Candace Parker and Pierson fight at the Palace at Auburn Hills.

LAS VEGAS - Kevin Martin arrived with an agenda and, almost as interestingly, with something to say.

The plan is to impress USA Basketball officials while preparing the U.S. Olympic Team for Beijing. Establish eye contact with members of the selection committee, further enhancing his own future Olympic prospects. Maintain his excellent conditioning. Swap stories with Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Mike Krzyzewski. And then, when the Olympic team scoots off to Beijing, finish scribbling his introduction for 2008-09.

That long-sought Kings leader? That would be Martin. His words. His time...

Spencer Hawes channels the legend of Vlade Divac for this sweet move for the easy lay-in.

Oklahoma City just picked their new team name and jerseys. The colors are black and gold. It looks pretty nice, almost Wake Forest like. What do you think?

Reggie Theus and Rookie Sean Singletary talk about the first day of Summer League Mini-Camp.

NBATV camera's follow around draft prospect Jason Thompson for the weeks leading up to the NBA Draft. Video also includes post draft reaction from the newest member of the Sacramento Kings.

With so many big-name(ish) players deciding to opt out of huge contracts it comes as a surprise that both Ron Artest and Beno Udrih decide to stay with a team that has stayed very loyal to them. Today Beno Udrih's agent reported that his client will be signing with the Kings for the full MLE at 5 years and 32 Million dollars.

This is causing quite a stir around many Sacramento Kings message boards with the belief that Beno is not worth the full MLE and that we continue to waste money on poor long term contracts. I, however, tend to disagree with those sentiments. If you look at what he did in 1 year of starting pg duties its hard to argue that he isn't at least worth full MLE money. Also looking at the other available free agent PG's I'd conclude that i would rather have Brad Miller run point guard next year.

Artest on the other hand will be great trade bait before the season and during the season which could be a huge benefit to the Kings. Many teams will be looking for that extra bump to help them long into the post-season.

I'm actually glad they are both back. Hopefully we can get a full season of healthy basketball.

The Los Angeles Clippers are making a hard run at signing free agent Baron Davis, multiple league sources said late Monday night.

Hours before the midnight deadline, the Golden State Warriors point guard opted out of the $17.8 million owed him in the final season of his six-year contract. Davis could still re-sign with the Warriors, but the possibility of returning to Southern California, where he grew up and played at UCLA, must intrigue him.

Davis' decision stunned league executives and agents late Monday.

"He has to have some kind of a deal somewhere," an Eastern Conference general manager said. "You just don't opt out of that kind of money."

Davis' career had been reborn under Don Nelson's small ball, but acrimony over contract talks have cooled the relationship between the Warriors and him. What's more, Davis could be facilitating a sign-and-trade between Golden State and Los Angeles, or elsewhere.

Let me first tell you my feelings during the 11th and 12th pick of tonight's NBA Draft.

"With the 11th pick in the NBA Draft the Indiana Pacers select..... Jerryd Bayless!" ---- DAMMIT!!!!!

"With the 12th pick in the NBA Draft the Sacramento Kings select.... Jason Thompson!" ---- WTF!? WHO!?

I will not lie and say that i loved or even moderately liked this pick when i first heard it. I honestly had no freaking idea who the kid other than what the ESPN "analysts" said shortly after the draft of him being "A really solid player, not a great athlete, nothing spectacular about him, he is just a solid player." Which obviously made me more excited than if i just found out i was adopted by a family in Iraq. However, getting more time to fully understand what in the royal fuck Geoff Petrie was thinking i've come to the conclusion that this may actually be a semi-decent pick. If you really just break down the numbers of Thompson from the last 2 years of his college career he's actually pretty damn impressive.

2006-07 Season: Averaged 20.1 ppg, 10.1 rpg (was one of only three players to average over 20 and 10)

2007-08 Season: Averaged 20.4 ppg, 12.1 rpg, 2.7 bpg (ranked second nationally in every category presumably behind Michael Beasley)

Even if he is playing in a mid-level conference he is still dominating both ends of the floor. He was named the MAAC Player of the year his Senior year as well as the MAAC Defensive player of the year. Which happens to be something that the Kings are absolutely HORRIBLE in. He is a back-to-the-basket type of player that the Kings haven't had since the days of Vlade Divac.

Hopefully this kid pans out because you never really know when it comes to the mind of Geoff Petrie. This is the same guy who picked Kevin Martin, Peja Stojakovic, Hedo Turkeglu, and Gerald Wallace. I'm not going to lie about me initially hating this pick but you can't really deny Petrie's ability to scout talent.

Hopefully everything works out in the Kings favor for once.

Tony Allen finishes off the Lakers with a reverse Ally-Oop.

Eric and Jason parody the highly scrutinized WNBA: Expect Great commercials.

The letter also details an incident in the 2002 playoffs in which Donaghy alleges that two referees, who were known as NBA "company men," wanted to extend a series to seven games. "Team 5" could have wrapped up the series in Game 6 but lost two players to ejection, lost that game and ultimately the series.

Obviously is the Kings/Lakers WCF too.

Only series that went 7 games that year.

Two Kings (Pollard and Vlade) fouled out in Game 6, just as alleged. Webb got up to 5 himself

Lakers shot 27 free throws in the FOURTH QUARTER.

WIth the new hiring of Rick Carlisle and presumably a new direction for the Dallas Mavericks, when asked about a possible acquisition of Ron Artest, Rick responded with a resounding "Yes!"

"Of course," Carlisle said when asked if he would coach his former player again. "This guy is one of the real difference-makers that we have in this league. He's had one all-star year; that's when he played for me. I've had a chance to reconnect with Ronnie a couple times over the last couple of years. I love him and I love his family, so yeah. This guy was one of the most physical, intimidating players that I've ever seen at the small forward position, so he'd be a player that any team would want to have."

The possible trading piece at the moment would be beleaguered forward Josh Howard, who is coming off one of his worst playoff performances of his career. Howard, who has 2 years and around 20 million left on his contract would be a huge upgrade from any offers the Kings were receiving in February.

Do i hope this happens? Absolutely. I honestly don't care if JHo admitted to smoking pot in the offseason. Hey, Chris Webber did the same thing and look how good we were then! I think it would be a pretty dynamic, young starting lineup with Beno, Kmart, Howard, Mikki, and Brad.

Artest is not available to be traded until June, so i guess we will just have to wait.

Lebron skies for a dunk over Kevin Garnett to seal up a game four win.

I've debated this several times with my buddies and there seems to be a large divide of people who absolutely love college basketball and hate the NBA, and people who hate college basketball and love the NBA.

It seems to be the argument against the NBA is that the brand of basketball is stereotypical superstar v. superstar one on one basketball, the players are just a bunch of overpaid crybabies, there is no emotion like there is in the college game, most players just mail it in to collect checks, there is not a lot of team unity and so on...

And the argument against college basketball is that the game is more focused on the coach than the actual players, my belief that the court just isnt big enough for the size of the kinds who play these days, every time down the floor there is either a three taken or someone missing a layup, no room for athletic players to shine, nobody outside of North Carolina cares about the Duke/UNC match ups every year, defenders are allowed to clog the lane as long as they want and so on

Being a huge NBA fan and a huge fan of the NCAA tournament i was wondering how YB feels about the respective leagues and why.

I personally would like to see the college game opened up a lot. Like allowing these amazing kids to get six fouls (the game is so must more physical now,) widening and lengthening the lane and three point line so there is more room to operate. (you almost never see mid range jumpshots in college)

but anyway i would like to hear what everyone thinks.