Sacramento Kings forward Andres Nocioni was arrested early this morning on suspicion of drunk driving.

Nocioni, 29, was arrested by Sacramento Police and booked into Sacramento County Jail at 3:30 a.m., a posting on the Sacramento County Jail Web site shows. He was released this morning on $1,482 bail.

The Kings have had no comment on Nocioni's arrest, and the player offered no comment when he was released from jail this morning.

If convicted of driving under the influence, Nocioni could face sanctions from the NBA, based on precedent from earlier this season when Phoenix guard Jason Richardson was suspended for two games by the NBA after pleading guilty to DUI charges.

The unsigned (Wally) Szczerbiak told The Post yesterday he underwent knee surgery three weeks ago at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan and is seriously considering retiring in the coming weeks.

The surgeons have told the Cold Spring Harbor product another knee injury could affect his ability to lead a normal life because he lacks enough cartilage in the knee after three surgeries.

A source said the decision's been all but made to retire because he wants to be able to play with his kids. But Szczerbiak said yesterday an official decision hasn't been reached.

"I'm not ready to sign my retirement papers yet," he said. "The doctors have their opinions. I'm getting my body right and see where that takes me. Basketball's been very generous to me financially. It's not about the money."

Warriors coach Don Nelson said Wednesday that Anthony Randolph's future might be as a center.

Randolph is listed at 6-foot-11 but says he's closer to 7- foot. He once was considered the team's long-term solution at power forward, and many believed that he could develop into a "3" with his assortment of skills.

No one seems to know what to make of the second-year player anymore.

"He's probably taller than anybody I've got on the team right now, and he's still growing, they tell me," Nelson said. "Maybe, eventually, center will be his position. I don't know."

One thing is certain: The future is not now. Starting center Andris Biedrins picked up his third foul in the opening six minutes against Memphis on Wednesday night, but Nelson didn't turn to Randolph. Instead, the coach opted for 11th-year reserve Mikki Moore.

After reviewing the altercation between Rajon Rondo and Chris Paul during and after Sunday's game in Boston between the Celtics and Hornets, the NBA decided not to take disciplinary action against either player.

Neither point guard will receive any type of fine or suspension for the fracas, which boiled over after Rondo incensed Paul by reportedly chiding him that he's won a championship and Paul never will. Earlier in the game, won by the Celtics 97-87, each player received a technical foul for a confrontation under the basket. After the final buzzer, the players exchanged words and had to be separated as the teams left the floor. Paul unsuccessfully tried to enter the Celtics' locker room to continue the discussion, and Hornets coach Byron Scott said he overheard Paul saying, "He's going to respect me as a man."

He's out in Venice Beach — no, make that Muscle Beach, Ron Artest clarified Wednesday — where one of his favorites pastimes is working out with “guys on the street.”

“I go hard,” he said. “I got stronger.”

Artest is a Los Angeles Laker now, but after an unforgettable year with the Rockets, it's clear that the only thing that has changed is his ZIP code.

His first-quarter technical foul against the Rockets on Wednesday night was hardly a surprise. But he's as unpredictable as most remember, admitting he had regrets about coming to Houston in the first place...

There was another startling admission Wednesday — Artest said he learned how to win last season. It's amazing — the supposed malcontent who finally figured out how to be successful in his 12th season seeking to share his wisdom with the champs.

It didn't have to be that way, he insisted.

“It was all up to (Rockets management),” Artest said. “I don't know. It was the first option, but once my agent told me they didn't want me, I said let's go to L.A., Hollywood.”

Day by day, Pau Gasol has made improvements from a hamstring injury to the point where he has been cleared to resume basketball-related activities.

But his return for a basketball game with the Lakers remains uncertain.

"The results of the MRI were promising and positive," Gasol said Wednesday night. "So that gives me a little bit of hope that I'll be back soon. I just hope that I can increase the level of work that I'm doing right now until I feel good about it and my hamstring responds well."

Gasol said he hopes to practice today.

But as far as playing Friday night when the Lakers host the Memphis Grizzlies at Staples Center, Gasol shot that down.

"I'm far from playing on Friday," he said.

The Lakers play again Sunday night, but Gasol wasn't "sure about that either."

"I definitely miss being there," said (Matt) Barnes, who signed with Orlando after Phoenix did not try to re-sign him. "I miss it when I see them scoring 120-something a night. That's what I thought I was going to do last year."

Barnes signed with the Suns in 2008 with hopes of playing a fast, open system to accentuate his talents and stats. Instead, he was as unhappy with then-coach Terry Porter's ways as any Suns player. He was outspoken about how Porter's system did not fit.

