Nba Team

During a recent Houston Rockets practice at the Compaq Center, the equipment manager caught a mouse and showed it to the team's 7-foot-5 rookie center, Yao Ming. Yao studied the mouse at length. Then, turning, he called to his teammate, Moochie Norris, the shortest player on the team at 6-1. Norris is nicknamed Mouse. "Hey, Moochie, your brother is here!" Colin Pine, the man who is Yao's public voice, laughs as he tells the story. "Yao has a wonderful relationship with his teammates," Pine said.

Don't write off Lakers Shandel Richardson Sun Sentinel It's still kind of hard to write off the Lakers. You have to think a team with Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard will at some point get things together. The Lakers will be the surprise team of the second half of the season because they simply have too much talent to miss the playoffs. We've seen it in spurts, now expect them to sustain it for long stretches. The key for them, just like every other team, is staying healthy.

The price of admission to the National Basketball Association appears to be too expensive for Baltimore. Mayor Martin O'Malley said yesterday that the city's chances of luring an NBA team appear dim because the state is not willing to help pay for a new arena, which could cost as much as $200 million. The newly elected executive is not as hot on trying to attract an NBA franchise as former Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, whose administration talked to the San Antonio Spurs and other teams as part of an effort to boost the downtown economy.

A return for the Sonics Barry Stavro Los Angeles Times David Stern is ready to give whoever buys the Kings a get-out-of-jail-free card and bless a move to Seattle. With an inevitable change in zip codes coming, it's also time to ditch the Kings as a name. Truth is this franchise, in existence since 1949, has hardly been Kings-like. This will be its seventh straight losing season and it's been more than a decade since the team was a title contender. And after previous stops in Rochester, Cincinnati and Kansas City, this franchise has only a single NBA title, back in 1951 as the Rochester Royals.

SURE, THEY'VE been gone for more than three decades, but we still have a soft spot for the NBA franchise formerly known as the Baltimore Bullets. The now-Washington Wizards ended their season this past weekend, losing to the Miami Heat to conclude an 0-4 sweep. But it was an honorable effort and the pain shouldn't last. The Wizards had a turnaround year, their best in a quarter-century. The Bullets weren't much of a success when they came here from Chicago in 1963 either. But in a decade in Baltimore, a playoff-caliber team emerged with stars such as Wes Unseld, Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, Kevin Loughery, Gus Johnson and Jack Marin.

BEIJING - The U.S. men's basketball team is about to face 2004 gold medalist Argentina in this morning's semifinals, and you know what that means. Not only is it an honor to play the Argentines, they're a great team. Actually, they're not merely a great team, they're like an NBA team! Actually, they're not merely like a generic NBA team but the Boston Celtics in Bill Russell's prime! Actually, what it probably means is bad news for Argentina, which, by its record (5-1) and the way it has looked, might be only marginally better than Spain (which the U.S. squad beat by 37)

Bringing an NBA team to Baltimore would not only fail to create jobs, it would actually diminish the region's economy, according to a study by economists at UMBC.If an NBA team were to move to a new arena in the city, the resulting shift in consumer spending would reduce the personal income of every resident in the metro area by an average of $44 a year for the first 10 years, one of the authors, Dennis Coates, an assistant professor of economics, said yesterday.Coates presented the findings to the UMBC Social Sciences Forum.

A sampling of columns from around the country this week: Wide-outs: the NFL's divas A scourge is sweeping across the NFL landscape. It boasts the preening of Terrell Owens, the showboating of Chad Ocho Cinco, the sneer of Randy Moss. They are appreciated and even celebrated in some corners, condemned and vilified in others. Pampered yet petulant prima donnas, thy name is wide receiver, and they have become the game's brightest celebrities and, oftentimes, biggest headaches. So what makes receivers such different cats who crave attention with the same hunger they want the ball?

LOS ANGELES -- When Magic Johnson was a teen, one of his part-time jobs was to clean the offices of two successful African-American businessmen in his hometown of Lansing, Mich."

The NBA - and the NHL, for that matter - is never coming to Baltimore. That conclusion is as definitive as the one that came from the long-awaited, well-funded feasibility study on the downtown arena project earlier this week: that the current arena is, in layman's terms, a dump. It didn't have to be that way. We didn't have to have a fossil masquerading as our signature indoor entertainment venue in 2007. And we didn't have to eliminate ourselves as the home of a major indoor winter sports franchise.

