Hornets Coach Byron Scott said he was surprised by DJ White's ability during Friday's workout. Scott said he watched White play at Indiana on television several times this past season, and that White performed well in some games but was inconsistent in others. However, Scott praised White as one of the best athletic post players to participate in the Hornets' pre-draft workouts. White was the primary focus of the Hornets' evaluations Friday, Scott said.

They said it: "I kind of started slow but picked up in the end. I put the ball on the floor, and I made plays. That's one of the things I wasn't able to show this year, but I was today." -- White.

ALSO WORKING OUT: Juan Palacios, JaJuan Smith, Jaycee Carroll, Charles Rhodes, Pat Calathes.

The NBA wants disgraced referee Tim Donaghy to pay the league $1.4 million, including his wages for games on which he bet or provided inside tips to gamblers.

The written demand, filed Thursday in federal court, asks a judge to force Donaghy to pay the sum as restitution in his gambling case. The league previously indicated it would seek $1 million.

The Donaghy scandal "has harmed the NBA and caused it to spend vast sums to undo that harm," league lawyers wrote.

In an earlier filing, defense attorney John Lauro accused the NBA of trying to extract the money to punish Donaghy for embarrassing the league with allegations of widespread misconduct by executives and employees — including claims that referees rigged games by making bad calls. The league has denied the accusations.

The NBA "provides no support whatsoever for the demand, which appears to be a transparent effort to intimidate Mr. Donaghy," Lauro wrote.

Both sides are expected to argue the issue next week in court in Brooklyn.

Donaghy, 41, pleaded guilty last year to felony charges of taking cash payoffs from gamblers and betting on games himself. He faces up to 33 months in prison at sentencing, set for July 14.

The Timberwolves took their talent search on the road Friday, working out Italian forward Danilo Gallinari and Stanford center Brook Lopez in Los Angeles and getting an unexpected look at Memphis guard Derrick Rose, who could be the first player taken Thursday in the NBA draft.

Today, the Wolves' staff will be in Chicago to work out Southern California guard O.J. Mayo, who is considered by many to be the third-best prospect in a draft in which Minnesota owns the No. 3 selection.

Wolves general manager Jim Stack, before boarding a plane to Chicago, said Mayo is scheduled to work out for an hour or so for five to seven teams.

"Then we'll have a chance to sit down with him and kind of put the microscope on him a little bit and ask him some questions," Stack said. "Get some background information and just ask him about some of the stuff that we've kind of done with our background checks, just to confirm. There are some areas we want to kind of investigate a little bit."

The main focus of Friday's workout was Gallinari, who worked out by himself, with Stack or assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg providing occasional opposition.

"The main thing with him was we wanted to see him shoot," Stack said. "We put him in some pick-and-roll situations, and we put him down in the post. ... We didn't see him post as much during the year with his team, so we did a pretty extensive post workout with him."

Allen Iverson regularly has said he wants to finish his career in Denver.

It hasn't been just talk.

With Friday the deadline for Iverson to opt out of the final year of his contract, the star guard decided not to do so and will return to the Nuggets next season for $20.84 million. The move first was reported by the Rocky Mountain News after Iverson's agent, Leon Rose, confirmed his client's intentions in a phone interview.

"Things have gone well for him (in Denver)," Rose said of Iverson, traded from Philadelphia in December 2006. "He's looking forward to taking the team (further)."

Iverson's decision wasn't a surprise. But his personal manager, Gary Moore, had told the Rocky on May 30 that Iverson's camp had discussions with the Nuggets about Iverson possibly opting out and signing a multiyear deal.

But a source said Friday the Nuggets, deep into the luxury tax, never ended up making a formal offer for Iverson to sign such a multiyear deal.

This may no longer constitute news - in fact, it may fit better under the truth manipulation category - but Vandeweghe says he's working from a short list of five guys now.

Five? As in, Cinco? A pentangle? Cinque? A fistful?

And what have you been doing exactly over the last four weeks?

OK, that's harsh. The guy's been busy.

"Probably five or so, we think can realistically can get to us," Kiki repeated. "You're going to see some guys who obviously will not get to us, and you kind of cross those guys off. But this is an extremely deep draft."

