NEW YORK

First, Nelson joked that he took rookie Stephen Curry out of the starting lineup because he doesn’t have enough ink.

“Stephen Curry, I took him out of the starting lineup because he doesn’t have enough tattoos,” Nelson said before Golden State trounced New York, 121-107, at MSG. “In fact, he doesn’t have any tattoos. How can a guy start in the NBA with no tattoos?”

Curry was drafted seventh overall by Golden State in this year’s NBA Draft, one spot ahead of New York, which chose Arizona forward Jordan Hill. Curry is averaging 8.7 points and 5.4 assists.

“If Curry wasn’t there, [Hill] was on our board. I’m not sure that we would’ve taken him, but we liked [Brandon] Jennings very much as well. But that would’ve been a decision. There was no decision with Curry,” Nelson said.

As for his other Stephen, Stephen Jackson, Nelson said the team would be better off if Jackson got his wish to be dealt.

“Well, when you have a guy that doesn’t want to be with your team it’s a problem because it’s very difficult for him to give you what he needs, to give you extra because he’s unhappy,” Nelson said. “He wants to move on. That’s been an issue.

“We’re trying to deal with it the best that we can and right now it’s a situation where we’re so banged up with our guys that I have to play him out of position as well. He has to play the power forward position so that’s difficult for him as well.”

Asked if there was any progress on trading Jackson, Nelson said: “I don’t know. You have to talk to our general manager.”

Asked if the Warriors had to trade Jackson for the betterment of the team, Nelson responded: “We don’t have to but I think it would be best for him and for us at this point. But if it doesn’t happen, he’s going to be here. He’s under contract for four years I believe.”

Jackson, averaging 15 points and 4.9 assists, has made no secret of his desire to leave Golden State.

“If it’s soon, I’m ready,” Jackson told Yahoo! Sports after Monday’s game against Minnesota. “Can’t do nothing but be ready. I asked for it as long as it’s the right situation for me and it’s not done out of spite. I’ve done a lot for this team and this organization and I hope the respect stays the same way. If it does happen, I hope it’s somewhere where I want to be.”

As if the Jackson situation weren’t enough to distract the team, guard Monta Ellis told reporters he can’t play with Curry.

“Us together? No,” Ellis told reporters. “Can’t. We just can’t. … Just can’t.”

Curry said he’s trying his best to adapt to the situation.

“Every NBA team has little distractions, sometimes not as public as ours is, but you’ve got to take what’s going and try to make the best of it and that’s how I do it,” Curry said before the game.

Curry admitted to imagining what it might have been like to play for the Knicks had they chosen him.

“Watching the offense, you kind of picture yourself and how you could’ve played, what kind of plays you could’ve made,” he said. “They got a lot of talent — like we are — we’ve just got to figure out how to put it together and get some wins.

“They’re a fun team to watch the way they play and the way D’Antoni coaches, so I enjoy watching them.”

FREE THROWS

Nate Robinson will return to the lineup Friday for the Knicks. He has been out since Oct. 31 with a sprained right ankle. “We’ll see if he’s rusty or not,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said…Larry Hughes returns to the starting lineup and rookie Toney Douglas returns to the bench because he’s ill…Eddy Curry will have three more practices before potentially making his season debut Wednesday at Indiana. “If things go really well, then we’ll do it,” D’Antoni said…D’Antoni on the team’s confidence after a 1-8 start: “It’s not good. We’re battling to stay focused and getting over the hump a little bit.”…Darko Milicic has notched two straight DNPs. “It’s just not his time right now,” D’Antoni said.

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Latavious Williams

The Tulsa 66ers chose Williams with the 16th overall pick. Tulsa is an affiliate of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

His high school coach said Williams turned down a $100,000 guaranteed contract to play in China in favor of entering the D-League Draft because he felt it gave him a better shot at reaching the NBA. The average D-League salary is between $35,000-$40,000.

 “He had a contract on the table that could’ve paid him $100,000 or better in China but he had to weigh the pros and cons,” said Carlos Wilson of Humble (Texas) Christian Life Center. “It came down to taking the money and getting some financial stability for now, but still you’re a long way from the NBA when you’re in China. Or taking the least amount of money and being a step closer instead of four steps closer.”

The 6-foot-8, 205-pound Williams initially committed to Memphis in May but faced academic hurdles that endangered his eligibility. He then announced in July that he would play overseas instead.

“Obviously if a kid has a chance to play professionally and have a chance financially to better him and his family, again, you have to support the kid because that’s No. 1,” Memphis head coach Josh Pastner told the Memphis Commercial Appeal in July.

