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The Phoenix Suns have waived forward Taylor Griffin, the team announced today.
Griffin appeared in just eight games for the Suns as a rookie in 2009-10, averaging 1.3 points in 4.0 minutes.
Taylor is the brother of forward Blake Griffin, who was selected #1 by the Los Angeles Clippers in 2009.
The AP reports:
Tina Charles, who helped UConn win consecutive NCAA championships with undefeated records in her last two seasons, entered the weekend averaging 16.0 points and a league-best 12.0 rebounds. If she keeps it up, the 6-foot-4 center could top Chamique Holdsclaw’s single-season record average of 11.6 rebounds, set in 2002.
“The rebounding part has been the dominant part,” Sun coach Mike Thibault said. “It’s been better than I expected. I knew she was a good rebounder but she has been relentless about getting the ball.”
Charles also has 15 double-doubles in Connecticut’s 21 games this season, two behind the rookie record shared by Yolanda Griffith (1999) and Candace Parker (2008), and four behind the league mark set by Natalie Williams (2000).
The AP reports:
Diana Taurasi scored 26 points, Candice Dupree had 23 and the defending champion Phoenix Mercury set a WNBA scoring record with a 123-91 victory over the Tulsa Shock on Thursday night.
Ketia Swanier added 17 points, Tangela Smith 13, DeWanna Bonner 11 and Penny Taylor 10 for the Mercury (9-12), who also set records with 67 points in the first half, most points in the second quarter (36) and most field goals in a half (25).
Kara Braxton scored 18 points to lead the Shock (4-18). Shanna Crossley had 12 points, Jennifer Lacy added 11, and Ivory Latta and Amber Holt 10 each.
The Phoenix Suns today named distinguished sports attorney Lon Babby the club’s president of basketball operations.
“Our organization is fortunate to have someone of Lon’s experience and talent to head-up our basketball staff,” said Suns Managing Partner Robert Sarver. “He brings with him a unique set of skills and a great reputation in the business.”
With almost 35 years as a practicing attorney with Washington, DC-based Williams & Connolly, LLP, Babby brings a wealth of experience as an industry leader in sports and contract negotiations. Identified as one of “Washington’s Top Lawyers” for media and sports law by Washingtonian magazine, one of the “20 Most Influential Agents” in the nation by Sports Business Journal and one of the 100 most powerful in sports by The Sporting News, Babby joins one of the NBA’s most storied franchises, which owns the league’s fourth-highest winning percentage all-time (.561), and becomes only the fourth basketball president in the team’s 43-year history.
One of the industry’s most successful and well-regarded player agents, Babby brings his unique perspective of having represented players for 16 years to the management side. Babby entered player representation in 1994 when he was retained by current Suns forward Grant Hill. Together the pair devised a new model of player representation based on charging players on an hourly basis, rather than the traditional contract percentage. His principled approach became an alternative that appealed to the elite “good guy” athletes and his stable of clients grew to include some of the NBA’s most respected sportsmen, including Boston’s Ray Allen, San Antonio’s Tim Duncan, Houston’s Shane Battier and Hill, a three-time winner of the NBA Sportsmanship Award. Babby also represented marquee Major League Baseball players and the WNBA’s Tamika Catchings.
Babby began his career in sports representing first the NFL’s Washington Redskins (1977-80) and then MLB’s Baltimore Orioles (1979-94). For the Orioles, he was intimately involved in the senior management of the club. He first served as club counsel and then general counsel, overseeing player contract negotiations, advertising and marketing contracts, labor issues and general business matters, including the construction of Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
A graduate of Lehigh University and Yale Law School and former editor of Yale Law Journal, Babby has served as an adjunct professor of law at George Washington University Law School. He began his career as a litigator and handled several high-profile cases including the defense of John Hinckley, Jr., who shot President Reagan. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and in 2007 was elected to the Greater Washington, DC Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
The 59 year-old Babby was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and grew up in Valley Stream, N.Y. He and wife Ellen met at summer camp at age 16 and have been married for 37 years. The couple has a son, Ken (30), who is a senior executive at The Washington Post Company, and a daughter, Heather (26), who is a marketing specialist at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.
