LeBron James. James worked out with Jordan in Chicago last August, when Jordan was getting in shape for his comeback. ``He's a very talented guy,'' said Jordan, who played at Gund Arena last night with Washington. ``I think he's going to continue to get better at that young age. He's very talented, but obviously he still has some learning to do. The potential is there, and that's something to keep the motivation and the fire burning. If he continues to work hard, he can very well end up on this level. I don't know how quickly he's planning to do that.'' There has been much speculation that James, a junior, will enter the NBA draft straight out of high school.
HAYWOOD MAKES DEBUT -- Wizards center Brendan Haywood, drafted by the Cavs in June, made his NBA debut last night. After missing the first 12 games with a thumb injury sustained in the preseason, Haywood was activated Monday. After the Cavs took Haywood with the No. 20 pick, he was traded to Orlando for center Michael Doleac. Later in the summer, Haywood was shipped to the Wizards. ``It was good both ways,'' Haywood said of the deal from the Cavs. ``I wasn't excited to be coming to Cleveland and they weren't excited to have me.'' Haywood didn't get to face Doleac, who missed his third consecutive game with a sprained left ankle. Cavs coach John Lucas is hopeful Doleac will be able to play tomorrow against Atlanta.

JORDAN MEMORIES -- Before the game, Lucas recounted some of his favorite Jordan memories. While coaching Philadelphia in the mid-1990s, Lucas screamed at a 76er having trouble guarding Jordan. ``I yelled, `Stop letting him do all that (stuff),' '' Lucas said. ``At the next dead ball, (Jordan) came over and said to me, `What makes you think he's letting me do that?' '' Also while coaching the 76ers, Lucas allowed Kobe Bryant, then a schoolboy in the Philadelphia area, to work out with the team. ``When Chicago came in, I had Kobe come in early to introduce him to Michael,'' Lucas said. ``He said, `It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Jordan.' I said, `You're going to be in the league next year. You can't say that.' (Jordan) looked at me and started laughing.''

Jerry Brewer of the Orlando Sentinel reports: It was a crazy season-opening victory celebration.

The Dr. Phillips boys' basketball players hopped and hooted with about 25 fans at center court. Some players took their jerseys off. Ten minutes later, starting point guard Chance McGrady cried in the locker room.

Dr. Phillips had just defeated Cypress Creek 73-72 on a 3-pointer by guard Barry Durosier, coming back from a 17-point deficit in Amare Stoudemire's return to high school basketball.

After a long journey filled with academic issues, residency questions and five different high schools, Stoudemire played his first high school game since his sophomore season Monday night.

Stoudemire, considered by many to be the best prep player in the country, finished with 10 points, 16 rebounds and six blocks. He finished 3-of-6 from the field and hit all four of his free throws, including two with 26 seconds left that gave Cypress Creek a 72-70 lead.

For most of the game, he could not get the ball, thanks to some good Dr. Phillips' defense and impatience by his teammates. Stoudemire wowed the crowd with two dunks and a crossover dribble to set up a 17-footer, but teammates overthrew him twice on lobs and missed him several times when he was open in the paint.

To his credit, Stoudemire never grew frustrated -- though he was eager to prove himself -- and continued to impact the game defensively.

"I was hungry, but I didn't get a chance to eat," Stoudemire said.

Buddy Collings of the Orlando Sentinel reports: Two summers ago, Dr. Phillips boys basketball coach Theo McWhite was mapping out ways to get Amare Stoudemire the ball. Tonight, McWhite wants his team in full denial mode against the player who might have been its star.

Stoudemire, the 6-foot-10, 240-pound center who is almost certain to leap from high school to the NBA next June, makes his Cypress Creek debut against Dr. Phillips, the team he first worked out with after moving to Orlando before the 2000-2001 school year.

The Bears host Dr. Phillips at 7:30 p.m., with a record crowd expected in Cypress Creek's 2,250-seat gym. The Bears never have drawn more than about 500 fans for a basketball game.

Stoudemire, a native of Lake Wales, has not played in a high school game since his sophomore season at Mount Zion Christian Academy in Durham, N.C. Last year he was ruled ineligible by the Florida High School Activities Association after enrolling first at Dr. Phillips for summer school, then at West Orange. He transferred to Cypress Creek last March and was cleared to play by Orange County Public Schools after satisfying concerns about his residency and grades.

In summer play against some of the top high school centers in America, Stoudemire dominated, often racking up double-digit dunk and blocked-shot totals in games.

Dr. Phillips will play without suspended senior star Ryan Moore but still is loaded with third-year veterans from a 21-11 team. Returning starters are top scorer Barry Durosier (6-1, senior), Langston Anderson (6-4, senior) and Nick Rollins (6-7, senior), son of former Orlando Magic center and assistant coach Tree Rollins.

Chance McGrady, a 6-1 junior and the younger brother of Magic swingman Tracy McGrady, is Dr. Phillips' new point guard.

