Settlement reached in Kobe Bryant memorabilia case

Kobe Bryant

The Kobe Bryant memorabilia saga has ended with an apology from the Los Angeles Lakers guard’s parents and a settlement that allows less than 10 percent of the items originally intended for sale to be auctioned.

Bryant and a company that was auctioning off the memorabilia reached a deal one week before the two sides were due to go to trial in New Jersey. The agreement allows the sale of six items, which Goldin Auctions president Ken Goldin told ESPN.com on Monday morning he is confident still can sell for more than $500,000 combined.

Bryant’s parents, who had contracted with Goldin to sell the items, apologized in a written statement.

“We regret our actions and statements related to the Kobe Bryant auction memorabilia,” Joe and Pamela Bryant said in the statement provided by a publicist. “We apologize for any misunderstanding and unintended pain we have caused our son and appreciate the financial support he has provided over the years. We also apologize to Goldin Auctions for their inadvertent involvement in this matter and thank them for their assistance.”

Reported by Darren Rovell of ESPN.com

Heat beat Spurs in Game 2 to tie NBA Finals

Mario Chalmers

Mario Chalmers marched toward midcourt with a message.

”I felt like we had them on the ropes at the time. I told him, ‘Let’s go for the kill,”’ Chalmers said. ”He said, ‘I’m with you.”’

And once LeBron James joined in, the Miami Heat were back with a blowout in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Chalmers led the charge, James broke out to finish it with a flurry and the Heat used a 33-5 run to rout the San Antonio Spurs 103-84 on Sunday night and even the series at one game apiece.

James missed 10 of 13 shots through three quarters and the Heat trailed by a point late in the period before unleashing the lethal brand of basketball that led them to a franchise-record 66 wins this season.

Chalmers finished with 19 points, and James had 17 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three blocks – the best on Tiago Splitter’s dunk attempt – while shooting only 7 of 17 from the field…

The Heat made 10 of 19 3-pointers and got 13 points from Ray Allen, and 12 points and 10 rebounds from the previously slumping Chris Bosh.

Danny Green made all six shots, including five 3-pointers, and scored 17 points for the Spurs. They host Game 3 on Tuesday night.

Tony Parker had 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting for the Spurs, who were so precise in their 92-88 victory in Game 1 but threw the ball all over the white-surrounded court Sunday, committing 17 turnovers that led to 19 Miami points…

Tim Duncan shot 3 of 13 and finished with nine points and 11 rebounds…

The Spurs had only four turnovers in Game 1, tying an NBA Finals record low. But they surpassed that total in the first quarter, Parker committing two of their five after not coughing it up once in the opener, and the Spurs looked more like the sloppy Indiana Pacers from Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals than the Spurs of Game 1.

Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

Jason Kidd wants to be head coach of the Brooklyn Nets

Jason Kidd

Freshly retired NBA star Jason Kidd is pursuing the Brooklyn Nets’ head coaching job and his candidacy has been discussed within the highest levels of the organization, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Kidd has been talking with associates about the possibility of making the immediate leap from a Hall of Fame playing career to a head coaching job, and has been working to identify a staff of assistant coaches who could help him overcome the significant learning curve, sources said.

The Nets have considered Indiana Pacers associate head coach Brian Shaw as their top target for the vacancy, but are competing with the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets to secure him.

Reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports

NBA Finals Game 2 is must-win for Heat, says D-Wade

dwyane wade

“Must-win” talk is typically reserved for playoff games later in a series. But with a less than typical situation on hand for the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals’ 2-3-2 home-court format, Dwyane Wade already views Game 2 as critical against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night.

“It’s very urgent,” Wade said Saturday after the Heat’s practice. “Obviously you don’t want to go down 0 2 going to San Antonio for three straight games. Odds are not that good. They are not in our favor. We’re not a team that really says too much [like], ‘This is a must win game.’ But this is a must win game.”

Before losing the Finals opener on Thursday night, Miami was 7-2 at home in this year’s postseason. The Spurs are 6-1 in the playoffs at AT&T Center and 9-2 overall in Finals history in San Antonio.

LeBron James took a different public tone Saturday than his sidekick, saying, “Every game is important. Game 1, Game 2, 3, 4, no matter 2-3-2 format or it could be a 3-2-2 format. No matter what the format is, it’s The Finals.”

Reported by Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports

Charlotte Bobcats may try to trade for Chris Bosh this summer

Chris Bosh

The Charlotte Bobcats are looking to make a splash this summer and are open to trading their first-round pick in a package for an All-Star-caliber player. There are rumors the Heat will be looking to deal Chris Bosh, and the Bobcats, who are under the salary cap and could accept Bosh’s near-maximum deal, could be a prime candidate. As much as Charlotte would love to build through the draft, team officials understand they have to start winning and need a player to be the face of the franchise. Bosh could serve that purpose.