Brandon Jennings skipped college last year to play professionally in Italy and ended up being chosen No. 10 in this year’s NBA Draft by Milwaukee. He is now the leading contender for NBA Rookie of the Year honors.

Jeremy Tyler, a 6-10 junior from San Diego, is suffering through a rocky time in Israel and plans to enter the 2011 NBA Draft.

Two American college guards, Nick Calathes of Florida and Terrence Oglesby of Clemson, opted to leave college early to play professionally overseas.

But Williams made history by jumping to the D-League, which he hopes will eventually lead him to the NBA.

“Somebody from the NBA is going to see your every move,” Wilson said. “I think that was it. It was basically closer to making it to the NBA.”

According to Tulsa’s official Website, three players on the Thunder’s opening night roster saw playing time with the 66ers last season.

Kyle Weaver averaged 17.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, and nine assists in two games, while D.J. White averaged 18.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in six games on assignment in Tulsa. Shaun Livingston played 11 games for Tulsa, averaging 9.3 points, six assists and 3.5 rebounds per contest, before being called-up to the Thunder on March 31.

In addition, Ramon Sessions of the Minnesota Timberwolves played on assignment during the 2007-08 season, while Milwaukee Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova and Orlando Magic forward Brandon Bass each played on assignment during the 2005-06 season.

Williams hopes he can follow in their path.

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Per the Cleveland Plain Dealer, LeBron plans to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

In his strongest comments on the subject to date, the reigning NBA MVP indicated on Friday that he would not sign the extension, believed to be three years, offered by the Cavs on July 18 nor pick up his player option that would keep him with the team through the 2010-11 season.

Speaking at the launch of his new Nike Air Max LeBron VII sneakers, James said, “I signed a contract in 2006 with an option. It would make no sense for me to sign that contract if I didn’t keep my options open.

“I’ll let you fill in the blanks.”

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The 6-foot-10, 250-pound Thomas, 32, signed a one-year deal for $1.3 million with the Mavs, his fourth team since last November.

The deal is low-risk for Dallas, which didn’t use any of its midlevel exception or bi-annual exception to land Thomas.

“Number one, the organization is chasing what I’m chasing, a ring,” Thomas told Keith Idec of The Bergen Record. “And it was important for me to go somewhere that I’m wanted, somewhere that I feel, overall, is just a great fit for me because I can help them in so many different ways. Once my agent told me Dallas was available and how interested they were, it was a no-brainer.”

After losing out on Brandon Bass and missing out on Orlando center Marcin Gortat, the Mavs went out and got Drew Gooden for one year and $4.5 million and Thomas and now have seven power forwards under contract: Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Shawne Williams, Kris Humphries, Nathan Jawai, Gooden and Thomas.

You have to think a trade of some sort of trade is on the horizon.

Still, Mavs owner Mark Cuban said the acquisition of Thomas, who starred at Paterson (N.J.) Catholic High School and was chosen No. 7 by the Nets in the 1997 NBA Draft, would benefit the team.

“He is a really good three-point shooter that can spread the floor for us and will immediately make us a better three-point-shooting team,” Cuban told the Dallas Morning News. “Plus, he is a far better one-on-one post defender than he gets credit for. His length and experience really pay off.”

IRVING LIGHTS IT UP AGAIN

Kyrie Irving dropped 39 points Tuesday but his New Jersey Roadrunners team lost to Will Barton and the Baltimore Stars in pool play at the AAU Nationals in Orlando, Fla.

The Memphis-bound Barton scored 21 points.

Irving previously scored 37 points in an overtime victory against Team Final in the AAU Supershowcase.

Irving is a 6-2 point guard being recruited by Duke, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia Tech, Seton Hall, UConn, Notre Dame, Texas A&M and others.

ROSARIO, FONTAN NOTES

Staying in New Jersey, Dick Vitale, an East Rutherford, N.J. native, has officially proclaimed Rutgers guard Mike Rosario a “diaper dandy.”

Writing in the August issue of Basketball Times — which also features articles by yours truly on Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson — Vitale says: “There is a sophomore at Rutgers to keep an eye on. I’m talking about Mike Rosario, who played for Puerto Rico in the FIBA U19 tournament. Rosario had 54 points in a game against France. As a diaper dandy, he showed that he can be a big-time scorer.”

**Jio Fontan, Rosario’s teammate on the Puerto Rico team, has been working out at Fordham for several days now in preparation for next season.

As first reported by ZAGSBLOG, Fontan opted to return to Fordham instead of sitting out next season.

