Pro Basketball

Joe Bryant is going to drag his spry 6-foot-9 frame out of a one-bedroom apartment he shares with his wife near downtown Los Angeles, head down the stairs to the full-length basketball court on the second floor and start shooting. He has to make 120 shots, 60 on each end: 20 from the left side, 20 from the right, 20 down the middle. This few-times-a-week workout keeps the jovial Bryant fresh. It proves to him that he can still play this game at 56. But after 120 made he's gone, because he doesn't want you to spot him, notice he's tall, ask if he played ball, then find out who he really is. Kobe Bryant's father.

Rounding up the usual Lakers . . . If times are hard after three carefree seasons . . . even if they didn't seem that way . . . Kobe Bryant must be shooting too much, or too little. Or Phil Jackson is wearing them out, in his 11th and last Lakers season, or hurting their feelings. Feelings? What is this, a wedding? If hurting professional players' feelings is a problem, someone better give LeBron James last rites. Unfortunately for the Lakers, Phil's mouth and Kobe's shots aren't vaguely the problem.

Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has taken an unusual step to try to strengthen his ailing right knee, undergoing an innovative procedure in Germany about a month ago, according to four people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly. The treatment is a derivation of platelet-rich plasma therapy. PRP procedures are less invasive than many surgeries involving the knee and are viewed as either an emerging solution to knee problems or a financial gamble on unproven science.

It will be the story of the Lakers' off-season, they hope without anything remotely resembling "The Decision. " Will Dwight Howard stay or go? Howard said this week he deserved "the right to be happy" and he has a handful of choices to mull in free agency beyond the Lakers. Of course, the other four suitors have won a total of four NBA titles, one-fourth the Lakers' championship collection. Anyway, here's one writer's insights into where Howard ends up. Dallas Commonly known as the Mavericks, for this story they'll be The Biggest Competition For Dwight Howard's Services Other Than The Lakers (TBCFDHSOTTL)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Chris Paul sat in a chair wearing a red jacket, his night done early after he was ejected from the game with 2:29 left after getting his second technical foul. Matt Barnes sat in his chair with a towel over his head. Blake Griffin sat in his chair with both hands on his head, his sprained right ankle in a bucket of ice. The Clippers' locker room was mostly quiet after a 118-105 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 6 that eliminated L.A. from the Western Conference first-round playoffs.

For the longest time, Doctor J was the basketball player and Julius Erving was the man. Gradually, the two personalities merged as Erving became appreciated for himself, rather than for the instantly recognized nickname attached to the skywalking legend of the old American Basketball Association. When the time came to announce his retirement, however, it was Erving, and not Doctor J, who said the time had come to pinpoint the end of his career.

Oh me, oh my. Finally, the payoff. And I'm not even talking about Chris Paul's exhilarating, awesome, magical, 93-91 game-winner. I begin with Lamar Odom, who is my favorite athlete, and apparently Blake Griffin's as well. Griffin has come running off the bench to throw a bear hug around Odom, and there's still much of the fourth quarter to play. OK, so Paul is a close second as my favorite athlete. Very close. And my favorite closer. But I've been waiting and waiting for Odom, the Clippers doing the same in getting someone 30 pounds overweight to start the season, and the payoff is a difference-maker.

The Clippers are in trouble. They got their 50th win of this storybook season Wednesday night, a franchise record, but internal problems seriously threaten their chances for extraordinary postseason success. The feel-good Clippers are gone, with DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin's immaturity dragging the team down. Jordan wants nothing to do with Coach Vinny Del Negro because he blames Del Negro for burying him on the bench. Yet Jordan's inability to play consistently or make free throws, thereby turning the ball over to the opposition much like a turnover, makes him a liability in close games.

It is the chant that has defined the season, yet somehow has not defined the man. The most amazing thing about the derisive jeer that has rained upon Mike D'Antoni's slumped shoulders for the last six months is that not once has he jeered back. "We want Phil," scream the fans. "I understand," says the coach who is not Phil. Before the Lakers take the Staples Center court Sunday against the San Antonio Spurs in probably the last game of the most disappointing season in franchise history, perhaps it is time to consider the fortitude of the man who has borne the wrath of that shame.

Sonic boom Oct. 25, 2006: NBA approves Howard Schultz's sale of the SuperSonics and Seattle Storm to an Oklahoma City group led by businessman Clay Bennett for $350 million. Feb. 13, 2007: Bennett asks for at least $300 million in taxpayer money for a proposed $530-million basketball area in Renton, south of Seattle. The idea never gets traction. Aug. 12, 2007: Billionaire Aubrey McClendon, co-owner of the Sonics, tells an Oklahoma business newspaper, "We didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle.