NBA Capsules: NBA lays off about 114 league employees

NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA laid off about 114 people over the last two days, planned cost-cutting moves that a league spokesman said Thursday are “not a direct result of the lockout.”

The laid off employees represent about 11 percent of the league office workforce in New York, New Jersey and internationally.

Spokesman Mike Bass told The Associated Press the layoffs are “not a direct result of the lockout but rather a response to the same underlying issue; that is, the league’s expenses far outpace our revenues.”

“The roughly 11 percent reduction in headcount from the league office is part of larger cost-cutting measures to reduce our costs by $50 million across all areas of our business,” Bass said.

The league said it lost $300 million this season after losing hundreds of millions in each previous year of the collective bargaining agreement that expired at the end of the day June 30.

Owners locked out the players after the sides remained far apart in their final proposals. Commissioner David Stern said at the time it was too early to think about how it could affect staff, but acknowledged that the league would “have to go back and look at everything now with our operations.”

But the reductions had already begun. The NBA and teams had trimmed staff by about 275 since October 2008, either through layoffs or by leaving positions vacant when employees departed.

The league has also cut administrative costs, travel and new technology. It consolidated offices in Europe and Asia, closing offices in Paris and Tokyo, and is shutting down the studio in Secaucus, N.J. where it annually holds the draft lottery. The NBA Store on 5th Ave. in New York has been closed, though the league has said it will reopen in another location.

Already at least two teams, Detroit and Charlotte, have cut staff since the work stoppage was announced exactly two weeks ago. Stern said that day a lockout “has a very large impact on a lot of people, many of whom or most of whom are not associated with either side.”

Shaquille O’Neal joins Turner Sports as analyst

The calls came as soon as Shaquille O’Neal decided to retire, all wanting to hire one of the NBA’s greatest entertainers.

TNT’s “Inside the NBA” studio show had been O’Neal’s favorite as a player, so the choice was easy.

Get ready for the Big Analyzer, Big Commentator, or whatever other nickname he takes in the next phase of his career.

O’Neal agreed Thursday to a multiyear deal with Turner Sports to become an analyst on its NBA coverage, where he will fold his 7-foot-1 frame into the fourth chair on the TNT set alongside Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson.

“I’m just going to try to make it more fun than it already is,” O’Neal said during a conference call.

O’Neal also will contribute to NBA TV and NBA.com, and his agreement includes a development deal with Turner’s entertainment and animation networks.

O’Neal said he had offers from ABC/ESPN and others upon retiring last month, but quickly chose the Turner offer, saying he wasn’t interested in creating a bidding war for his services.

A four-time NBA champion during his 19-year career, O’Neal also had one of the NBA’s biggest personalities, with Turner Sports president David Levy calling him one of the most “dominant, popular and charismatic players in the NBA.” So O’Neal, who says he still one day expects to run for sheriff, was expected to quickly find work in the entertainment industry upon his retirement if he wanted it.

“The addition of ‘The Big Analytical’ will be terrific,” Smith said in a statement. “I can’t wait to make verbal passes to the most dominant center of our time.”

O’Neal will be part of TNT’s coverage of All-Star weekend — scheduled next season for Orlando, his first NBA home — and the playoffs. He doesn’t think it will be difficult having to criticize Kobe Bryant, whom he feuded with as Lakers teammates, or any other players.

“I have the ability and the backing to give fair criticism. The only time I have trouble with people giving criticism is when they haven’t walked that walk,” O’Neal said. “I’ve walked many walks in my 19-year career, so I think any criticism that I give should be fair.”

He showed a strong opinion in his first day on the job when referring to the state of the center position with himself and Yao Ming deciding to retire within a month of each other.

“The beasts are now gone, the Goliaths are now gone, so that leaves Dwight Howard out there by himself,” O’Neal said of Orlando’s All-Star center. “So if he doesn’t win two or three championships, I’ll be very disappointed, because he has no competition out there now. None. Zero.”

A 15-time All-Star, O’Neal decided to retire in fifth place on the league’s career scoring list after he was slowed by injuries in recent seasons. Even as his game suffered, he remained one of the NBA’s most popular players and should fit right in on the fourth seat of the TNT studio show, occupied mostly last season by Chris Webber.

Neither O’Neal nor Levy had any concern about O’Neal finding room to give his insight with Barkley and Smith already in place.

“Shaq knows the game and, on and off the floor, he has always been entertaining; a guy who gets it,” Johnson said.

O’Neal said he also expects to work on cartoons and TV shows, adding he’s interested in being the executive producer for a program.

-- BRIAN MAHONEY

Heat’s James Jones is ‘realistic’ on lockout

NORTH MIAMI, Fla. (AP) — A month or so removed from being part of Miami’s run to the NBA finals, James Jones already has been in the gym to begin the process of getting ready for next season.

Whether the call back to work is in October or November or later, Jones said he — and the rest of the league’s players — will be ready.

