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NBA Rumors: Friday, Nov. 20
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The Knicks’ pursuit of Allen Iverson is dead. In an abrupt reversal, Knicks officials decided late Thursday not to offer Iverson a contract, putting an end to their brief flirtation, according to a person close to the deliberations. Although team officials were highly intrigued by Iverson, a four-time scoring champion, they finally decided that he posed too great a risk because of his long history of problems on and off the court. NY Times

Team officials spent three days weighing the potential merits and pitfalls of signing Iverson, and alternately talked themselves into and then out of making the move. On Tuesday the team president, Donnie Walsh, called it unlikely. Two days later he seemed open to it. Coach Mike D’Antoni was one of the first to be sold on the idea. NY Times

The never-ending "hamstring watch" finally ended. Pau Gasol was back. After two setbacks and almost five weeks of limping around on the most scrutinized leg muscle of the season, Gasol returned to the Lakers, looking as if he had never left them. The box scores show he missed 11 games, but he was in late-season form in a 108-93 victory Thursday over the Chicago Bulls at Staples Center. Gasol had 24 points and 13 rebounds in 35 minutes. The Lakers had the starting five they envisioned for months. LA Times

"I really wasn't expecting to be as effective as I was tonight," Gasol said. "The condition isn't there yet, but it's a matter of pushing through it. I'm just really happy that I can play again with my teammates after being out for a while." LA Times

Andrew Bynum had 11 points and eight rebounds, a definite dip in his stats, though he played only 24 minutes because of foul trouble. He also jammed his ankle but is not expected to miss Sunday's game against Oklahoma City. "I wouldn't expect that anybody's going to have the same numbers now that Pau's back," Jackson said. "Everybody's got to give up something, but the team should gather something from that as an overall factor." LA Times

James Dolan never played in the NBA, but the chairman of Madison Square Garden has the power to do what few players ever could: Stop Allen Iverson. According to a high-ranking Knicks official, Dolan has reservations about the club signing Iverson, the multi-talented yet controversial guard who became a free agent last night after clearing waivers. NY Daily News

Dolan's concerns about Iverson won't necessarily be deal-breakers. NY Daily News

A final decision on Iverson could come as early as today, although there is a strong feeling around the NBA that the Knicks will not make a move until after they play back-to-back games against the Nets and Celtics tomorrow and Sunday, respectively. NY Daily News

Walsh and Mike D'Antoni will likely sell Dolan on the fact that Iverson is a low-risk investment because he will earn only a pro-rated $1.3 million salary for this season. At that price, the Knicks could release Iverson if he causes any trouble. NY Daily News

After months of growing discord and mistrust between the Houston Rockets and their once-franchise player, Tracy McGrady and coach Rick Adelman engaged in an emotional and sometimes loud closed-door confrontation about the star’s uncertain status on Wednesday night, sources told Yahoo! Sports. The argument was precipitated when McGrady arrived at the Target Center in Minneapolis so determined to have a substantive discussion with his coach that he dressed in his game uniform and undertook his pregame routine as though he hadn’t been activated after missing 41 straight games with microfracture surgery on his left knee. Yahoo

As McGrady walked back to the locker room after shooting with his teammates on the court, he passed Adelman in a corridor and his appearance in uniform appeared to surprise his coach. The fact McGrady had asked the equipment manager to bring out his uniform – especially on the Nov. 18 date that he had recently told Yahoo! Sports was his target for a return – clearly had his coach’s attention. Yahoo

Eventually, Adelman returned to the locker room and retreated with McGrady into an adjacent coach’s office. McGrady slammed the door behind him, a witness said, and that marked the start of a tense, sometimes loud exchange that could be heard in the locker room, sources said. In the discussion, McGrady challenged Adelman to tell him the coach’s plans and timetable for the seven-time All-Star’s eventual return to the roster, sources say. McGrady felt like Adelman had been uncommunicative with him for weeks, and no longer wanted to hear from Rockets general manager Daryl Morey or trainer Keith Jones about the team’s desire to make him wait until next week to take another MRI. Yahoo

Sources say McGrady has started to wonder whether the Rockets want him back with this team, or whether they’ve been motivated to let him sit and collect on insurance money. Assuming that McGrady is covered under the NBA’s Temporary Total Disability (TTD) insurance policy, Houston can start to collect up to 80 percent of his prorated per-game salary after he’s missed 41 consecutive games. McGrady sat out his 42nd straight game Wednesday in Minnesota, and the league insurance plan would reimburse the Rockets for any additional missed games. Yahoo