WENN.COM reports:
Executives behind basketball ace-turned-reality TV star Shaquille O’Neal’s hit show SHAQ VS. have reached a settlement with a disgruntled author who alleged they stole his concept for the programme.
Writer Todd Gallagher filed suit against O’Neal’s talent representatives at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment in October (09), claiming they had agreed to turn his book, Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan, into a TV series in 2008…
The court case has now been dismissed after the two parties reached a deal. The details of the settlement have not been released to the press but is said to be in the six-figures, according to TMZ.com.
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The Utah Jazz announced today that the team has signed guard Raja Bell to a multi-year free agent contract. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not released.
“Raja has proven to be an excellent three-point shooter over a number of years and is a good defender who brings a toughness on the perimeter,” said Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor. “He knows Coach Sloan’s system and what he expects of him. Raja had a lot of choices and we’re happy he chose the Jazz.”
Bell (6-5, 215, Florida International) owns career averages of 10.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 604 career games (383 starts) over 10 NBA seasons with Philadelphia, Dallas, Utah, Phoenix, Charlotte and Golden State since entering the league on a 10-day contract in April 2001. Bell has also appeared in 68 career playoff games (40 starts), averaging 8.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 25.9 minutes with Philadelphia, Dallas and Phoenix.
Twice named to the NBA All-Defensive Team (First Team in 2006-07 and Second Team in 2007-08), Bell will enter the 2010-11 season ranked 11th in NBA history in career three-point field goal percentage (.411), minimum 250 made, and is fifth on that list among active players. Bell has shot at least .400 from beyond the arc in each of the last six seasons, hitting 100+ three-pointers in five of the last six campaigns.
In two seasons during his first stint with the Jazz (2003-05), Bell appeared in 145 games (36 starts) and averaged 11.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 26.3 minutes. He currently ranks fifth in Jazz history in three-point accuracy (.387, minimum 50 made).
Bell’s best statistical season came in 2005-06 with Phoenix, when Bell appeared in 79 games (all starts) and registered career-high averages of 14.7 points and 2.6 assists to go with 3.2 rebounds in a career-high 37.4 minutes per game.
In 2009-10, Bell appeared in six games with Charlotte and Golden State before missing the remainder of the season following left wrist surgery. Bell saw action in five games for Charlotte (all starts) before being traded to Golden State on November 16, 2009, playing one game for the Warriors prior to the season-ending surgery. Bell averaged a combined 11.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 30.0 minutes between the two teams.
A native of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Bell was undrafted out of Florida International in 1999 and played in the USBL, CBA and IBL before the Philadelphia 76ers signed him to a 10-day contract on April 6, 2001.
Zach Buchanan of the Arizona Republic reports:
Scottie Reynolds’ entire career at Villanova – 139 games – was not enough to get him drafted in June.
But a three-game, injury-shortened stint on the Suns summer-league squad was enough to secure him an invite to training camp. Reynolds has already been asked to camp, a source said, although he is considering offers from a few other teams.
Reynolds averaged 10.3 points and 4.7 assists in the Suns’ final three games of summer-league play after missing the first two with an Achilles injury. His worst game came Thursday in Phoenix’s 86-76 wrap-up loss to the Golden State Warriors, contributing only seven points and two assists in 26 minutes.
The AP reports:
Golden State Warriors owner Chris Cohan reached an agreement Thursday to sell the franchise for a record $450 million to Boston Celtics minority partner Joe Lacob and Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber.
“I am incredibly excited to have the opportunity to be the next steward of this storied NBA franchise. This is my dream come true,” said Lacob, who is also the managing partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. “Peter and I intend to do what we do best _ innovating and building. It is our passion to return the Warriors to greatness and build nothing short of a championship organization that will make all of us in the Bay Area proud.”
Lacob and Guber beat out Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who had been considered the favorite to buy the team from Cohan. Ellison has a personal fortune of $28 billion, according to an annual survey by Forbes magazine, and is the sixth-richest man in the world.
