- Howard Beck of The New York Times: "Any sympathy that Scott Foster might have had for his former friend evaporated after Tim Donaghy's lawyer filed a series of memos that alleged widespread misconduct by N.B.A. referees. 'I know that's not true,' Foster said of the allegations. 'And I know that he knows that's not true.' Asked his feelings about Donaghy now, Foster said he was 'struggling with that.' 'He's affected so many people that are a part of my life, meaning all the referees in the N.B.A. It's really hurt a lot of the guys in our group,' Foster said. 'It would be tough to just be like, 'Oh, all's forgotten.' It might be forgiven, but it's clearly not forgotten.'"
- Chris McCosky of The Detroit News: "What number will Allen Iverson wear as a Piston? Iverson has worn No. 3 since his days at Georgetown and Rodney Stuckey wears it now. 'He can have it,' Stuckey said. 'He's a vet.' The NBA does mind, however. They notified the Pistons on Tuesday that they can't change Stuckey's number this season. There are licensing and merchandizing reasons, here and with Iverson's Nuggets paraphernalia. So Stuckey will keep No. 3 and Iverson will inherit Billups' old No. 1 for the rest of this season. You can expect a switch next season if Iverson re-signs with the Pistons. Iverson would be able to switch back to his No. 3 and Stuckey said he'd probably take No. 9."
- Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: "Chauncey Billups will wear No. 7 for Denver. In his first tour with the Nuggets, he wore No. 4 (Kenyon Martin's current number) and for Detroit, he wore No. 1 (J.R. Smith's number). Smith said Billups didn't contact him about acquiring No. 1, and Smith said he will keep No. 1 next season; he previously was going to switch to No. 23, but later decided that 'No. 1 looks good on me.' It's arguable that Billups will be the greatest No. 7 in team history -- an octet of Nuggets have previously worn the number, including Greg Buckner, Rodney White and Eldridge Recasner."
- Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Dwyane Wade talks of having a hard time getting into the offense 'mentally,' because of what is or what isn't going on. He runs through defenses, like suicidal Jim Brown in The Dirty Dozen, before tossing up strange shots. It was one thing to express his healthy return to basketball in Beijing this summer with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James at his side. It's another to return to a Heat franchise that looks better only by degrees than the 15-win season a year ago. So Wade is the Heat's biggest concern because he's one of the top handful of NBA players, his contract expires after next season and he can go anywhere. And he might if he's not happy. We can talk about how we'd like to see Wade act, how he should lead this team and what a message that would be about who he is if he rides this thing through. But that rarely happens in sports. It's not just a this-generation thing, either."
- Brian Stensaas of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Instead of his energy balled up in the living room, Sebastian Telfair now can take it out on opponents. If Telfair plays, it will be his first game since March 7 when he sprained his left ankle at Sacramento, forcing him to miss the team's final 21 games. The suspension stemmed from a guilty plea in September on a 2007 weapons charge, before he came to Minnesota in the Kevin Garnett trade. It's a chapter in his life he now considers closed. 'I hate that it came up so long after coming to Minnesota,' Telfair said. 'But it's in the past now. And I can move on.' His return comes in the nick of time for the Wolves. Starting point guard Randy Foye is in the midst of a 3-for-24 shooting malaise over the past two games, including an 0-for-10 showing Sunday in Oklahoma City."
- John Jackson of the Chicago Sun-Times: "Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that Derrick Rose is the equal of LeBron James -- now or ever -- or that the Bulls are ready right now to battle the Cavs for anything. All I'm saying is that James, 23, and Rose, 20, are extremely talented young players whose teams should have many exciting battles down the road. For now, Rose isn't thinking about a rivalry with James or the Cavs. When the teams meet tonight at Quicken Loans Arena, Rose simply is viewing it as an opportunity for the Bulls to measure themselves against one of the better teams in the league. 'It should be a good experience to see where we're at, seeing whether we can defend a player like him,' Rose said. 'He's a great player, and he puts a lot of pressure on your defense when he drives.'"
