Shaquille O'Neal has written an autobiography, set for release in November and some of it has been excerpted.

"He was so young and so immature in some ways, but I can tell you this: everything Kobe is doing now, he told me all the way back then he was going to do it," writes O'Neal. "We were sitting on the bus once and he told me, "I'm going to be the number one scorer for the Lakers, I'm going to win five or six championships, and I'm going to be the best player in the game." I was like, "Okay, whatever." Then he looked me right in the eye and said, "I'm going to be the Will Smith of the NBA."

The league office fined Heat owner Mickey Arison $500,000 for Friday comments he made on Twitter.

Arison seemed to disagree with the formal negotiating position of his fellow owners, and the league executives who are negotiating directly with the union, on their insistence that the players accept no more than 50% of basketball-related income.  

Arison later deleted the controversial statements.

The Nets are still searching for a replacement for assistant coach Sam Mitchell.

Mario Elie and Keith Smart are two candidates that could be of interest to the Nets to assist Avery Johnson.

Some front office executives believe the Blazers are doing due diligence on Donnie Nelson as a candidate for their general manager vacancy.

Nelson is a longtime executive with the Mavericks.

There is no concrete evidence to suggest the Blazers have asked Dallas for permission to interview Nelson.

Sources within the front office of teams believe the NBA's labor leaders should adopt a more conciliatory tone to reach agreement on a new deal.

“This is getting a little ridiculous,” said one. “The longer this drags out, I think we’re going to have to deal with some serious resentment when this thing does end.”

Chandler Parsons has left Cholet after three games with the French club.

Parsons had signed a short-term contract with Cholet.

Parsons was selected by the Rockets in the 2011 NBA Draft.

If the NBA league office and union come to an agreement over the next week, sources predict that the NBA could reconstitute the schedule to play 78 games.  

This would cut only four games from the schedule or about one week's worth of games.  The number of scheduled games must be an even number.

Presumably the four games that are lost would be against teams in the opposite conference.

DaJuan Summers and Montepaschi Siena have parted ways.

Siena has a deal with Omar Thomas to fill Summers' slot on the roster.

Even though labor talks broke apart on Friday, a new deal is 95 percent complete.

The NBA owners and the players union have agreed on contract lengths and luxury-tax rates, trade rules and cap exceptions, as well as several provisions lesser-known to casual fans such as "amnesty" and "base-year compensation."

In real terms, the NBA and NBPA are separated by 2.5 percent of BRI and $100 million per year. At one point, the sides were separated by 20 percent and hundreds of millions per year.

The final deal will, by any objective measure, heavily favor the owners when compared with deals reached in 1999 and 2005.

Besiktas defeated Turk Telekom by a final score of 97-88 on Sunday behind strong performances from Deron Williams and Marcelus Kemp.

Williams finished with 23 points and eight assists, while Kemp had 25 points and seven rebounds. Semih Erden had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Mehmet Okur had 18 points and 13 rebounds for Turk Telekom. Darius Washington had a game-high 29 points on 16 shots.

Williams and Okur were longtime teammates with the Jazz until the former was traded to the Nets last February.