Paul was at the team’s Playa Vista training facility Saturday afternoon and was expected to take part in his first practice later in the evening.

It’s been a frantic few days for the All-Star point guard since arriving in Los Angeles following a trade from the New Orleans Hornets, as he attempts to get settled in his new surroundings and find a dwelling to call home for at least the next two years.

“The first morning I woke up here was like a shock,” Paul said. “I’ve played here during the playoffs and during the season and I’m usually just visiting. So it’s nice to wake up every morning and see all this good weather and come to this nice facility.”

Paul’s arrival was the headliner in a handful of roster moves made by the Clippers this week, rejuvenating a fan base that has suffered through just one winning season in the past 19 years. Point guard Chauncey Billups and forward Caron Butler, two players with NBA championship pedigrees, were also brought into the fold.

Billups, the MVP of the 2004 NBA finals with the Detroit Pistons, participated in his first practice Saturday, a day after being introduced by his new team. He was acquired after being waived by the New York Knicks under the NBA’s new amnesty provision and later claimed by the Clippers.

Despite admitting that he considered retirement, Billups is pleased to be joining a team that suddenly appears to have stolen the spotlight in Los Angeles, at least momentarily, from the cross-town Lakers.

Billups, playing for his fourth team in five seasons, has spent the past few days studying the playbook in his hotel room while trying to get acclimated with the language of the offense. But he doesn’t anticipate having trouble meshing with the Clippers.

“I don’t come in and say I’m going to try and fit in. I just do what I do, I am who I am, and hopefully guys like that,” Billups said. “I’ve never had a problem. I’m always very humble with how I do what I do. Guys usually rally around that and gravitate towards that. I don’t see this situation being any different.”

What remains to be seen is how the Clippers juggle a rotation that features three All-Star point guards in Paul, Billups and Mo Williams, who played in 22 games with the Clippers last season after arriving from the Cleveland Cavaliers in a deal for Baron Davis.

Coach Vinny Del Negro said he plans on starting a backcourt featuring both Paul and Billups, with Williams coming off the bench. Paul, for one, isn’t concerned with labeling the roles between Billups and himself.

“I think with me and Chauncey it will just be guards,” he said. “That’s the thing I’m most excited about, is playing off the ball. Chauncey is a point guard, but when we’re both out there on the court we are both just guards. Either one of us can handle the ball.”

Since word of the Paul-to-Clippers trade leaked, fans are already salivating at the thought of Paul lofting alley-oops to Blake Griffin, last year’s Slam Dunk Contest winner during All-Star festivities at Staples Center.

Paul likens his new relationship with Griffin to the one shaped with former teammate Tyson Chandler, who was on the receiving end of many a Paul lob during their days together with the Hornets. But Griffin isn’t ready to get ahead of himself with the “Lob City” talk just yet.

“I think that’s something that people have hyped up too much,” Griffin said. “I’m just eager to get on the court with him. He makes the game easier for all of us, so I’m looking forward to that.”

Paul hasn’t yet decided where he will live for the foreseeable future, saying he and his wife will begin looking at properties soon. Paul then asked a group of reporters where they recommended he live.

Wherever he decides that place is, Paul said the main thing is convenience. He wants to be as close to the team’s training facility as possible, eager to put in the hard work with his new teammates.

“I’m like a kid in a candy store,” Paul said. “I just can’t wait to get out there and compete.”

Attorney David Boies, who represented the NFL during that sport’s work stoppage and now has been brought aboard by basketball’s players, said the NBA lockout violates antitrust laws by refusing to allow players to work.

Boies added that Stern’s ultimatum to the now-disbanded union to accept the owners’ last economic model or face a harsher proposal “turned out to be a mistake” that strengthens the players’ case because it proves that the collective bargaining process had ended.

“If you’re in a poker game, and you run a bluff, and the bluff works, you’re a hero. If someone calls your bluff, you lose. I think the owners overplayed their hand,” Boies said at the players’ association headquarters. “They did a terrific job of taking a very hard line and pushing the players to make concession after concession after concession, but greed is not only a terrible thing _ it’s a dangerous thing.”

Dangerous enough to cost the league billions of dollars in damages if players win.

The players are seeking “treble damages” _ meaning triple the amount of the more than $2 billion they would have made under a full 2011-12 season _ for what they argue is irreparable harm by preventing them from playing in their “very short” NBA careers.

“We haven’t seen Mr. Boies’ complaint yet, but it’s a shame that the players have chosen to litigate instead of negotiate,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said in a statement. “They warned us from the early days of these negotiations that they would sue us if we didn’t satisfy them at the bargaining table, and they appear to have followed through on their threats.”

Boies acknowledged that the case could take months, but hoped there would be a settlement before too long.

“Nobody can tell you how long it’s going to take. We all know it’s possible to delay lawsuits for a while, but I think it is in everybody’s interest to try to resolve this promptly,” said Boies, speaking on behalf of the California filing. “The longer it goes on, the greater the damages that the teams will face, the greater the damages that the players will suffer, and perhaps most important of all, the longer basketball fans will be deprived of basketball. So we hope that this will move quickly.”

He insisted the players have shown their willingness to negotiate throughout.

“You can’t negotiate by yourself,” he said. “You can only negotiate if you’ve got somebody who’s willing to sit down and negotiate with you.”

The two suits _ one filed in conjunction with the players’ association in the Northern District of California and another filed in Minnesota _ likely were filed with a favorable venue in mind.

The Minnesota district court has been favorable to the NFLPA during litigation dating to the 1980s. The federal court in San Francisco is under the jurisdiction of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, considered the most liberal of the 13 circuit courts.

The NBA already has filed a pre-emptive lawsuit in New York seeking to prove the lockout is legal and likely would push for cases to be moved there to gain the legal home court.

