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INDIANAPOLIS – There was a rare event Monday afternoon at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse, one that’s only happened a couple dozen times in NBA history.

Jeff Foster, who played his entire 13-year career with the Indiana Pacers, officially retired. It was a move that was announced last week after he learned that he’d need back surgery.

Only 24 players in NBA history have played their entire career with one team and lasted 13 years. Most of them are in the Hall of Fame. Foster’s current peers in that category -- Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki -- will be going to Springfield.

So was the man who sat next to him as he said farewell at a news conference, Pacers president Larry Bird, who spent 13 years with the Boston Celtics before having his career cut short with back injuries.

“Playing for one organization is great, it’s something he’ll remember for the rest of his life,” Bird said.

“I was able to do the same thing and I feel very honored to be able to do that. I know what he was going through, it’s just tough. But he made the right decision. If he had continued to play he’s going to end up like me and they aren’t going to be able to fix [him].”

Foster will not be a Hall of Famer, he was a rugged 6-foot-11 center out of Texas State who lasted this long because he was a good rebounder and wasn’t afraid to battle inside. Of the 764 games he played, he came off the bench in 419 of them. Over the last three years he was debilitated by back issues and only played in 11 games this year. His best season was in 2004-05 when he averaged nine points and seven rebounds.

The highlight of his career, he said, was his rookie year when he went to the Finals. He played with the two other Pacers who have also played more than 10 years with the team: Reggie Miller and Rik Smits.

“I fought with the decision at the beginning of the year whether to end on last year’s note or come back,” Foster said. “I need to get fixed what’s wrong ... hopefully there are no problems in the long term.”

After acquiring guard Stephen Jackson two days ago, the Golden State Warriors agreed to a deal to send him to the San Antonio Spurs for Richard Jefferson, league sources told ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst.

The Spurs will also sent their first-round draft pick this year as part of the package. Sources say that pick is lottery protected.


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The Los Angeles Lakers have acquired point guard Ramon Sessions from the Cleveland Cavaliers as part of a multi-player deal that will bring the Cavs the Lakers' 2012 first-round pick, according to league sources.

The Cavs also will send young wing player Christian Eyenga to the Lakers and veteran forward Luke Walton will be going to the Cavs. The Lakers' will keep their draft pick this year if they miss the playoffs. As part of the deal, the Lakers also will have the right to swap first-round draft position in 2013 with the Miami Heat's first round pick, which the Cavs own.

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The Chicago Bulls generally don’t like giving contracts with opt-out clauses in them. Carlos Boozer didn’t get one in the huge deal he signed with the team in the summer of 2010. Neither did Joakim Noah or Luol Deng on their big long-term contracts.

For Derrick Rose, however, the Bulls were prepared to make an exception. That’s the sort of clout a Most Valuable Player or any superstar is commonly afforded in the NBA. In fact, the majority of players who are given contracts four years or longer are almost routinely given opt-out clauses. Players like DeSagana Diop, Linas Kleiza, Beno Udith and Charlie Bell have them. Certainly the Bulls were going to bend on Rose if he wanted it as well.

Only, Rose never asked for one.

The five-year, $94 million contract extension Rose signed this week is for the full five years -- the biggest commitment he could’ve made to the team under the new collective bargaining rules.

"Most players of Derrick's stature who are signing contracts, there are usually player options or early termination options within those," Bulls general manager Gar Forman said. "Derrick absolutely didn't want that. He wanted a full commitment from the Bulls. To us, that's really special. He stepped up to sign the maximum length."

Kevin Durant made the same move last season when he signed a full five-year agreement with no out with the Oklahoma City Thunder, another team that doesn't usually hand out player options. In an era where top stars have been seeking flexibility and to apply pressure to their teams, the decisions of Rose and Durant signal a significant shift.

“We had it in the contract, it was already negotiated,” said Durant’s agent, Aaron Goodwin. “Kevin asked us to take it out. He said the team was fully committed to him and that he should be fully committed to the team.”

So Durant is, through 2016.

This marks a significant deviation from how superstars approach their long-term futures. In 2006, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all decided to accept maximum level contracts that allowed them to be free agents after just three years. Chris Paul and Deron Williams did the same when they signed their max contracts in 2008.

