Chris Duhon verbally agreed to a deal with the New York Knicks on Friday, the point guard and his agent told The Sporting News.

Gilbert Arenas is accepting less money from the Washington Wizards, invoking an attitude far, far removed from the world of his working-class fans.

Boston's police commissioner is asking for an independent review into the death of a man who stopped breathing while being arrested on the night the Boston Celtics won the NBA championship.

Mayor Mick Cornett was in a conference room waiting for a meeting to get started when city manager Jim Couch walked in and handed him a slip of paper with a single word on it: "Done."

Yao Ming has become a lottery pick, of sorts. The Rockets center is raffling a trip to the Beijing Olympics to raise money for his personal foundation, which he launched to help victims of the May 12 earthquake in China.

The SuperSonics will move to Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 season as part of a settlement announced Wednesday with the city of Seattle. The agreement ends a contentious relationship that culminated in a recent six-day federal trial over terms of the team's KeyArena lease.

The NBA hired Army Maj. Gen. Ronald L. Johnson on Tuesday as senior vice president of referee operations, a newly created position to help strengthen the league's officiating programs following the Tim Donaghy scandal.

Forwards Elton Brand and Corey Maggette have told the Los Angeles Clippers they will opt out of the final years of their contracts and become free agents.

Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant and Alex Rodriguez are the contenders for best male athlete as the ESPY nominees were announced Tuesday. The sports awards show will air July 20.

The Rockets began the free-agent recruiting period with an 11 p.m. call to Spurs guard Brent Barry on Monday, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said, but the team might already have hit a snag in its plan to bring back forward Carl Landry.

Antawn Jamison is back in the Washington Wizards fold. Now it's time to focus on Gilbert Arenas. The Wizards achieved a major free-agency goal Monday when two-time All-Star forward Jamison signed a four-year, $50 million contract. The deal also serves as an expensive piece of bait to lure Arenas, who had said he would not return unless the team also kept his friend.

The Rockets extended a qualifying offer to restricted free agent forward Carl Landry on Sunday.

If somebody hadn't let rumors of a mysterious kidney ailment go unanswered, Darnell Arthur, a 6-9 forward, might have gone as high as 15th in Thursday night's NBA draft.

Donté Greene and Joey Dorsey held their Rockets jerseys for the cameras, wearing broad smiles and with likely different expectations for their rookie seasons in the NBA.

Craig Ackerman will step this fall into the sizeable shoes of Gene Peterson and Jim Foley, succeeding the two longtime Houston favorites as the radio voice of the Rockets.

Yao Ming will return to light training with China's national team Friday, and expects to play in pre-Olympic warmup games.

For weeks, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey spoke of the grim probabilities and the odds stacked against a player taken as late in the NBA draft as Houston's pick will be tonight.

The Toronto Raptors have agreed in principle to acquire forward Jermaine O'Neal from the Indiana Pacers for point guard T.J. Ford, center Rasho Nesterovic, the 17th pick in the draft and a player to be named, Yahoo reported Wednesday.

While the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat continue to head-fake down to the final hours before deciding which way to go with the top two picks in the NBA draft, point guard Derrick Rose is very clear about his choice.

Suns center Shaquille O'Neal will lose his special deputy's badge in Maricopa County, Ariz., because of language he used in a rap video that mocks former teammate Kobe Bryant.

Wow was the key word for many of the 200 youth at the 2008 TMAC Approach basketball camp at Pin Oak Middle School on Monday, Jerome Solomon writes.

Brook Lopez worked out for teams picking as high as the Minnesota Timberwolves (No. 3) and the Seattle SuperSonics (No. 4), and he seems an almost certain selection in the top 10.

Just in case anybody had forgotten that Kobe Bryant has never won an NBA title without Shaquille O'Neal, the big man sent out a reminder.

MVP Kobe Bryant has a shot at another big prize after falling short of the NBA championship, and he'll have plenty of help. LeBron James is there. Dwyane Wade, too. They will lead a U.S. Olympic basketball team that was announced Monday and hopes to capture the gold medal in Beijing in August after a bronze in Athens four years ago.

Maybe Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's bent for statistical analysis and objective study will help him beat the odds in the NBA draft, Steve Campbell writes.

Texas' D.J. Augustin, UH's Robert McKiver and A&M's DeAndre Jordan are the top three Houston-area players who are hoping to hear their names called at Thursday's NBA draft.

The NBA wants disgraced referee Tim Donaghy to pay the league $1.4 million, including his wages for games on which he bet or provided inside tips to gamblers.

A little more than a year ago, the Boston Celtics hoped merely to win the draft lottery and to begin rebuilding again. They lost, but rarely have since, rolling to the league's best record and finally, the franchise's 17th championship.

