Stan Kasten

Soviet basketball star Alexander Volkov said Friday he was given permission to join the National Basketball Assn. next season, and immediately touched off a controversy about which team he would play for. Volkov said he would be "free to join any team" in the NBA, but the league contended that he is obligated to play for the Atlanta Hawks, who drafted him in 1986. Volkov made his announcement in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, site of the European Championships. "The Soviet Sports Committee has given me permission to play in America, and I'm free to join any NBA team," Volkov said.

This is the part where I try not to act all gleeful, and fail miserably. Fail happily. Magic Johnson's group has won the Dodgers. Can you paint a monster grin in a blog? Is there an app for that? Who knew failing could be so completely wondrous. One Los Angeles icon merges with another. Really, it's so terrific that right now I can't even be bothered that Frank McCourt is miraculously going to walk away from this with a cool billion. We have someone who knows, understands and appreciates Los Angeles.

Is it possible that the world turned better for the Atlanta Braves because owner Ted Turner has been less involved, distracted by his attempt to improve the world? "That's nonsense," said Stan Kasten, president of both the Braves and the Atlanta Hawks, Turner's NBA team. "If Ted devoted the time to running the Braves that he does to everything else, he would be just as successful at it, but he's involved with issues of global importance." Kasten is biased, of course.

Seems like a simple enough question. Seems like a pretty basic one. Like one the new owners would want to answer, what with the fans having just been dragged through an ownership nightmare. Alas, at their morning press conference Wednesday it wasn't happening. Guggenheim Baseball Management is the new owner of the Dodgers. After that, it's fill in the blanks. As if you could. At least for now. Six individuals were introduced at the press conference, but exactly who owns how much of the team was left unanswered.

ATLANTA - Will Don Mattingly be the Dodgers manager for the remainder of the season? Team President Stan Kasten wouldn't say. "I don't discuss the manager and I never do," Kasten said. "Ever since spring training, we said that, when you wanted to talk about him every day. We had a rough start but we expect to get through this. " Kasten was reminded he was asked a yes-or-no question. "What was the question again?" Kasten asked. Will Don Mattingly be your manager for the rest of the year?

This is how it largely worked for Ned Colletti in recent years: Frank McCourt would give him a number, and then expect the general manager to bring in the team payroll at or under that figure. So maybe he loses a Hiroki Kuroda because he costs a tad too much, and then tries to make up for it by signing Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano. Those payroll juggling days, however, may be over for Colletti. At least in the fashion he's grown accustomed to. New team President Stan Kasten said Wednesday that's not the way he operates.

One constant of the Frank and Jamie McCourt ownership of the Dodgers was a constant front office turnover. Bodies came and went so quickly that it sometimes became difficult to know who was in charge of what. Either they wanted out, the McCourts drove them out, or after their divorce, bodies loyal to Jamie McCourt were simply sent packing. When Stan Kasten arrived, he quickly surveyed the organizational landscape and recognized the management shortcomings. On Thursday he moved to add some front-office heft, returning to his favorite right-hand man Bob Wolfe.

Dodgers President Stan Kasten said he welcomes expectations that the team's new ownership group will finance significant moves at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. “I promise you we'll explore everything,” Kasten said. “Look, as candid as we can be, we're the Dodgers. We're supposed to be big. We intend to be big. Will we look at big things? You bet.” Kasten maintained the Dodgers have the financial flexibility to add to their payroll. He lamented that the organization doesn't have more top-tier prospects who would be attractive trade pieces.

The Dodgers are in New York for a three-game series, so you know what that means. National and New York media have arrived en masse. The Dodgers have given them plenty to write about with their busy off-season, slow start and wealth of injuries. Here's a look at what's out there on the Web: -- Stan Kasten tells CBS Sports' Jon Heyman that it is not the team's intention to remain atop of baseball's payroll pyramid, that it will gradually come down as the farm system begins paying dividends.

If the Dodgers can add $260 million to their payroll in one trade -- and close to a half-billion dollars in four months -- is there a limit to their spending? "Somewhere, I suppose," Chairman Mark Walter said Saturday. And where might that limit be? "I haven't found it yet," President Stan Kasten said. "I'll let you know when we get there. " As Adrian Gonzalez put on his Dodgers uniform for the first time, the new owners let it be known that they saw no reason to choose between paying the price to win now and paying the price to win later.