Though Stern has ridiculed the players’ “losing” strategy, Boies said he believes NBA players have a stronger case than NFL players did. Their decertification, he said, could have been argued as a sham because they walked out on the bargaining process before it was technically over and brought litigation. He said Stern’s actions left NBA players without options beyond seeking legal relief.

“Here you had an ultimatum from the owners that made absolutely clear that the collective bargaining process was over,” he said, adding that Stern’s threat is quoted in the lawsuit.  “That’s not collective bargaining, and so you have a very distinct set of facts here.”

The California filing says that in 2007, Stern met with union negotiators and demanded the players reduce their revenue share from 57 percent to no more than 50 percent and “insisted on a much more restrictive salary cap, which would restrict the market for player services.”

Stern threatened at that meeting, according to the lawsuit, that the league was “prepared to lock out the players for two years to get everything” that the NBA owners sought and that “the deal would only get worse after the lockout.”

The league locked out its players on July 1. Tuesday marked the 138th day of the lockout and the players’ first missed paycheck. The season was scheduled to start Nov. 1, but already games through Dec. 15 have been canceled _ a total of 324 or 26 percent of the season.

The league’s latest proposal, which was rejected by the players on Monday, called for a reduced 72-game season to start Dec. 15.

Although the NFL was able to get its recent labor dispute resolved quickly enough to lose only one preseason game, the NHL lost the entire 2004-05 season, and the NBA’s last work stoppage led to a 50-game season in 1998-99.

Boies said players will not seek a preliminary injunction to lift the lockout. Because the lockout “arguably grew out of prior collective bargaining discussions,” Boies said he believes it would be very difficult to get a court to immediately halt the lockout and such a path would delay the case.

Anthony and Chauncey Billups of the Knicks, NBA scoring leader Durant, rookie Kawhi Leonard and Grizzlies forward Leon Powe were listed as plaintiffs in the complaint filed in conjunction with the players’ association in the Northern District of California against the NBA and the owners of its 30 teams. That case has been assigned for now to U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu in Oakland, Calif.

Timberwolves forward Anthony Tolliver, Pistons guard Ben Gordon, free agent forward Caron Butler and Derrick Williams _ the second overall draft pick by Minnesota in June who has yet to sign a rookie contract because of the lockout _ were listed as plaintiffs in another lawsuit filed against the league and owners in Minneapolis, where NFL players had some level of success in a similar court proceeding this summer.

Boies said there might be other, similar cases to those filed on behalf of NBA players in California and Minnesota. The ideal scenario, he said, would be to bring them all together in the Northern District of California.

The plaintiffs represent various types of players affected by lockout _ those under contract, free agents and rookies.

They argue in the Minnesota filing that the lockout “constitutes an illegal group boycott, price-fixing agreement, and/or restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Act” and that the owners’ final offer for a new CBA would have “wiped out the competitive market for most NBA players.”

Boies said the lawsuit was an attempt to restore competitive free-market conditions

Players made numerous economic concessions and were willing to meet the owners’ demands of a 50-50 split of basketball-related income _ a transfer of about $280 million annually from their feeling the league’s desires to improve competitive balance would hurt their guaranteed 57 percent under the old deal _ but only if the owners met them on their system wishes.

Owners wanted to keep more of the league’s nearly $4 billion in basketball revenues. And they sought a system where even the smallest-market clubs could compete, believing the current system would always favor the teams who could spend the most.

And Boies said it was those owners who put the league in this position.

“If it were up to the players, there would be games being played right now,” he said. “There is one reason and one reason only that the season is in jeopardy and that is because the owners have locked the players out and have maintained that lockout for several months.

“If there’s not a basketball season, responsibility for that lies in one place and one place only, and that is the NBA and the NBA owners because they’re the ones who are keeping the players from playing.”

NBA Commissioner David Stern canceled the rest of the November games Friday, saying there will not be a full NBA season “under any circumstances.”

The move came about after labor negotiations broke down again when both sides refused to budge on how to split the league’s revenues, the same issue that derailed talks last week.

Now, a full month of NBA games have been canceled, and Stern said there’s no way of getting them back.

“We held out that joint hope together, but in light of the breakdown of talks, there will not be a full NBA season under any circumstances,” he said.

“It’s not practical, possible or prudent to have a full season now,” added Stern, who previously canceled the first two weeks of the season.

And he repeated his warnings that the proposals might now get even harsher as the league tries to make up the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be lost as the lockout drags on.

“We’re going to have to recalculate how bad the damage is,” Stern said. “The next offer will reflect the extraordinary losses that are piling up now.”

Just a day earlier, Stern had said he would consider it a failure if the sides didn’t reach a deal in the next few days and vowed they would take “one heck of a shot” to get it done.

Instead, negotiations broke off again over the division of basketball-related income, just as they did last Thursday. Union executive director Billy Hunter said the league again insisted it had to be split 50-50, while Stern said Hunter just walked out and left rather than discuss going below 52 percent.

Owners are insistent on a 50-50 split, while players last formally proposed they get 52.5 percent, leaving them about $100 million apart annually. Players were guaranteed 57 percent in the previous collective bargaining agreement.

“Derek (Fisher) and I made it clear that we could not take the 50-50 deal to our membership. Not with all the concessions that we granted,” Hunter said. “We said we got to have some dollars.”

Instead, they’ll now be out roughly $350 million, the losses Hunter previously projected for each month the players were locked out. He believed a full season could be played if a deal were made this weekend, but Stern emphatically ruled out any hope of that now.

“These are not punitive announcements; these are calendar generated announcements,” Stern said.

No further talks have been scheduled.