“It’s the best thing,” said Jorge Fontan, Jio’s dad. “He’s motivated. He’s enjoying playing and he wants to continue to play and if he sat that couldn’t happen.

“He’s been working out and going there every day. I think he can move back to campus July 31. He’s been going there and working out and stuff like that.”

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Jordan Crawford’s dunk on LeBron James has finally surfaced on video.

And it’s disappointing.

The initial video was confiscated by Nike officials and reports out of the LeBron James Skills Academy were that Crawford, a guard at Xavier, threw one down so hard on King James, that the superstar was sent reeling backward.

It was an urban legend in the making. Crawford did interviews on ESPN. He was a star.

Precisely because the rest of us had never seen the dunk, we imagined how spectacular it might have been.

Now that it’s here for all of us to see, it’s plainly obvious that it wasn’t as spectacular as everyone made it out to be.

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‘It was fresh, it was kind of crazy,” said Villanova-bound big man Markus Kennedy, who attended the LeBron James Nike Skills Camp and says he may attend the Winchendon (Mass.) School next year before college.

How did it look?

“[Crawford went] down the lane, right up on him,” Kennedy said.

Another person here who saw it said Crawford flushed with both hands, driving LeBron backward.

“There was nothing [LeBron] could do, everybody seen it,” Kennedy said. “Everybody was talking about it.”

The tapes, of course, were famously seized by Nike officials, and the story hit SportsCenter.

“Nike has been operating basketball camps for the benefit of young athletes for decades and has long-standing policies as to what events are open and closed to media coverage. Unfortunately, for the first time in four years, two journalists did not respect our no videotaping policy at an after-hours pickup game following the LeBron James Skills Academy,” Nike spokesman David Kent said in a statement that appeared on Gary Parrish’s blog.

As one of my colleagues here pointed out, it might be best for Crawford if the tapes never get released.

That way it will always remain an urban legend and folks who weren’t there will forever wonder what the dunk actually looked like.

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**Xavier’s Jordan Crawford, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound guard, dunked on King James during a pickup game Monday night involving LeBron and the college players in attendance.

“I was on the right wing and went down the middle. I got past Danny Green and LeBron was waiting under the basket. I don’t think he thought I was going to dunk it, so he jumped late. It was two-handed,” Crawford told Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com.

“Yeah, it happened, and it was bad,” Michael Gilchrist of Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick, the top player in the Class of 2011, told Gary Parrish of CBS Sports. “That was something to see.”

Turns out Nike basketball senior director Lynn Merritt confiscated evidence of the dunk by seizing the tapes of freelancer Ryan Miller, who had been filming for about 15 minutes.

“The worst part is I’m not even sure I had the shot of the dunk,” Miller told Goodman. “They might have taken it for no reason.”

**Speaking of James, Chris Broussard of ESPN is reversing course, saying LeBron denies that he told Trevor Ariza he would stay in Cleveland beyond 2010 when he becomes a free agent.

“Sources close to LeBron who have spoken with him say that story is not true,” Broussard told SportsCenter. “They say he never told Trevor Ariza he was staying in Cleveland past 2010.”

In a story on ESPN.com earlier, Broussard wrote the opposite:

“Trevor asked LeBron if he would be in Cleveland after next season,” a source told Broussard. “And LeBron said, ‘I’ll be there. Of course, I’ll be there.’”

**Broussard also reporting that talks between Avery Johnson and the Pistons have ended because the two sides could not reach a deal. Cavaliers assistant John Kuester is the leading candidate to succeed the fired Michael Curry, but Paul Silas and Dave Cowens are both being mentioned by Broussard as well.

**Another interesting note from LeBron comes via Tweet from Dustin Rumbaugh, who says St. Patrick guard Kyrie Irving “did say he might Tweet his commitment out when it happens so everyone gets to know.”

The 6-1 Irving is considering UConn, Georgia Tech, Duke, Indiana, Seton Hall, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Florida, Marquette and Kentucky. He has taken unofficials to UConn, Indiana and Texas A&M and says he plans to take more in August.

As reported here earlier this week, Irving and Gilchrist are considering playing together in college, possibly at Kentucky.

Hey Kyrie, don’t you know it could put all the recruiting guys out of business if you Tweet your own commitment? LOL…could start an interesting trend though.

**And speaking of the good folks at Twitter, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa has dropped his lawsuit against the company.

A one-paragraph statement filed June 26 with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco says La Russa had dropped all claims — and that San Francisco-based Twitter did not compensate him in exchange.

Calls and e-mails to La Russa’s and Twitter’s attorneys, and to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, were not immediately returned Tuesday.