After the Hornets fired Byron Scott last week, the speculative game of the next NBA coach to be fired landed on Mike Dunleavy. "I understand fans," he said. "I don't blame fans. They're not technically a lot of times savvy. They don't understand and they don't weigh issues the way that you weigh them. They know wins and losses. LA Times

"We've had an awful run with this, but my track record is that I have not lost with my players. I have lost without my players, but I haven't lost with my players. From an ownership standpoint, I know there's always a lot of pressure. I'll live with whatever decision our owner makes. I'll live by it." Dunleavy added: "I'm not saying my job is secure. But I'm not saying it's not. Obviously, it's up to our owner." LA Times

Instead of describing how he's turned around his life since the Malice in the Palace, the always unpredictable Ron Artest had a different message on the five-year anniversary of the NBA's most infamous brawl. "I still don't believe I should have lost that much money," he said before Thursday's game against Chicago. The league suspended Artest 73 games after he went into the stands in Detroit, costing him approximately $5 million in salary. Artest estimated he lost an additional $2 million in endorsements as a result of the incident. Press Enterprise

"I would still like to have a million or something back," Artest said. "I didn't bring no controversy into the stands, the stands brought the controversy to me. So that's what is frustrating for me still to this day. I didn't start it." Press Enterprise

Although Artest insisted he's still "the same old person" in spite of the brawl, his actions suggest otherwise. Not only did he reveal early this season that he's seen a sports psychologist since last season to help him cope with his anger problems, he's also made peace with the man who provoked him by throwing the cup of soda at him five years ago. Press Enterprise

The Charlotte Bobcats are in a six-game losing streak entering tonight's game against the Milwaukee Bucks. To say the point guards deserve all the blame wouldn't only be unfair, it would be dangerously simplistic. But if you could make just one fix, point guard would undoubtedly be your focus. Case in point: The score was tied when the Bobcats exited a timeout with the ball and about 30 seconds left Wednesday in Philadelphia. If ever a play should run smoothly, it's late-game directly following a timeout. Charlotte Observer

Afterward coach Larry Brown began a sentence with "The point guards..." then abruptly stopped speaking, apparently to avoid saying something he'd regret. I asked Brown if he was considering lineup changes, and he replied he didn't feel justified blaming one person for this loss. Charlotte Observer

Andrew Bogut's value to the Milwaukee Bucks is evident every time he goes out of the lineup. Now the team will have to cope for two to four weeks without the 7-foot center after he suffered a left leg strain and contusion late in the Bucks' 99-85 victory over New Jersey on Wednesday night. The Bucks are off to a surprising 6-3 start behind the steady play of Bogut and rookie point guard Brandon Jennings, and they've been successful despite the absence of injured shooting guard Michael Redd. Just as they are about ready to get Redd back in the starting five, they will be missing their fifth-year big man. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Veteran centers Dan Gadzuric and Kurt Thomas should play increased minutes in Bogut's absence, and Hammond said, "It's those players' responsibility now to step up." Thomas, a 15-year veteran who played last season with Tim Duncan in San Antonio, was part of the Richard Jefferson trade in June. And he was the only player the Bucks kept out of that deal, in part for just such an occurrence. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Redd is still out for a few more games due to a patella injury, although he was able to take part in the team's non-contact practice session Thursday at the Bradley Center. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

An order for The Mailman's delivery into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has officially been placed. The nomination paperwork required for Karl Malone to become a member of the Class of 2010 was recently submitted to the hoops haven, a source told the Deseret News. It arrived well ahead of the Nov. 30 deadline, setting in motion the wheels on the postal truck that will ship his basketball legacy to Springfield, Mass. The official documents and endorsement, by the way, were postmarked in Utah — by the Jazz, Malone's team for 18 years — and not from his last delivery stop in Los Angeles. Deseret News

And Malone is considered a slam dunk — make that a powerful hammer dunk with his left hand placed behind his head — to be enshrined on his first ballot. His favorite point guard, Stockton, and his longtime coach, Jerry Sloan, received that elite, first-try Hall of Fame honor when they became enshrined with the Class of 2009 in September. Deseret News