There was a sense of optimism entering the day after progress was made on salary cap issues during about 24 hours of talks over the previous two days. Then the sides brought the revenue split back into the discussion Friday and promptly got stuck on both issues.

Stern said the NBA owners were “willing” to go to 50 percent. But he said Hunter was unwilling to “go a penny below 52,” that he had been getting many calls from agents and then closed up his book and walked out of the room.

Hunter said the league initially moved its target down to 47 percent during Friday’s six-hour session, then returned to its previous proposal of 50 percent of revenues.

“We made a lot of concessions, but unfortunately at this time it’s not enough, and we’re not prepared or unable at this time to move any further,” Hunter said.

Union president Fisher said it was difficult to say why talks broke down, or when they would start up again.

“We’re here, we’ve always been here, but today just wasn’t the day to try and finish this out,” he said.

There was some good news.

Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said there was essentially a “tentative agreement” on most system issues, with Stern rattling off some of them: Owners agreed to keep the midlevel exception starting at $5 million a year; and contract lengths would be five years for players staying with their teams and four when leaving for another.

“And then we hit a wall,” Stern said.

The small groups that were meeting the previous two days grew a bit Friday. Union vice presidents Chris Paul _ wearing a Yankees cap for his trip to New York _ and Theo Ratliff joined the talks, and economist Kevin Murphy returned after he was unavailable Thursday. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban stayed for the session after taking part Thursday.

Fisher said there were still too many restrictions in the owners’ proposal. Players want to keep a system similar to the old one, and fear owners’ ideas would limit player movement and the choices available to them in free agency.

And though they might be inclined to give up one if they received more concessions on the other, players make it sound as if they are the ones doing all the giving back.

The old cap system allowed teams to exceed it through the use of a number of exceptions, many of which the league wants to tweak or even eliminate. Hunter has called a hard cap a “blood issue” to players, and though the league has backed off its initial proposal calling for one, players think the changes owners want would work like one.

“We’ve told them that we don’t want a hard cap. We don’t want a hard cap any kind of way, either an obvious hard cap or a hard cap that may not be as obvious to most people but we know it works like a hard cap,” Hunter said. “And so you get there, and then all of a sudden they say, `Well, we also have to have our number.’ And you say, `Well wait a minute, you’re not negotiating in good faith.”’

But if players think what’s being proposed is a hard cap, here’s another warning: Silver won’t rule out the league seeking one again.

“Our response is then let’s have a hard cap, which is what we wanted,” he said.

“We don’t think it’s a hard cap. … We’ve all been wasting our time if they believe this is a hard cap. We’ve been spending literally hundreds of hours negotiating the specifics of a system, where they’re now saying is the equivalent of a hard cap. We’ve been clear from the beginning from a league standpoint we would prefer a hard cap.”

When players offered to reduce their guarantee from 57 percent to 53 percent, Hunter said that would have transferred about $1.1 billion to owners over six years. Now, at 52.5, he said that would grow to more than $1.5 billion.

But even a 50-50 split would be too high for some hardline owners, because it would reduce only $280 million of the $300 million they said they lost last season. Owners initially proposed a BRI split that players said would have had them around 40 percent.

Though they will miss a paycheck on Nov. 15, Hunter said each player would have received a minimum of $100,000 from the escrow money that was returned to them to make up the difference after salaries fell short of the guaranteed 57 percent of revenues last season.

The real losses, though, could be felt by arena staff and other people who work in fields connected to the game. Stern apologized to them in making the announcement.

But Jeff Lee, a 37-year-old cafe owner and Warriors season-ticketholder in the East Bay, said he isn’t discouraged about Friday’s setback.

“I’m pretty certain that the season’s going to start sooner or later,” Lee said. “I know when the season starts it’s going to be well worth the wait.”

LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul starred in a hastily arranged summer league game Tuesday night that drew an overflow crowd at Morgan State University.

The big question is: Will these stars and their peers perform in the NBA this year?

The owners and players union are expected to meet this week. Until a settlement is reached, fans with a thirst for professional basketball will have to settle for exhibitions like this one.

Hill Field House holds 4,500, but there were hundreds of fans surrounding the court to watch the collection of stars in a rare performance in Baltimore, Anthony’s home town.

There were a few police officers to keep the peace. If there was a Fire Marshall in attendance, he might have shut the place down.

The game was originally scheduled to be held Sunday at a Baltimore high school that holds around 1,000 fans. It was postponed because of Hurricane Irene, and when word got out that James was playing, the venue was changed to Morgan State.

The tickets sold at a rapid pace _ at $40 to $100. It didn’t matter that the entry process was exceedingly slow because both teams arrived after the scheduled 7 o’clock start.

Press row didn’t have enough seats to accommodate those fortunate enough to collar credentials (one reporter was told he couldn’t get in unless he bought a ticket). Minutes before the game started, several media members who did secure seats were unceremoniously ousted by people with deep connections.

That would never happen at an NBA game, and the same could be said for the treatment the players received.

When James and his teammates of the Melo League finally walked onto the court, they were rushed by autograph seekers and people snapping pictures with personal cameras and cell phones. It set up one of the strangest scenes of a very peculiar night: players taking warmup shots while dozens of fans walked through the lane and under the basket.

The game was every bit like an NBA All-Star game in that it featured big-name players wearing generic uniforms and showing very little effort on the defensive end.

James slammed down several crowd-cheering dunks and played a little game on 1-on-1 with Durant. At one point, all eight players went to the left side of the court while James juked and dribbled against Durant before making a 20-footer.

Durant then returned the favor on the other end.

Melo’s team beat Durant’s squad 149-141. The statistics were spotty, but the all-nonsense public address announcer said Durant scored 59 points and James had 36.

