Report: Celts made no vow to Marbury

Stephon Marbury has said the Boston Celtics expressed a firm commitment to sign the exiled New York Knicks point guard, according to Monday's editions of the New York Post.

But a source for the Boston Herald claimed otherwise.

Marbury's comments confirmed an ESPN.com report on Jan. 1 that Celtics management is intent on signing him if he can reach a buyout agreement with the Knicks.

But according to a story posted on the Boston newspaper's Web site Monday afternoon, citing a source close to the situation, the Celtics have "absolutely no verbal commitment" with Marbury -- despite the two sides having talked, and in spite of Boston's interest in adding him given ideal conditions.

Marbury wouldn't record significant playing time in any circumstance, the source told the Herald.

According to the Post, Marbury complained the Knicks have not agreed to buy out his contract because they don't want him contributing to a championship run with the Celtics.

Marbury told the Post the Knicks were playing "kids games," and "It's got to be personal."

"The question to be asked to the Knicks is: Are they fearful for me playing for another Eastern Conference team?" Marbury said, according to the paper. "My thing is, they shouldn't be fearful. They're trying to get under the cap for 2010. They shouldn't be worried about me."

The Knicks play the Celtics for the fourth and last time this season in New York on Feb. 6.

"You had guys saying I was a distraction, I'm a cancer," Marbury said. "If I'm all those things, wouldn't you want me to go to another team?"

Marbury, in his last year of a contract that pays him $21 million this season, told the Post another NBA team has also expressed interest in signing him upon release. According to the paper, the Miami Heat have Marbury in their sights.

"I know I'll be able to sign with two teams," Marbury told the Post.

A brief flirtation between Marbury and the Greek team Olympiacos appeared to end Friday, a day after the team contacted the Knicks as part of its efforts to find a replacement for the injured American Josh Childress, sources told ESPN.com's Chris Sheridan.

"It shouldn't matter that I go to Boston if you're the eighth seed and Boston is in the front," Marbury told the Post. "It can't be about money. The Knicks got plenty of it. It's got to be personal. If it's personal, then how is business being done there?"

Marbury off Greek team's radar?

NEW YORK -- The flirtation between Stephon Marbury and the Greek club Olympiacos appeared to end Friday, with a new twist to the story blowing in from Moscow.

Olympiacos is pursuing former NBA guard Jannero Pargo, who was expected to secure his release from Dynamo Moscow before the end of the weekend, sources told ESPN.com. At least three NBA teams and two Euroleague teams were in the bidding for Pargo, whose value in Europe is actually higher than Marbury's because teams have already seen him play this season -- and because he can be signed to a contract before Euroleague final 16 rosters are due Monday and Tuesday.

There was no contact Thursday between Olympiacos and Marbury, a day after Olympiacos contacted the New York Knicks as part of its efforts to find a replacement for American Josh Childress.

The club's pursuit of Pargo was an indication that it had cooled to the idea of pursuing Marbury, at least until Pargo's new employer is determined.

Pargo signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract with Dynamo last summer, but the club has struggled to make payroll and recently learned that it would not receive the subsidy it was expecting from the Russian military (Dynamo is also known as the Red Army team). Dynamo's financing problems also could impact the future of another of its big offseason signings, ex-Nets forward Bostjan Nachbar, who wants to return to the NBA.

Marbury had said he is open to the idea of joining the Greek League powerhouse, but if Olympiacos had gone after the exiled Knicks point guard, the next step would have been for the three sides to come to a financial agreement that would settle several issues:

• the terms of Marbury's buyout;
• the terms of Marbury's Olympiacos contract;
• the terms of any compensation the Knicks might seek in order to release Marbury from his contract.

Also, it would take two business days for Marbury to clear NBA waivers, and he could not sign with any European team before then -- effectively rendering him ineligible for Euroleague final 16 play.

A source close to Olympiacos told ESPN.com that club officials met late into Thursday night in Athens to discuss the possible pursuit of Marbury, with questions being raised in that meeting regarding Marbury's character and whether he would be a poor locker room influence for a team currently sitting atop the Greek League standings at 14-1, one game ahead of 13-2 archrival Panathinaikos.

Olympiacos is looking for a player who can play both guard positions after recently losing Childress to a sports hernia injury (Childress told Slam Magazine that he will be out only 3-4 weeks, not the 6-8 weeks previously reported). With Olympiacos eager to fill its roster spot quickly, it was all the more curious that the club did not reach out to Marbury's representative Thursday after the Knicks provided the club with his contact information.

One Knicks insider speculated that the Greek club was already testing Marbury, seeing whether he would be proactive and reach out to the team.

