NBA Capsules: Yao Ming to have foot surgery

HOUSTON — The Houston Rockets thought they had become championship contenders last summer when they acquired Ron Artest to join Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, a pair of perennial All Stars.

Less than one year later, the Rockets are rebuilding from scratch with no Artest and no idea when McGrady or Yao will play again.

The final blow came Friday, when Yao announced he would have surgery next week on his broken left foot, a decision that will likely keep him out all of next season. The team said there is no timetable set for the return of the 7-foot-6 Yao, a seven-time All Star, but that he is "expected to be available for the team’s training camp in 2010."

McGrady, also a seven-time All Star, could be sidelined until next February as he recovers from risky microfracture surgery on his left knee.

Artest? He said at the end of last season that he wanted to stay in Houston — but only if he felt the Rockets had a legitimate chance to win the NBA title. He’s now getting ready to play with Kobe Bryant and the NBA champion Lakers after signing a multiyear deal a few days after the start of the free agency negotiating period.

The Rockets knew some of this was coming, asking the NBA for a disabled player exception several weeks before free agency began. The NBA granted the Rockets’ request, an acknowledgment that the league doubted Yao would play next season. The team promptly used the money to land forward Trevor Ariza from the Lakers.

But that’s small solace to Rockets fan and general manager Daryl Morey, who called the 28-year-old Yao the franchise’s "cornerstone" just a month ago.

Morey said that he isn’t conceding next season, but acknowledges the Rockets are probably have little choice now but to build for the more distant future.

If the season started now, Houston’s starting lineup would likely be Ariza, Aaron Brooks, Shane Battier, Luis Scola and either new acquisition David Andersen or 6-foot-6 Chuck Hayes, who played center for Houston in the final four games in the playoffs after Yao was injured.

"We don’t want to take any time off, with question marks on Yao and Tracy (McGrady)," Morey said. "It’s put some challenges in our way. But we don’t want to take time off if we can, so we want to keep adding players like Trevor, who can help us now and can be part of young core that’s going to grow together and win a lot of games."

Morey has spent an exhausting few weeks scrambling to put together a competitive roster.

Literally the minute free agency began July 1, Morey showed up at Marcin Gortat’s front door, trying to persuade the restricted free agent center to join the Rockets. The 6-foot-11 Gortat eventually re-signed with Orlando, where he’s backed up Dwight Howard for the past two seasons.

This week, Houston acquire the 6-11 Andersen in a trade with Atlanta. Andersen is a former second-round draft choice, a two-time Olympian and a contributor on four championship teams in Europe.

But he’s no Yao, a game-changing player and one of the NBA’s most valuable and recognized ambassadors.

Thanks in large part to Yao’s impact, the NBA launched NBA China in January 2008 and now has nearly 150 employees in four offices there. NBA games and programming are available on 51 television and digital media outlets in China and NBA merchandise is sold in about 30,000 retail locations there.

Bryant has had the top-selling jersey in China for two straight seasons. Yao ranks 10th — most likely because most fans bought them in the first years after Yao broke into the NBA.

Houston drafted Yao with the No. 1 overall pick in 2002 and he averaged 13.5 points and 8.2 rebounds as a rookie. He was an All-Star starter in 2003 and has been voted the top center in the Western Conference each year since.

He never took a long break from basketball early in his career, playing for the Chinese National team in each of the first six summers after he was drafted. The demanding schedule coupled with his extraordinary height may have contributed to the injury issues he began to encounter in the 2005-06 NBA season.

His last four seasons have been ended prematurely by serious injuries. He missed a total of 83 regular-season games between 2005-08 and sat out the first-round playoff series in 2008, which Houston lost to Utah.

His troublesome left foot is injured for the third time. He broke a bone in the foot with four games left in the 2005-06 season, then suffered a stress fracture in February 2008, during the Rockets’ 22-game winning streak. He had pins inserted and rushed his rehab to play for China in the Beijing Olympics.

He played in 77 regular-season games in 2008-09, his most durable season since 2004-05. The foot held up fine until the second round of last season’s playoffs, when he went down and then hobbled off the floor at the Toyota Center.

Yao returned to China after the season, leading a basketball camp and even voicing a character for a Chinese-language animated film. He recently purchased his former team, the financially troubled Shanghai Sharks, but said that was not an indication that he was planning an early retirement.

