stops in Uruguay, Brussels and spent the past season in Romania.

Tarver, a 6-5 guard, spent the last two seasons with the Idaho Stampede of the NBA D-League. Tarver averaged 11.3 points and 4.7 rebounds in 45 contests last season. Tarver went undrafted in 2010 after a four-year collegiate career at Oregon State.

The Wolves roster currently stands at 18 players.

Metta World Peace kisses a female fan

Ron Artest once went into the stands with gruesome results. That was a long time ago, though.

Metta World Peace went into the stands Saturday night at Staples Center with hilarious results.

World Peace, who won the NBA’s 2010-11 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award and changed his name a year ago, was displaying his regained agility with a nifty block as Utah guard Gordon Hayward drove toward the basket. Then World Peace displayed his usual wacky sense of humor.

After his momentum carried him under the basket and out of bounds, World Peace fetched the ball — and then took the hand of a nearby female fan and kissed it.

— Reported by Kevin Ding of the OC Register

Chris Paul returns in exhibition victory in Shanghai

All-Star point guard Chris Paul played for the first time since off-season thumb surgery, and the Clippers used a dominant inside attack to dispatch reigning NBA champion Miami Heat 99-89 in an exhibition match today (late Saturday PDT) in front of a sell-out crowd of 18,000 in Shanghai.

With Paul guiding the offense, Clippers big men DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin thrilled the crowd with dunks and alley-oop baskets as the Clippers took advantage of a height advantage and jumped to a first quarter double-digit lead and maintained it for much of the game.

Jordan was 7 for 7 in the first half, as the Clippers ran out to a 57-43 lead on a 26-13 rebounding advantage. The Clippers’ center all nine of his rebounds before intermission and added two blocked shots.

Jordan, who was a perfect 8 for 8 from the floor, scored 13 of his game-high 18 points in the first quarter, while power forward Griffin scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Clippers avenged a 94-80 loss to Miami in Beijing on Thursday. Paul finished with four points, six assists and five rebounds in 22 minutes. Caron Butler, Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes also scored in double figures.

— Reported by Los Angeles Daily News services