Oden chooses to sign two-year deal with Miami Heat

MIAMI (AP) -- Greg Oden still needs some time to get ready for the rigors of playing in the NBA.

He no longer needs a new team, however. The former No. 1 overall draft pick has chosen to sign with the two-time defending NBA champion Miami Heat, ending months of suspense over where the center whose career has been decimated by a series of knee problems would be attempting his comeback. The Heat were long perceived as the frontrunners to land Oden, and now have a 7-footer to help them try for a third straight title.

Mike Conley Sr., one of Oden's agents, said Friday night that the former Portland center accepted an offer worth about $1 million for this coming season and would have a player option for 2014-15.

"He just thought that it was the best fit for him, where he's at and especially for how it relates to him coming back," Conley said. "He can be on a winning team and be working his way in slowly."

The contract is expected to be formally signed early next week, Conley said.

"I think a 7-footer can help any team," Heat point guard Mario Chalmers said. "They're hard to find. I've known Greg since our high school days, talked to him a couple of times about this and you just hope for the best."

Oden told ESPN.com on Friday night that he still has "a lot of work to do."

And during their recruiting process, the Heat were obviously cognizant of that. Oden has not played in the NBA since fracturing his kneecap in a game on Dec. 5, 2009, but the Heat surely will not expect him to play big minutes right away, given that they are bringing back most of the rotation that won the last two league titles and will almost certainly be favored to win a third next season.

When meeting with Oden last month in Indianapolis, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra laid out what Miami's plans would be as far as potential roles and the former Ohio State star's ongoing rehabilitation, and whatever got said in that conversation resonated throughout the remainder of the decision-making process.

"The fact that Coach Spoelstra said all the right things, understood where he was at and what he wants, that impressed Greg quite a bit," Conley said.

Oden is the second No. 1 pick on the Heat roster, joining LeBron James, the top overall draft selection in 2003 - and someone who developed quite an affinity for Oden's game when the center was at Ohio State. Oden wound up leaving college after one season, then was taken by Portland at the top of the 2007 draft.

It was a spectacular failure, thanks to an array of injuries. Oden played in just 82 games - the equivalent of one full NBA season - during his four-plus years in the Blazers' organization, averaging 9.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks on 58 percent shooting.

Oden's health issues have dogged him since he was drafted. Right knee microfracture surgery - a procedure used to develop new, healthy cartilage - ended what would have been his rookie season before it ever started. He made his long-awaited NBA debut on Oct. 28, 2008, and sprained his right foot in that game, sidelining him for two weeks.

His next major injury issue came in February of that season, when he chipped his left kneecap and missed about a month. Oden returned for the final 21 games of that season - 15 before the playoffs, then six more in the postseason, when Portland was ousted by the Rockets.

He's played in a total of 21 games since, and the fractured kneecap in 2009 came just as he seemed to be hitting his best NBA stride. Another microfracture surgery awaited him in November 2010, and a third one was needed early in 2012, essentially ending his career with the Blazers. He was waived in March 2012.

"Time will tell," Heat president Pat Riley said earlier this summer, when asked if Oden could still be effective.

San Antonio, New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta and Sacramento also were believed to be seriously vying for Oden this summer, with a handful of other clubs expressing a lower level of interest.

"The scenario at San Antonio made sense for him also," Conley said. "You have a coach there in Gregg Popovich that's used to bringing players back slowly and Tim Duncan to learn from. He was definitely impressed with Mark Cuban in Dallas and meeting him, and he's really good friends with (coach) Monty Williams at New Orleans. It wasn't cut and dry across the board for Miami."

Still, the Heat won out, and did so at a bargain price.

Miami used the amnesty provision on Mike Miller last month, a move that could save the team more than $35 million in luxury-tax payments over the next two years. Oden likely could have gotten more money elsewhere, but the Heat have shown many times over the last three summers that they can get players to take less money in exchange for being part of a title-contending team.

"He wants to compete for championships," Conley said.

