Associated Press
The NBA notebook…
NEW ORLEANS ó The NBA, as owners of the New Orleans Hornets, wonít trade All-Star guard Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers.
NBA spokesman Mike Bass says: ěItís not true that the owners killed the deal, the deal was never discussed at the Board of Governors meeting and the league office declined to make the trade for basketball reasons.î
A person familiar with the trade told The Associated Press that the framework for a deal had been in place, but that Paul would report to Hornets camp Friday.
Lakers forward Lamar Odom would have gone to New Orleans and fellow Los Angeles forward Pau Gasol to Houston, the third team in the trade, people told The Associated Press on Thursday. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal was not finalized.
NOWITZKI EXCITED
DALLAS ó Dirk Nowitzki bounced down the steps, smiling wide and greeting each media member with a handshake. He joked about his short hair, showed how his twice-wounded left middle finger is healing and enjoyed the perk of holding a news conference while teammates sweated through conditioning drills.
Hey, itís good to be the reigning NBA finals MVP.
Yet as excited as Nowitzki is about trying to defend the championship he brought the Dallas Mavericks, heís also curious about who is going to defend it with him.
Tyson Chandler and J.J. Barea are free agents and probably wonít be back. Itís not even clear how much of a push Mavs owner Mark Cuban is making to keep them.
Chandler is the most important because he ěchanged the whole culture defensively for us,î Nowitzki said. The problem for Dallas is thatís why Chandler is among the most coveted of all available players.
BATTIER JOINS HEAT
MIAMI ó Shane Battier will be with the Miami Heat this season. Mario Chalmers is deciding if heíll be there with him.
Saying he only wants ěa winning roleî at this point in his career, Battier announced Thursday morning that he would sign with the Eastern Conference champion Heat. Miami let him know as soon as the free-agency shopping window formally opened this week that he was the Heatís top signing priority ó even though the team has some question marks at the point guard and center spots.
ěOver the last week, Iíve played out every scenario in my head over and over,î Battier wrote on Twitter. ěIt always came back to one thing for me: a winning role.î
BOBCATS STICK WITH WFNZ
CHARLOTTE ó Charlotte Bobcats sports and entertainment president Fred Whitfield says the team has renewed its deal with CBS Radioís WFNZ 610-AM in Charlotte to remain as the flagship station for the Bobcats Radio Network for the 2011-12 season.
The deal calls for CBS Radio to broadcast preseason, regular season and potential postseason games on WFNZ or a CBS Radio affiliate station in the event of a conflict with other contracted programming.
Whitefield says the Bobcats are excited to be back on WFNZ. He says ěas an all-sports station, our demographics are a natural fit and they have been a great partner for us over the last two seasons.î
In addition, Scott Lauer will return as the radio play-by-play voice of the Bobcats for a fifth season.
The Associated Press
12/08/11 17:10