Not that it mattered. The crowd loved every minute and was in no rush to leave. James and Anthony were swarmed at midcourt at the final buzzer, and after five minutes both finally worked their way off the court.

The man told sheriff’s deputies at least three men assaulted him but Randolph was not among them. No arrests have been made, and authorities said none were expected on Monday.

Police identified the victim as 26-year-old James Beasley of Portland.

Clackamas County Sheriff’s Sgt. James Rhodes said Randolph was in his home outside Portland when the beating occurred early Saturday. Beasley was treated for head and face injuries and released from a hospital later that afternoon, when he called police, Rhodes said.

Officers served a search warrant early Sunday. They spoke with 10 people in the home at the time and recovered pool cues and blood evidence. They did not find drugs in the home.

Rhodes said the evidence “was consistent with the victim’s statement about where and how he was assaulted,” and authorities were trying to figure out who was involved in the assault.

The victim told officers that he recognized Randolph and was certain he wasn’t involved in the beating, but he didn’t know the names of the people who assaulted him. The victim said there were about 20 people at Randolph’s home at the time.

Rhodes said detectives will probably ask Beasley to pick the suspects from a line up.

Randolph has not spoken to the officers based on the advice of his lawyer, Rhodes said. He didn’t know the lawyer’s name.

Attempts to reach Randolph have been unsuccessful. Nobody answered the intercom system at his gated home in West Linn on Monday. Two sport-utility vehicles drove away, and their occupants did not stop to speak with a reporter from The Associated Press.

The Grizzlies declined to comment.

There was no listed phone number for Beasley.

Randolph averaged 20 points and 12 rebounds per game with Memphis last season. He was drafted in 2001 by the Portland Trail Blazers and played there six seasons before being traded to New York. He was later traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, then to Memphis in 2009.

The Grizzlies signed Randolph to a four-year contract extension in April during the first-round of the playoffs. He became only their second All-Star during the 2009-10 season.

Randolph’s past troubles also have included an arrest for driving under the influence of intoxicants after a police officer said he smelled marijuana in Randolph’s car and a practice fight in which he broke former teammate Ruben Patterson’s eye socket.

In 2009, he was suspended for two games for punching a Phoenix Suns player.

The game was organized by Kentucky coach John Calipari, who has been hired to coach the Dominican Republic team in the FIBA Americas Tournament starting later this month.

Calipari knew his squad needed some good competition before heading to the tournament, so he turned to his network for former Kentucky stars in the NBA for help.

“All the (Dominican Republic) players came up to me and said, `Cal, coach this game to win. This game is big back in our country. Coach us to win,”’ Calipari said. “And I did. I told the bench, `Look, I’m not subbing a whole lot. We’re going to play it out.”’

Edgar Sosa scored 29 points for the Dominican Republic and Al Horford, who plays for the Atlanta Hawks, had 17 rebounds and 12 points. Garcia also plays in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings.

The Sacramento Kings’ DeMarcus Cousins led the team dubbed “the Pros” with 28 points and 14 rebounds. Washington Wizards standout John Wall scored 15 points, while Jodie Meeks of the Philadelphia 76ers had 17.

“That’s as talented as of a group as we’re going to face,” Horford said. “The style of ball is a little different, but we have to give those guys credit. They came in, had one walkthrough together and just played.”

The Pros were cobbled together with about a week’s notice while the Dominican Republic has been in Lexington since July 31 to train with Calipari for the Americas Tournament, which runs from Aug. 30 to Sept. 11 in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The winner gets an automatic bid to the 2012 Olympics in London.

“I think if we had gotten a little earlier notice we would have been in a little bit better shape,” said the Pros’ Tayshaun Prince.

Though several of the Pros teammates played together at Kentucky and see each other regularly during the NBA season, their only formal practice with coach Joe B. Hall came during a 1.5-hour shootaround on Monday afternoon.

“I didn’t care what they did. They’re pros. They wanted to win,” Hall said. “They did what they thought they had to do to win.”

The teams will face each other again on Tuesday night in Louisville.

Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday that Merkel wrote to Nowitzki to laud him for being “the first German to fulfill this great dream.”

Merkel praised the Bavarian’s “industriousness, perseverance and outstanding performance.”

Nowitzki overcame a finger injury, illness and smothering defense from the Miami Heat to win his and the Mavericks’ their first NBA title.

Buss had a few reassuring words with his players, who had just lost their second-round playoff opener to the Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers promptly went out and lost three more games over the next five days, capped by a humiliating 36-point defeat Sunday.

Just imagine the choice words Buss probably has planned for his Lakers during an extra-long summer.

Buss has always tolerated big egos, Hollywood distractions and huge luxury-tax bills as long as the Lakers were annual contenders for the NBA title. With the Lakers’ threepeat quest abruptly over after seven miserable days in May, Buss and his front office have plenty of time to decide how much of this smoldering wreck they can salvage.

Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak will make those decisions without coach Phil Jackson, who insists he has manipulated his last millionaire into sacrificing himself for the triangle offense that produced 11 championships.

When Jackson was asked Sunday if the Lakers should be blown up, as former star Magic Johnson loudly suggested last week, the NBA’s most successful coach gave one last smirk.

“That’s not my decision to make,” he said. “That’s Dr. Buss, and ultimately, with Mitch Kupchak, they’ll put it together. But it’s a great franchise, and we all know that they always come back and get themselves back in the race. The Lakers are going to survive and do well.”

With just one losing season in the past 17 years, the Lakers clearly know how to survive _ yet they never thrived this season, except during a 17-1 surge after the All-Star break. For long stretches, the two-time NBA champions and three-time Western Conference champions looked tired, old and simply bored with the relentless grind of another nine-month title chase.