Depending on which NBA mock draft you check, the 76ers could be deciding on any number of prospects to be selected at No. 16. They are, in fact, scheduled to check out four more today at Philadelphia College Of Osteopathic Medicine. But today's session appears to be more about being nice to the local basketball community.

To that end, the Sixers' group includes Roy Bright (Delaware State), Charron Fisher (Niagara), John Griffin (Bucknell) and Gary Ervin (Arkansas).

The official announcement won't come until Monday, but USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo all but confirmed Friday that the Jazz's Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams will be making the trip to Beijing as members of the Olympic team. "They are two highly thought-of candidates to be on the team," Colangelo said in a phone interview with The Tribune. "We've said that all along, but we're not pre-announcing anything." Colangelo confirmed that he would be keeping three point guards on the U.S. roster - expected to be Jason Kidd, Chris Paul and Williams - and said he was still in the process of notifying players who were going to be on the 12-man team. The pool of players under consideration was reduced by two this week when Chauncey Billups withdrew, citing family reasons, and Amare Stoudemire decided against a full summer of basketball only three years removed from microfracture knee surgery. Williams played last summer as the U.S. cruised to gold at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Las Vegas. He served as the No. 3 point guard behind Kidd and Billups and went on to earn second-team all-NBA honors with the Jazz last season. "He continues to get better and better," Colangelo said. "He's a young player and the biggest thing you can say about his game is his peers in the league look at him as a young Jason Kidd with even more offensive skills."

With the deadline looming to opt out of the final year of his contract, Shawn Marion and the Miami Heat plan to resume negotiations this weekend on a possible extension.

And that is just one issue Heat president Pat Riley is juggling as the team prepares for a hectic few days leading to the NBA Draft on Thursday.

Marion, a four-time All-Star forward, must notify the Heat and league office by Tuesday whether he would opt out of the $17.8 million he is set to earn next season. If Marion, 30, opts out, he would become a free agent July 1 and could sign with any team, including Miami, when the league's moratorium expires July 9.

But Charlotte also picks 38 {+t}{+h} overall – in the second – and so the Bobcats can't concentrate on first-rounders alone.

Friday's workout – about 20 minutes shorter than usual – featured all guards: 6-foot-1 Sundiata Gaines of Georgia, 6-5 Marcelus Kemp of Nevada, 6-0 Bo McCalebb of New Orleans and 6-4 Bryce Taylor of Oregon.

Utah State shooting guard Jaycee Carroll is one of five NBA Draft hopefuls scheduled to work out for the Jazz this morning. The others: Texas A&M power forward Joseph Jones, Louisville small forward Juan Palacios, Davidson point guard Jason Richards and Alabama-Birmingham forward Walter Sharpe.

None is considered a first-round prospect for Thursday night's draft.

Carroll also worked out for the Jazz last year, before deciding to return to Utah State.

The Wyoming native averaged 22.4 points and shot 52.6 percent from the field (including 49.8 percent from 3-point range) during his senior season for the Aggies, when he became Utah State's all-time leading scorer and earned Western Athletic Conference player-of-the-year honors.

Managing the future payroll is another reason the Lakers might be more inclined to let Lamar Odom play out the remaining $14.3 million on his expiring contract in a prove-yourself season rather than trade him for another high-salary player with a longer contract such as New Jersey small forward Richard Jefferson.

When Odom met with Mitch Kupchak and Lakers coach Phil Jackson on Friday in their standard season-ending conference, the first thing spoken in that room was an apology from Kupchak to Odom for a local newspaper column suggesting Odom would be shopped this summer.

"We haven't even had those discussions," Kupchak said later. "How would anybody know what we're thinking of doing?"

Michael Curry's coaching staff is now complete.

The Pistons on Friday hired former New Orleans assistant Darrell Walker and former Atlanta assistant Harold Ellis. They join Dave Cowens and Pat Sullivan.

Derrick Rose will work out for the Miami Heat after all. One day after Rose sounded unsure if he would work out for the team with the second pick in Thursday's NBA draft, Rose's camp confirmed Heat officials will travel to Los Angeles for a private workout Saturday.