Yao has been consulting with doctors and finally decided on a complicated procedure, similar to one performed on Cleveland’s Zydrunas Ilgauskas in 2001. The surgery involves a bone graft to promote bone regeneration, the team said. He’s also hoping to reduce the arch in the foot by realigning and restructuring the bones.

"This surgery will allow me to continue my career playing basketball and I look forward to returning to the court," Yao said in a statement. "I am very grateful to have the support of teammates, friends and fans as I dedicate myself to making a completely successful recovery."

Ilgauskas missed 58 games in the 2000-01 season with the same injury and had surgery on Feb. 7, 2001. He returned to action on Dec. 4, 2001, after missing the first 17 games of the season.

Dr. Tom Clanton, the Rockets’ team doctor, will perform the surgery on Yao, who is due to make $16 million this season and holds the option for returning in 2010-11.

The Rockets have gone 146-74 when Yao and McGrady play at the same time, but it’s happened so rarely over five seasons that it has never mattered at crunch time. All Morey and the Rockets can do is wait to see if their two best players of the past decade will ever play again.

Judge dismisses SEC complaint against Cuban

DALLAS — A federal judge dismissed a civil insider-trading lawsuit against Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban on Friday, dealing the Securities and Exchange Commission a rare high-profile setback.

U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater ruled that the SEC could not hold Cuban liable for insider trading because the agency didn’t allege the billionaire NBA team owner had agreed not to trade based on confidential information he received about an Internet search engine company, Mamma.com Inc.

The judge wrote in his 35-page ruling that the SEC could file an amended complaint within 30 days if it can allege that Cuban agreed not to sell stock when he told the company’s chief executive that he wouldn’t divulge secret information he was about to receive in 2004.

The SEC said Cuban avoided a loss of $750,000 by selling his 600,000 shares, which represented a 6.3 percent stake in the company.

Fitzwater, however, rejected most of Cuban’s claims over how his fiduciary relationship with Mamma.com should be applied to the law.

Scott Friestad, associate director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement that the commission was reviewing the ruling and weighing its options.

Ralph Ferrara, one of Cuban’s attorneys, said he needed time to digest the ruling but was initially impressed with what he called Fitzwater’s "appellate court level" analysis.

"It sounds like unlike many trial courts on motions to dismiss, he really tried to come to grips with the fundamental legal policy questions that we raised," Ferrara said.

Cuban’s attorneys at the New York law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf said in a statement they were "grateful" for the ruling.

"The court employed a reasoned and thoughtful approach ... and chose not to be bound by labels and monikers or resort to ‘technicalities,"’ the statement said.

Cuban didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

In a vague Twitter posting that seemed to address the ruling, Cuban wrote that Friday had been "a great day so far." In a later posting, he thanked supporters and said he wouldn’t comment to reporters.

Five years ago, Mamma.com Chief Executive Guy Faure told Cuban by phone that the company was planning to raise capital in a so-called private placement in a public equity offering known as a PIPE, the SEC lawsuit said.

Faure began the conversation by saying he was about to give confidential information and Cuban agreed to keep it to himself, the SEC said. According to the lawsuit, Cuban became angry because he said PIPEs dilute stock value for existing shareholders, and he ended the call by saying, "Well now I’m screwed. I can’t sell."

The SEC alleges that Cuban sold his shares hours after the phone call from Faure, before the announcement of the private offering.

Fitzwater ruled that Cuban’s statement can’t "reasonably be understood" as an agreement not to sell based on the information.

"Thus while the SEC adequately pleads that Cuban entered into a confidentiality agreement, it does not allege that he agreed, expressly or implicitly, to refrain from trading on or otherwise using for his own benefit the information the CEO was about to share," Fitzwater wrote.

Phillip Stern, a former SEC staffer now in private practice, said the agency could pursue an appeal rather than try to amend the Cuban complaint. He said the decision would come down to whether the agency thought it could successfully attack Fitzwater’s ruling, which he said was surprising.

But another analyst said the SEC generally must prove what Fitzwater’s ruling required: that defendants agreed to keep information confidential and promised not to trade on it.

