As he sat courtside at Madison Square Garden about an hour before tipoff Friday night, Wally Szczerbiak accepted a steady stream of handshakes, hugs and smiles from his former Cavaliers teammates and coaches.

Szczerbiak is in New York rehabbing from knee surgery, one that has left his future as a player in doubt. After his contract with the Cavs expired in June, he spoke to several teams but also ended up talking to his several doctors. During the Cavs' playoff run, his troublesome left knee started flaring up.

He hoped rest would help, and he even was negotiating with several teams about a free-agent contract.

"When I started to amp it up for the season, it was bugging me, so I had to do something about it," Szczerbiak said. "I've had a lot of wear on that knee, and that is something that comes with four years of college and 10 years in the NBA."

Three weeks ago, Szczerbiak had his knee scoped to clean out a bone spur and repair his meniscus. It was the third surgery he's had on the same knee. He's not ruling out a return perhaps even in the second half of this season. But with the economy tight and his recovery uncertain, he's also realizing that he could have played his last game.

"Health is first and foremost, especially in life after basketball, and I don't want to be crippled at age 40," said Szczerbiak, who is 32 and an avid golfer.

"I've been fortunate to make a ton of money, the game has been so generous. I've been smart with my money, and I'm set for life, so that is nice to know. But from a competitive side, . . . I still think I might be able to help a good team."

The frustration could be heard moments after the Washington Wizards' 102-86 loss to the Indiana Pacers as a voice, shouting expletives, boomed from the locker room. It belonged to Antawn Jamison, who didn't play on Friday night but was infuriated by the lethargic and listless display of his teammates. Jamison didn't mince his words, challenging every player in the locker room, young and old, and peppered his speech with curse words to get his point across.

Jamison stormed out of the locker room after his profanity-laced rant and shouted, "Ain't nothing funny about this!"

The frustration could be seen upon entering the locker room, as a shattered fruit plate rested against a wall, cantaloupe, grapes and strawberries scattered everywhere, symbolizing an already splintered team. Six games into a season that was meant to be about redemption, the Wizards (2-4) are already confused about the path they want to take -- and if they want to take it together.

"It's just going down the tube right now," Gilbert Arenas said after scoring a season-low 13 points, which allowed him to surpass 10,000 for his career.

"I was trying to get someone to play hard," Saunders said. "I told those guys, I can't coach effort. You got to come out and be prepared and play hard.

"I thought our effort was poor. I was extremely disappointed. I told them I take responsibility because evidently right now we've got to keep pounding away because we're not getting through in doing the things we need to do in order to be successful."

The Orlando Magic have a deep bench, but this is stretching it to ridiculous proportions.

They finished an 110-103 victory against the Detroit Pistons on Friday night with just eight players after power forward Ryan Anderson became the latest to be miss time.

Anderson limped off the floor at Amway Arena early in the third quarter after spraining his right ankle and is listed day-to-day.

Hawks coach Mike Woodson said he would have liked to re-sign (Ronald "Flip") Murray even after trading for (Jamal) Crawford. "I just think that the money that we would probably have offered him would have been less money than he really deserved," Woodson said.

Now, the guy who writes the checks is about to have his say.

Michael Heisley, the Grizzlies’ Chicago-based owner, flew to town Friday in time to watch his team lose 114-98 to the Los Angeles Lakers in Staples Center.

But Heisley isn’t in Los Angeles for a leisurely weekend getaway. He joined the team for the expressed purpose of addressing some of the team’s problems.

Heisley will have several meetings, including a sit-down with Iverson, today with the goal of trying to get a handle on why the Griz are off to a 1-5 start.

Denver ultimately lost 96-88, and might have lost Kenyon Martin for a little while too.

The power forward suffered a lower left leg contusion in the second quarter and did not return to the game. X-rays taken at halftime were inconclusive, and Martin will undergo an MRI today and sit out tonight's game at Atlanta, Denver coach George Karl said.

"The feeling I got is, it might be a week or two weeks, but it won't be the whole year," Karl said.

Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that when Martin left the game, Denver's defense dismantled.

"Defensively he's our quarterback, he's probably our emotional leader as well," Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups said. "We're going to miss a lot without Kenyon, so hopefully it's not too long."

The big news after the game on Houston's side was the fact that Rockets head coach Rick Adelman matched his mentor Dr. Jack Ramsay's career win total of 864 in leading Houston to a 105-94 win tonight. Adelman was hesitant to say he was as good a coach as Ramsay, but did admit it's a great personal accomplishment to equal Ramsay's win total. Adelman is now 11th on the NBA's all-time win list.