They eventually lost, 87-81, but when the Pistons were at their best, Ben Gordon was on the bench. He didn't play one minute of the fourth quarter. You'd think that a player with Gordon's credentials would have been doing a slow burn afterward. But Gordon later said he agreed with first-year coach John Kuester's decision to go with the hot group. "The last group that was out there was playing really well," Gordon said. "I thought it was important to let those guys stay out there. They had a great flow going. They got us all the way back from down 20, so, at that point, Coach saw (no) point to interrupt that lineup. "I was in full agreement." Detroit Free Press

George Karl suggested his team has achieved 30 layups in 80 percent of the games. Moreover, Denver (8-3) is sixth in the conference with 41.4 points in the paint per game. And here's the big one. The Nuggets are first in the NBA with 26.7 free throws made per game, more than three made free throws per game than any other team. Translation? Nuggets + paint = production. Against Toronto, the Nuggets notched 68 points in the paint, prompting Raptors coach Jay Triano to say: "They just destroyed us (in the low post)." Denver Post

Chris Bosh: "Every day I turn on the TV and they're talking about guys, especially my draft class, '03 draft class, and this and that," he said. "They keep bringing up all these and I never hear my name, unless I'm like second honourable mention or something like that. I got tired of that. "I don't even think people know I've made all-star teams or know what I've done in this league." This is the new – vastly improved – Bosh talking, a guy with more consistent determination, greater bulk and numbers that place him among the very best in the NBA right now. Toronto Star

Raptors: Heading into Friday night's home game against the Miami Heat, they're the best offensive team in the NBA, according to the points-per-100-possessions efficiency stats. They're also the league's worst defensive team by the same method of measure. So logic suggests a defence and rebounding specialist like Evans, if he clogged even a few of Toronto's many in-the-paint pores, could be indispensable. "I don't want to put it all on one guy's shoulders ... but there have been nights when we've gotten eaten alive on the glass. And Reggie would be able to go in and stop that flow," Bryan Colangelo, the president and general manager of the Toronto Raptors, was saying Thursday. "Whether it was a five-minute span or a 10-minute span or what have you, he's a weapon." Toronto Star

But the point of Reggie Evans' problem is a damaged ligament in the area of the notoriously finicky Lisfranc joint. Colangelo said he has been told by doctors that Evans could be at risk of a more serious injury – say, a fracture in one of the many surrounding bones – if he plays before he is fully healed. "It could be two weeks (before Evans plays). It could be four weeks. It could be six weeks, it's that unknown," Colangelo said. "We want to make sure he's 100 per cent healthy before he goes out there and has a worse injury because he's not healed." Toronto Star

Forward Ike Diogu, who has been sidelined since the beginning of training camp with a strained left knee -- an injury he sustained during an offseason weightlifting session -- could get back onto the court by today. "I've sat out the mandatory two weeks, so I guess I'm going to try to test it in practice, do some things, get up and down and see how I feel, " Diogu said. "Hopefully it does feel good and the rest helps, and I'll be able to get out and play. "I really can't tell (how the knee feels) because I wasn't doing anything. I guess I'll know when I get to get out there on the court, bang around and run and see how it feels. I think I'll be evaluated (today) and do a little bit more than I have been doing, because I haven't been doing anything. I think I'll actually start doing some stuff (today) and just keep building from there." New Orleans Times Picayune

Samuel Dalembert went to the bench with two fouls just 6:34 into the game and only returned for the first 7:34 of the second half. He ended up going scoreless with no blocks and two rebounds. "Whatever minutes you give a guy, that's what he's going to give," Dalembert said. "Nobody's Superman or a superhero going to come out and play 15 minutes or 17 minutes and (put up big numbers). (Brand against Charlotte) was a perfect example. Either you believe in a guy or you don't. You cannot be halfway." Philly Burbs

With sixth man Marreese Speights expected to miss six to eight weeks with a partially torn MCL, Jordan essentially has three fourth-quarter big-man options - Dalembert, Brand or reserve Jason Smith. Brand was on the court for 9:14 of the final period Wednesday, with Smith handling the other 2:46. Philly Burbs

Jrue Holiday: "They'll have me go to the grocery store and buy something crazy," he said. "I have to bring doughnuts before every shootaround at home games. I go and get the doughnuts that I want and eat them before I bring the rest. So it works for me. "The toughest part is probably being by myself. I mean, my dad has been here a couple of weeks, and my grandma is here. But I really don't have friends like I did back in college to just hang out with. I'm young and am in Philadelphia, and not knowing what to do or [not] being old enough to do some stuff. You can't play video games all the time. But I talk to my teammates all the time. They all went through that. They help me a lot in telling me not to be frustrated with it. I try to be extra sharp, do the extra work and improve, so that I'm ready." Philadelphia Daily News

