National Basketball Association

The person who may have had the biggest impact on this week's UCLA dust-up against Arizona wasn't on the court at Pauley Pavilion. Instead, he sat in Section 213, Row 8, Seat 12, talking my ear off, letting off a tremendous amount of steam. "I have mixed emotions about watching this game," said Sonny Vaccaro. "I just can't watch without getting mad at the whole ridiculous system."

The NBA and the Miami Heat Tuesday night were discussing a settlement of pending legal issues over the signing Monday of Juwan Howard by the Washington Bullets after the contract Howard had signed last month with the Heat was voided by the NBA, league spokesman Seth Sylvan said. A settlement between the league and Heat would guarantee Howard rejoining the Bullets immediately. Sylvan declined to speculate on when a settlement would be reached.

Bashfulness and bravery came together in a curious marriage as Ronny Turiaf strolled into a tattoo parlor in Spokane, Wash. Turiaf, a Laker now and a Gonzaga Bulldog then, did not exactly know what to expect but knew it was for him. He received his first tattoo five years ago. He left that parlor $100 shorter in cash and with the motto "Never Lose Faith" on his back.

Roughly once a month, the NBA cuts 31 checks to NBA teams as revenue from its multibillion-dollar national television contract. There are only 30 NBA franchises, so who gets the extra check? The money goes to brothers Ozzie and Dan Silna, co-owners of the long-forgotten ABA team, the Spirits of St. Louis. Thirty years ago, Ozzie Silna, with attorney Donald Schupak, negotiated a deal that cleared the way for the ABA to merge with the NBA.

The last line of questioning may have been the toughest for Elgin Baylor during his news conference Thursday morning at his attorney's office in Beverly Hills. What have you been doing since October, Elgin? Have you been watching Clippers games? Do you cheer for the team? Is it tough to cheer for the team? Baylor, 74, the NBA Hall of Famer and former Clippers executive, didn't answer and appeared more emotional than at any time during the session.

Charles Barkley might not want to be your kids' role model, but he could be a role model for NBA players. And not just because he supports the league's new dress code. Barkley was in Los Angeles on Wednesday for an appearance on NBC's "Tonight Show With Jay Leno." Years ago, Barkley said that parents, not athletes, should be role models for their kids. But he now at least acknowledges that athletes do influence kids. "Young black kids dress like NBA players," he said.

Football uniforms, like sports socks, tend to be conservative when it comes to color and design. But for a game like the Jan. 28 Super Bowl, with a projected worldwide viewing audience of more than 125 million, including half the men and a third of the women in the United States, you would think somebody could come up with something more interesting for the players to wear.

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!).

In 2002, consumer advocate and current presidential candidate Ralph Nader quickly criticized the NBA referees who worked the Lakers' controversial Game 6 Western Conference finals victory over the Sacramento Kings.

The National Basketball Assn. will hold its annual college draft Tuesday, and a dozen of the young men hoping to be picked are leaving college before completing their eligibility. All, obviously, are convinced that they can play in the NBA. Norris Coleman's case, however, illustrates just how tough it is for those players who leave college early to survive in the big show.

As the first decade of the New Millenium runs out, I'd like to say, on behalf of the NBA: That was only 10 years? It seemed longer, like the Hundred Years War. The NBA has had a dramatic rise from its arrival as the bumpkin of major league sports, but also has had setbacks that were like Columbus finding the world was flat, after all, and sailing off it, before its 21st century adventure. The 1970s were supposed to be the NBA decade after the New York Knicks won two titles and Madison Avenue flipped for Walt Frazier and Willis Reed (and Greenwich Village, at least, for house hippie Phil Jackson)

The NBA player was only 2 inches tall, but he left quite an impression on Memphis Grizzlies guard Mike Conley. Conley was playing the popular video game NBA2K9 when a virtual Rajon Rondo appeared to go in for a layup. Instead, he pushed back off his left foot, deftly landed on his right and then made a short jumper from the paint. So Conley added the move, dubbed the Euro Step, to his personal repertoire of shots last season. "I hadn't really thought about it until it happened in the video game," Conley said.

In arguably the greatest finish to an exhibition game in world history -- taking into account that even conducting such an argument would indicate lunacy or at least acute boredom -- a basketball hovered on a high arc as a rapt crowd inhaled. Then, as if it mattered, that ball dropped cleanly through the hoop and the O2 Arena roared, especially the Chicago Bulls, who acted like they'd won something with their court-corner love-in of group hugs and gaping grins and slaps of the formidable back of the rookie James Johnson.

Clippers guard Baron Davis arrived last month at Mumbai Airport in India and stepped into a taxicab. He immediately noticed how India's driving habits hinge more on aggressiveness and efficiency than conventional traffic signs. "A dog was walking across the street and the driver was going 70 [miles per hour] and not looking," Davis said. "The closer it gets, I'm in the back of the car screaming like 'Aghhhhh'! Then he goes right past the dog, laughs and says, 'stupid American.

This was supposed to be the appetizer for the highly awaited main course of NBA free agency next summer. But if it wasn't already obvious to interested parties, it became painfully clear on Thursday that the eventful last nine days around the league have expanded well beyond a mere first course. And if you want to keep the food analogy going -- and no, this has absolutely nothing to do with Shaquille O'Neal's draft-day trade to Cleveland -- just look at the latest bloated deal.

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.

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.

Jimmy Fallon executed a neat spin move in the bustling hallway outside the various green rooms at his show at NBC and looked up at the future of a basketball franchise. "Oh my God, you're the tallest dude," Fallon said, craning his head to see Blake Griffin. That established, he moved on to another physical point. They compared the size of their hands, at Fallon's request.

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!).

In the great circle of life known as the professional sports league calendar, we're about to follow up the crowning of the NBA champions with the ritual of the NBA draft.