The NBA’s reigning 3-point shootout champion formally announced his involvement Thursday in a summer camp operated by Florida’s Department of Children and Families, although when that event was over talk quickly turned to another matter, the league’s lockout and how odd things already seem for Jones in even the earliest part of this offseason.

“It’ll be difficult because it’s all about building a team, getting with your teammates, getting with your coaches and building consistency,” Jones told The Associated Press. “In the absence of that, our players will continue to be pros. That’s the privilege of being one of the elite athletes in the world. Regardless of the situation, you’ve got to remain prepared and be ready for when your number’s called.”

Jones’ future is doubly cloudy: Not only is he locked out, but he chose to become a free agent last month, which means he might not necessarily be back with the Heat when play resumes.

The league’s owners and players did not agree on a new collective bargaining agreement before the most recent one expired June 30, prompting the lockout. Because the sides are billions of dollars apart, there’s already talk of worst-case scenarios for the coming season.

“Typically right now guys would be back in the gym preparing for next year, and that’s not a possibility because the owners decided that they didn’t want us there,” Jones said. “It’s definitely real, and we’re so far apart that it’s tough to really see anything besides today. And today they’re unrelenting, and they don’t want us there. So until they decide they want to engage us, we’ll be locked out. And it’s tough because we’re basketball players and we want to play. And the fans, I’m sure, want to watch us play.”

He said he’s not necessarily worried or angry about what looms ahead in labor talks, but acknowledged that he, like all players, needs to be realistic while the sides work out the business of basketball’s future.

“They’re holding fast to what they want and what they’ve asked for,” Jones said, speaking of owners. “We’ve made some concessions and agreed to move it in the right direction. But moving in the right direction isn’t enough. They want it all.”

Some players already have discussed finding deals with international teams until the lockout is over. Jones isn’t thinking about that option — yet.

“I’m an NBA player,” Jones said. “But at the same time, basketball is my livelihood. If an opportunity presents itself, I’ll go. But my priority is getting a deal done.”

Jones said some informal talks are taking place among players about certain aspects of the next CBA, though nothing substantive seems imminent.

The camp bearing Jones’ name will be one of six around the state for foster children, and the swingman who averaged 5.9 points this past season for the Heat said he was honored to be asked to be part of the program. He’s a South Florida native, a graduate of the University of Miami and took part in the announcement ceremony Thursday at Florida International University. Jones also spent time growing up in a single-parent home, so he said he can relate to some of the issues the foster children are facing.

Jones said he has wanted to host a camp in Miami for some time.

“Some of these kids just need an external voice or someone to step up and push them,” Jones said. “So I said, ‘Let’s find a way to bridge that and give these kids an experience.’ And this will be more than about just playing the game.”

-- TIM REYNOLDS

Agent: Biyombo will play for Bobcats next season

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The agent for Bobcats rookie Bismack Biyombo insists the seventh pick in the draft will play for Charlotte next season despite a buyout dispute with his Spanish team.

“At the time the lockout is over and the season starts, the player will be playing with the Bobcats,” Igor Crespo told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “Everything else is not relevant.”

A spokesman for Madrid-based Fuenlabrada said last month the team is fine in letting the 18-year-old Biyombo out of the last two years of his contract, but expects to receive a $1.4 million buyout.

The two sides held a mediation session earlier this month. Crespo declined to reveal the results, saying only he believed the buyout figure was made public to “put pressure on us.”

But he stressed the issue wouldn’t prevent the 6-foot-9 Congo native from reporting to Charlotte’s training camp on time.

“I cannot give any details for anyone,” Crespo said. “But the only thing you need to know is whenever the season starts, whether that’s October, November, December or February, the player will be there to play with the Bobcats from the first game.”

The Bobcats traded top scorer Stephen Jackson to Milwaukee on draft day in a three-team deal that landed Charlotte the seventh pick from Sacramento. That allowed new Bobcats general manager Rich Cho, who had worked out Biyombo earlier this year when he was GM of the Portland Trail Blazers, to take the raw, shot-blocking, defensive specialist with suspect offensive skills.

Cho acknowledged on draft night Biyombo had an issue with his Spanish team contract, but expected it to be resolved. He later declined to answer questions once the buyout figure was announced by Fuenlabrada. The NBA is preventing team employees from commenting on player issues during the labor dispute.

Crespo, who said Biyombo is working out with a personal coach in Tampa, Fla., indicated it was too early to say if he’ll seek to find a job overseas for his client if the lockout drags into the start of the season.

“That will be a decision that will be made later,” he said. “I don’t know what the situation will look like in a month, two months.”

But Crespo added that even if Biyombo played overseas, it wouldn’t prevent him from reporting to Charlotte once the lockout ends.

“He’s been excited about the Bobcats every single minute,” Crespo said. “He will play his dues as a rookie.”

-- MIKE CRANSTON