Basketball Players

It turns out it wasn't best left undone. NBA Commissioner David Stern said the league fined LeBron James $25,000 for skipping the postgame news conference after Cleveland lost to Orlando in the Eastern Conference finals. James also stormed off the court without shaking hands with any Magic players or coaches. Stern said he spoke with James, who had surgery Tuesday to remove a benign growth near his jaw.

Responding to criticism that it has failed to independently investigate or publicly address allegations that led to a probe of its athletic program, USC posted video statements Thursday evening from two top administrators. Todd Dickey, USC's senior vice president for administration, and Athletic Director Mike Garrett appear in the videos, which were posted on the school's athletic website.

Trevor Ariza sat fidgeting before the media Tuesday, his hands on his lap beneath a table twisting, his feet moving rapidly, his eyes darting when the first question lobbed at him was about his future with the Lakers. Ariza said he had just met with Lakers Coach Phil Jackson and General Manager Mitch Kupchak for his exit interview, the conversation about his effort that helped the Lakers beat the Orlando Magic to win the NBA championship and about his upcoming free-agent status. Ariza made $3.

Lamar Odom cleaned out his locker Thursday and left the Lakers' training facility, perhaps for the last time as part of the franchise that has employed him the last five years. Odom will be an unrestricted free agent July 1, one of two forwards the Lakers hope to re-sign to keep their frontcourt intact. Trevor Ariza is younger and has plenty of potential, but Odom can play three positions and provide much-needed backup help whenever Andrew Bynum gets in foul trouble.

Remember the NBA draft of 2009 . . . as in "What draft?" On the eve of the event, the ground trembled under the NBA amid reports from myriad sources that the Phoenix Suns are close to a deal with the Cavaliers, sending Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland. If the deal is done today, it will be remembered as the day the Clippers got Blake Griffin (that's nice) and the Cavaliers got Shaquille O'Neal (HOLY MT. OLYMPUS, SHAQ AND LEBRON JAMES TOGETHER!).

Not that DeMar DeRozan is an expert on the city of Toronto, but a recent visit left him impressed. "I was up there about a day and a half, great town, ate, saw the city and it was beautiful," he said. "It reminded me of a mini-New York." Now he'll get a chance to know it a lot better.

Walking into the Southwest College gym during the first week of training camp, Tina Thompson was conflicted. After signing a three-year deal with the Sparks, this should have been her homecoming. A Los Angeles native, the two-time league MVP was a star at Inglewood Morningside High and then USC. Yet, after a 12-year career with one team, the Houston Comets, she now felt like a tourist. It's not that she doesn't still love L.A. She is wearing No.

Blame it on the economy. Or that so few NBA teams are far enough under the salary cap to sign an impact free agent. Or that many more big names -- LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh among them -- could be available next summer. Whatever the reason, free agency won't be a free-for-all when it starts Wednesday, even though Lakers fans might expect otherwise since forwards Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza are able to sign with any team that winks back at them.

The Lakers officially signed Ron Artest, in case his smiling visage and lengthy entourage among a throng of reporters at a news conference Wednesday in El Segundo didn't confirm it. But will Artest be the Lakers' only big-name announcement this summer? The Lakers remain far apart in negotiations with unrestricted free agent Lamar Odom, a chasm that probably widened with the NBA's announcement of a lower salary cap for next season.

Only in Los Angeles, it seems, could there be a basketball meltdown in the middle of July. Only in a Southland summer could there be two prolific baseball teams, a historically prolific soccer player, and yet all anybody really cares about are puny initials. What's up with A.I.? What's going on with L.O.? For the sake of hardwood sanity in this hoops capital of the world, I come forward today with two pleas. Please, Donald Sterling, do not be suckered into signing Allen Iverson.