Three years later, James, Bosh, Williams and Paul are all on different teams.

Amare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard signed max deals between 2005-07, but all got opt-out clauses after four years. Stoudemire used his out to leave the Suns a year early and signed with the Knicks in the 2010 offseason. Anthony used the threat of opting out to force the Denver Nuggets to trade him. Now, Howard is using the same strategy with the Orlando Magic.

The shorter contracts and options to terminate the contract early applied tremendous pressure to that group of stars’ various teams and provided the players with maximum leverage. This, of course, was the point. The stars wanted as much control as possible.

This came on the heels of an era where contracts were permitted to be signed up to seven years or longer and, as a result led to players feeling trapped in bad situations. Kevin Garnett's deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves is a prime example. That is why Garnett, the night James played his last game with the Cavs, warned James that loyalty wasn’t always the smartest thing for a star.

So in 2006, the young stars felt they were bucking that trend and setting a new standard. James, Bosh and Wade were represented by the same agency and they had formulated the plan together. Even Wade, just days removed from winning a championship with the Heat in 2006, extended his deal with Miami for only three more years.

But there was another consequence. Their teams struggled under the weight of the short leashes. It made some teams spend wildly on short-term moves because they were afraid to lose their star, which happened in Cleveland with James and now in Orlando with Howard. It didn’t work in either case, though the Magic are still spending in an effort to change Howard’s mind.

For two consecutive years the Suns let their fans and other players twist in the wind as they mulled moving Stoudemire at the trade deadline for fear of his approaching free agency. The Nuggets were derailed last season by Anthony’s demands.

Afraid of having their season affected what happened in Denver, the New Orleans Hornets dumped Paul just two years after his once celebrated maximum extension kicked in. As part of the deal, Paul picked up the option in his contract for the 2012-13 season. But the Los Angeles Clippers are now on the clock -- one more year and Paul again has the power.

When Wade, James and Bosh all signed with the Heat it was for six years and more than $100 million. At the time, James talked about winning six or seven titles. But their deals were structured to allow all of them to have opt outs after both the fourth and fifth seasons (2014-15 and 2015-16). The clock in Miami will start ticking soon.

“I’m not sure if how we handled things changed any of the guys, everyone had the chance to make their own choices,” James said. “That is for [the media] to decide if we changed things.”

The Bulls and Thunder are both considered championship contenders at the moment. But things in the NBA are always fragile, teams see rapid changes in fortune regularly. What both teams do know is that they have received six-year commitments from their star players (both Durant and Rose signed extensions early, adding five years to their final season of their rookie contracts).

“I think that Derrick and Kevin are just cut from a different cloth than some of the other guys in the league,” Goodwin said. “I’m not sure it is something that will change the way stars look at getting deals.”

We may find out soon enough. Next up for major extensions are Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love.

Given the recent actions of Durant and Rose, the upcoming decisions of the up-and-coming stars may have a much larger impact.

Baron Davis has cleared amnesty waivers and is free to sign with any team, according to a league source.

Davis was waived by the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday. He had two years and $28 million left on his contract.

The New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers are believed to be Davis' top choices, according to league sources.

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With chaos raging around the league and their owner suddenly in the middle of it, the Cavs' front office is dealing with a different hot potato. How it plays out could affect several title contenders.

According to league sources, it has become clear that Baron Davis’ brief stay in Cleveland is likely coming to an end. How it comes to an end, though, is complex and could have an impact on where Davis ultimately lands next. As of Friday morning the Cavs had not decided how they wanted to proceed with Davis. Meanwhile, the point guard was in Cleveland and expected to report to training camp.

For some time Davis has been a candidate to be waived by the Cavs using the amnesty clause, which would remove the two years and $28 million the Cavs owe him from the team’s books and create more than $10 million in salary-cap space. This was not the plan all along. Things changed when the Cavs won the draft lottery and took Kyrie Irving, who is now their franchise player. In addition the team has a solid backup point guard, Ramon Sessions, on the roster.

In recent weeks, sources said, Davis had been counting on becoming a free agent and setting his sights on the Lakers, Knicks and Heat. His agents have been in talks with the Cavs to facilitate the process this week.