As happy he is for his friends, Barnes admits being "bitter" about the Suns' about-face regarding their style of play.

"It's frustrating, very frustrating," Barnes said. "Everybody's talking about this team being old and doesn't have it. It's the same team we had last year, and now they lead the league in scoring, shooting and 3-point percentage. That's what I thought I was going into."

Orlando Magic guard Vince Carter was sidelined against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night with a sprained left ankle.

Carter was first injured Friday against New Jersey. Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said Carter aggravated the ankle again Tuesday night versus Detroit. Carter's status is day to day.

Magic fans probably don't want to hear about Phoenix Suns SF Grant Hill advising any Magic player about playing with injuries. But Hill said before facing his old club on Wednesday night that he did speak with point guard Jameer Nelson last season and encouraged his former teammate not to come back to play in the playoffs.

"Put that on the record. You can ask him. I told him not to play, just from my own experience," Hill said.

"Not so much from a basketball standpoint. Maybe I shouldn't have, because you don't want to plant that seed in somebody before they're going out to play. But I said, 'Look, I've been out there when [I'm] not right and even when you are right, it's a process when you miss that much time. So, you're going to second-guess your shoulder and your confidence and all that.' Then, as you're not at that level, everybody else is at that level. Then you start to lose your confidence."

Charles Oakley is developing a cooking show for TV and producing a couple of movies. He's a restaurateur and a car-wash mogul. But what he'd really like to be is an NBA coach.

So why, six years after he retired from the league, has the former Raptors forward – who made a name for his uncanny grasp of the game's defensive intricacies – never counted himself a member of an NBA coaching staff?

"Teams don't want to pay," Oakley was saying in the lead-up to his appearance Wednesday night at the Air Canada Centre, where he was feted with a warm ovation during the first quarter of the Raptors' 110-99 win over the Pistons.

Jarrett Jack, 26, was all of two years old when Oakley made his NBA debut. But Jack has played pickup games with the old curmudgeon – "He still brings his forearms and flagrant fouls," Jack said – and believes Oakley could bring value to an NBA staff.

"Put it like this: If I ever get a head coaching job, (Oakley) can be my assistant," said Jack. "I have no problems with telling the truth. I think guys worry too much about the way the message is being sent rather than what's being said."

Still, as Oakley said last night and Jack acknowledged as true: Today's players, in general, don't take criticism well, and some coaches are afraid to dole it out. (Oakley actually said players "cry like little girls" in the face of honesty.)

Jack nodded: "A lot of times, a lot of people in authority are afraid to challenge players. Nowadays guys are a lot more egotistical, even since I got in the NBA (five years ago). Guys are a lot more sensitive to criticism."

The Raptors, for the record, aren't in the market for another assistant coach, and GM Bryan Colangelo said he wasn't aware Oakley was interested in coaching.

"That's the first I've heard of it," said Colangelo.

Tim Donaghy, the disgraced former NBA referee who admitted to gambling on games that he officiated, was officially released from a federal prison on Wednesday.

Donaghy was transferred to a halfway house for two months earlier this summer but was returned to prison in late August after violating the terms of his probation by failing to appear for his job. Donaghy claimed it was a simple misunderstanding -- he believed he had permission to miss work in order to visit a physical therapist -- but the courts obviously disagreed.

So what's next for the most notorious former referee in sports history? In addition to trying to find a new publisher for his tell-all book, he's also contracted the services of Executive Prison Consultants to help ease his transition back to society. According to an EPC press release on Monday, Donaghy plans to reside in Sarasota, Fla., and seek employment with a sales or marketing firm.

Coming to the defense of his All-Star center, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy didn't criticize the officials Wednesday night -- he didn't want another fine -- but he was clearly critical of the way Dwight Howard is being officiated this season.

Howard, the biggest, strongest, best center in the NBA, is being unfairly penalized, according to Van Gundy.

"He gets penalized for being so strong. We give guys an advantage in this league for being quick, but we penalize them for being strong like Dwight,'' Van Gundy said after Howard finished with 11 fouls in the last two games combined. "If you hit a perimeter guy on a drive the way they are allowed to hit Dwight all the time around the basket, it would be a flagrant foul.''

"It's frustrating, but I can't let the frustration get the best of me,'' he said Wednesday night. "I have to find other ways to pay back those people who are just fouling away at me. They can hack, pound, whatever, but I have to try and stay calm.''

Van Gundy was careful to say he had no complaints about the officials, only the way the rules have been written and enforced.

"Because the big guys are so strong and don't go tumbling to the floor, the defenders wind up and whack away,'' Van Gundy said. "That's just the way it is. That's a fact. It's not the referees fault. It's the way they are told to call the games. They want freedom of movement on the perimeter, but they are not worried about the big guys being able to move and use their skills. Strength is penalized. And that's frustrating for Dwight, and for me.''