Thus far, (Alvin) Gentry has heavily relied on a rotation of nine players – Steve Nash, Amar'e Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa, Jason Richardson, Channing Frye, Grant Hill, Jared Dudley, Louis Amundson, and Goran Dragic. A significant omission from the list? Rookie big man Earl Clark.

The 6-10 athletic and long-armed forward has seen inconsistent minutes in the five games he's seen action in. Game one: 20 minutes, game two: 9. Game three: 4 minutes, game four: 0 minutes, game five: 17 minutes, and game six: 7 minutes. That up and down of his playing time is naturally quite frustrating for the young man, but he's taking it in stride.

"You don't practice a lot, but there's a lot of games and if you don't play in games, you miss a lot of action," Clark told HOOPSWORLD. "It has its good and its bad. I've been prepared coming from Louisville - Coach P (Louisville head coach Rick Pitino) teaches patience and he brought me along slow, so it was able to prepare me for the things I'm going through right now."

What he's going through right now is a very distinct frustration for rookies. Clark is trying to balance the reality that his coach doesn't feel like he can be a regular contributor against wanting to get out there, help his team, and fulfill his boyhood dream of playing in the NBA.

"[We] played against Dwyane Wade and I definitely wanted to get out there just to say that I was out there playing against D-Wade, [Jermaine] O'Neal, Quentin Richardson and other guys I've been watching since I was younger," Clark said. "You see them going out there playing hard, trying to win, and it's tough not getting out there."

However, Clark isn't moping and lamenting over his current situation. As he said, he's remaining patient and using this as an opportunity to learn from his coaching staff and teammates, whom he has tremendous respect for – particularly Amar'e Stoudemire.

LeBron James dropped a bit of a bomb on the entire NBA when he spoke his final sentence Friday night before leaving Madison Square Garden, a statement that should leave everyone in Cleveland, New York and elsewhere -- especially in Miami -- wondering exactly what the King meant by those parting words.

"As a kid I visualized playing for almost every team in the NBA," James said. "Right now, I visualize playing with a lot of guys in the NBA. There are a lot of great individual basketball players that I would love to be alongside of and try to contend for an NBA championship.

"I think at the end of the day, a max deal or anything like that doesn't really matter to me at the end of the day. It's all about winning for me. So I've put myself in a position that when that day comes next summer, I want to win, and if I feel like the team is capable of winning, I'll make my decision like that."

Did you catch that part in the middle? The part about how a max deal doesn't really matter at the end of the day?

That, folks, could be a game-changer -- a statement of epic proportions that could shake up everyone's preconceived notions about who has the best chance of landing the game's best young player.

Cleveland, of course, can offer James the most money -- a six-year deal in the range of $120 million. The Knicks and the Nets have the salary cap space to give James the maximum they are allowed to offer -- a five-year deal in the mid-to-high $90 million range.

James has already made it abundantly clear that he enjoys playing at Madison Square Garden more than any other arena in the league, and the vibrancy of New York makes it his favorite city in America.

But the guy strongly, strongly reiterated that winning is the No. 1 priority on his wish list.

So he looked a little different, and he sounded different, too, with that line about the max money.

New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn said Friday he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer but remains healthy and is optimistic that he will conquer the disease.

"My wife, Denise, and I remain strong in our faith and will maintain a positive attitude as I battle this with intense fervor and drive," Shinn said in a news release issued by the Hornets.

Team spokesman Harold Kaufman said no details were available on treatment options for Shinn. In the news release, Shinn said the doctors he is consulting are optimistic.

"This is not the first obstacle that I have had to overcome in life, but it will be another one that will be conquered," Shinn said. "Those closest to me understand my commitment to God and belief in the power of prayer, so all that I ask is for people to add me to their prayers."

Hornets coach Byron Scott said he spoke to Shinn when he was still awaiting test results, and that the outcome surprised everyone associated with the team.

"The biggest through on my mind was just to keep praying for him," Scott said. "This is something you don't want anybody to go through. I know Mr. Shinn is a fighter, and like he said, he's going to fight it all the way."

When Kevin Martin addressed the media Friday to discuss his latest devastating injury, he was faced with questions typically reserved for radio talk shows or anonymous Internet postings.

Just seconds after Martin's opening statement, a reporter who doesn't typically cover the team asked the Kings shooting guard if he was afraid he'd gained a reputation for being soft.

"If I do get that reputation, it'll be fine because I know what I can do when I'm healthy," said Martin, who will have surgery on a left wrist hairline fracture Monday and miss at least eight weeks. "It's just something you have to fight through."