"I will listen to what they have to say," Marbury told the New York Post in an e-mail. Marbury did not return a message left on his cell phone by ESPN.com. "I will never close the door that has not been opened."

Knicks president Donnie Walsh is holding out hope that Marbury's expiring contract can be turned into an asset through a trade prior to the NBA's Feb. 19 deadline, but Olympiacos is not willing to wait another four or five weeks.

Olympiacos plays an important Greek Cup semifinal -- a separate competition from the Greek League -- on Sunday and begins Euroleague Top 16 play on Thursday against AJ Milano. The Greek Cup final, in which the Olympiacos-Panionios winner plays the Panathinaikos-Maroussi winner, is Feb. 21.

As many as six foreigners can be on Olympiacos' Euroleague roster, but the team can use only two Americans during the 26-game Greek League regular season, which runs through April 29, and Olympiacos already has former Milwaukee Bucks guard Lynn Greer on its roster in addition to Childress.

The report in Thursday's New York Post, in which Marbury was quoted, cited anonymous Greek media reports saying Olympiacos was willing to spend as much as $15 million toward a Marbury acquisition. But a source told ESPN.com the actual amount Olympiacos owner Panagiotis Angelopoulos was willing to spend was a fraction of that amount. The team's payroll is already above $40 million -- a sign of how badly the Angelopoulos brothers want to end Olympiacos' decade-long slump in which it's been a second-class citizen behind Panathinaikos in the Greek basketball pecking order.

An NBA spokesman said the league would not permit any language in a buyout agreement with the Knicks that would preclude Marbury from returning to the NBA if, for instance, he were to spend just 2-3 weeks with Olympiacos while Childress recovers and then get released from his contract.

Marbury has already offered to give back $1 million, and New York radio personality Mike Francesa of WFAN said Knicks owner James Dolan indicated in a conversation that he'd let Marbury go if the offer rose to $2 million. Marbury has indicated that no matter whom he plays for, he wants to make back in a new deal whatever he gives back in a buyout in order to "remain whole" and collect all of the $20.8 million he is under contract to receive from New York.

But Marbury also wants to resurrect his career, and the Knicks hold leverage over him in that regard because they can stand in his way -- especially if the buyout stalemate persists and the Olympiacos option does not come to fruition -- by refusing to release him in time to clear waivers by March 1 -- the deadline for him to be eligible for the playoffs with another team.

Jazz owner Miller has legs amputated

SALT LAKE CITY -- Longtime Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller's legs were amputated 6 inches below the knee on Friday.

Jazz spokesman Jonathan Rinehart said Friday's surgery was the result of complications from Type 2 diabetes.

Rinehart said the 64-year-old Miller is recovering in a hospital.

"Larry is doing well and is expected to continue to recover in the coming weeks and months," Greg Miller, Larry Miller's son, said in a statement. The statement said Miller's family would not be releasing any details.

Rinehart said Miller was already using a wheelchair before the surgery.

On Thursday, Gov. Jon Huntsman chose Miller to chair a new commission that will look for ways to increase Utah's low voter turnout and improve ethics in government. Miller did not attend the announcement -- the reason given was that he had a hospital appointment.

In October, doctors found a bone infection and diabetic ulcers on one of Miller's feet. He had outpatient surgery.

Miller had a heart attack over the summer. Complications including kidney failure and gastrointestinal bleeding that required blood transfusions followed, keeping him in the hospital for nearly two months.

Medical problems continued, including a nine-day hospitalization for dialysis to remove excess water weight.

Miller bought a 50 percent share of the Jazz in 1985 and purchased the rest of the team a year later.

Due to his father's health, Greg Miller was selected as the CEO of the Larry H. Miller Group over the summer.

The group owns the Jazz, radio and TV stations, restaurants, car dealerships, movie theaters, advertising and finance firms, sports arenas, a race track, a movie production company, ranches, a real estate development company and a minor league baseball team.

Sources: Johnson turns down Grizzlies

Avery Johnson has turned down the chance to make a swift return to an NBA bench with the Memphis Grizzlies.

NBA coaching sources told ESPN.com on Friday that the former Dallas Mavericks coach was offered a five-year contract by the Grizzlies to replace Marc Iavaroni, who was fired late Thursday after 1½ seasons in Memphis.

Johnson, though, elected to pass on an in-season comeback, preferring to remain in his role as a first-year studio analyst for ESPN.

"I've said all along [that] at the right time and in the right situation, I will coach again," Johnson said Friday. "I am enjoying my time at ESPN and with my family. I think an awful lot of [Grizzlies owner] Michael Heisley and [general manager] Chris Wallace. I wish the Grizzlies the very best."