La Russa’s lawsuit alleged trademark infringement, “cybersquatting” and misappropriation of his name. It claimed an unauthorized page that used his name caused emotional distress by making light of his DUI charge and the deaths of two Cardinals pitchers in recent seasons.

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(AP contributed)

Jason Kidd

Kidd, 36, has agreed to a three-year deal worth more than $25 million to remain in Dallas, according to ESPN.com

The Knicks could only offer the midlevel exception — about $5.8 million per year — or about $19 million total.

“We are excited to have Jason Kidd back in a Mavs’ uniform,” Mavs owner Mark Cuban told the Dallas Morning News. “He was a major contributor for us last year and we expect more of the same next year.

“We also are excited to have him tutor Roddy Beaubois and J.J. Barea. This is hopefully the first of several deals to come in the next couple weeks.”

Signing Kidd for three years would have complicated the Knicks’ efforts to sign LeBron James as a free agent in 2010, but reports indicated that GM Donnie Walsh and head coach Mike D’Antoni were willing to do it to change the team’s losing culture.

The Knicks will host veteran free agent Grant Hill Monday.

WALLACE TO THE CELTS

The Celtics just got a little deeper and tougher.

“Once [Wallace] had a chance to reflect on everything, and realizing what his objectives are, he just decided this was the best fit for him, all the way around,” Bill Strickland, Wallace’s agent, told The Boston Globe.

Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce, along with owner Wyc Grousbeck, coach Doc Rivers, and president Danny Ainge met with Wallace last week. Wallace ultimately chose the Celts over Orlando and San Antonio.

Wallace has averaged 15 points and 6.9 rebounds in 14 NBA seasons. He averaged 12 points and 7.4 rebounds last season.

“He makes us better on both ends of the floor,” Allen told The Globe.

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“Recently, a photo has been circulating on the Internet which appears to depict me flashing a gang sign. This photo of me was taken at a party I attended in Memphis while I was in school there, and was meant as a joke…a bad one, I now admit. I want to emphatically state, now and forever, that Derrick Rose is anti-gang, anti-drug, and anti-violence. I am not, nor have I ever been, affiliated with any gang and I can’t speak loudly enough against gang violence, and the things that gangs represent.

“In posing for this picture, I am guilty of being young, naive and of using extremely poor judgment. I sincerely apologize to all my fans for my mistake. I pride myself on being a good citizen, and role model, that young people can look up to and I want to urge all my young fans to stay away from gangs and gang-related activities.”

This statement sure looks like someone at the Bulls wrote it for him, but what else is new?

Rose, who spent one year at Memphis under John Calipari before going pro, allegedly had someone take his SAT for him as well.

But he has yet to comment on that.

(Photo courtesy The Big Lead)

Carmelo Anthony

Bill Duffy, Andrews’ boss at Bill Duffy Associates, and Leon Rose, CAA’s renowned basketball agent, were not immediately available for comment.

Rose is a close friend and business associate of William Wesley, aka “Worldwide Wes,” the basketball power broker who maintains a close relationship with CAA’s biggest sports client, LeBron James.

Other CAA clients include Allen Iverson, Tony Parker, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning and  Sidney Crosby.

Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Nicole Kidman are among the Hollywood stars repped by CAA.

Anthony’s wife, LaLa Vaquez, is a former MTV VJ and now a blogger for  Latina magazine and judge of the VH1 show “Charm School.”  She will also join CAA as part of the deal, the source said.

“They are multitasking,” James told USA Today in 2007, referring to CAA. “They’re not just in the sports world, they are into movies and a lot of other ventures, so at the end of the day it’s going to be great. CAA is going to definitely impact my marketing, impact my business and impact a lot of things we do.”

Both Jeter and Rip Hamilton of the Detroit Pistons praised CAA’s diversity in the USA Today story.

“They’ve got so many opportunities,” Hamilton said.

Jeter added: “If there is something you want to do, you are able to do it because they know so many people. They’re always working. They’re always doing things.”

A year ago, Darren Rovell of CNBC Sports cited an email from Anthony indicating that he was looking for a new marketing firm to handle sponsorships and endorsements.

“Consistent with my announcement on Sunday, March 16, 2008, I have terminated BDA Sports and its marketing group from all future marketing and PR efforts; however, I have retained Calvin Andrews as my agent. Anthony is currently in the process of searching for a new marketing firm to be the lead in marketing, sponsorships, and endorsements, but confirms that any agreement with the new firm will be on a non-exclusive basis.”

Anthony then moved to Tease Marketing, the agency of Theresa Tran.