Dick Scanlon of the Lakeland Ledger reports: It worked for Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady, who were established as multimillionaire NBA stars while most players their age were still in college.

But jumping directly from high school to the NBA is a risky proposition. For every Kobe, TMac and KG, there has been a Korleone Young, a Leon Smith, an Ellis Richardson, a Taj McDavid and others who bypassed college basketball and failed in the NBA.

Amare Stoudemire, now a senior at Cypress Creek High School in Orlando, is at the front of the line of players who will soon face that choice.

"Next year? It all depends," says Stoudemire, who grew up in Lake Wales. "Hopefully, I look to be in the NBA one day, but maybe not next year."

However, every indication is that the 6-foot-10 Stoudemire will go directly to the NBA as a high first-round pick. In the basketball scouting world, Stoudemire has better credentials than at least three of the four high school school players who were drafted among the top eight picks last year -- Tyson Chandler, Eddie Curry and DeSagana Diop.

"He's had a tough past. The question is, has he learned from it and moved forward," observed Gary Brokow, the Orlando Magic's director of player personnel. "He wouldn't be the only one who's had a tough background, a tough past, and has gone on to be successful."

Duke junior Mike Dunleavy hasn't seen transfer Dahntay Jones play in a regular-season game yet, but swears he has seen Jones before.

Dunleavy is talking about Jones' defensive capability - the long arms, the quick hands, the vertical leap - and, yup, now he remembers where he has seen Jones before. It was in the summers of Dunleavy's not too distant past in Portland, when he used to play pickup games with the NBA's Trail Blazers.

That's when Dunleavy saw Jones. Or a reasonable facsimile.

"He plays defense just like Ruben Patterson," Dunleavy says, referring to the Trail Blazers' 6-foot-5, 224-pound small forward with off-the-charts athletic ability. "That's who he reminds me of. There's no one on the college level who plays defense like Dahntay. He's more of a pro defender, like Patterson."

For now Duke will settle for elite collegiate defense from Jones, who makes his debut tonight against Seton Hall in the Maui Invitational.

Duke teammate Jason Williams is told of Dunleavy's claim, that Jones already plays NBA-ready defense. Williams, the favorite for national player of the year, nods his head.

Teddy Dupay was sitting in a hot tub Saturday in a Detroit-area hotel, trying to soothe his sore back. Not quite a year removed from surgery to repair a herniated disk, Dupay is used to dealing with discomfort, though these aches had nothing to do with injury.

"I'm stiff," Dupay says. "It was my turn to drive."

The night before, Dupay watched on television as sixth-ranked Florida lost to Arizona in the title game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York. It was the kind of setting Dupay craved and often thrived in.

"New York. The Garden. Are you kidding me?" he said. "I'd have loved to have been there."

But while the Gators were leaving their luxury hotel Saturday morning in Times Square, Dupay was waking up at a chilly motor lodge in State College, Pa., and piling into a station wagon with four members of the Nike Elite traveling team. The eight-hour drive to Ann Arbor to play an exhibition against Michigan wasn't much different than the 12 hours from Atlanta to Philadelphia, the five hours from Philly to Storrs, Conn., or the six from Storrs to Syracuse, N.Y., all of which he made earlier in the week.

Welcome to Teddy Dupay's senior season.

Everywhere, there is change. The University of Louisville fans who used to abhor a blue-clad Coach Rick Pitino now wear red T-shirts that ask "Got Pitino?" on the front.

Seventy miles away, in Lexington, where Pitino revived the Kentucky program and enhanced his stature, fans are calling him Traitor Rick for agreeing to coach their archenemy.

"I realize it's not going to be a party," Pitino says of his return to the state.

He also realizes that it's, well, kind of fun. It's the ultimate pressure: He's trying to win in the face of a previous employer and he's replacing a legend in Denny Crum, who coached the Cardinals for 30 years. When was the last time a legend replaced a legend in college basketball?

For the first time in his 25-year coaching career, Pitino is coming into a new job after failure, three-and-a-half years of it. He resigned as coach and president of the Boston Celtics in January, realizing he couldn't turn around the once-proud NBA franchise.

"I'm a wounded tiger," he said shortly after leaving Boston.

It's another sparse crowd on a road trip of nondescript exhibitions, and there aren't enough hoops junkies at Hofheinz Pavilion on this night to drown out the chatter from the court.

Teddy Dupay's voice rises above them all.

The 5-10 dervish is directing traffic at the top of the key, much like he did in Florida's backcourt before this summer's fall from grace.

``Come back, Todd, set it right here,'' he calls out, pointing to a spot where Nike Elite teammate Todd Burgan dutifully complies. His pick allows Dupay to temporarily free himself from his University of Houston defender in search of a three-point attempt.

Well, some things never change.

``That's the job as the point guard,'' Dupay says after an 11-point, six-assist outing. ``I did a lot of that at Florida, too. It's just that there were 12,000 people in the seats and you couldn't hear it.''