HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — The father of Memphis Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo was charged with attempted murder Thursday after he hit a police officer with his car and dragged him for several feet, police said.

Two officers were searching for someone else at about 3:30 a.m. when they saw 39-year-old Kenneth Maurice Ziegler of Huntington in a vehicle trying to hide, police said. When they confronted him, he put the vehicle into gear, drove into one of the officers and dragged him, they said.

Police chased the vehicle for several miles through a Huntington neighborhood before disabling it with spike strips. Ziegler was captured after a short foot chase and charged with attempted murder, two counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, obstructing, fleeing in a vehicle and fleeing on foot, police said. (more…)

NEW YORK – Greg Oden will become the first No. 1 overall pick since Kwame Brown not to receive a contract extension.

The Oregonian reported Friday that the Blazers and Oden’s representatives agreed there would be no extension, making the oft-injured center the first top pick since Brown not to get one at the end of his rookie contract. Teams have until Monday to reach deals with first-round picks from the 2007 draft.

“I don’t read it,” Portland coach Nate McMillan said before Saturday’s Blazers-Knicks game. “I don’t hear it. I don’t even think about it. We’re focused on basketball. [Blazers GM] Rich Cho will handle contract situations. Greg is focused just trying to get himself back on the court.” (more…)

NEW YORK (AP) — LeBron James and Chris Bosh headed for South Beach, while Amar’e Stoudemire decided to star on Broadway.

Allen Iverson? He’s headed for Turkey.

“My whole thing was being wanted, being accepted by a ballclub. That was the most important thing,” the former NBA MVP said Friday, after signing a $4 million, two-year contract with Turkish club Besiktas during a news conference at the upscale St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan.

“I had a great time playing in the NBA. Who knows if I ever will again?” Iverson said. “But I wanted to show everybody I can play at a high level, not just the NBA.” (more…)

The NBA draft will move from New York City to Newark in 2011.

“We are delighted to bring one of the NBA’s premier events to Newark,” said
NBA Commissioner David Stern. “The Prudential Center is a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose arena that will be a great host for another exciting NBA Draft.” (more…)

NBA Commissioner David Stern on Friday promised that a new collective bargaining agreement will get “done” and admitted that the talk of potential contraction was more rhetorical than anything.

“We know we’re going to get an agreement done,” he said on a conference call initially marred by crank callers.

“We think that the enthusiasm of the season and the prospective growth that it will ultimately represent will enable us to sit down with the players and negotiate in good faith. We both seem intent on doing all that we can to reach a deal.” (more…)

David Stern may have gotten Howard Sterned.

OK, so it may not have been Howard Stern’s people who interrupted Stern’s conference call Friday with reporters.

But a caller who identified himself as Bob Yates and said he was associated with the Kidd Chris radio program out of Portland, Ore., started off the call by asking Stern an indelicate question about Greg Oden.

“Commissioner, pleasure to speak with you, Mr. Stern. Can you address the controversy in Portland, Ore.? Apparently, Kidd Chris from the Kidd Chris morning radio show at KUFO pulled a hamstring looking at Greg Oden’s penis pictures. Any comment on that?” (more…)

Tim Thomas was waived Tuesday by the Dallas Mavericks, but says he isn’t retiring from the NBA and hopes to be back for the 2011-12 season.

“I’m definitely planning on being back next year,” Thomas, a Paterson, N.J. native who spent one year at Villanova, said Wednesday by phone.

“The situation is that my wife [Tricia] has a few things that she has to take care of. Just the timing was bad. I don’t want people to think she’s on her deathbed or anything like that. She had some things to take care of and she just wanted me to be home [in Los Angeles] when she had to go through them.” (more…)

NEW YORK – During an hour-long press conference in the Cosmopolitan Room of the Four Seasons Hotel in midtown Manhattan, new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov held court on everything from LeBron James to Jay-Z to the Nets’ move to Brooklyn.

Appearing calm and confident despite failing to land the No. 1 pick in Tuesday’s NBA draft lottery, Prokhorov repeatedly talked about his “global” vision for the Nets and cracked more one-liners than Chris Rock on a good night.

A room full of journalists furiously scribbled the comments of the Russian mogul, the first non-North American NBA owner and a man worth a reported $13.4 billion. With his pale complexion, serious demeanor and furrowed brow, he has been compared to a James Bond villain.

“America, I come in peace,” he joked when asked about Russians taking over foreign sports franchises.

Read the full story on SNY.

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NEW YORK -- If LeBron James and the Cavaliers lose Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal on Thursday in Boston, the next man who coaches King James won’t be Mike Brown or even Mike D’Antoni.

LeBron’s next coach will be Mike Krzyzewski, the head coach of Duke and the USA Basketball team that will compete this summer in the World Championship.

So, does Coach K have any insight on where LeBron is headed in this summer of free agency?

“You know, I really don’t,” Krzyzewski said Wednesday at the New York Athletic Club, where he will be honored with the Winged Foot Award. “Whenever I talk or communicate with any of those guys, I never try to talk about their future. I just talk [about] how they’re doing right now.”

Right now LeBron is on LeBrink.

Read the full story at SNY.

(Photos courtesy Getty Images)

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EARLY ENTRY CANDIDATES FOR 2010 NBA DRAFT

(Courtesy NBA and DraftExpress.com)

Solomon Alabi Florida State
Cole Aldrich Kansas
Lavoy Allen Temple
Al-Farouq Aminu Wake Forest
James Anderson Oklahoma State
Kevin Anderson Richmond
Luke Babbitt Nevada
Armon Bassett Ohio (more…)