The (AP) reports: Chicago Bulls guard and former Michigan player Jalen Rose said he took some money from a former Michigan booster who pleaded guilty earlier this week to a federal conspiracy charge.
  Rose, who was drafted out of Michigan in 1994, told Fox Sports Net on Thursday that Ed Martin gave him pocket money.
  "He gave me money before, but it wasn't in excess of -- you know -- trying to allow me to be rich," Rose said. "You know, it was allowing me to have a couple of dollars in my pocket."
  Martin was accused of illegally lending $600,000 to four Wolverines basketball players. Martin said he paid $280,000 to Chris Webber, now with the NBA's Sacramento Kings; $160,000 to Robert Traylor, now with the Charlotte Hornets; $105,000 to Maurice Taylor, now with the Houston Rockets; and $71,000 to Louis Bullock, who is playing professionally in Europe.
  Rose didn't say how much he was given.
  "Like I said, just something to make me feel like I can go to a movie, go to a show, I can get a pair of gym shoes, I can get -- you know -- a fresh outfit," Rose said, according to excerpts released by Fox Sports prior to the show's airing.
  Rose said Martin gave him money before he was at the university, but didn't clarify whether he also received money while playing for the Wolverines.
  On Tuesday, Martin, 68, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. As part of his plea, he agreed to cooperate with the government and the university in their investigations of improper benefits to basketball players.
  Rose reportedly had been interviewed by investigators, but was not listed in the federal indictment as one of the players who took loans from Martin.
  Authorities alleged Martin and his wife, Hilda, ran an illegal numbers game at Detroit auto plants and laundered the profits, in part through the loans to the players and their families.

The Atlanta Hawks officially lost their pick to the Los Angeles Clippers as part of the sign and trade deal for Lorenzen Wright on draft night, but as Jeffrey Denberg reports do not rule them out of the first round just yet.

Atlanta will learn by June 10 if they get the 23rd pick in the NBA draft, Hawks GM Pete Babcock said yesterday.  The pick belongs to Detroit, which owes Houston a pick. If Detroit deals it, Houston owes Atlanta a first-rounder from last year's trade for the draft rights to Maryland's Terence Morris. The Rockets must give the Hawks a pick by the 2004 draft.

The Detroit Pistons had the second-lowest payroll in the league this season and won 50 games. That, by an NBA ranking of victories per dollar, made them the second most efficient franchise in the league. San Antonio, which spent $4 million more on players and won eight more games, was the most efficient.

But Chris McKoskey of the Detroit News says you could hardly call the Pistons cheap.

They put out quite a lot in multi-million dollar contracts to Corliss Williamson and Zeljko Rebraca last summer, and to Michael Curry, and previously unproven players Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins a year earlier.

In fact, the Pistons have 11 players being paid $1.5 million or more.  But the Pistons saved by having no player over $8 million.  

Alan Ostfield, senior vice-president of business and legal affairs, otherwise known as the Pistons' salary capologist, says "We have never had a maximum-salary player. When you aren't paying one player $10 million-plus a year, you give yourself a lot of flexibility."

The Pistons are very comfortable with their position for the future.  They will probably be just over the 2002/03 salary cap, and Ostfield says they're likely to use a goodly amount of the mid-level exception.  

Perhaps even better, they could be anywhere between $12 million and $18 million under the cap in the summer of 2003 when there's a bonanza of top-level free agents.

''I would favor them to go the Finals over whoever comes out of the other series because of their shot-making, and because [Paul] Pierce is a bona fide great player, and [Antoine] Walker is a legitimate All-Star. They're well-coached, they're very hard to deal with, and they defend.''  These are the words, reports Michael Smith of the Boston Globe, of Detroit?s Coach of the Year Rick Carlisle after his Detroit Pistons were humbled by the Celtics 4-1 to progress to the Eastern Conference Finals.

