Hooped Up

The departure of Del Harris Tuesday night came only two days after his agent, Warren LeGarie, approached Nets president Rod Thorn about the possibility that his client become the team’s head coach.

This exchange, according to two NBA officials privy to the conversation who requested anonymity because they are friendly with both sides, took place at Izod Center.

LeGarie, one of the game’s heaviest hitters, told Thorn the Nets would be better off letting Harris take over and moving Kiki Vandeweghe back to the front office, if only to begin preparation for 2010-11.

According to one of the officials, Thorn interrupted LeGarie with this door-slam: “Hold it right there,” he said. “All due respect, he will not be the next head coach here. So if he has any delusions about that, you should let him know it’s not going to happen.”
Star-Ledger

The Lakers listed Bryant as questionable for Monday night’s game against the San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center and Bynum as “more doubtful.”

Bryant had played in 235 consecutive games before his ankle stopped that streak. The Lakers took Sunday off, which gave Bryant another day to rest and get treatment on his ankle.

“I would say it’s day to day,” Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said after Saturday night’s game in Portland. “We have an opportunity here [where] it’s two days [off] before the All-Star break and there’s some time there if he does need to take a longer time. We’ll try to give him that liberty to do that if he has to.”
LA Times

In the strongest comments yet by a players’ union official since NBA owners made a new collective bargaining proposal, vice president Adonal Foyle of the Orlando Magic said the offer put forth last week by commissioner David Stern’s office is “ludicrous.”

That was the first word out of Foyle’s mouth when he was asked Sunday to characterize the owners’ new labor proposal, which was given to the union late last week as the sides took one of the first major steps toward replacing the collective bargaining agreement that expires at the end of the 2010-11 season.

“I think it’s a proposal that’s far-reaching,” said Foyle, the union’s second-in-command behind president Derek Fisher. “This [new proposal] has gone too far. It wants a hard cap, it basically will create no middle class and which, in effect, means none of the Bird rules would apply,” Foyle added, referencing the so-called Larry Bird exception that allows teams to exceed the salary cap to retain their own free agents.
ESPN