The physical and psychological strain of 77 playoff games in the past four years might have been too much for the Lakers to overcome. They won just six of their final 17 games this season, capped by that stunningly one-sided series against the Mavericks.

“Coach always says basketball is a humbling game,” forward Lamar Odom said. “When you play on this level and you win, and people expect you to win and everything is great, people know us. When you get beat like the way we got beat, you realize this is a part of life.”

Or maybe the Lakers were done in by the myriad distractions that arise for any winning team in a major metropolis. Nearly every Los Angeles player seemed to have a side job this season, from Odom’s reality show with his wife to Kobe Bryant’s myriad endorsements, from Derek Fisher’s union work to Matt Barnes’ clothing line to Ron Artest’s ridiculously crowded schedule.

“I don’t know where we lost it, that drive, that bond we had in the past, that cohesive drive in order to overcome adversity,” Odom said. “Obviously something wasn’t there. We couldn’t overcome a lot of things we usually overcome, a lot of things we used to overcome. It makes no difference. It could have happened (in) the next round, or the (NBA) finals.”

The Lakers’ collapse suggested they could use a fresh start, yet this team has been constructed to stay together for a long run _ perhaps making Kupchak’s job even tougher now.

The Lakers had the NBA’s biggest payroll this season at over $91 million, which means Buss must write a check for roughly $20 million to cover his luxury tax bill _ a check that would have seemed much lighter with revenue from a few more playoff games.

They’re already committed to more than $88 million in salaries with nine guaranteed contracts for next season, including $18.7 million for disappearing All-Star Pau Gasol, $6.8 million for the regressing Artest, and $11.7 million over the next two seasons for forward Luke Walton, whose 4 minutes of garbage time on Sunday were his only action of the postseason.

Yet the Lakers’ fans don’t want to hear about accounting problems. On talk radio and Internet message boards, they’ve already moved on to the possibility of landing one or two marquee free agents in the next year, when Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Deron Williams all will be available.

Although the Lakers’ biggest need clearly is at point guard, where Fisher and backup Steve Blake contributed almost nothing all season long, Howard was a trending topic on Twitter in Los Angeles for most of Monday. The Lakers’ glamour could attract superstar free agents, but Kupchak must figure out how to pay them.

Kupchak doesn’t appear to be in a hurry to replace Jackson, and the Lakers’ early exit might have hurt the chances of assistant coach Brian Shaw, Bryant’s favorite for the job. After Detroit upset the Lakers in the 2004 NBA finals during a similar collapse, Buss went outside the Lakers family to hire two-time champion Rudy Tomjanovich during Jackson’s brief retirement.

Several veteran coaches are available this time around, including Larry Brown and longtime Lakers nemesis Rick Adelman. Kurt Rambis already has a job in Minnesota, yet he’s a longtime Lakers stalwart who attended nearly every home playoff game this spring, sometimes sitting with executive Jeanie Buss.

Hidden in the Lakers’ disappointment is a chance to retool for the future, rebuilding into another championship contender for the final years of Bryant’s career. Jackson’s departure means the slow, old Lakers have a chance to change their image if Kupchak and Buss can turn their backlog of bloated contracts into new assets.

But changing the Lakers’ culture won’t be easy, even after this humbling end. Shortly after the Lakers’ supposedly somber plane ride home Sunday night, Artest _ whose third-quarter breakaway layup attempt was blocked by the rim _ already was on Twitter asking fans to come bowling with him.

“The Lakers are a marked franchise,” backup guard Shannon Brown said. “Every time we step out there, nobody wants to see us win.”

Instead, they turned it into the easiest one their current group has ever experienced.

Kevin Garnett had 26 points and 10 rebounds, Rajon Rondo added 21 points and 12 assists, and the Celtics swept their way into the Eastern Conference semifinals, holding on for a 101-89 victory over the New York Knicks on Sunday.

Ray Allen and reserve Glen Davis each added 14 points for the Celtics, the first team into the second round after sweeping a series for the first time since a 3-0 victory over Indiana in 1992, the last series victory for their old Big Three before Larry Bird retired.

“It’s what we expected coming in. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, obviously Games 1 and 2, but we found a way to put it away,” Rondo said. “We haven’t swept a team in a long time, so it’s good feeling.”

And it gives their aging group plenty of rest before an expected showdown with the Miami Heat.

The Celtics had a 23-point lead cut to four in the fourth quarter, but pulled away again behind Garnett, who scored 20 after halftime.

The current Big Three of Garnett, Allen and Paul Pierce twice was extended to seven games in the first round, but this one was far easier than expected against the injury-weakened Knicks. The Celtics could now have a week off while they wait for likely opponent Miami, which was forced to a fifth game earlier Sunday after a late rally by Philadelphia.

The Celtics almost faced the same scenario, but a Knicks comeback attempt stalled in the final minutes before they were saluted by their orange-clad crowd after delivering the best season in New York in a decade.

“Everybody understood what was at stake. Give a team some confidence, even in a 3-0 series to win a game, you never know what can happen,” Pierce said. “So it was just very important for us to withstand the run. They made a great run and the crowd really got behind them, but in the fourth quarter we just really settled down in the last six or seven minutes, executed the offense and were able to put the game out of reach.”

Carmelo Anthony had 32 points and nine rebounds, and Amare Stoudemire, who decided to play after his back felt better, finished with 19 points and 12 boards but shot only 5 of 20 from the field.

“It was all heart. He just gave it all. With him and Carmelo going forward, the Knicks are in good shape,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said.

The Knicks shot 34 percent and were quickly dispatched in their first playoff appearance since 2004, when they were also swept in the first round. They haven’t won a playoff game in 10 years.

“Tonight was one of those games that we have to leave it all out on the court. Wasn’t no need to take anything home with us, and we did that,” Anthony said. “So I’m pretty sure that we gained a lot of respect from a lot of people right now, but this is the first step of something great.”

