Associated Press
The NBA notebook …
HOUSTON ó San Antonio Spurs forward Robert Horry has decided against retirement and wants to return to the NBA for a 17th season, a Houston television station reported Friday.
Horry is set to become a free agent July 1.
“I don’t want to retire, especially after a year like I had last year,” Horry told KRIV-TV in Houston. “I know I could have had a better year. The year started off crazy for me with family issues and then it ended crazy for me getting hurt right at the end of the season.”
KNICKSGREENBURGH, N.Y. ó Sure, New York will be tough. Danilo Gallinari believes he is ready, since there was plenty of pressure playing in Milan.
Especially since he wore the same number as a giant of Italian hoops ó who now happens to be his coach.
Gallinari proved to be worthy of wearing Mike D’Antoni’s No. 8 back home, and hopes to win over the fans that jeered him on draft night when he dons a Knicks jersey with the same number next season.
“I think it is two different worlds,” the 19-year-old Gallinari said Friday at the Knicks’ training center. “There is a lot of pressure in Milan and a lot of pressure in New York. So I’m going to different places, but same place.”
Walsh said he got a strong recommendation from former coach Isiah Thomas after a European scouting trip, citing Gallinari’s poise in crunch time at such a young age.
“Basically at the end of games, they gave him the ball and he made the plays,” Walsh said. “For a guy that’s that big, that’s unusual.”
NUGGETSDENVER ó Sonny Weems, the Denver Nuggets’ newest draft pick, has caught a few glimpses of the brand of basketball his future teammates play.
The Arkansas product thinks his game is a perfect fit.
Just like the Nuggets, he prefers to get up and down the floor at a frenzied pace.
“I just bring it every day,” Weems said in a phone conversation on Friday. “I hustle. I give it my all on the court. I have heart.”
The Nuggets certainly believe in his talent, jumping back into the draft late Thursday night. The Razorbacks swing man was selected by the Chicago Bulls with the 39th overall pick before being shipped to the Nuggets as part of a three-team trade in which Portland wound up with Denver’s second-round pick in 2009.
The Nuggets were surprised to see him tumble into the second round, ranking him as a mid first-round pick.
BETTINGNEW YORK ó Disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy has exaggerated his cooperation in a gambling investigation in hopes of lessening his prison term and avoiding paying hefty restitution, prosecutors said in court papers filed Friday.