NBA Nba Rumors

OutSports.com reported Tuesday that Drew Gooden made homophobic remarks to two hecklin' Clippers fans after the Mavericks' Saturday game in Los Angeles. One of the Clippers fans happened to be actor Chris Wylde (pictured, far right), who has -- no joke -- appearances on a show named Heckle U to his credit. (The plot of Heckle U, according to IMDB? Two dudes change the course of basketball games by heckling the opposing teams into submission.)

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban reportedly emailed Wylde, saying the team would deal with Gooden. Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News reports that the NBA is currently investigating the matter, while ESPN's Tim MacMahon has an anonymous source who claims it wasn't Gooden who made the remark. (No word on whether that anonymous source is Gooden.)

Bill Simmons is everywhere.

As an provocateur, he's burrowed under the skin of old-media types such as Mike Francesa, who don't get him.

But most new-media types -- especially handsome and talented interns -- do get him. He's the 700-pound sportswriting gorilla touting a 700-page tome, The Book of Basketball, and tweeting the tour.

Yet, more than refusing to get off the virtual lawn of curmudgeons or fomenting a fervent fan base or getting this, the third post to feature him today at the 'House, Simmons has often expressed his desire to be an NBA GM. (OK, so not every new-media type finds this endearing.)

Before he was named head coach of the Cavaliers in 2005, Mike Brown twice had the honor of coaching Stephen Jackson: once as an assistant with the Pacers, and before that, as an assistant with the Spurs.

Jackson's time in Indiana wasn't exactly that of a model citizen, but he was fine in San Antonio, and even got himself a ring as a contributor to the Spurs' championship in 2003.

Maybe Brown, based on this past experience, sees something in Jackson that at this point, most of the rest of us do not. That has to be the reason that Cleveland is interested in trading for Jackson, and freeing him from the unpleasant situation that he's created for himself in Golden State.

In an interview with the New York Post, Stephon Marbury admitted that he has no plans to pursue an NBA job this season but vowed to return in the future. "I'm resting, doing what Michael Jordan did, enjoy life, do things I haven't done in 16 years, keep building my empire," Marbury told the Post. "I wasn't going to Boston for that money. It was a prudent business decision to take off this year."

It was a prudent business to take a year off, but let's be honest -- it wasn't a decision Marbury made, but rather one forced upon him by 30 NBA general managers.

Every preseason when a handful of NBA teams jump the pond to play ball in the Old Word's great cities, NBA commissioner David Stern discusses his dream of bringing a real life NBA franchise to Europe. Globalizing the game has been one of Stern's most impressive victories, and introducing the "London Gobsmackers" or some such would be some serious icing.

But Stern is now dampening expectations for when this all might happen. The commish told Bill Wilson of BBC News that while the league would like to schedule a regular season game at London's (reportedly spectacular) O2 Arena before the 2012 Olympics, placing a franchise in Europe will take at least another decade. The logistics, Stern admits, are nightmarish. I'd also note that so long as there are domestic arenas in want of NBA tenants (such as Kansas City's Sprint Center), American expansion might be a more pragmatic move in the near term.

There are myriad sightlines to Mikhail Prokhorov's purchase of the New Jersey Nets. Locally, the injection of capital saves the team's move to Brooklyn. Thanks to Prokhorov's immense wealth -- only Portland's Paul Allen has fatter assets -- the Nets will surely become major spenders in coming years. And nationwide, the entrance of a Russian capitalist into such a high-profile American industry will surely draw massive attention, both good and bad.

But Dave D'Allesandro of the Newark Star-Ledger has his mind on the Nets basketball management structure. Rod Thorn, the team's basketball ops boss, is entering the final year of his contract. Same for coach Lawrence Frank. D'Alessandro notes that in his Tuesday LiveJournal entry detailing his interest in the Nets, Prokhorov cited the promotion of Russian coaches and managers as a driving force behind his potential entry to the NBA.

What that means for our comrades in East Rutherford ... well, it is not good. Like Dave D., I have a hunch Thorn, Frank, Kiki Vandeweghe and the rest of the staff will be saying "dasvidania" at season's end.

Sean Deveney of The Baseline reports that Charlotte point guard Raymond Felton plans to accept the $5.5 million qualifying offer presented by the Bobcats at the start of free agency. The qualifying offer allowed Charlotte to match any offer sheet from another team signed by Felton. But Felton never found a team willing to pay what he desired. Felton will be an unrestricted free agent next July.

While this result is hardly surprising, there remains a herd of elephants in the room. There's D.J. Augustin, the lottery pick successor to Felton entering his second season. There's Larry Brown, the notoriously trigger-happy boss of the team. And there's Felton himself, who has proved if nothing else over his four seasons that he is just not very good.

As I try to mention every once in a while, Sekou Smith of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is one of the best beat writers in the biz. I haven't been within 3,000 miles of Georgia in a while, yet reading Smith always leaves me feeling like I've been in the Hawks practice facility. Like the great sportswriters, he puts you there, in the games, in the practices.

Right now he's writing about pre-camp practices, and the showstopper is ... Jerry Stackhouse, a free agent cut loose in the Hedo Turkoglu-Shawn Marion swap. Stack turns 35 during the first week of the season, and he effectively sat out last season in Dallas (not by choice). He's just working out with the Hawks -- there have been no rumors of his addition to the roster.

Smith and the Hawks players he's talked to hope that stance changes, because they think Stackhouse can help Atlanta this season.

Opening night still seems so far away (too far away), but there are already questions as to whether Yi Jianlian will be available for New Jersey. Reports surfaced this week placing Yi in China playing for his native Guangdong in the National Games at the end of October. The Nets kick off the season October 28 ... which also happens to be the final day of the China Games.

But Nets boss Rod Thorn told the Newark Star-Ledger's Dave D'Alessandro that Yi will not be missing any Nets games. Which implies that Yi will not be participating in the China Games. Which is not going to make the Chinese Basketball Association very happy.

A report from Reuters Thursday afternoon asserted that Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov was preparing an offer in the neighborhood of $700 million to purchase a stake in the Nets franchise and help build current team owner Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, which would include a new Nets arena in Brooklyn. A Prokhorov representative vaguely confirmed that the tycoon (Russia's richest man, at assets around $9.5 billion) could possibly participate in building a sports arena in the United States.

Charles V. Bagli of the New York Times was later able to get confirmation from Nets executives that Ratner is negotiating to sell not just a major stake of the Nets franchise to Prokhorov, but a majority stake. While Prokhorov has been attached to major sports teams before, this is the closest he has reportedly come to entering an America-based league.