Heat is on the Heat K.C. Johnson Chicago Tribune The Miami Heat better figure out a way to defend without flopping. OK, so that's not entirely fair to a defensive team schooled in the principles of Pat Riley. Erik Spoelstra is a terrific defensive coach and certainly can instruct his players to adjust to the league's new anti-flopping policy. But Dwyane Wade better read the fine print closely. So should Shane Battier, who is too good a defender to resort to such tactics.

Kim English isn't going to kick the NBA's door off its hinges. He'll have to gently open it up, even if the door creaks a little bit along the way. "I think he's a kid that will be great in a role where he has a year or two to learn under a veteran in the twilight of their career," said Ryan Hurd, English's coach at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass. "He'll run with that. With Kim, you'll find a guy that would take advantage of the opportunity. " English, a Missouri product and Baltimore native, is preparing for June 28th's NBA draft after capping a four-year college career with a strong senior season.

L.A. comes out ahead Shandel Richardson Sun Sentinel The city of Los Angeles was the biggest winner at the trade deadline. The Clippers and Lakers both made deals that moved them closer to competing with the Thunder. The Clippers acquired Nick Young from the Wizards for almost nothing (Brian Cook and a second-round pick). Young gives them another scorer in the backcourt to help offset the loss of Chauncey Billups. The Lakers made similar progress with the acquisition of point guard Ramon Sessions.

•••• A Super Bowl championship in Ray Lewis' final season.  Luke Broadwater, reporter, The Baltimore Sun •••• Peace. And by peace, that has to include education, employment, a clean environment, good nutrition, health care and better mass transit. I'm not asking too much, right?  Anne Tallent, editor,  b •••• An NBA team. I'd even be down with purple uniforms.  Wesley Case, reporter,  b •••• A magical way to eliminate all the rats.

Spurs are cracking Ira Winderman Sun Sentinel Hasn't Tony Parker just answered that, with all due respect to George Hill? For months now, as the Spurs have extended their dominance, there has been lingering doubt about the ability of such a veteran roster to endure. With Parker out two to four weeks, are we starting to see the first cracks? And that doesn't address the minutes being rung up by Manu Ginobili, who annually stands as the league's most significant question mark at this stage of the season.

Count on Celtics, Heat K.C. Johnson Chicago Tribune Assuming the Spurs keep holding off Father Time to finish with the league's best record, the Celtics and Heat will finish second and third, respectively. Many are shocked at the Celtics dumping Kendrick Perkins. But while the move may hurt them in some playoff matchups, Jeff Green will help them win more regular-season games as he can back up two positions and lessen Paul Pierce's load. The Heat simply have too much individual talent not to finish strong.

Pat Riley resigned yesterday as coach of the Miami Heat but will remain team president. Erik Spoelstra, a 37-year-old assistant, will succeed the Hall of Famer and become the NBA's youngest current coach. Spoelstra has never been a head coach at any level outside the NBA's summer league. Miami finished the season with the NBA's poorest record (15-67) and by far the worst of Riley's 25-year career. "I look forward to the challenge," said Spoelstra, who received word of the decision over the weekend.

A new Baltimore arena could be paid for with a special, regional tax and serve as an anchor for the revitalization of downtown's western edge, say city officials.In the most detailed discussion yet of the proposed sports venue -- which the city hopes will attract a major-league basketball or hockey team -- leaders of the project told a business group yesterday that Baltimore can support one more team and that landing it is not as far-fetched as many assume.But even without a team, the arena would, along with a refurbished Hippodrome Theater, be a co-anchor of an ambitious effort to stretch the glitter of the Inner Harbor to the west side of downtown, said Len Perna, a consultant hired by the city for the arena project.

Cavs will power up Josh Robbins Orlando Sentinel The Cavaliers learned last May that not even LeBron James can win an NBA title without a decent supporting cast. They won't make the same mistake this time around, not with King James able to opt out of his contract and become a free agent once the season ends. It's no secret the Cavs covet a a power forward who can shoot from long distance and create more driving lanes for James. It just so happens that the Wizards' Antawn Jamison and the Pacers' Troy Murphy can be had for the right price.

A sampling of columns from around the country this week: Wide-outs: the NFL's divas A scourge is sweeping across the NFL landscape. It boasts the preening of Terrell Owens, the showboating of Chad Ocho Cinco, the sneer of Randy Moss. They are appreciated and even celebrated in some corners, condemned and vilified in others. Pampered yet petulant prima donnas, thy name is wide receiver, and they have become the game's brightest celebrities and, oftentimes, biggest headaches. So what makes receivers such different cats who crave attention with the same hunger they want the ball?