Original post @ http://www.nba.com/2013/news/08/02/oden-to-sign-with-heat.ap/

LeBron voted NBA's most popular player; Rose fourth

Kobe Bryant, take a backseat because LeBron James is once again the most popular NBA player.

According to an ESPN fan poll, the Miami Heat forward has unseated the Los Angeles Lakers star for the first time in four years.

Nearly 13 percent (12.9) of NBA fans said James was their favorite player this season, while 12.5 percent said Bryant was their favorite.

The Bulls' Derrick Rose placed fourth in the poll.

James had been the most popular player until "The Decision," when he announced he would leave Cleveland and be "taking my talents to South Beach."

Two NBA championships and a couple of Finals MVP awards have changed fans' perceptions, although casual followers still don't like him as much as when he was with the Cavaliers, according to the poll.

Rounding out the top five in the poll are: Kevin Durant, Rose and Dwyane Wade.

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/chi-lebron-james-nba-most-popular-player-20130727,0,3327032.story

Lakers hire former player Madsen as coach

Original post @ http://www.nba.com/2013/news/07/19/lakers-hire-madsen-as-coach.ap/ 

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) -- It didn't take long for the Los Angeles Lakers to promote Mark Madsen.

The former Stanford player who was part of the Lakers' NBA champion teams in 2001 and '02 was hired as the team's player development coach, along with Larry Lewis.

In May, Madsen was hired to coach the Los Angeles D-Fenders this season. Instead, he will help Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni, who says Madsen "has endless energy and is a workaholic."

Madsen played nine seasons in the NBA and spent the last two years as a Stanford assistant

Lewis spent last season as an assistant with the D-Fenders and before that was head of player development for the team.

NBA: Bucks formally announce signing of ex-Mavericks guard O.J. Mayo

Source: http://host.madison.com/sports/basketball/professional/nba-bucks-formally-announce-signing-of-ex-mavericks-guard-o/article_c7b7290a-83bc-58ae-96af-8353d5249fe2.html

One day after reportedly losing guard Monta Ellis to the Dallas Mavericks, the Milwaukee Bucks officially added free-agent guard O.J. Mayo to the roster.

In a deal in the works for more than a week, the Bucks on Saturday announced the signing of the former Mavericks standout. The news comes less than 24 hours after ESPN reported that Ellis will leave Milwaukee and sign with the Mavericks in deal reportedly worth $25 million over three years.

Mayo, 25, averaged 15.3 points and 4.4 assists for Dallas last season, when he was the only Mavericks player to see action in all 82 regular-season games. He shot 44.9 percent from the field, 40.7 percent from 3-point range and 82 percent from the free throw line in 349 attempts.

Originally selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the third overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, Mayo was dealt to Memphis on draft night. He played his first four seasons with the Grizzlies before signing with Dallas as a free agent prior to the 2012-13 season.

The former USC athlete has appeared in 383 games in his five-year career, averaging 15.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.1 steals per contest. Mayo’s 383 games played are the fifth-most in the league since the start of the 2008-09 season, and he’s avoided missing a single game in four of his five seasons thus far.

NBA's Howard makes decision, moves from LA - reports

The tug-of-war between five teams to sign Dwight Howard appeared to be over on Friday with multiple media outlets reporting that the seven-time All-Star center was heading to the Houston Rockets.

Howard, who joined the Los Angeles Lakers from the Orlando Magic in a blockbuster 12-player trade in August 2012, had been favouring a move to Houston, despite facing a substantial paycut by opting to leave the Lakers, reports said.

The 27-year-old, who had also been courted by the Dallas Mavericks, the Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors, was eligible to sign for five years and $118 million with Los Angeles or four years and $88 million with any other team.

ESPN said on Friday that Howard had informed the Mavericks, the Hawks, the Warriors and the Lakers that he would not be signing with any of them, though the Lakers said they had not yet been given news about Howard's decision.