However, the Cavs are not sure they want to amnesty Davis. They still believe he has value to the team and think he could potentially become a strong trade asset later this season or next summer. The Cavs, sources said, were also turned off by the thought of Davis being paid by them but ultimately ending up in Miami helping LeBron James compete for a title.

Trying to work through the issues, Davis’ representation has also been involved in buyout talks with the Cavs, sources said. In a buyout, Davis might have to give up some of the money owed to him over the next two years but he would become an outright free agent. In this case, he would not have to pass through the league’s new amnesty waiver system where another team could bid and then acquire his rights.

Davis figures to be significantly in demand, especially in New York where starter Chauncey Billups appears on his way out to facilitate a Tyson Chandler signing. If the Lakers are unable to complete a trade for Chris Paul, they would also likely remain in the race if Davis gets out of Cleveland. The Heat are also in need of a point guard.

If Davis is amnestied another team could block those moves by bidding on Davis. After they finish making their moves, the Knicks, Lakers and Heat aren’t expected to have salary cap space and therefore could not bid on Davis.

MIAMI -- Eddy Curry is getting another chance.

The Miami Heat will sign Curry on Friday in time for training camp, sources told ESPN.com.

The Heat, who are in the market for help at the center position, have been monitoring Curry for months and considered signing him at one point last season. Curry has maintained a relationship with LeBron James for several years and has been focused on getting ready for Heat training camp all summer and fall, sources said.

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MIAMI -- Needing to upgrade their bench, the Miami Heat have landed a significant addition in veteran Shane Battier.

Battier announced on his Twitter account Thursday that he plans to sign with the Heat when free agency opens on Friday afternoon. A number of contending teams had been courting Battier over the last few days, including the Orlando Magic and San Antonio Spurs.

The Heat made Battier a priority and met with him in the first hours of Monday, when teams were allowed to speak with players. Battier, who has had a relationship with Heat CEO Mick Arison since he was the team manager while Battier played at Duke, was attracted to the Heat's potential for winning a title.

"The lockout gave me lots of time to consider what was important to me at this stage of my life and career," Battier wrote on Twitter. "Over the last week, I've played out every scenario in my head over and over. It always came back to one thing for me: a winning role."

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The Bobcats made a low-risk move last season by signing Kwame Brown to a one-year deal and got a high reward. But it might have priced him out of town.

Charlotte has become concerned they will lose Brown in free agency, sources said Wednesday, because it will not be able to match offers he’s received elsewhere.

Brown had a positive meeting with Bobcats team president Rod Higgins and the team’s coaching staff on Tuesday and expressed a desire to return. However, the centerpiece of the team’s pitch is a return to the comfort level that Brown found with veteran coach Paul Silas in Charlotte last season and not dollars, sources said.

Faced with limited options, Brown signed a one-year deal with the Bobcats last summer for the league minimum. He went on to have his best statistical season in eight years, averaging 7.9 points and 6.8 rebounds, and making 50 starts.

With several teams owning cap space and looking for centers, a market has developed for Brown that includes the Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics and Sacramento Kings in addition to the Bobcats.

“Kwame is keeping an open mind,” Brown’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, said. “There’s a bit of a logjam for the centers right now. It’ll become clearer in the next few days.”

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The Heat are considering making a run at restricted free agent Greg Oden, league sources said. Oden, who hasn't played in nearly two years after suffering two different knee injuries, has a key doctor's examination this week when he could be cleared to resume contact practices.

Oden has a one-year qualifying offer from the Portland Trail Blazers for $8.9 million on his plate at the moment. The most the Heat could offer is the bulk of the $5 million mid-level exception.

For these reasons, it would seem like an easy choice for Oden if he can return to the floor, which could come as early as January. By making the hefty qualifying offer, the Blazers indicated they have not given up hope even though Oden has only played 82 games since being taken with the No. 1 overall pick in 2007.

But Heat president Pat Riley is known for his powers of persuasion and last year convinced free agent after free agent to take less money to sign in Miami. Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller all took less money than they were offered elsewhere.

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Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert has been one of the faces of the so-called “hardline” owners during the protracted and emotional NBA labor talks. He’s long been one of the certified “hawks,” the aggressive and hungry faction who were known to be seeking radical change.