''They're definitely deep enough to beat Charlotte or New Jersey,'' said Michael Curry. ''Boston is playing well, they've got a team that can go on the road and win, they're really, really tough at home. So they have a good chance.''

Opponents are starting to believe in the Boston Celtics are for real after the team disposed of the suprising Detroit Pistons rather easily in the end, winning four straight to take the series in five games.  The team now waits for the results of today?s Charlotte ? New Jersey game to see if the Nets will be their next opponents or whether they will have to wait longer to find out.  New Jersey leads the series 3-1 with Game 5 to be played in New Jersey.

When you are the leader of a team often success or failure rides on your shoulders.  Just ask Allen Iverson.

Despite going into the playoffs ranked as the number two seed in the East the Detroit Pistons season is over, losing 3-1 to the Boston Celtics in the second round.  Jerry Stackhouse, the Pistons? star guard, takes full responsibility for the loss and if you look at his numbers he has every right to.  Stackhouse missed 18 of his 21 attempts from the field yesterday, paving the way for Antoine Walker, Paul Piece and the Celtics to book their place in the Eastern Conference Finals.

"I take full responsibility for this loss," Stackhouse said.  "It was on me, and I didn't come through.  This is the ultimate disappointment, not to be able to come through and perform at the level you'd like, in the most important game."

"I can't complain about the opportunities I had, or the looks I got," Stackhouse said. "I can't explain what happened. Their defense took us out of a lot of things.?

"This is a humbling situation," he said. "I tried to lift my team and I couldn't do it. But I've rebounded before. I'm pretty sure I'll do it again."

It looks like the Pistons have been preaching the old saying ?lest we forget?, the players using Antoine Walker?s role in the Game 2 trash talking fiasco as their motivation heading into the all-important Game 3 clash.  They have to try something after surrendering home court advantage in the embarrassing Game 2 loss.

``He's from the Chicago summer leagues, and it is all about talking there,'' said Detroit star Jerry Stackhouse. ``That's just how he is.

``We feel we have a different type of character and makeup than those guys, and that really feeds the rivalry between us. That was just one game. We've got a long way to go.''

``It pisses you off when you hear the other team talking trash, but we'll see what happens when the series is over.,' added Corliss Williamson, the NBA?s Sixth Man of the Year.

``I'm looking forward to Game 3,'' Robinson said, ``and I'm not going to let a young fella like Antoine Walker distract me.''

Oh? what a wonderful time of the year to be a basketball fan.  The NBA?s best go at it every night. Tight contest after tight contest, each team engaged in an arm wrestle trying to get the upper hand.  Each team?s fans trying to out do each other as the series moves back and forth.  Plots, sub-plots, and most importantly rivalries.

Out West Dallas owner Mark Cuban is plotting his own vendetta against the Sacramento Kings after his Mavericks were subjected to an ear lashing with the aid of cow bells of all things, Cuban urging Dallas fans to make as much noise as possible ? and to bring some artificial noisemakers as well ? as the series moved back to Texas.  That psychological battle is set to continue tonight, but out East last night there a new rivalry was brewing.

When the NBA?s young puppies and elder statesmen clash under the intensity of playoff basketball a players? emotional stature can be a fragile thing.  A situation which a player would simply shrug off and dismiss without an additional thought during the regular season could turn into a heated series of events, just like the situation has between Antoine Walker of the Boston Celtics and Cliff Robinson of the Detroit Pistons.

It was Robinson who was the hero in the opening game, scoring 30 points including six bombs from down town, finding holes in the Celtics defense that Boston coach Jim O?Brien didn?t believe were there.  The Pistons won big in that game, suggesting perhaps that this might be a short series.

Game 2 played last night was a different story.  The Celtics held the lead for most of the game, Robinson ?was held? to only 13 points, and it was Boston?s Antoine Walker to heated up early.

Walker would cool off, not scoring until hitting a three pointer early in the fourth quarter, but when the game was seemingly won it was time for his mouth to start heating up, something that Robinson did not appreciate.