"He hasn't finalised his decision but we hope and expect him to make a decision today or tomorrow," Howard's agent, Dan Fegan, was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times.

Earlier in the day, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted: "While we are excited & cautiously optimistic @DwightHoward might choose Houston, we have not yet heard about his decision."

Free agent Howard, a three-time NBA defensive player of the year who is popularly known as 'Superman' because of his athletic prowess, consulted all five teams earlier this week.

The Lakers met up with Howard on Tuesday and their pitch focused on the future -- on how they would be able to embellish Howard's brand off the court while returning on-court greatness to a franchise that has piled up 16 NBA championship titles.

Lakers All-Star Kobe Bryant, a five-time NBA champion, played a key role in trying to woo Howard, telling him: "You need to learn how it's done first, and I can teach you here.

"I know how to do it and I've learned from the best - players who have won multiple times over and over."

However, Bryant and Howard did not always see eye-to-eye last season under the guidance of coach Mike D'Antoni before the Lakers were eliminated from the first round of the playoffs.

The prospect of being the kingpin on an ambitious Rockets team which also includes James Harden, Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin and promising center Omer Asik was always likely to be an alluring one for Howard.

His arrival in Houston would instantly make the Rockets genuine contenders for the Western Conference championship.

Original post @ http://tvnz.co.nz/basketball-news/nba-s-howard-makes-decision-moves-reports-5495997

Heat, Spurs set for Game 7 of NBA Finals

(Sports Network) - The Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs will engage in one of the greatest spectacles in sports on Thursday night, a Game 7 for the NBA Championship.

After an entire preseason, an exhausting 82-game regular season and a grueling postseason, the Larry O'Brien Trophy is at stake in just one game.

"The moment is going to be grand," MVP LeBron James said on Wednesday.

Grand and rare.

 

The last Game 7 in the NBA Finals took place in 2010 when the Los Angeles Lakers held off the Boston Celtics. Prior to that, in 2005, these Spurs won their third NBA title in a seven-point victory over the Detroit Pistons.

Both home teams triumphed in those Game 7s. That's a theme. The last five Game 7s in NBA Finals history have all gone to the host. The last time a road team pulled off the enormous feat of winning a Game 7 on the road came in 1978 when the Washington Bullets beat the Seattle Supersonics in Seattle.

"I think we should be happy about that opportunity to try to make history," said Spurs guard Tony Parker. "It's a great challenge. We know we can beat them here. We just have to do it again.

"If you told me before the season that we'll be 3-3 in The Finals against Miami, I think everybody on the team will sign up for it." Everyone on the Spurs might, but they will have a tough time shaking the notion that a seventh game shouldn't have been required.

Up five points with 28 seconds on the clock in Tuesday's Game 6, the Heat got an offensive rebound and James made a 3-pointer. San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard went 1-for-2 from the free-throw line, then, once again, an offensive rebound doomed the Spurs.

Chris Bosh of Miami poked the ball to Ray Allen, who made a desperation trey with five seconds left. That tied the game and in overtime, San Antonio had another chance at the title.

Manu Ginobili, who was as dreadful in Game 6 as he was brilliant in Game 5, took the ball to the basket, down one, with less than 10 seconds left, but committed his eighth turnover. There was contact, but Allen buried two foul shots for a three-point Heat lead. Tim Duncan hit Danny Green with a beautiful, cross-court inbounds pass with under two seconds, but Bosh blocked the shot. Again, there was some contact, but the question now is, how can the Spurs put such a crushing loss, one Ginobili characterized as "devastating," behind them for Game 7?

"We've been through a lot," said Duncan, who had a monster first half of 25 points, but finished with 30. "Our core of guys have been through a lot together. We have some young talent here, but they're going to feed off of what we do. And Tony, Manu and I have been in this position before. We're excited about the opportunity."

Any loss like that, when you are tantalizingly close to a title, is heartbreaking. But some curious decisions by Spurs coach Gregg Popovich made the loss confusing to boot.