Reported by Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe

For some NBA Finals assistant coaches, future talk starts now

Mike Budenholzer is in his final series on the staff with the San Antonio Spurs. David Fizdale is now often mentioned as a candidate for jobs that could take him away from his job with the Miami Heat.

Meanwhile, all either of those guys could care about is beating the other in the NBA Finals.

Whenever a head-coaching vacancy is created in the NBA these days, it usually isn’t long before some of the league’s top assistants get mentioned as candidates to fill the role. Budenholzer was hired by the Atlanta Hawks last month as their new coach, and Fizdale has been mentioned as a potential hire in several cities so far during these playoffs.

It can be quite a distraction. But in the cases of Budenholzer and Fizdale, the task at hand in these finals takes absolute priority.

”For me he’s been a confidante for a long time, a really trusted professional and friend all at the same time,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Budenholzer, who’s been with him for all four of San Antonio’s previous championship runs. ”Highly gifted, highly intelligent young man who is going to do a great job, I believe.”

Budenholzer’s future is crystal clear: He’s moving to Atlanta.

In Fizdale’s case, any talk of his future is all speculation, most of which seems like news to him.

Reported by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press

Tony Parker having fun, happy to be back in NBA Finals

Tony Parker

Despite the notion they’re old, the Spurs are actually overall the younger, less-experienced team in these finals. Miami has nine players in their 30s to the six on the Spurs, and their Big Three and Bonner are the only Spurs to have played in the NBA Finals.

That makes it easier for the Spurs to enjoy this trip more than when they were the team expected to be here every year.

”We definitely are having fun,” Tony Parker said. ”I think we appreciate every moment. We don’t take anything for granted, because it’s been a long time. It’s been six years. Felt like forever. After the Memphis series, there was a lot of emotion.”

Heat veteran Shane Battier wasn’t exactly sold on the notion of this Spurs transformation into a happy-go-lucky group.

”Don’t believe them, first of all,” he said. ”They are extreme competitors and they have a level of self-deprecation I think that is part of them, but don’t buy it for one second. Those guys are killers. They’re cut-throat and they will stomp on you if need be, and we’re the same way.

”We appreciate the opportunity to play in the finals. Difficult to get here. Hardest thing you’ll do in this game is to try and win a championship, so we appreciate the opportunity and we want to make the most of it,” he said.

Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

Mo Cheeks should be new Pistons coach soon

maurice cheeks

The Detroit Pistons appear poised to make Maurice Cheeks their next head coach, in the effort to end the revolving door at that spot.

Cheeks and the Pistons have been engaged in negotiations in recent days, as multiple sources expressed optimism this saga, that began with the team firing Lawrence Frank at season’s end and wound up with the Pistons going through the complicated process of interviewing multiple candidates, has reached its end.

The Pistons hope to get a deal done before the end of weekend. Frank being due to receive nearly $4 million next season — the last guaranteed year of his contract — along with a portion of his fourth year could complicate matters as far as Cheeks’ contract length and amount.

Currently an assistant with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Cheeks has helped with the development of guards Russell Westbrook, Reggie Jackson and former Thunder guard Eric Maynor, who was traded to Portland this season. It’s a background the Pistons liked, especially since they’re still figuring out what they have in 2011 first-round pick Brandon Knight and they hope Cheeks could be a good mentor for him…

Cheeks’ consistency probably outweighed his tangible resume, as his career record doesn’t jump out at anyone (284-286 in nine seasons in Portland and Philadelphia), but he’s highly regarded around the league, especially in Oklahoma City.

Reported by Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News

Jason Collins marches in Boston gay pride parade

Jason Collins

NBA veteran Jason Collins has marched in Boston’s gay pride parade with Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy III, his onetime roommate at Stanford University.

Collins wore a T-shirt that read #BeTrue when he joined thousands of marchers Saturday.

In April, Collins became the first active player in one of the four major U.S. professional sports leagues to come out as gay. He wrote in an article for Sports Illustrated that the decision to go public came when Kennedy marched in last year’s parade and Collins didn’t feel that he could join him.

Reported by the Associated Press

LeBron rethinking game plan against Spurs

lebron james

Coming off a Game 1 loss when he saw his triple-double go to waste and was outdueled in the fourth quarter by Tony Parker, James knew he’d be hit from all sides about his approach for Sunday. The basic underlying tone was, why was he so content in the opener to set up misfiring teammates right until the final gun, rather than “go Cleveland’’ on the Spurs and try to win the game all by himself?

But he wasn’t about to tip his shooting hand.

“We’ll see what type of game plan I come out with,’’ he said. “It will be dumb of me to reveal it today.’’ …

He doesn’t need to reveal anything to anyone, but he does need to figure out how to solve a defense that is entirely different than the one that the Pacers presented in the Eastern Conference finals. Dwyane Wade talked about the need to “crack the code’’ in this next game to avoid a 2-0 series crater, and the one who that really falls on is James.

Reported by Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News