"This was a frontier case for the SEC," said J.W. Verret, a law professor at George Mason University who also practiced securities enforcement law in Washington. "The SEC was straining insider trading law beyond its proper scope to catch a big fish, and it lost. It’s time for the SEC to go home and lick its wounds."

The 50-year-old Cuban is a tech entrepreneur who sold his Broadcast.com to Yahoo Inc. in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom. He bought the Mavericks in 2000.

Cuban runs a Web site called Sharesleuth.com, which bills itself as providing "independent Web-based reporting aimed at exposing securities fraud and corporate chicanery." A companion site, BailoutSleuth.com, tracks the government’s $700 billion financial rescue plan.

-- Schuyler Dixon

Wade to Lamar Odom: ‘Come home’ to Miami Heat

Dwyane Wade spent much of his rookie season picking Lamar Odom’s brain on all aspects of the NBA game, everything from playing tips to travel advice.

He hopes those chats start again soon.

The Miami Heat, who traded Odom to the Los Angeles Lakers five years ago in the trade that brought Shaquille O’Neal to South Florida, have made the free agent forward an offer to return and help Wade once again. The team has not revealed terms of the offer, although it’s believed to be a five-year package that could be worth around $35 million.

"I want Lamar to do what’s best for him and his family because we love him as family, but on the other hand, we want him back home, to come home," Wade said Friday in a telephone interview. "His house is still there. It’d be exciting to see what happens."

Odom averaged 17.1 points — the second-highest average of his career — in 80 games with the Heat during the 2003-04 season. He’s spent the past five years with the Lakers, who pulled their contract offer to Odom earlier this week, a move that doesn’t necessarily mean the two sides won’t resume talking. Odom, 29, was a significant contributor to the Lakers’ championship run this year.

The Heat went 42-40 that season with Odom, winning 17 of their final 21 regular-season games and earning the No. 4 spot in the Eastern Conference. That summer, Miami traded Caron Butler, Brian Grant and Odom to the Lakers for O’Neal, who helped Wade and the Heat win a championship two years later.

Wade, who has asked the Heat to make some roster upgrades with hopes of getting back to the championship level, said he doesn’t need to call Odom to lobby for his return.

"Lamar already knows how I feel," Wade said. "I really don’t know how to feel. He’s really taken time to deal with it, sit back. It’s a very important decision in his life. It could be about where he ends his career."

The Heat have also been linked to a potential trade involving Utah forward Carlos Boozer, another close friend of Wade and his teammate from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Friday that Miami "has not entered talks ... but is monitoring" the Boozer situation.

Over his 10-year career, the versatile 6-foot-10 Odom has averaged 15.1 points and 8.8 rebounds.

"Lamar and I always had a great relationship," Wade said. "He’s always been the guy, one of the guys, that I thought really helped me as a young player."

-- Tim Reynolds

Wade leaving Converse, going to Nike Jordan Brand

NBA scoring champion Dwyane Wade is changing shoes, making the switch from Converse to Nike’s Jordan Brand.

Nike announced Friday that the star Miami Heat guard will now represent the Jumpman label, joining Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Derek Jeter and others.

Wade had three years left on his deal with Converse, which made him the centerpiece of its attempt to reinvigorate a once-thriving basketball business. That relationship seemed rocky when the 2006 NBA finals MVP wore his most recently released signature shoe, the "Wade 4," only once last season and favoring an older model instead.

But Wade said the partnership ends on good terms.

"When I came into the NBA, I didn’t have a lot of exposure and Converse gave me an opportunity to head a brand and be the face of a brand," Wade told The Associated Press. "I’m really thankful for six long, good years. I’ve gotten five shoes out of the deal and my dream came true at the Converse brand, because they put my name on a pair of sneakers."

Still, the lure of the Jordan brand — a 12-year-old division of Nike, which also owns Converse — was too much for Wade to ignore.

Wade told The AP he inquired about switching allegiances from Converse to Jordan’s brand before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, doing so in part about concern over Converse’s long-term viability in the basketball marketplace.

The 2008 request was declined, but earlier this month, Wade said he was "almost positive" a switch would happen sometime before the season. Less than two weeks later, the deal was done.

"It did come sort of fast. It wasn’t anything we planned," Wade said. "But it’s a good thing. Now we can plan for the season."