The Phoenix Suns hired Alvin Gentry, Bill Cartwright, Dan Majerle and Igor Kokoskov as assistant coaches to Terry Porter.

Gentry, the lone holdover from Mike D'Antoni's staff, will return for his fifth season with the Suns. His 29-year coaching career includes parts of three seasons as the Detroit Pistons' head coach.

Majerle, a former Suns player who is in the team's Ring of Honor, hasn't coached before. The Traverse City, Mich., native and former Central Michigan standout had been a Suns broadcast analyst for the past four seasons.

Meanwhile, Jackson and Kupchak said they were intrigued by the possibility of a frontcourt with Bynum, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.

"It could be the longest and the biggest frontcourt in the NBA in many, many years," Kupchak said.

Just the same, Odom, 28, is somewhat of a bargaining chip going into the last year of a contract that will pay him $14.1 next season. He shrugged off the possibility of a trade, saying rumors had been "going on ever since I've been here."

"I came over in a pretty big trade," he said. "Since then, we've missed the playoffs, lost twice in the first round and then we lost in the championship. People want results.

"This is where I want to end my career, as a Laker. L.A. is my second home. I've been here since I was 19. I want to remain here."

Roy Hibbert knows that just over a year ago, most mock drafts had him as a top-10 pick and now have slotted him to go late first, early second round.

But, if Hibbert, a 7-foot-2, 270 pound behemoth out of Georgetown, regrets returning to the Hoyas for his senior season, he did a pretty good job convincing the media horde otherwise yesterday at the Air Canada Centre.

Hibbert's stock was at an all-time high in April 2007, after he followed a strong junior season by leading Georgetown to the Final Four. Though his team fell to future No. 1 Greg Oden and Ohio State, Hibbert outscored Oden 19-13 in the game and appeared to be a lottery lock.

Then, Hibbert did the unexpected by pulling out of the draft.

The New York Knicks added three assistants to coach Mike D'Antoni's staff Friday, retaining Herb Williams from Isiah Thomas' crew and signing former Suns assistants Phil Weber and Dan D'Antoni.

"We have three top quality assistant coaches that will be great assets as we work toward our goal of bringing winning basketball back to New York," said Donnie Walsh, the Knicks' president of basketball operations. "Phil and Dan enjoyed tremendous success with coach D'Antoni in Phoenix, while Herb has been a great part of our franchise for many years."

The SuperSonics said in court Friday that the city of Seattle tried to make it too expensive for them to leave town.

The "forced bleeding" accusations stemmed from a previously sealed document that was admitted Friday as an exhibit in the city's lawsuit against the team. It discussed "locking them into losses" and exposing "the league to embarrassment in a market they like."

In another newly revealed document, the man spearheading the city's efforts to keep the Sonics - former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton - acknowledged that failing to win government support for a KeyArena renovation this year would "considerably undercut" the city's legal arguments.

The Lakers will not be going after any big-name free agents, Kupchak said.

"The three or four players that are proven NBA game-changers are not going to be signed for the mid-level [exception]," Kupchak said. "Those types of players won't be available to us as a signing.

"We'll continue to look at ways to add to the team, whether it's through a lesser signing or a trade, but if we did nothing and brought back the players that are existing free agents, just by virtue of this team again one more year and getting Trevor [Ariza] and Andrew back, I think we're right back in the hunt."

Bynum, who had arthroscopic surgery last month on his left knee, will soon go to New York to continue his rehabilitation. Then he will head to Atlanta with his personal trainer from mid-July to mid-September.

Bynum said the swelling had decreased in his knee, but he still had minor scar tissue that would have to be "rubbed out."

Bynum is under contract for next season, but he and the Lakers can agree to a five-year extension beyond that for up to about $80 million until Oct. 31. If the sides have not reached agreement by then, Bynum becomes a restricted free agent after next season, with the Lakers able to match any offer sheet he signs.

"Let's see what happens," Bynum said. "You always hope for the best, but whatever's whatever. I definitely want to be able to take care of my family, be able to do that. We haven't even started talking about it [with the Lakers]. When we do, hopefully things go good."

The Lakers are expected to take a wait-and-see approach with Bynum, moving slowly toward negotiations as he progresses further with his rehabilitation.