The Grizzlies on Friday formally announced Iavaroni's dismissal with the team mired at 11-30 after a 2-15 skid. Assistant coach Johnny Davis has been named interim coach going into Memphis' game Friday at New York, with sources close to the situation confirming to ESPN.com that former Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins soon will be introduced as Iavaroni's successor, possibly as early as Sunday.

Yet it's not surprising to hear that Johnson was the Grizzlies' first choice given what sources describe as Heisley's strong desire to hire an experienced coach to lead and mold a young team that has started three rookies -- O.J. Mayo, Marc Gasol and Darrell Arthur -- in 25 of its 41 games this season.

Johnson, 43, certainly fits Heisley's profile, having posted a 194-70 record in four seasons with the Mavericks for a winning percentage of .735. Before his dismissal in May after two straight first-round playoff exits, Johnson took Dallas to the NBA Finals for the first time in the club's history in 2006.

Johnson also earned NBA Coach of the Year honors that season and followed up the trip to the Finals with a 67-15 season in 2006-07, before his tenure with the Mavs began to unravel with a first-round loss to the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors and former Dallas coach Don Nelson.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported on its Web site early Friday that Hollins, now an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks, will be hired as Iavaroni's replacement and be joined on the Grizzlies' bench by recently fired Philadelphia 76ers coach Maurice Cheeks.

Bucks general manager John Hammond told The Associated Press that while he couldn't confirm Hollins' plans, the team was thankful for his service.

"This looks like a great opportunity for Lionel," Hammond said from Atlanta, where the Bucks played the Hawks on Friday night. "We support him and wish him nothing but the best."

Hollins, 55, posted an 18-42 record as the Grizzlies' interim coach in Vancouver during the 1999-2000 season, replacing Brian Hill following a 4-18 start. Hollins also went 0-4 as the interim coach in Memphis between Hubie Brown and Mike Fratello during the 2004-05 season.

Iavaroni began the season on numerous hot-seat lists after Memphis went 22-60 in 2007-08. But the former Phoenix, Miami and Cleveland assistant appeared to be safe, at least through the end of this season, when he survived the early rash of firings around the league that claimed six coaches in a span of 23 days.

Heisley even took the step of giving Iavaroni what was generally perceived to be more than a pedestrian "vote of confidence" in early December, telling the Commercial Appeal: "He's my coach and I'm behind him 100 percent. I'm not going to evaluate him now. Marc is not under the gun."

The Grizzlies, though, have been increasingly uncompetitive, toting a seven-game losing streak into Friday's visit to Madison Square Garden after initially playing to some fairly positive reviews, thanks to an 8-8 start at home and the strong introduction made by Mayo.

Sources told ESPN.com on Friday that Iavaroni's tense relationship with forward Rudy Gay was another factor that, in the Grizzlies' view, made a coaching change unavoidable.

An increasingly and openly negative atmosphere around the team, sources say, appears to have changed Heisley's urgency in terms of evaluating his coach. Without naming Iavaroni, multiple players were highly critical of the team's strategy, development and identity in Sunday's editions of the Commercial Appeal.

"We don't have an identity," Gasol told the newspaper. "We don't have one. We run around like chickens with our heads cut off. Youth can be a good thing, but we use it as an excuse.

"We're always making excuses. We make excuses to the referees and to our teammates. We make excuses in practice. That's all some people want to do is make excuses. You're never going to get anywhere like that."

Gay was even more direct with his criticism, saying: "I know the things we're working on [haven't] worked. We ain't got no chemistry."

Iavaroni's supporters would counter that he had little chance to succeed with a group so young that Gay, in his third season, ranks as a veteran. The Grizzlies embarked on a full-fledged youth movement after trading Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 1, 2008, in a deal that was criticized throughout the league.

The Grizzlies are the seventh team to fire their coach this season, which is two firings shy of tying the league's single-season record of nine in the 2004-05 season.

The first six firings all took place before Dec. 25, doubling the league's previous single-season record for pre-Christmas coaching changes. Oklahoma City's P.J. Carlesimo (1-12 on Nov. 22); Washington's Eddie Jordan (1-10 on Nov. 24); Toronto's Sam Mitchell (8-9 on Dec. 3); Minnesota's Randy Wittman (4-15 on Dec. 8); Philadelphia's Maurice Cheeks (9-14 on Dec. 13); and Sacramento's Reggie Theus (6-18 on Dec. 15) were all fired after eight other teams made offseason coaching changes.

Johnson was fired by Dallas just one season into a lucrative reworked contract that will pay him an estimated $4 million this season and in each of the next two seasons unless he takes a head-coaching job elsewhere.

Few questions remain for starters

Who will start the NBA All-Star Game?