"Everybody knows what kind of player he is; he's a front-runner," said Robinson. "A front-runner who only cares about individual accomplishments. He started off talking a lot at the beginning of the game when he hit a couple of shots. When things got tight throughout the game he had nothing to say. At the end of the game when it looked like he was going to win the game, he starts talking again.?
"That's front-running. The fact that he would even quote, 'Oh, I've been an All-Star two years.' . . . What the (expletive) does that have to do with anything? He's a front-runner. Like he said, he'll see me Friday; I'll see him Friday.?

Walker avoided talking about the two?s chat while on the court, simply stating that they should direct all their attention to Robinson.  Robinson, however, did not let reporters down with responses like "How many times has he taken that team to the playoffs??, implying that Walker has done nothing to justify running his mouth just yet.

The series is set to continue in Boston on Friday.  They both have talked the talk, now for the sake of their teams it is time for them to walk the walk.

After scoring 30 in the series opener against the Boston Celtics, Detroit forward Cliff Robinson had some interesting comments that left the Celtics coach scratching his head.  Robinson stated that open shots were and should be available against the Celtics, the coach begged to differ.

``I think he's mistaken,'' O'Brien said. ``I have no idea what he was referring to, to tell you the truth.''

When it was explained that Robinson meant that openings were there if the ball was reversed against the Celtics defense,  Steve Bulpett of the boston Herald writes, the coach said, ``Well, he's wrong.''

``After I hit a few, they just kept leaving me open. The way their defense is set up, you're going to get a lot of shots like that, so it's just a matter of being prepared to knock them down. I just happened to be in a situation where I was the recipient of a lot of those passes.,' said Robinson, who hit 12 of 24 shots including 6-10 from behind the arc.

``I think, No. 1, you don't become the team with the third-best field goal defense in the league by just playing one side of the court,'' O'Brien said. ``We understand that if you take away the strong side, teams that reverse the ball as well as the Detroit Pistons are going to reverse the basketball and we must then cover that side of the court. And we did not do a very good job of moving our defense from one side of the court to the other. That, I would say, is the biggest change that I think you'll see.?

Move over Byron Scott, because it is Rick Carlisle who is expected to be named NBA coach of the year today.  Carlisle took Detroit from a 32-50 ball club to a 50-32 club this season, winning the Central Division Championship despite the absence of an All-Star.

"If you would've asked us at the start of the season if we thought this would happen in our first year, we all probably would've said no," assistant coach Tony Brown said. "We had a plan, we stuck with the plan and we've had some outstanding results. It's surprising, but we're quite happy with where we are right now."

"I think Rick, for a rookie head coach, for any head coach, has not performed like a rookie," assistant Kevin O'Neill said. "He has a plan. He thinks things through. He sticks with his plan. He doesn't change things because things don't go well. He never gets too high or too low. He stays steady.

?I think when a guy gets a coach of the year award, it says a lot about your players. Our players have responded extremely well to the fact that they believe in what Rick does.?

The Detroit Pistons Saturday lost backup center Zeljko Rebraca to a broken hand during practice, the team keeping it quiet until Sunday morning.  Rebraca, the blonde-haired European sensation who looked very good at points throughout the season, was hit on the hand when going for a layup during a brief scrimmage.

"We wanted to wait until we got the final results of the medical tests," said John Hammond, Pistons director of player personnel.

"It just happened," was all Rebraca would say about it, while coach Rick Carlisle added "It was just an unlucky thing that happened in practice, and it certainly makes it tougher for us."

Rebraca is expected to miss the remainder of the series and according to NBA rules the Pistons are unable to replace him on the roster, meaning they must go with 11 players.

"We are without a 7-0 guy who can play, so that's going to make it harder," Carlisle said. "But we can't worry about that. It's an unlucky break for us, but we have to find other ways to get it done."