The Memphis Grizzlies started their game against the Golden State Warriors with Allen Iverson still on the bench. And after the Grizzlies lost again, Iverson’s feelings about not starting also remained unchanged.

Iverson totaled 18 points, seven assists and four turnovers in a respectable 27-minute performance during the Grizzlies’ 113-105 loss on Wednesday. But while his playing time increased by 10 minutes from his debut two nights earlier in Sacramento, Iverson still wasn’t happy about two things:

He came off the bench.

And the Grizzlies lost.

No one, Iverson said, should be surprised by his frustration, even Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins.

Hollins was visibly frustrated while talking with reporters before the game. He initially said he didn’t want to discuss Iverson’s situation, but later answered some questions.

“My frustration is that I have to talk about Allen Iverson at every press setting,” Hollins said. “I want to talk about the Memphis Grizzlies and us as a team. And even when Allen was out, I was happy to talk about Allen. So, that’s my frustration. I just want to talk about the Memphis Grizzlies. If Allen plays well and you guys want to ask me about Allen, that’s great. Or if he plays poorly and you want to ask me how poorly he played, that’s great, too.

“But what he says and what he’s thinking? My job is to coach the team as a unit. I have to make decisions and all the players in that locker room are not going to be happy about it. But it’s my job to do the best that I can and if they don’t feel like I’m doing it than ownership is going to get rid of me and that’s the way it’s always been through history.”

Washington Wizards guard Mike Miller sprained his left shoulder in the fourth quarter of the Wizards’ game against Miami on Wednesday night and is expected to miss seven to 10 days.

Miller first hurt the shoulder in the third quarter in a collision with the Heat’s Mario Chalmers. He immediately clutched his shoulder and was taken to the locker room.

“It felt like it came out of place, went numb,” Miller said. “That scared me more than anything.”

“I thought he played pretty good with one arm,” Washington coach Flip Saunders said.

Hopefully I’ll be a quick healer and see what happens,” Miller said.

Except for a few weeks in 1992, when they were part of the transcendent Dream Team, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were never teammates on the floor.

Off the court was quite different, because in 1985, commercial sponsors and the two players discovered that if they teamed together, they could increase their incomes significantly.

Despite the considerable passage of time, the two most influential NBA players from the decade of the 1980s are still capable of generating headlines almost at will.

And that’s exactly what they did Wednesday when their latest effort — a book titled When the Game Was Ours, written by veteran journalist and former Boston Globe writer Jackie MacMullan — was released.

The book chronicles one of the two great rivalries in NBA history. Only Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain can be compared to Bird vs. Magic, and it can be argued that the latter was more significant because it occurred during the explosion of cable TV.

"I’m still amazed after all these years that people bring up games that I played years ago," Bird said Monday in an hourlong teleconference to promote the book. "This has always just been a dream to me to play the game that I loved and people remember it and still enjoy talking about it."

Johnson agreed — sort of. But then again, both players are aware of the impact they made and there is no false modesty.

"You still can’t believe it," Johnson said, "but at the same time I guess we can believe it. It’s something that people really respect — the way we played. We were about winning, we were about making our teammates better, we were about playing the game the right way."

Trevor Ariza tried to downplay his first game against the Los Angeles Lakers, the team in the city where he grew up.

The team he helped win the NBA championship last summer.

The team that shortly after the victory parade told him they would rather spend the money it would take to re-sign him on former Rocket Ron Artest.

Ariza pointed out that he now recognizes how “cutthroat” business is in the NBA, but he swore he would feel no extra emotion against his hometown team.

Yeah, right. The 103-102 loss to Los Angeles has to hurt more than the season-opening loss at Portland. Especially since he played so poorly.

Not according to Ariza, whose off night (5-of-21 from the floor) concluded with a turnover in the final second, stripped of his chance at a game-winning basket by Derek Fisher.

“All losses hurt; this one doesn't hurt more than any other one,” he said. “I'm not downplaying anything; I'm just telling you how it feels. I can't make up something.”

Ariza claimed he wouldn't be flustered playing against his former team, but for much of the game, he floundered around Toyota Center as if he had open nerve endings showing. He finished with 15 points and had nine rebounds and five assists, but he never looked comfortable on the court.

Rockets coach Rick Adelman wanted Ariza to try to do too much against his former team. He wanted him to try to show the Lakers what they were missing.

Ariza just doesn't have the assassin's mentality that makes stars super. Prior to this season, he had never taken 21 shots in a game as he did Wednesday, and it seemed he didn't want to take some of those.