Just in case you don't pick up a late edition of the newspaper, here was Courtney's (Lee) take on his left groin strain:

"It’s not bad at all. Rest as much as possible. Go from day-to-day," the winger said. "It wasn’t a tear. They said it was a micro-tear below my groin. So it’s day-to-day. It’s minor through."

So he'll treat it on the bus ride home, wake up Saturday, try to go east to west, and decide whether he can play against the Celtics that night.

The Grizzlies still are in "serious negotiations" with NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to help coach their centers, according to team owner Michael Heisley.

Abdul-Jabbar visited Memphis on Oct. 25 to attend a practice and meet with Griz players and management. Heisley said both sides are trying to iron out a working arrangement.

"It's a matter of how much time Kareem will give to us," Heisley said. "We're trying to come to an understanding of how Kareem will work. I want to make sure we're getting somebody who will give attention to these kids and help them. He's got a lot of commitments."

"He wants to come and we want him to come," Heisley said. "It's really a question of whether he's got commitments that will keep him away from the team more than we'd like."

The Griz have three centers -- two of whom are considered projects -- who could benefit from Abdul-Jabbar's knowledge and experience. Marc Gasol, Hamed Haddadi and rookie Hasheem Thabeet met Abdul-Jabbar for dinner last month.

Heisley confirmed that Abdul-Jabbar would essentially be a consultant if a deal is reached.

"I don't think there's any question he can help our young guys," Heisley said. "We'll see what happens."

Glen Davis wants to make one thing very, very clear. He has no intention of playing in the NFL.

“No football for me,” the injured power forward said, while leaving the Garden wearing a Cincinnati Reds baseball cap. “Put that on the record.”

We assume he’s not considering baseball either.

Earlier this week, Davis told ESPN The Magazine that he wanted to try pro football after his NBA career.

Rockets forward Shane Battier took turns with Trevor Ariza matching up with Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant on Friday night.

It was his first game against Durant since the 2007-08 season, when Durant was a rookie, and Battier said he has improved.

“I think he knows the game better,” Battier said of Durant, who scored 27 points. “The shot quality is much better at this point. That's what's going to make him an elite, elite player, to be able to score without the volume of shots. I think he can do it. When you see his progression, it's scary.”

A new-look lineup worked wonders for the Portland Trail Blazers, and coach Nate McMillan plans to keep it for a while.

With Andre Miller joining them in the backcourt, Brandon Roy had 24 points, Steve Blake added 15 and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the San Antonio Spurs 96-84 Friday night.

“It was a change of pace, maybe something we need,” Roy said.

In an effort to shake up the Blazers’ stagnant offense, McMillan inserted Miller into the starting lineup, placing him in an expanded backcourt along with Blake and Roy.

“I looked at the schedule,” McMillan said. “With the schedule the next week or two I am going to stay with it and look at it. It was a good unit tonight.”

It’s been more than four months since Kobe Bryant announced his intentions to sign a contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers and pass up a chance to join the 2010 free-agent market. So why hasn’t he signed anything?

Sources with knowledge of the talks say the Lakers continue to meet with Bryant’s camp and that both sides fully expect the deal to get done, though neither wants to commit to a firm timetable. The initial hope was that the extension would be completed by the start of the season.

Bryant is scheduled to make $23 million this season and $24.8 million next season. He can opt of the final season to become a free agent in July. He is eligible to sign a three-year extension that could pay him more than $90 million, depending on the league’s salary-cap figures.

Kobe Bryant was 19-of-30 shooting for his second consecutive 41-point game and third in four contests amidst yet another record-setting night, as the Lakers pounded Memphis 114-98.

Bryant became the youngest player in NBA history to reach 24,000 points, passed veteran guard Allen Iverson -- now with the Grizzlies -- for 16th place on the all-time scoring list and notched his 99th career game with 40-plus points.

Spurs point guard Tony Parker says the sprained ankle that knocked him from Friday night’s 96-84 loss against the Trail Blazers isn’t as severe as others he’s suffered in his career.

Parker missed nine games early last season after spraining the same ankle, and missed a month with the French national team during the summer with a similar injury to his right ankle.

“This one is not even close,” Parker said late Friday night. “It will be a week, maybe.”

Parker was injured on a drive late in the second quarter against Portland and did not return.

“I went to do an ‘in-and-out’ move,” Parker said. “I went one way and my ankle went the other.”

X-rays taken at the Rose Garden were negative, and Parker left the arena after the game under his own power. He is expected to be re-evaluated Saturday after the Spurs return to San Antonio.