With the process at a crucial tipping point, he may end up being emblematic of something different. Multiple sources have confirmed to ESPN.com that Gilbert has adapted his position in recent days and has moved into a more moderate mode, voting with fellow owners who are willing to accept a 50-50 share of basketball-related revenue with the players.

With deadlines looming and the stakes enormous, that position is believed to have a tenuous majority among the ownership ranks. Gilbert’s vote helped get it there as NBA commissioner David Stern tries to squeeze a deal into place.

ESPN The Magazine’s Chris Broussard reported on Monday that a group of 11 owners, who favor a more restrictive offer in the event a deal isn’t reached by this afternoon, held a conference call without Stern to discuss options. Gilbert was not part of that call, sources confirmed.

Ever since his outlandish public letter to fans after LeBron James left in free agency, Gilbert has been a target for players and some frustrated fans. As the owner of a smaller market team that had lost its superstar in free agency and was facing a long rebuilding process, it made common and business sense that Gilbert was among the owners looking for reforms on luxury tax, player movement and revenue sharing. He is a newer, younger owner who paid a premium for his team in 2005, and a member of the labor relations committee. He is outspoken and aggressive. He is, in many ways, the composite of the ideas that have driven the lockout. He was, to use Micky Arison’s parlance, the owner fans should bark at.

But as the talks have matured and the players union has continued to make concessions, the line on where the hardliners fall has moved too. It has moved, it seems, past even a polarizing figure like Gilbert. All signs point to him being ready to make a deal and get back to playing basketball. Perhaps that is an indication that is where the process is finally headed.

A couple of days before the start of training camp in 2006, David Stern received an uncomfortable letter at the NBA’s New York offices.

Eight owners signed a petition that demanded Stern address the small market/big market financial disparity they felt was a serious and growing problem. Obviously, they didn’t need to write him a letter like he was their local representative in Congress; he works for them. They did so to make a symbolic point and then released the letter to some media outlets to make sure the issue became public.

It read: “We are asking you to embrace this issue because the hard truth is that our current economic system works only for larger-market teams and a few teams that have extraordinary success on the court and for the latter group of teams, only when they experience extraordinary success. The rest of us are looking at significant and unacceptable annual financial losses."

The authors of the letter were Paul Allen of Portland, Herb Simon on Indiana, Bob Johnson of Charlotte, George Shinn of New Orleans, Larry Miller of Utah, Michael Heisley of Memphis, Glen Taylor of Minnesota and Herb Kohl of Milwaukee.

Johnson and Shinn have since sold their teams and Miller has passed away, giving way to his son, Greg. But the situations in those markets haven’t changed.

In essence, that letter is the root of the current lockout. And, it is turning out, perhaps a core reason the owners can’t make a deal with the players after more than two years of negotiations.

Multiple league sources have emphatically told ESPN.com in the past several days that the sticking points with the players’ union do not solely break down market-size lines and that there’s unity among the owners on the need to win significant economic concessions from the players.

But there seems to be a difference between unity and harmony.

TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott reported Tuesday that the owners were holding a hastily-scheduled meeting in New York to further address revenue sharing issues. It comes on the heels of an owners’ meeting last week where enhanced revenue sharing was discussed -- a conversation that has been going on for nearly as long as talks with the players -- but no plan was agreed to. Stern has promised a new system that will at least triple the money being shared by teams. But so far that has just been a promise, as no plan is in place.

The NBA’s last collective bargaining agreement was ratified in 2005 and included an increased piece of the pie for the players in the form of a jump to 57 percent of basketball-related revenue. Just a year later, those eight teams that drafted the ’06 letter were already complaining openly to Stern that it wasn’t working for them.

In his podcast with Bill Simmons on Monday, union president Billy Hunter re-told a story about meeting with Stern during the 2007 NBA Finals in Cleveland, nine months after Stern received that letter. At the time, Hunter said, Stern talked about the need to roll back the players’ share and revealed his owners were already talking about locking out the union in 2011 if their demands for givebacks weren’t agreed to.

That was two years before an economic crisis slammed the country and further hammered the bottom lines. Since then, the number of allies for the eight owners who wrote the letter has only increased, and it has shaped the dynamic in both talks with the union and with big-market owners.