The Celtics were only 10-11 in their last 21 games of the regular season, struggling to adjust to a changed lineup after trading center Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City at the deadline and renewing questions they were too old.

The Knicks believed they could challenge them, but Chauncey Billups was lost for good after straining his left knee in the final minute of Game 1 and Stoudemire was never the same after hurting his back during warmups before Game 2.

Meanwhile, the Celtics got better as the series went along, pulling out two close victories in Boston and saving their best for Madison Square Garden, surrounded in orange as it was finally open for postseason basketball again.

But that couldn’t shake the Celtics, who held the Knicks to three field goals in the second quarter to seize control.

Garnett made three straight field goals to make it 70-48 in the third quarter before the Celtics let the Knicks back into it. Consecutive run-out dunks by Anthony cut it to 14, and New York had it all the way down to 10 when Shawne Williams’ 3-pointer with 36 seconds remaining trimmed it to 82-72 after three.

Stoudemire opened the fourth with a basket and Anthony followed, bringing it within six and forcing coach Doc Rivers to put Garnett back into the game. He made a pair of free throws, but baskets by Stoudemire and Anthony Carter made it 84-80 with 7:34 to go.

“I thought we dropped the guard a little bit,” Rivers said. “Give them credit, I thought they played desperate and you could see it in their play and their defensive energy.”

But Boston would never let it get closer and finally put it away when consecutive jumpers by Rondo and Garnett extended it to 95-85 with 4:22 to play.

Disappointed in their effort in a blowout loss Friday, the Knicks showed plenty of fight. Anthony knocked Rondo down for a flagrant foul and Stoudemire was called for a technical after he shoved Delonte West in the back following the Boston guard’s hard foul on Knicks rookie Landry Fields.

But New York, which went 42-40 to end a franchise-worst streak of nine straight losing seasons and earn its first playoff berth since 2004, simply didn’t have enough to match Boston, which got 13 points from Pierce.

Stoudemire made only one field goal in the first half as Boston led 55-38.

Notes: D’Antoni, while saying Rondo is a “very good basketball player,” seems to feel his success is due more to the players around him. “I’d like to see him play on Minnesota and see how he does,” D’Antoni said before the game. “Everybody’s tied together and they have three Hall of Famers out there.” … Billups said sitting out was “torture.” … Kemba Walker, who led Connecticut to the NCAA championship, attended the game and sat with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Kobe Bryant: Phoyo by Shola Orol/Royalty Image

Kobe Bryant became the first athlete to receive a hand-print and footprint ceremony at the legendary Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood over the weekend.

The Legendary Los Angeles Lakers’ shooting guard celebrated a special moment in Hollywood as he signed his name in  wet cement in front of the historical theater, which is located along the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Underneath the signature were imprints of his hands and feet with his jersey number 24. Among the theater’s most distinctive features are the concrete blocks set in the forecourt, which bear the signatures, footprints, and hand prints of popular motion picture personalities from the 1920s to the present day.

An honor reserved solely for true Hollywood superstars, an exception was made for the basketball great and Kobe joins Harrison Ford, Eddie Murphy, Tom Cruise, Michael Keaton, Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson, who previously received the honor of placing their hands and feet in the famous wet cement.

The hand and footprint ceremony was hosted by funnyman Jimmy Kimmel.

After the ceremony, Bryant posed for photos with his wife, Vanessa, and their two daughters, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson and other VIP audience members.

He found the place to do it at Central Florida. Though not exactly known for its basketball tradition, the 6-foot-3, 205 pound guard knew UCF was the program for him.

“It was the first and last visit I made,” Jordan said. “I just loved it. The facilities were new and it was definitely a place where I could go in and play right away. I think that was the biggest thing. Me and (UCF teammate) A.J. (Rompza) sat down and said we can start something new and create our own little legacy here.

“We’re excited to get a player like Sasha who can come in and help us,” Nets general manager Billy King said. “He’s scrappy on defense and a good shooter on offense. He has experience with being on a champion. It’s also an opportunity for us to get better with future draft picks.”

The Nets acquired first-round picks from the Lakers in 2011, and the Rockets in 2012. New Jersey now owns five first rounders in the next two years, including two of their own, the Lakers’ (2011), Golden State’s (2011) and Houston’s (2012). New Jersey, to seal it, sent two second-round picks to the Lakers.

King said that he expects Vujacic, 26, who was not playing much with the Lakers, to come in and contribute right away, especially since starting shooting guard Anthony Morrow suffered a hamstring injury Tuesday vs. Philadelphia and will be sidelined 2-to-3 weeks.

“He has to come in and learn the offense, but we’re going to get him in and on the floor,” King said of Vujacic, “because we need a player right now.”

King confirmed the obvious on Williams, saying the Nets had grown tired of his antics, especially his continual lateness.

“It was a combination of a lot of things,” King said. “It got to the point where it wasn’t going to work here for Terrence. He’s getting a clean slate in Houston, a new start. He was not going to be a good fit for the future here. The opportunities are better for him in Houston.”

Vujacic, in his seventh year, averaged 4.8 points during his career in Los Angeles. The 6-foot-7 shooting guard set the Lakers’ single-season record for three-point accuracy in 2008, shooting at a .437 clip. He appeared in just 11 games this season, averaging 1.8 points.

The 6-6 Williams, the Nets’ top draft pick and 11th overall in 2009, averaged 8.2 points, four rebounds and nearly three assists in 88 games. He recently was sent down to the Springfield Armor of the NBA D-League for his habitual tardiness. Williams averaged 6.7 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 10 games with the Nets this season.

Nets coach Avery Johnson realized that Williams needed a change of scenery.