Paul Pierce had not slept in 36 hours but the Boston Celtics captain was more than ready to greet the tens of thousands of fans who turned out Thursday for the rolling rally celebrating the team's first NBA championship in 22 years.

Celtics guard Sam Cassell had not been to the Finals since he was a Rockets teammate of Hakeem Olajuwon. He said he is back because he has a star big man again, but he said that is one of few similarities between Olajuwon and Kevin Garnett.

The Boston Celtics destroyed the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 on Tuesday night to take their 17th championship with the largest rout ever to clinch the championship.

The Celtics didn't come away from Game 5 feeling good that they still have two more chances to win Boston's first championship in 22 years.

Kobe Bryant scored 25 points and Lamar Odom added 20 as the Lakers staved off elimination by defeating the Celtics on Sunday night.

This marks the 29th time the NBA Finals have been 3-1 after four games. In each of the previous 28 times, the team leading has closed the deal and won the championship.

Rick Sund's first two weeks as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks convinced him the team is moving in the right direction and should keep Mike Woodson as coach.

When they finally broke through and celebrated on the fabled parquet floor of the Boston Garden in 1985, when Magic Johnson's junior skyhook struck a mortal blow to their age-old nemesis, the Los Angeles Lakers thought they had at long last buried the curse of the Celtics.

His head coach called him a rockhead. Well, at least he wasn't shooting bricks like so many of his teammates. Now the Los Angeles Lakers have to hope Sasha Vujacic can be the first pebble tumbling down the mountain that triggers an avalanche.

Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo, who sprained his ankle early in the third quarter of Game 3, did not practice Wednesday. His status for tonight is unknown.

As Kobe Bryant and his LA teammates watched helplessly, the Celtics came from 20 points down in the third quarter to take an improbable, amazing 97-91 win in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night at the Staples Center.

Former Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy did not back off his comments during the 2005 playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks, but Wednesday he disputed the claims of disgraced former NBA official Tim Donaghy that the league manipulated results of games for financial reasons.

NEVER mind that David Stern may not have fixed a game. Perception is reality in an industry dependent on the public trust. That's what makes the NBA commissioner's challenge so difficult. There may not be a paper trail proving games have been fixed, but there's unlikely to be one clearing the league either.

Vinny Del Negro was unveiled by the Chicago Bulls as their new coach at a news conference on Wednesday.

Disgraced former referee Tim Donaghy charged Tuesday that NBA officials encouraged league referees to influence the results of playoff series, including the Rockets' 2005 series against Dallas.

The Lakers were finally able to break through with an 87-81 win in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, Tuesday night at the Staples Center.

Vinny Del Negro has accepted his first head coaching job, agreeing to take over a Chicago Bulls team that went from 49 wins to 49 losses in a season and missed the playoffs after making the second round in 2007.

All of the head coaching openings in the league have now been filled and former Rockets and current Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeaux did not get an interview.

Since the NBA switched to the 2-3-2 format for the Finals in 1985, the home team has won the first two games 12 times, with 10 of the previous 11 winning the championship.

With players increasingly speaking out about the situation in Darfur and seeking to support the refugees there and in Chad, NBA commissioner David Stern said Sunday that he is not opposed to players making their positions known at the Beijing Olympics in August.

Michael Curry will be the next coach of the Detroit Pistons after having played for the team and worked as an assistant.

Vinny Del Negro has been offered the Chicago Bulls head coaching job, according to a person within the league who is familiar with the situation.

BOSTON — Another few minutes, maybe even seconds, and there would have been nothing left for the Lakers to do but go Big Brown and pull up.

Doug Collins and the Chicago Bulls won't be reuniting. Concerned that a second tenure as Bulls coach would spoil their friendship, Collins told chairman Jerry Reinsdorf to look elsewhere during a phone conversation Friday.

Phoenix general manager Steve Kerr said Saturday he had agreed to terms with Porter, who was an assistant with the Detroit Pistons.

He heard a pop and felt the pain. After waiting a decade to reach the NBA Finals, Paul Pierce was paralyzed not by injury as much as the thought that ? just like that ? the Finals were over for him.

A day after the Los Angeles Lakers, the top scoring team in the postseason, had just two fast-break points, coach Phil Jackson said the key to running better would be to do the other things better.

With Thursday's tip, Boston's Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce made their NBA Finals debuts and Rockets guard Tracy McGrady became the active player with the most career points to have never played in the Finals.

On the strength of Paul Pierce's strong second half, the Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers 98-88 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night at TD Banknorth Garden.

Plenty has changed in the two decades since the last NBA finals series between the Lakers and Celtics, and not only the arenas where it's contested.

Flip Saunders was fired as the Pistons' coach Tuesday, four days after Detroit was eliminated from the playoffs by the Boston Celtics. And more changes could be on the way for a team bounced from three straight conference finals.