The Rockets knew what they were getting when they signed him with their mid-level exception.

But the Rockets' fortune this season might rest with Ariza's transformation from extra to lead.

Rookie shooting guard Marcus Thornton was put on the inactive list Wednesday for the fifth consecutive game, but he may activated for Friday night's game against Toronto Raptors or for Sunday's road game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

And (Byron) Scott said first-round draft pick Darren Collison could get more time on the floor after playing only three minutes in the regular-season opener against the San Antonio Spurs.

"I think both of those guys are kind of biting at the bits right now to get out there and play, " Scott said. "Hopefully next week, they will get the opportunity."

There isn't a more challenging question than the one Byron Scott posed to the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday morning during their shootaround -- no bigger cold-water splash to the face than the bucket he heaved.

He asked his team if it was afraid, and it was a fair question.

The Hornets were 1-3 entering their nationally televised game against the Dallas Mavericks at the New Orleans Arena, and probably had given their best effort of the season Sunday afternoon, in a 97-87 loss at Boston. A fourth-quarter collapse in New York, when the Knicks scored 40 points in the final 12 minutes, led to a 117-111 loss on Monday night, and if it could be said that New Orleans had made incremental progress, it took a huge step backward in that fourth quarter.

"I thought we relaxed way too much, " Scott said.

His question Wednesday didn't elicit an answer from players. They spoke up on the court in overtime Wednesday night, though, outscoring the Mavericks 17-10 in the extra period to take a much-needed 114-107 win.

"We're not a team, " Scott lamented before the game. "We're just a collection of individual players right now."

And individuality won't cut it.

A quick bit of perspective on the Kings' signing of Ime Udoka today that my sources with knowledge of the situation say is a non-guaranteed veteran's minimum deal ($1.03 million) for the rest of the season (fully guaranteed on Jan. 10)...

While the (Desmond) Mason signing was largely about adding his perimeter defense, there was certainly the hope that his athleticism could translate into some added scoring as it has for most of his career.

That shooting percentage is especially alarming if you could get your hands on a Desmond Mason shot chart, as most of his misses came from close range and he has struggled mightily to finish even the easiest of looks. All of this, I'm being told, doesn't bode well for Mason considering all signs point to the Maloofs preferring not to have a 15-man roster (they have 15 now). And as a reminder, it looked like Andres Nocioni was going to be taking Mason's spot in the starting lineup tonight even before Udoka was added.

I talked with Mason about his struggles after yesterday's practice, and he had this to say.

"I'm just still trying to find my niche and fit in," Mason said. "The ball is going through a lot of guys, so for me it has to be a lot of cutting and offensive rebounds and guarding people and getting to the boards. That's what coach wants me to do, and that's what I'll do. When I get my opportunities, I'll take advantage of them."

When the talent pool is shallow, you fill it up whenever possible.

That was the rough logic behind the Kings' signing of Ime Udoka on Wednesday.

The 6-foot-5, sixth-year swingman spent the last two seasons as a key reserve for San Antonio, averaging 18.0 and 15.4 minutes, respectively.

He was a strong defensive presence and an occasional three-point threat, although his 32.8 three-point percentage last season was the worst of his career (37.4 percent overall).

Udoka unexpectedly became available Oct. 22, when Portland cut him in favor of rookie draft pick Patty Mills from Saint Mary's.

According to sources, Udoka has a nonguaranteed contract for the veteran's minimum salary that will run through the end of the season and pay him a prorated amount of $1.03 million. It won't be fully guaranteed until Jan. 10, 2010.

"I'm thinking of him in terms of the (shooting guard) and (small forward positions)," Westphal said. "He's a versatile player, a good three-point shooter.

"He's been part of winning programs, and I think he can help anybody in this league. … If you can add a guy like that to your team, it's a good thing to do."

The incoming NBA Development League franchise in suburban Dallas, co-owned by Dallas Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson and scheduled to begin play in the 2010-11 season, has made a bold choice for its first head coach: Nancy Lieberman.

Lieberman, an ESPN television analyst, is poised to become the first woman to be a head coach the D-League, which sent 20 players to the NBA last season and is widely regarded as the most scouted league in the world outside of the NBA.

Nelson's ownership group has secured approval from the NBA to hire Lieberman to coach the yet-to-be-named team based in Frisco, Texas, which will serve as the Mavericks' D-League affiliate next season.

A news conference is scheduled Thursday to introduce Lieberman as the first coach of the team that will begin play during the 2010-11 season in Frisco, a suburb about a half-hour north of downtown Dallas.

All coaching hires in the D-League have to be approved by the NBA, which owns and operates the 16-team league.