“It’s a win-win for everyone,” Johnson said. “It gives Terrence a chance to move on and continue his career with another team. I wish him well. We’re still rebuilding and retooling and we’re heading in the right direction. This is just another step in that retooling process. We needed to change something and we also needed the picks.”

The draft picks increase the Nets’ chance of making a bigger trade, perhaps now having the pieces for a potential deal with Denver to acquire Carmelo Anthony.

“We don’t want to be mediocre or below average,” said Johnson, whose team is now 6-19 after losing for the eighth straight time Tuesday. “We’re aiming to be a championship team. We have a big plan. The light is dim, but there is a light.”

Johnson will insert Vujacic into his regular rotation, quite possibly as early as Thursday when the Nets face the Los Angeles Clippers in Newark. Vujacic was set to arrive in New Jersey Wednesday afternoon for a physical. He boarded a flight from Indianapolis, where the Lakers are playing the Pacers tonight.

“We know he can shoot the ball,” Johnson said. “It’s nice to add someone with the capability to make a shot. We’re excited to have him. We also acquired valuable picks, which gives us some flexibility. We need Sasha to play right away, because we need help at that position. I know he can come here and make shots.”

Jordan Farmar, who played with Vujacic in Los Angeles, believes he can help.

“I describe him like a soccer player,” said Farmar, who will now be paired in the starting lineup with Devin Harris due to Morrow’s injury. “He has antics to get the crowd going. He also can shoot the ball well. He’s feisty and competitive. He was sitting there and I know he’s anxious to play. So, I’m happy for him. I’m looking forward to having him here. He’s not going to come here and be a savior, but he brings experience and has a lot of big-game experience.”

For the eighth consecutive year, and the first time in Senegal, coaches from the NBA are mentoring 60 of Africa’s best players during the annual Basketball Without Borders camp, hoping to raise the profile of a sport that lags far behind soccer across much of the continent.

“We are here and we are making an investment in Africa,” said Senegalese native Amadou Gallo Fall, the NBA’s vice president of development in Africa. “There are 6-foot-8 soccer players out there that don’t know that there is another sport where their height is actually a positive.

“Our goal is to see more kids bouncing than kicking the ball.”

In Senegal, however, there are so few basketball courts that NBA officials say most cities and towns outside Dakar can consider themselves lucky if they have even one. Many players practice dunks with a soccer ball because basketballs are scarce and expensive.

Despite the lack of resources, the NBA says Africa has one of the globe’s greatest reserves of untapped talent.

Since 1984, 25 players from Africa have made it to the NBA _ five times more than from China, which was considered the next talent pipeline after Yao Ming’s meteoric rise, according to NBA senior vice president of basketball operations-international Kim Bohuny. And last year, a count performed by The Associated Press found more than 170 African players at U.S. colleges, junior colleges and universities during the 2008-09 season.

“We’re just starting to tap into that potential,” Bohuny said.

This year, the 60 players from 22 countries represent a cross-section of the challenges faced by those attempting to play basketball on a continent where soccer is not only the most popular sport but also a way out of poverty. For years, one of the largest billboards in Dakar featured Senegal striker El Hadji Diouf in an ad for Tigo, a major cell phone provider. Barefoot boys throughout the city play in alleyways, on highway medians and on the beach in the hopes of being discovered by a scout and getting a chance at a better life.

Cedric Amegah, a lanky teenager from Burkina Faso who attended the camp, said his parents are constantly trying to reorient him toward soccer.

“When me and my friends go to shoot hoops, our parents are always saying, ‘No. Don’t play basketball. Play soccer,”’ he said.

Among the messages that the NBA camp is hoping to project is that basketball can be just as lucrative.

On the opening day of the camp last Thursday, the players and officials that took turns at the podium were walking examples of success, such as the 7-foot-2 Dikembe Mutombo, originally from Congo, who is considered one of the league’s greatest defensive players of all time. He used his NBA earnings to finance a $29 million hospital in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital where he grew up.

Other NBA players at the clinic included Charlotte Bobcats center DeSagana Diop, who grew up in a gritty Dakar suburb where the only place to practice was a sandy court that made it nearly impossible to dribble, and Memphis Grizzlies center Hasheem Thabeet of Tanzania, the second pick in the 2009 draft.

Yet for the young players attending this year’s camp, perhaps the most convincing proof of the opportunities that lie ahead are the NBA players who were discovered at past Basketball Without Borders camps. They include Luc Mbah a Moute, who understood only a few words of English when he attended the first NBA camp held in Africa in Johannesburg in 2003.

Mbah a Moute, a native of the French-speaking part of Cameroon, used the contacts he made at the camp to win a scholarship to the Montverde Academy in Florida and then went on to UCLA before being drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Hoping more and more Africans will get that chance, the NBA has opened its first permanent office in Africa, based in Johannesburg, in March.

Chukwudi Maduabum, a 19-year-old Nigerian who is just shy of 7 feet, said his first sport was soccer but every year as he got taller, his long limbs got progressively more in his way until he was tripping over the other players. Still it was hard to leave his favorite sport.

“I got taller and taller. And then it didn’t work out anymore,” Maduabum said. “And then I found basketball.”

Because it is still relatively difficult for boys to take up basketball in the land of soccer, Fall said those who do often end up doing playing it with passion.

He points to his own struggle to learn the game as an example.

In the regional capital of Kaolack, in central Senegal where his family lived, Fall said there was a single hoop, and it was inside a walled compound.

The then-teenager would scale the wall to get inside and only had a limited amount of time to practice before a guard came running. Each time he was beaten with a stick _ and yet he kept coming back for more.

Fall went on to play center for the University of the District of Columbia, then spent 12 years as director of player personnel for the Dallas Mavericks.

