Las Vegas NBA team not in cards anytime soon
For now, Las Vegas will have to be content with its lone tie to the NBA, as the host city for the annual Summer League.
Commissioner David Stern said the league is not in a position to add members, and relocation is not an option because there is no NBA-quality arena in Las Vegas.
“It’s more about the economy than the arena,” Stern said. “The idea of expansion, of building arenas, it’s waiting to see if the economy has bottomed out, what it’s going to do.”
But while Las Vegas might have to wait for a team of its own, the NBA Summer League isn’t going anywhere.
“This is a fixture for us now,” Stern said. “The people in Las Vegas have shown their support for the summer league, and we love being here.”
Stern announced Tuesday a 10-member owners committee has been formed to begin negotiations with the NBA Players Association on a new collective bargaining agreement. Talks will open Aug. 4, and the current CBA expires in 2011.
“We need to look for a system that pays our players at the top of the heap but at the same time returns the league to profitability,” Stern said after a meeting of the NBA’s Board of Governors at the Palms. He added that less than half of the league’s 30 teams made money last season.
The decrease in revenue is reflected in the NBA’s salary cap for the 2009-10 season. This year’s cap will be $57.7 million, a reduction of about 5 percent from 2008-09, when the cap was $58.68 million.
• BANKS’ RECORD TIED — Marcus Banks’ Summer League scoring record of 42 points was tied Tuesday by Golden State forward Anthony Randolph, who led the Warriors to a 95-83 win over Chicago at Cox Pavilion.
Randolph, a second-year player from Louisiana State, had 19 points at halftime and 33 after three quarters. He tied Banks with two free throws with 2:18 left but never got another shot attempt.
Banks set the record at the Thomas & Mack Center against Cleveland in 2007 while playing for Phoenix.
“I knew when they put me back in I had a shot at the record, but I’m not disappointed,” Randolph said. “Right now, I’m tired. It’s hard to score 42 out here.”
• WATSON LOOKING — Las Vegas guard C.J. Watson is still testing the free agency waters. He and his agent, Mike Higgins, met with Golden State Warriors general manager Larry Riley at the Thomas & Mack Center to talk about a possible return for 2009-10.
Watson appeared in 77 games for the Warriors last season, starting 18, and averaged 9.5 points and 2.7 assists.
• WINK SITS — Former UNLV guard Wink Adams didn’t play in the New York Knicks’ 90-86 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies at Cox Pavilion.