NBA Teams – Page 1677 – NBA Blog

DaJuan Summers ends time playing basketball in Italy early

Detroit Pistons forward DaJuan Summers is the latest NBA player coming home early from an overseas job. He left his Italian team after only four games.

Any other American NBA player considering making a similar job to Europe or Asia during the ongoing lockout might want to talk to Summers first.

“I would tell them to be prepared for any and everything because it’s a different world than what you are used to,” Summers told Yahoo! Sports in a phone interview from Italy.

Summers, 23, played for the Pistons the past two seasons, averaging 3.2 points as a reserve, but struggled to crack the team’s regular rotation given the number of forwards on the roster. Shortly after the lockout began, Summers signed a two-year contract with European powerhouse Montepaschi Siena. Siena finished third in the 2011 Euroleague Final Four and has won four straight Italian League championships.

“They were telling me how much they wanted me to be a part of the team,” Summers said. “With those things considered, I thought it was a good move to get that exposure with the top Italian League, as well as a top Euroleague team.” …

The team gave Summers and his girlfriend and son a nice three-bedroom house in Siena’s countryside. But though Siena is a popular Italian tourist destination, Summers had trouble adapting to living in a small town – and he thinks team officials picked up on it.

— Reported by Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports

Former NBA player Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje retires

Former Portland Trail Blazers center Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje is retiring immediately because of a heart condition.

Boumtje-Boumtje’s latest club Bayern Munich says the 33-year-old player decided to retire after a medical exam uncovered “new irregularities” that could have later consequences. The club gave no details Wednesday.

Boumtje-Boumtje says his “health and family are of the greatest importance.”

— Reported by the Associated Press

Oliver Miller pleads guilty to pistol whipping

A former professional basketball player has pleaded guilty to assaulting his girlfriend’s brother after a cookout in Maryland.

Oliver J. Miller, who played for the Phoenix Suns and other teams in the 1990s, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and carrying a handgun Tuesday in court in Anne Arundel County.

According to prosecutors, Miller and his girlfriend’s brother argued at the cookout in April and Miller later hit him repeatedly in the head with a gun. The man required 11 staples to close his wounds.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Ben Wallace pleads guilty in alcohol case

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

Jamaal Tinsley to enter D-League draft

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

LaMarcus Aldridge hosting hoop exhibition game Sunday

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 is happy that NBA salary cap will stay high

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

NBA fines Heat owner Micky Arison

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

Derek Fisher denies rift within NBA players union

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

Kim Kardashian files for divorce from Kris Humphries

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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