The Celtics expressed humility and realism regarding the Magic. They have suppressed feelings of superiority and entitlement, the Magic providing reminders of last season’s elimination, their recent record (three wins in six games) illustrating vulnerabilities. “I’ve moved on from it,’’ captain Paul Pierce said of the playoff defeat. “Last season is last season. I’m not looking at this as a revenge game. “It’s definitely a big game for us. Just try and make a statement against one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. You’re talking about a team that’s going to be there in the end, one of the best records in the league. So, we’re playing for home-court advantage and this is a team that we have to beat.’’ Boston Globe

Asked if he believes the Magic are better than the Celtics, Kendrick Perkins replied, “I think so. They’ve got more experience. I think we’ll see late into the season how teams are playing. It’s early right now. A lot of teams are playing well - Atlanta, Milwaukee, Chicago, Miami. So it’s hard to say right now, so you just never know.’’ The Perkins-Howard duel could set the tone. Boston Globe

Arenas' Twitter silence didn't last that long at all. The Wizards guard, who is returning to the entertaining ways that helped make him one of the most visible stars in the NBA, just a short while ago put out a TwitVid, telling all of his fans to follow him on Twitter. And helping Arenas out in his campaign to land a million followers are young teammates Nick Young and JaVale McGee. In the video, Arenas and Young are in the Wizards' locker room, and Young is standing there, and says, "You want a million followers, man? Alright, I'll follow you, if you follow Shaq. Shaq's got more than 2 million followers." Arenas (with a belt in hand): "Your [butt] wanna follow Shaq, huh?" Then the camera snaps to a different shot of Arenas upclose, who says "I advise you to follow me, or this is what will happen to you" and the word WARNING appears on the screen. Washington Times Blog

Continuing his full-court press to build a new sports and entertainment complex in Sacramento, Mayor Kevin Johnson unveiled his "dream team" task force Thursday to review proposals. The mayor's 12-member volunteer group is made up of political consultants, finance experts, developers, a labor representative, local business people and a sports stadium architect. Sacramento restaurateur and arts advocate Lina Fat will serve as co-chair along with Christoper Lehane, a San Francisco-based political strategist who worked in the Clinton White House. Sacramento Bee

Officials with the Kings and the National Basketball Association say Arco Arena is antiquated, lacking enough luxury suites, restaurants, advertising opportunities and other amenities to generate robust revenue for the Kings to compete in the high-finance world of professional basketball. Sacramento voters overwhelmingly rejected a sales tax proposal three years ago that would have raised money for a new arena. Many residents said then and continue to say they are not willing to subsidize an arena with tax dollars, even if it means the Kings leave town. Sacramento Bee

Retired NBA star Jayson Williams has agreed to a plea deal that would send him to prison for up to three years for accidentally shooting a driver at his New Jersey estate in 2002, a person with knowledge of the case said. Toronto Sun

Austin "Red" Robbins, who helped the Utah Stars win the American Basketball Association championship in 1971, passed away Wednesday in Metairie, La. He was 65. Robbins, a red-headed 6-foot-8 forward out of Tennessee, made 11-of-12 shots from the field in Utah's 131-121 win over the Kentucky Colonels in Game 7 of the ABA Finals. The title, however, was not what he treasured most during his two-year stint (1970-72) in Salt Lake City. Deseret News

Marv Albert, the veteran NBA announcer for TNT, was in town for the Lakers-Chicago Bulls game Thursday night. On Wednesday, Albert was a guest on the "Jimmy Kimmel Live" show. The musical star was rapper 50 Cent. As Albert arrived, with an entourage of one, TNT public relations specialist Jeff Pomeroy, there was a sudden scuffle when a multitude of 50 Cent protectors seemed unfamiliar with Albert. There was shouting ("It's Marv Albert," yelled a Kimmel show guard, a pronouncement that seemed to have no effect on the 50 Cent phalanx.) There were obscenities. A fist or two flying. A "Don't you put your hands on me" pronouncement. And finally Albert made it to his waiting room, relatively unruffled but slightly puzzled. "Did you see that?" Albert said. "I thought they were kidding, but then I realized they weren't." LA Times

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