To get things started, we’re recognizing The Laker Girls. The red-hot dance team of the defending NBA champions has long been considered the pioneer of dance teams in the Association.

Back in the day, when the Lakers played at the Forum, the Laker Girls were instrumental in helping the Lakers create a homecourt advantage. Can you blame the visiting team for being distracted?

These days, the Laker Girls have had more competition around the league, especially from the Miami Heat Dancers, but they’re still ranked near the top in my book.

Probably the most famous Laker Girls is Paula Abdul. Here’s Paula (below) with Lakers owner Jerry Buss during a Hollywood Walk of Fame  ceremony, of course, accompanied by the world famous Laker Girls.

My former colleague at the Los Angeles Times, Adam Rose, did his best investigative work during Laker Girl auditions. Check out his video. Hope you don’t mind, Adam.

LeBron James will likely wear a number next season. For what team? James won't say. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

LeBron James revealed last night that he is thinking about changing his jersey number.

James told TNT’s Craig Sager that he will likely ditch No. 23 and switch to No. 6 – the number he wore when he played for Team USA in the Olympics – as his way of honoring his idol Michael Jordan, who was in attendance at American Airlines Arena in Miami to watch James’ Cleveland Cavaliers play Dwyane Wade’s Miami Heat Thursday night.

“He’s the greatest basketball player to ever play the game,” James said of Jordan. “I’ve been thinking about it lately and what I’m gonna do is I think I’m gonna change my number next year. No guy in the NBA should ever wear 23.”

James believes that since Jordan can’t get the NBA logo, the best way to recognize his greatness and contribution to the growth of the league is to retire his No. 23 around the league.

“His number shouldn’t be worn by any player in the NBA,” James said. “What he did for this game, he laid down the stepping stone for everybody who came up through the ranks. That’s how much respect I have for a guy like that.”

Now that LeBron has committed to a new jersey number, Sager tried to get him to commit to a team in 2010 to which James replied: “We’ll see.”

Sorry, Cavs fans. You’re all going to have to wait a little bit longer to taste the champagne because this Cavaliers team, the way it is currently constructed, is not good enough to win in June.

Here are four reasons why the Cavaliers won’t win an NBA title:

1) MIKE BROWN CAN’T COACH OFFENSE
The Cavaliers head coach came from the Gregg Popovich school of defense, but that seems to be the only thing he took with him to Cleveland. Brown can preach and teach defense, but he is an awful offensive coach. His set plays are so basic you might think the Cavs are running an offense from the 1960s. LeBron James is the most explosive, athletic and dynamic offensive player in the league but yet Brown has not been able to get him enough easy shots to help ease the gigantic burden placed on James’ shoulders to win games by himself. All too often, James is at the top of the circle running Brown’s 1-4 set. TNT”s Charles Barkley has said, in more than one occasion, that LeBron needs to play in a system that will take advantage of his speed and athleticism. Going one-on-three 80% of the time can be a bit taxing. Night after night, LeBron has had to work extremely hard for his baskets, and Brown has not done a thing to help his superstar. This kind of vanilla offense may work during the regular season, but it’s not going to get it done in the postseason. Brown’s latest concoction is this ridiculous experiment that has centers Shaquille O’Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas on the court at the same time. This makes the Cavs extremely slow on offense and defense, and it curtails James’ urge to push the ball and create fastbreak opportunities. As long as Mike Brown is the coach, the Cavaliers are not a championship team.

Coach Mike Brown and point guard Mo Williams don't seem to have that championship quality.

2) MO WILLIAMS IS NOT A STAR
To win an NBA title, you have to have a great 1-2 punch. I’ve always believed that if you give LeBron James an All-Star player to play with, the Cavaliers will be a powerhouse. I think it’s safe to say that the Cavaliers should keep looking for that All-Star player because it is certainly not Mo Williams. The much-celebrated offseason acquisition in 2008 has been somewhat of a disappointment. Sure he made the All-Star team last season, but that was only because LeBron begged the league to select him. Williams is not a clutch player, and it clearly showed during the playoffs. Though he finished with decent statistics, when it mattered most, Williams was MIA. He was outplayed by Rafer Alston in the series against Orlando and his decision-making got progressively worse as the games got close. The biggest play he made during the 2008-09 playoffs was his inbounds pass to James that resulted him LeBron’s game-winning shot in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. If Mo Williams wants to be the Scottie Pippen and be the No. 2 guy behind LeBron, he has to step it up big time. He has a career average of 17 PPG, but those numbers were built on against inferior opponents. Williams has to realize he’s no longer in Milwaukee where games don’t matter. He’s playing with The King in Cleveland. If Williams wants to be considered an All-Star, he needs to play like one.