The Phoenix Suns today acquired forward Hedo Turkoglu (TURK-oh-lue) from the Toronto Raptors in exchange for guard Leandro Barbosa and forward/center Dwayne Jones, the club has announced. The trade is pending the completion of physicals.
“Hedo is a versatile player and somebody who we always thought would fit into our system,” said Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry. “He is a good ball handler who can create plays for other people and who can play three different positions. He’ll fit well into what we’re trying to do here.”
In the 6-10, 220-pound Turkoglu, the Suns acquire a multi-dimensional player who is both a premier long-range shooter and a top passer at his position. Turkoglu owns career averages of 12.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 28.2 minutes in 752 games (443 starts) with the Sacramento Kings (2000-03), San Antonio Spurs (2003-04), Orlando Magic (2004-09) and Toronto Raptors (2009-10).
In 10 career seasons, Turkoglu has made seven playoff appearances and has won a postseason series in all but one of those appearances, including a trip to the 2009 NBA Finals as a member of the Magic. The 31-year-old Turkoglu averaged 15.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists in helping to lead Orlando to the franchise’s second berth in the league’s championship series. Overall, Turkoglu’s teams are 9-7 (.563) in playoff series all-time.
The first Turkish-born player in NBA history, Turkoglu has averaged double-digit scoring in each of his last six seasons, including 15.8 points over his five-year tenure with the Magic. A willing and capable passer, Turkoglu is one of only three NBA forwards who have averaged at least four assists in each of the last three seasons, joining Miami’s LeBron James and Philadelphia’s Andre Iguodala. Turkoglu has made 100 or more three-pointers in each of the last five seasons, averaged 126 threes in that span (631-of-1644, .384) and is a career 38.3-percent shooter from long range.
Turkoglu’s best career season came in 2007-08 when he was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player after averaging 19.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists.
One of the league’s top clutch shooters, Turkoglu has made six game-winning shots in the final seconds of a game since 2006-07 and game-clinching free throws on two other occasions in that span.
Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Turkoglu played four seasons for Efes Pilsen of the Turkish Professional League from 1996-2000 before being selected by Sacramento with the 16th overall pick in the first round of the 2000 NBA Draft. His NBA signing was a national sports event in his native Turkey that featured a nationally televised press conference.
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The Phoenix Suns today acquired swingman Josh Childress in a sign-and-trade deal with the Atlanta Hawks, the club has announced. In exchange, Atlanta receives the Suns’ 2012 second-round draft pick. Childress has signed a five-year contract.
“Josh is a tremendous athlete who can play multiple positions,” said Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry. “We think he is going to be a great perimeter defender who can bring a lot on the offensive end as well with his ability to slash. Josh will add a lot to our team because he is so multitalented.”
The Suns’ agreement with the 6-8, 210-pound swingman means Childress will return to the NBA in 2010-11 after spending the last two seasons with Greek club Olympiacos, the most successful basketball franchise in Greece and a traditional European powerhouse, where he signed following the 2007-08 NBA season. Most recently, Childress led Olympiacos to a 23-3 record in Greek League play in 2009-10 and a berth in the Greek League Finals. Childress averaged a team-leading 15.8 points and 5.4 rebounds in Greek League action last season and also posted 15.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in Euroleague play.
The 27-year-old Childress owns four years of NBA experience, all with the Hawks, and career averages of 11.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.0 steals in 31.3 minutes in 285 games (67 starts). He is a career 52.2-percent shooter from the field, including 36.0 percent from three-point range, who has averaged double-digit scoring in all four of his NBA campaigns.
Childress last played in the NBA in 2007-08 when he was the top reserve on an upstart Atlanta Hawks team that ended an eight-year playoff drought and pushed the eventual NBA Champion Boston Celtics to seven games in their opening round series. That season, he averaged 11.8 points and 4.9 rebounds in 29.9 minutes in 76 games, all off the bench, while shooting an impressive 57.1 percent from the field.
Originally selected by the Hawks with the sixth overall pick in the 2004 NBA Draft, Childress was a three-year performer at Stanford where he became the first Pac-10 Player of the Year in school history in 2003-04. Childress led the school to three NCAA tournament appearances and the 2003-04 Pac-10 title.