Coming off a year where the Heat went from 15 to 43 wins and Wade won his first scoring title, Nike apparently agreed that the switch now made sense.

"I’m thrilled to have Dwyane Wade join the Team Jordan family," Michael Jordan said in a statement.

The deal was finalized Thursday. Terms were not released, although it’s believed the new deal, at minimum, matches the remaining three years on the Converse contract.

It’s a significant add to Wade’s endorsement resume, which already includes deals with T-Mobile and Gatorade.

"I want to go global," said Wade, who is planning a business trip to China later this summer. "It’s something I feel like I have to do. I want to continue to build my brand."

Wade made a cryptic reference to the move on his Twitter feed late Thursday night, saying he had "good news coming.....stay tuned." Dozens of people quickly starting pleading for more information, even Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick, who inquired via Twitter if that was Wade’s way of saying he had agreed to a contract extension with the Heat.

"Not only did Andy Roddick hit me on Tweet, he hit me on my phone immediately, right after that," Wade said. "That’s when I knew I sparked a little interest."

Wade offered another Tweet on Friday: "I’m finally home with brand Jordan," he wrote.

The move wasn’t totally unexpected: As recently as last week, Wade was at a charity event with children in Miami wearing apparel featuring the Jumpman logo, prompting one of the kids he was meeting with to ask if he still was aligned with Converse.

Wade donned a blue pair of Converse sneakers at the Zo’s Summer Groove game he co-hosted Sunday with Alonzo Mourning.

That’ll likely be his last appearance in that brand. A "Wade 5" shoe was to be released by Converse in the coming weeks, although it now seems likely that orders from retailers for that model will be canceled.

-- Tim Reynolds

Childress headed for 2nd year in Greece

ATLANTA — Josh Childress said Friday the Atlanta Hawks’ "hardball" negotiations forced him to return for a second season in Greece with Olympiakos.

Childress signed a three-year, $20 million deal with Olympiakos last year after scoring in double figures in each of his four seasons with the Hawks.

The Hawks retained rights to Childress, who as a restricted free agent could negotiate with other NBA teams. Meanwhile, Childress also faced a Wednesday deadline to commit to his return to Greece.

Childress and his agent, Jim Tanner, said in a telephone interview on Friday that they visited Milwaukee and had interest from other teams. They said those teams couldn’t reach an agreement with the Hawks.

"I knew I didn’t have a ton of time and honestly didn’t want a ton of time," Childress said, referring to this week’s deadline with Olympiakos. "If (the Hawks) wanted to get something done it would get done early."

The Hawks will again retain the NBA rights to Childress after next season. Childress said "it’s not out of the question at all" for him to return to Atlanta.

"I just think there needs to be some kind of agreement where both parties meet in the middle," he said. "This idea of hardball is kind of old. I’m not the type of guy that’s gonna bad mouth and do all the other things. I’ve kind of been the kind of guy who wants to move forward and get something done."

Hawks coach Mike Woodson said on Monday he would welcome the return of Childress.

"I’d accept him with open arms, without a doubt," Woodson said.

Childress said he was open to a return to Atlanta.

"The Hawks were definitely in my scope," he said. "I spent four years there. I’m familiar with the team and the organization. I’m familiar with the city. I still have a home there. I think it just came down to whether or not I felt like negotiations would move forward with them. I really didn’t, just being quite honest."

Tanner said his hope was to find Childress a home with another NBA team.

"I would say with a couple of teams in particular we went pretty far down the road, in both cases talking about sign-and-trade transactions," Tanner said.

"We did have a visit to Milwaukee. We had extensive conversations with other teams."

Tanner wouldn’t reveal details of any sign-and-trade offer to the Hawks.

Childress averaged 13.3 points and 3.6 rebounds for Olympiakos.

Childress, from Stanford, was the No. 6 overall pick by Atlanta in the 2004 NBA draft. He started in a career-high 44 games as a rookie and averaged 10.1 points.

He averaged a career-high 13.0 points in the 2006-07 season. He played in 76 games, all in a reserve role, while averaging 11.8 points in the 2007-08 season.

-- Charles Odum

Clippers trade Randolph to Memphis for Richardson

LOS ANGELES — The Clippers have traded leading scorer Zach Randolph to Memphis in exchange for Quentin Richardson.

