The Detroit Pistons are planning on picking up their fourth year option on small forward Tayshaun Prince.  He's going into the third year of a three-year deal, worth $3.5 million.

Prince came into his own all of last year, and became one of the most promising young players in the NBA with his heady play in the playoffs.

Ben Wallace has not yet been cleared to practice after undergoing an appendectomy Aug. 25, the Detroit Free Press is reporting. It is unclear if he will be able to start practice when training camp opens Tuesday, but he is expected to ready when the season starts.

In other news the Pistons plan to pick up the fourth-year option on forward Tayshaun Prince's contract, which is entering the third year of a three-year, $3.5-million deal. They have to do complete it by Oct. 31 or he could become a free agent.

Shaquille O'Neal's lastest cut "You Not The Fightin' Type," is a clear shot at Ben Wallace and Kobe Bryant.

On Wallace, Shaq raps, "I heard your little interview and what Ben Wallace said. I ain't got no response for spider-web head."

"Even with wings you never as fly as me," he continues. "You remind me of Kobe Bryant trying to be as high as me ? but you can't ... even if you get me traded ... wherever I'm at, I'm Puffy; you Ma$e, and you're still hated."

Bryant, meanwhile, says he was not responsible for O'Neal's trade to Miami.

"That upsets me. That angers me. That hurts me," he said this week. "They did what they had to do. That had nothing to do with me."

Amidst the myriad of possible excuses for the U.S. Olympic Team?s shoddy performance in the 2004 Athens? games, coach Larry Brown?s only problem was the lack of time to prepare.

?You just can?t put a team together now with the improvement of the basketball played all over the world and expect to just win a medal,? Brown said Tuesday. ?You have to spend more time preparing.

Leaving the apparent failure in the past, Brown must now look to defend his championship with a Pistons team that has benefited greatly from off-season trades.

Pero Cameron, the Tall Blacks captain, has left his agent to handle the details of an offer from the NBA champion Detroit Pistons to attend their training camp in October.

It was during the Olympics in Athens, when Team USA and Pistons coach Larry Brown commented to reporters he wanted to invite Cameron to the training camp but at the time had not made any approach.

Yesterday, Cameron confirmed he and Brown did speak at the Olympics. He would not disclose what was said but did acknowledge an offer to attend the Pistons' training camp was made, which his agent is working through.

NBA Free Agent Rodney White along with two other men, faces weapons charges after a secret service agent allegedly saw them randomly shooting in the air early Sunday morning while driving in Washington D.C.

White, who played with the Denver Nuggets last season, was in a sports utility vehicle that was pulled over in the northwest section of the city. The other men in the vehicle were identified as Anthony O. Butler, Jr., 21, of Detroit and Kyle A. Doman, 25, of Bowie, Md. They were in possession of an unspecified number of guns and a knife, Secret Service spokesman Tom Mazur said.

Each of the three men were charged with a felony and various misdemeanors. The men will be held in police custody until a Monday morning appearance in D.C. Superior Court.