He sat Duncan during both Heat 3-pointers late in the fourth when a defensive rebound would have clinched the game, and the title. "It's not that simple. That's not why they got the 3s," explained Popovich. "Switching makes sense just to take away the 3. But on an offensive rebound, it's one of the toughest things in the NBA, to pick up people. And we had one guy who didn't pick up. "And then on the last possession we were switching at the 3-point line to take away the 3, and Boris Diaw has a little more speed than Tim Duncan, so it makes sense to have him out there reading at the 3-point line. Unfortunately we had two guys that went to LeBron and didn't switch with Bosh, and he went right to the hole. He's the guy who got the rebound.

"So it has nothing to do with Duncan."

Fine. But at the end of overtime, Parker, still one of the league's best penetrating guards, was on the bench.

But the Spurs will have to do their best to forget about Game 6. The team went to dinner following the loss and the experience was deemed positive.

"It helped. It did," said Duncan. "The other option is a bunch of us go back to our rooms and sit in our rooms and sit there by ourselves and beat yourself up. So it's always good to be around teammates and kind of get some stuff out in the open. We did exactly that."

The Spurs haven't faced a Game 7 since the 2008 Western Conference semifinals when they beat New Orleans.

The Heat are in their third Game 7 in the last two years. They eliminated the Boston Celtics in last season's Eastern Conference finals, and bettered the Indiana Pacers in this year's conference finals. Both of those wins came at American Airlines Arena. "We've been in Game 7s before, so we just try to stay in the moment," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

James was brilliant in Game 6 with 32 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds. It was his second triple-double of the series and he was the catalyst in Tuesday's fourth-quarter comeback.

With the Heat down 10 to start the fourth quarter, a headband-less James scored five buckets in the paint and swatted Duncan in a crucial moment. The Heat took the lead on an Allen layup, but what was interesting was, Dwyane Wade and Bosh were both on the bench. The unit that reclaimed the lead was James, Mario Chalmers, Allen, Mike Miller and Chris Andersen, who didn't play in the previous two games.

"It creates a lot of space," James said of that lineup. "With Mike and Ray, they stayed home on those guys a lot, it allows me to get downhill and get to the paint."

Now, the Heat have a chance to become the first repeat champions since the Lakers in 2009-10. It would be the franchise's third title.

"I want our team to go down as one of the greatest teams," said James. "And we have an opportunity to do that. Hasn't been many people to win back-to-back championships."

San Antonio can get its fifth ring. Duncan can become the second player in NBA history to win a title in three different decades. "We feel that obviously we like our chances, and to be in this situation, a Game 7, we're just going to leave it all out there and see what happens," said Duncan.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/

Tony Parker On Game 4: ‘I Will Be Ready’

SAN ANTONIO – Tony Parker will play tonight in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

“I will be ready,” the All-Star point guard said after participating in the San Antonio Spurs’ Thursday morning shootaround.

Parker provided no other information about the status of his ailing right hamstring. An MRI on Wednesday revealed a Grade 1 strain and he was listed as day-to-day. With each inquiry about pain or limited mobility, Parker stuck with the mantra, “I’ll be ready to play.”

The Spurs lead the series, 2-1.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was first to break the good news, but also kept any information regarding Parker’s ability to play at or near full strength, or if he’ll take precaution in how he’ll utilize Parker to himself: “He’ll play,” Popovich said. “Tony’s ready to go.”

That’s huge news for the Spurs, who desperately need their leading scorer and assist man of the postseason to orchestrate the offense against the Heat’s defense.

“When he’s going, he’s pretty much our whole offense,” said reserve guard Gary Neal, who said Parker looked good during a light shootaround. “We pretty much feed off of him as far as him scoring or him making plays for other people to score. That’s a big brick off of our shoulders that Tony’s coming out and playing tonight.”

Parker is averaging 23.1 ppg and 7.1 apg while shooting 47 percent in the playoffs.

Source: NBA.com