The deal was announced Friday.

Richardson averaged 10.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in 72 games with the New York Knicks last season. He’s returning to the Clippers, where he played from 2000-04 after being drafted by the team out of DePaul.

The 29-year-old guard-forward was acquired by Memphis on June 25 in exchange for Darko Milicic. Richardson originally left Los Angeles as a free agent and went to Phoenix, where he played one season before joining the Knicks.

Randolph was acquired in a trade with the Knicks in November 2008. The forward averaged 20.8 points and 10.1 rebounds in 50 games for the Clippers last season.

But he had a rocky season off the court, including his father’s death in March.

Randolph was suspended for two games by the team after being arrested for investigation of drunken driving in April. He was suspended for two games for punching a Phoenix player in February.

In 2003 while with the Portland Trail Blazers, Randolph was arrested after an officer noticed the smell of marijuana coming from his vehicle.

Thunder waives Earl Watson

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder have waived guard Earl Watson.

Watson, an eight-year NBA veteran, appeared in 68 games and started in 18 with Oklahoma City this past season and averaged 6.6 points, 5.8 assists and 2.7 rebounds in 26.1 minutes per contest.

Watson, a 6-1 guard out of UCLA, holds career averages of 7.3 points, 4.6 assists, 2.2 rebounds in 597 career games with the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Denver Nuggets, the Memphis Grizzlies and the Seattle Supersonics.

Watson’s waiver was announced Friday by Sam Presti, the Thunder’s executive vice president and general manager.

Jazz keep F Paul Millsap

SALT LAKE CITY — Paul Millsap is staying with the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz on Friday matched the Portland Trail Blazers’ $32 million offer for the restricted free agent, keeping Millsap in Utah with a new four-year deal.

Portland frontloaded the offer with a guarantee of $10.3 million up front and the Jazz were willing to pay up to keep Millsap, a second-round surprise in the 2006 draft.

Utah had seven days to match the offer and made the division rival Trail Blazers wait the full week before Friday’s announcement.

Ex-NBA star tees off in golf tourney after arrest

LAS VEGAS — Former NBA all-star Antoine Walker is playing golf this weekend in northern Nevada before a scheduled court date Monday in Las Vegas in a case involving an $822,500 gambling debt.

Walker, who last played for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2008, teed off Friday in a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe a day after posting $135,000 cash bail following his arrest at Harrah’s Tahoe.

Walker, 32, of Chicago made no mention of his arrest at the start of play in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. His lawyer, Jonathan Powell in Las Vegas, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Phil Weidinger, a tournament spokesman, said neither Walker nor tournament officials would comment about the arrest.

Walker competed in a pro-am Thursday, playing in the first round of the 54-hole tourney with actors Dennis Haysbert and Bruce McGill.

Douglas County sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Halsey said a Harrah’s Tahoe employee who had seen a television news report about an arrest warrant issued Wednesday for Walker recognized the 6-foot-9 power forward Thursday in a casino bar and summoned deputies.

Walker may not have to appear in court in person, a clerk for Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melanie Andress-Tobiasson said. The judge could allow his lawyer to stand in for him to receive a preliminary hearing date.

Walker is accused in a criminal complaint filed earlier this month of three felony counts of writing bad checks. Each charge carries a possible one- to four-year prison term.

Clark County prosecutors allege Walker failed to make good on 10 checks totaling $1 million written last July through January at Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood and the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas.

In Nevada, unpaid casino markers, or loans to gamblers, are treated as bad checks and can be turned over to the district attorney for prosecution.

Walker repaid $178,000 before charges were filed, said prosecutor Bernie Zadrowski, chief of the Clark County district attorney’s office bad check unit. Walker also now faces $82,550 in prosecution fees imposed by the district attorney.

Walker was a three-time all-star with the Boston Celtics and won a championship with the Miami Heat in 2006. The Memphis Grizzlies bought out his contract in December, making him a free agent.

He has had off-court troubles in recent years, including a drunk driving arrest in January in Miami.

Walker and a relative were bound and robbed at gunpoint in 2007 by several robbers in his suburban Chicago residence. He also was the victim of an armed robbery in 2000.

-- Ken Ritter