“I’m a scout at heart and I’m telling you the potential here is greater than anywhere in the world,” Fall said. “There is a Michael Jordan in every neighborhood waiting to be discovered.”

“When I came into the league, I wanted to compete with Bill Russell for titles,” O’Neal said Tuesday, with Russell’s 11 championship banners hanging above him at a news conference to mark his signing with the Boston Celtics. “That’s not going to happen, but I’d like to almost get half of what he got.”

With four titles and a Hall of Fame career already on his resume, newly christened “Big Shamrock” signed a two-year deal with the Celtics at veteran’s minimum, forgoing more lucrative offers to join the defending Eastern Conference champions for a run at another championship or two.

A crossover celebrity who has appeared in feature films and his own TV show, O’Neal joked about his new nickname, his fear that his kids will develop a Boston accent and trying to beat new teammate Glen “Big Baby” Davis in a chowder-eating contest.

But he was serious when he talked about his legacy.

“Do I have the same hunger? Yes. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here,” O’Neal said. “I don’t like wasting my time. I don’t like wasting anybody’s time. At the end of the day, when I close the book, it’s all about winning.”

The news conference to introduce O’Neal wasn’t the usual type for a backup, 38-year-old center who will be paid about $1.3 million a year. There were a dozen TV cameras, perhaps 50 reporters in all and a couple hundred beaming schoolchildren in the bleachers, taking a break from their basketball camp next door.

Also in the gym: Kevin Garnett, who promised O’Neal he would fly back from Hawaii to be there.

“To me this is a very exclusive event,” said O’Neal, who wore a gray pinstriped suit and a black bow tie. “It’s my last (introductory) press conference. I just wanted to be very, very sharp.”

The crowd was all there to see O’Neal the superstar, the former NBA MVP and four-time champion who is certain to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame down the road in Springfield whenever he decides he’s had enough.

But the O’Neal the Celtics have signed is a much different player than the one who accumulated those credentials.

Now weighing in at 345 pounds _ he was 294 at LSU _ O’Neal averaged 12 points and 6.7 rebounds for the Cavaliers last season, when he was brought to Cleveland in the hopes that he would be the missing piece that would help LeBron James win his elusive NBA title. He also missed almost two months of the regular season after injuring his thumb against the Celtics.

“I told him there won’t be 30 minutes (for him) on this team; there will be 20-25,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “I asked him if that would be OK, because that’s the only way it’s going to work.”

And it was OK with O’Neal, who hit the free agent market seeking a two-year deal worth a reported $8 million to $10 million a season. The Celtics expressed an interest _ though not at that price _ and general manager Danny Ainge moved on to pursue other options.

As the summer wore on, though, O’Neal came around. Ainge said O’Neal’s agent called and said, “Shaq would like to play there, and he’s willing to come on your terms.”

“I think Shaq’s a guy who can still make a difference,” Ainge told reporters in a conference call after the news conference. “When he was in his prime, he was considered one of the best who has ever played. Shaq coming to our team right now, our expectations won’t be that. We expect him to contribute to our team and play a role off our bench.”

But that can be a major contribution for a team that is without center Kendrick Perkins for at least half the season while he recovers from the knee injury he sustained during Game 6 of the NBA finals. Backup Rasheed Wallace retired, and the Celtics officially released him on Tuesday.

Boston signed Jermaine O’Neal, another reclamation project, and then added his more illustrious namesake. There won’t be a problem with playing time until Perkins returns.

“Shaq still can do things that no other big man can,” Rivers said. “You need size to win. We think we filled that void pretty well today.”

The Celtics won their NBA-record 17th championship in 2008, then returned to the finals last year before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games. While the Miami Heat have rebuilt around Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, the Celtics have largely brought back the core of last season’s team, re-signing Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to keep them alongside Garnett and point guard Rajon Rondo.

“I realize I only have 730 days left in this game. I just wanted to be with a group of guys that like to win,” O’Neal said. “This was a good team with or without me. I don’t mind playing a role. I know where I am at this point in my career. It’s about coming to a team that is one or two pieces from a championship.”

Bryant will be fully recovered well before training camp opens Sept. 25, the Lakers said in a brief statement. The two-time NBA finals MVP underwent surgery last week.

Bryant’s knee was drained of fluid early in the playoffs, and he played through several additional injuries while leading the Lakers to their second straight title.

The Lakers said last month that Bryant likely would have surgery this summer to clean up his knee. It wasn’t considered urgent, and he made a trip to South Africa for the World Cup before getting it done.

The team hasn’t announced whether Bryant will have surgery on his injured index finger, which was broken late last year and hampered his shot throughout the season.

Center Andrew Bynum also will need surgery on his right knee to repair a partially torn ligament, but Bynum’s surgery was delayed until July 28 due to his doctor’s schedule. Bynum also should be back to full strength before training camp.

Although Bryant is working on rehabilitation for his knee, he played a major role in two signings this month for the Lakers. Veteran guard Derek Fisher and swingman Matt Barnes both cited Bryant’s personal influence as a major reason they signed with Los Angeles to pursue another title.

The Lakers signed veterans Theo Ratliff and Barnes on Thursday, beefing up their bench after winning last season’s title with a top-heavy roster. With free agent point guard Steve Blake also signed this month, the Lakers have 11 players under contract for next season on a roster with strikingly more experience and depth than last season.

General manager Mitch Kupchak said Friday that the Lakers still are in negotiations with guard Shannon Brown, who opted out of his contract to become a free agent. Brown said he wanted to return to the Lakers, and Kupchak still hopes the high-flying guard will be back.

Kupchak also said the Lakers will continue to evaluate second-round draft picks Devin Ebanks and Derrick Caracter during training camp after both performed surprisingly well in summer-league play.