- Sekou Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Joe Johnson's teammates are his biggest supporters and appreciate his game -- a simmering blend of inside and out brilliance that has to be observed regularly to be fully appreciated. Johnson's demeanor and quiet nature tend to shield him from extra attention. Two games into this season, Johnson has served notice that he's everything that his detractors insist he's not. He's leading the league in scoring (30 ppg.) and has the Hawks atop the Southeast Division heading into tonight's showdown against the Hornets in New Orleans. Already a two-time All-Star and the catalyst for the Hawks' stunning playoff run against Boston last season, Johnson abandoned his quest for individual attention years ago. Yet it's hard to ignore No. 2 and his penchant for making the dramatic plays when the Hawks need them."
- Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun: "Raptors players see tonight's game against the Detroit Pistons, who also have started the season 3-0, as a big measuring stick -- even if coach Sam Mitchell wants to take that rod and bust it over the heads of media members. Mitchell thought we were over-hyping this clash of undefeated teams, spiced up by the arrival of Allen Iverson to the Pistons. 'How many games do we have left?' Mitchell demanded yesterday at the Air Canada Centre. 'Seventy-nine right? And we've got measuring-stick games already? It's the biggest game of the year? What are we measuring?' The cautious coach no doubt will be ecstatic if his club wins and gets off to its best start since taking four of five in 1999-2000. He also is wary that people would make too much of a Raptors loss."
- Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: "Sam Cassell's move into the 2008-09 season is decidedly slower than the rest of the team. The veteran dresses in street clothes for games and turns in his most valuable work during pregame shootarounds. Cassell's most important work will come when Doc Rivers truly will need him: down the stretch. For now, though, there's no such thing as a Sam Plan. 'There's no plan with Sam,' Rivers said. 'He's important to the team and he's helping us out on the floor. Obviously later in the year he's going to be more important, but I'll make that decision in time.'"
- Mike
Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: "The Lakers are now 3-0, the Clippers 0-4, and even the involved parties have trouble referring to this thing as a rivalry. The Lakers are 38-11 against the Clippers since Kobe Bryant came into the league, but Bryant carefully chose his words Tuesday, allowing that the Lakers had 'probably' swung back to dominance after splitting the season series with the Clippers from 2005 to '07. Bryant, however, was emphatic about one thing. He did not want to revisit the fact that he almost became a Clipper when they offered him a lucrative free-agent contract in 2004. 'I don't know, I don't remember, and you're not pulling me into that ...,' Bryant said Tuesday when asked if he could recount some of the details of his agonizing decision. 'I'm not going for it. I'll pass on the bait. No te entiendo.' The last part was Spanish for 'I don't understand you,' but the point came across in any language -- he's pretty happy to be where he is now." - Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune: "The next election of concern for the Utah Jazz comes this winter, when the committees which screen nominees for possible induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame go to work. The Jazz could be well-represented when finalists are selected during All-Star Weekend in February and when the Class of 2009 is announced during the Final Four in April. John Stockton -- the NBA's all-time assists and steals leader, who retired in 2003 -- is eligible for the Hall of Fame for the first time. Jerry Sloan, on the threshold of becoming the first NBA coach to win 1,000 games with the same franchise, is also Hall-of-Fame eligible. The Jazz have submitted the paperwork necessary to start the nomination process for Stockton and Sloan, and they will certainly do the same next year, when Karl Malone becomes eligible for the first time."
- John Canzano of The Oregonian: "Nate McMillan planned to start Nicolas Batum in the season opener but changed his mind the morning of the game against the Lakers. The Blazers coach got jittery, and nervous, and decided to go with veteran small forward Travis Outlaw, who is terrific as a sixth man and hadn't practiced enough with the starting unit. It was a mistake. McMillan knows it. Batum knows it. The rest of the Blazers know it. You know it. I know it. Your dog knows it. And today, it gets corrected when Batum gets his first start at small forward and Outlaw gets back with the second unit where he can cut loose doing the things that make him effective."
- Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: "Gregg Popovich got on a rant about the importance of international competition. 'Notice,' he said, 'I didn't say world championship. There's no such thing for these teams, although many haven't figured that out yet. Did any of us who won a championship play anybody in Spain or Russia or Italy, or any other country, other than the United States? I don't know why it's called the (baseball) World Series, and I don't know why they call (the NBA title) the World Championship. I never have gotten it. I still don't get it, but people continue to do it. One would think either stubbornness, or hubris, or something like that had something to do with it. But in these days, when things are so obvious, it's remarkable to me that people still can't figure that out.'"
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