The Raptors extended a qualifying offer to Sonny Weems this week, which will make him a restricted free agent.

Weems made $854,389 during the 10-11 season. The qualifying offer is worth just more than $1.067 million. 

Samuel Dalembert will be a free agent this offseason and the Kings are hoping to re-sign the center.

Dalembert is also expected to receive interest from the Knicks, Heat, Raptors and Rockets.

Dalembert was acquired during the 2010 offseason from the 76ers.

The NBA has informed its teams that contact with their players is strictly forbidden.

Any contact with a player will result in a $1 million fine.

NBA owners voted on Thursday to impose a lockout of its players as the clock strikes midnight on July 1st.

“Needless to say, we’re disappointed that this is where we find ourselves,” said deputy commissioner Adam Silver.

Despite several meetings over the last few weeks, the two sides remain separated by several billion dollars.

“We’re going to continue to negotiate, we’ve already agreed,” Billy Hunter said. “That was sort of the closing agreement up there, that we would not let the imposition of a lockout stop us from meeting.”

Despite annual revenue of about $3.8 billion, N.B.A. officials say the existing system is broken, with 22 of 30 teams losing money, and league-wide losses exceeding $300 million a year. Silver said the owners wanted a system in which “all 30 teams could compete for a championship” and have “the opportunity to be profitable.”

Stern warned that there is no telling how long a lockout might last.

“I’m not scared,” Stern said. “I’m resigned to the potential damage that it can cause to our league” and to the people who make their living in and around the N.B.A. He added: “As we get deeper into it, these things have a capacity to take on a life of their own. You never can predict what will happen.”

Jarrett Jack has been suspended by the NBA for the first game of the 2011-12 season.

Jack was suspended for pleading no contest to reckless driving in Georgia.

The NBA announced that Charlie Bell has been suspended one game for pleading no contest to reckless driving in California.

Bell will miss the first game of the 2011-12 NBA season.

Eddie House has exercised his option clause with the Miami Heat for the 11-12 season.

House is now under contract for $1.4 million.

Shannon Brown informed the team Thursday that he was exercising his option to terminate the final year of his contract to become an unrestricted free agent.

Brown and his agent, Mark Bartelstein, said this was the best time for the 6-foot-4 guard to test the free-agent market, even though the NBA is about to impose a lockout and no one knows what the future collective bargaining agreement will be.

Brown had to let the Lakers know of his decision by Thursday's deadline.

"We made the best decision for me and everybody around me," Brown said in a telephone interview. "It's an interesting time to do this because of the lockout, but I think this is the best thing for me to do right now."

The first major change to Palace Sports & Entertainment's business affairs under the ownership of Tom Gores came down today: President and CEO Alan Ostfield was relieved of his duties.

“We have made some changes as part of an overall realignment of the business side of the organization,” Platinum Equity representatives Phil Norment and Bob Wentworth said in a joint release. “We appreciate Alan’s contributions, but have decided to move in another direction. The search for a president of business operations will be completed as quickly as possible. PS&E is also looking to expand its sales force and is in the process of hiring additional sales representatives.”

Norment and Wentworth are partners in Platinum Equity, the Los Angeles-based private equity firm founded by Gores. They are based in Boston but will handle PS&E affairs until a hire is made.

Golden State Warriors forward Lou Amundson has notified the team that he is exercising the player option on his contract for the 2011-12 season, the team announced today.

Amundson, 28, appeared in 46 games for the Warriors last season, averaging 4.3 points and 4.0 rebounds in a career-high 15.0 minutes per contest. Overall during his five-year NBA career, the 6’9” forward has averaged 4.1 points and 3.7 rebounds in 228 regular-season games with Utah, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Golden State.