Robert Sarver of Phoenix and Dan Gilbert of Cleveland didn’t sign the letter in ’06, but they are now two of the biggest advocates for change in both revenue sharing and reducing player compensation. The Maloof family that owns the Kings was coming off six consecutive winning seasons and was used to selling every seat when the letter was authored. Now, they are in dire financial straits and are certainly looking for reform. In addition to the Bobcats and Hornets changing hands, the Wizards, Warriors, 76ers, Pistons and Hawks have also been sold in the past two years to groups who are expecting a new CBA to be more favorable to owners than the previous one. The Nets were also sold last season, but new owner Mikhail Prokhorov is not believed to be among those clamoring for change.

Then look what has happened to the big-market teams. At the time of the last CBA, the Knicks, Celtics and Bulls were all experiencing some sort of down cycle. Even the Lakers were struggling, missing the playoffs in 2005 for the first time in 10 years. Now, all of those teams have returned to prominence and their revenues have soared as well, opening up a gulf of disparity in cash.

When the Lakers agreed to a new local television deal worth several billion dollars last winter, it only further united their small-market competition in pressing for a makeover of both the revenue-sharing system and the split with the players.

“That Lakers’ TV deal scared the hell out of everybody,” one league official said. “Everyone thought there is no way to compete with that. Then everyone started thinking that it wasn’t fair that they didn’t have to share it with the teams they’re playing against.”

Pile all of those factors together and you have a faction of owners in 2006 that has turned into a majority in 2011. They are furious that the players are getting paid so much. They are furious that the NBA's current revenue sharing ($60 million a year) is worth less than half of a league like the NHL ($137 million). And they are trying to take advantage of throwing their new weight around.

This is what deputy commissioner Adam Silver was referring to last week when he mentioned “robust” discussions about revenue sharing at recent owners’ meetings. This is also what Hunter has been referring to when he’s described a fracture within the ownership ranks.

At the heart of this labor dispute is money, of course. But there’s that other classic element at play as well: power. And who has it among the ownership ranks is changing.

MIAMI -- The Heat clearly made their major moves last summer, but that hasn’t stopped them from being active on the trade market.

According to multiple league executives, the Heat have floated Mike Miller in several different trade scenarios as they look to upgrade at the center or point guard positions. Miller missed his second straight game Tuesday -- when the Heat knocked off the Kings 117-87 -- out of precaution as he recovers from a head injury and an ear infection.

Miller is the Heat’s most tradable asset, even though he’s in the first season of a five-year, $29 million contract he signed last summer and is averaging just 5.9 points on 41 percent shooting as he recovers from a hand injury that cost him the first two months of the season.

One executive said the Heat have been calling around but just "don’t have much they can trade." This is literally true, as several of Miami's players who signed minimum contracts this summer -- such as Jamaal Magloire and Carlos Arroyo -- can’t be traded without their permission because they’d lose their Bird Rights. Two other players, Udonis Haslem and rookie Dexter Pittman, are both out recovering from surgeries.

The only other significant asset the Heat have that would merit any interest is the Timberwolves’ 2011 second-round pick, which would be a sweetener at best.

The Heat have been unsettled at center and point guard for much of the season as coach Erik Spoelstra has regularly changed his rotations -- as evidenced by Tuesday's decision to move Erick Dampier into the starter’s role at center for the first time.

If the Heat are able to add a player, it will most likely come after a veteran has been bought out sometime in the next week. With 15 players on the roster, such a move would require the team to cut a player.

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MIAMI -- The Sacramento Kings are involved in serious trade talks involving forward Carl Landry and did not play him in Tuesday's 117-96 loss to the Miami Heat.

"We're involved in some fairly significant discussions," Kings coach Paul Westphal said. "We thought it was prudent not to play him tonight."

Landry was traded from Houston to Sacramento just before last year's trade deadline in a three-team deal that sent Tracy McGrady to the Knicks and Kevin Martin to the Rockets. Landry is in the final year of a contract that pays him $3 million this season.

"I've been there before, right now I'm happy to be a King," Landry said. "I'll give my agent a call. Right now it's all talk."

Landry is averaging 11.9 points and 4.8 rebounds. Tuesday was his first missed game of the season.

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