Amare Stoudemire believes he is. According to a report in the Arizona Republic on Thursday, Stoudemire passed Carmelo Anthony to earn his first All-Star start. The game is set for Feb. 15 in Phoenix.

He would join Tim Duncan of San Antonio; Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers; and Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming of Houston for the West. The other four were leading in voting as of Jan. 8.

Bryant had 1,903,798 votes to lead the West voting. Yao was second with 1,758,499.

The leaders for the East through Jan. 8 were forwards LeBron James of Cleveland and Kevin Garnett of Boston; guards Dwyane Wade of Miami and Allen Iverson of Detroit; and center Dwight Howard of Orlando.

Howard is the leading vote-getter for the East with 2,102,368 votes. No other East center had more than 257,527. LeBron James had 1,940,162 votes.

Paul's 3 as time expires lifts Hornets past Pacers

NEW ORLEANS -- As Danny Granger pounded his fist to his chest following his tying 3-pointer, Chris Paul strode straight over to New Orleans Hornets coach Byron Scott with definite ideas about how to respond.

"As soon as Granger hit that shot, Chris came up to me and said, 'Coach, give me the ball,'" Scott recalled. "Chris is a great player, and as they say, great players make great plays."

Sometimes it's that simple.Paul capped a 27-point performance with a fadeaway 3-pointer as time expired, lifting the hobbled Hornets to a 103-100 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Monday.

"As we walked out on the court, I saw Danny was guarding me and I told him, 'Tough shot,'" Paul said. "The shot he hit was just as good. ... I wanted to try to get to the basket but they sort of cut that off, so I threw up a fadeaway and it went in."

Peja Stojakovic hit five 3-pointers and finished with a season-high 26 points for New Orleans, which started the game without David West (back) and then lost center Tyson Chandler (left ankle) late in the second quarter.

Granger scored 30 points in his homecoming to his native New Orleans. His game-tying 3 went down with 2.5 seconds left, setting off a brief celebration by the Pacers. Moments later, Granger was slumped over, hands on his knees, head hanging, as the Hornets mobbed Paul and the crowd erupted following the winning shot.

"Our shooter made a 3 and their shooter hit one to counter," Pacers coach Jim O'Brien said. "It was a great shot -- both of them. What are you going to do? We lost a tough game tonight."

New Orleans led 97-92 after Paul's cross-court pass set up Rasual Butler for an open jumper with 1:16 left. The Pacers responded with Jarrett Jack's 3, then T.J. Ford stole the ball from Paul and converted a tying layup.

Melvin Ely, who entered in the third quarter after Chandler's backup, Hilton Armstrong, left with a sore knee, scored his only point of the game when he made 1-of-2 free throws with 26 seconds left, putting New Orleans up 98-97.

Ford then lost the ball out of bounds and had to foul out with 6.3 seconds to go as Paul tried to dribble away and run out the clock. Paul, who played the last seven minutes with five fouls, hit both free throws to set up the thrilling finish.

"I thought we were getting it to overtime," Granger said. "If [Paul] hadn't made that shot, I thought we had the momentum."

Granger said it was especially disappointing to lose another game on a last shot. When the Hornets (25-13) visited Indiana (15-26) late last month, West took a pass from Paul and hit the wining shot with 2.5 seconds left in a 105-103 game. With West sidelined, Paul provided ensured he wouldn't have to risk fouling out in overtime.

"I wanted no part of overtime," Paul said. "That's a great team we played over there. I don't care what their record says. They gave us two tough games and we hit two big shots to beat them."

Butler had 17 points for New Orleans, hitting three of the Hornets' 12 3-pointers.

Troy Murphy had 17 points and 11 rebounds and Stephen Graham added 14 points, hitting two 3s in the fourth quarter as the Pacers mounted a comeback from a nine-point deficit. Mike Dunleavy and Jack each scored 11 points.

Chandler sprained his ankle when he landed on Ford's foot after going up for a rebound with 3:10 left in the first half. He was replaced by Armstrong, who departed early in the third quarter. Still, New Orleans widened its 56-55 halftime lead during the third period, when Indiana shot 18 percent (4-of-22) and attempted only two foul shots, missing one.

James Posey's 3 began a 9-2 Hornets spurt, capped by Julian Wright's short floater, and New Orleans led 74-65 heading into the fourth quarter.

Game notes
West missed his first game of the season. He averaged 20 points and 7.1 rebounds in the Hornets' first 37 games. Scott said West may also miss Wednesday night's home game against New Jersey. ... Granger has scored 22 or more points in 16 straight games. ... Chandler said following the game that X-rays did not show any breaks in his injured ankle. "I thought it was a lot worse than it is," he said. ... Sean Marks (2 points, 3 rebounds) started for West. ... Ely had six rebounds in the final 15 minutes.