3) TOO MANY OF THE SAME SLOW PIECES
The addition of Shaq made the Cavs bigger up front but it didn’t fix the Cavaliers’ vulnerability against quicker and more athletic big men. Matter of fact, Cleveland became more rigid and are now even more susceptible to quicker and more athletic frontcourts. At this stage of his career, O’Neal is a liability on defense and struggles against the pick-and-roll offense. The same can be said about Ilgauskas. Big Z got exposed big time in last year’s conference finals when the bigger and quicker Dwight Howard ran circles around him. The third part of Cleveland’s three-headed frontcourt problem is Anderson Varejao. Now, Varejao is a unique player who brings boundless energy to the court. However, he’s very limited offensively and lacks a consistent jump shot to space the court when he plays with Big Z or Shaq. In an ideal situation, Varejao is a backup at best. He’s great when he plays just 20 minutes, but when you stretch him to 30 minutes his effectiveness is compromised. He is much more effective in spurts where he can change the tempo with his hustle and can frustrate opponents with his nonstop action. When the Cavs got Shaq, they should have signed a big man who can shoot.

4) LEBRON’S LONG-TERM COMMITMENT
It would help the franchise if LeBron just said “Yes” to a contract extension and put all the rumors to bed. But his continued posturing and constant hints about playing elsewhere doesn’t exactly put the Cavaliers management, coaches, players and fans at ease. LeBron holds all the cards and he’s playing them like he has all the chips on the table – which he does. I find it amusing that he’s even considering playing in New York. The Knicks are a mess. Why would LeBron sign with a team that is about to unload half of its roster just to accommodate him? The allure of playing in Madison Square Garden and being in the center of the media storm can’t be that attractive when you’re playing for a lottery team. If LeBron James is serious about making Cleveland a champion, he needs to commit to the franchise long term.

The latest gem from the Big Quotatious was the comment he made about him and fellow Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

When 7-foot-1 O’Neal was asked about his relationship with 7-foot-3 Ilgauskas, the Cavs’ longtime center until this season, Shaq said, “Myself and [Ilgauskas], we are the best center in the game.”

O’Neal has started every game for the Cavaliers this season and Ilgaukas has spelled him time, but the Diesel doesn’t think he has to do the job all by himself. At 37, Shaq realizes that he can’t dominate a game for 40 minutes and has to pick his spots.

This is where he believes having Big Z as the backup helps the Cavaliers.

“I realize we’re gonna share minutes, so it’s vital we go out there and give it all we got,” O’Neal said. “It’s good to have an excellent big man like him as the backup.”

Jermaine O'Neal feels healthy again, and that is good news for Heat fans. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Jermaine O’Neal saw firsthand what super trainer Tim Grover did for Dwyane Wade last season, and he couldn’t think of a better guy to rebuild his body as well as his career.

This past offseason, Grover put O’Neal through a rigorous training regimen that included a new diet and more rehabbing than resting. After two steller outings in two Heat victories, O’Neal seems to have regained his footing as one of the NBA’s best big men.

Thanks to Grover, O’Neal says he feels strong and healthy for the first time in almost three years. The 14-year veteran has publicly stated that he wants to regain the form that made him a six-time All-Star selection.

O’Neal scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in each of Miami’s first two games, the first time he’s posted 22-and-12 in two years.

“I expect to do it every night,” O’Neal told the Associated Press. “When you go through some of the issues that I went through with my knee over the 2 1/2 years, you look forward to these nights. This is the first time in 2 1/2, three years where I feel real good, the body is responding great, my movements are great, no knee braces. I’ve really looked forward to this.”

So have the Heat, which goes without saying.

They traded for O’Neal last February, desperate for another low-post presence to help All-Star Dwyane Wade. What they got, though, was a player whose knees ached more than he ever acknowledged publicly, who could barely jump or run, impaired so badly that he failed to get more than five rebounds in 14 of the 27 regular-season games he logged with Miami last season.

For a 6-foot-11 player making more than $20 million a year, that simply wasn’t going to cut it.

“A lot of work in the summertime, a lot of work in camp,” O’Neal said of his workouts with Grover.

Clearly, all the hard work that O’Neal put in has paid off and if he can stay painfree for the rest of the season, the Heat should remain one of the top five teams in the Eastern Conference.

During the first half of the Spurs-Kings game at AT&T Center in San Antonio, a bat flew in the arena and began to disrupt the game. Without batting an eye (no pun intended), Ginobili slapped the flying mammal with his left hand and knocked it down to the floor. He then picked it up and handed it to an arena staff member.

Videos of Ginobili’s amazing display of quick hands and fearlessness became an Internet sensation, but not everyone was impressed.  

PETA criticized Ginobili’s random act of violence and said this on Opposing Views: “To bludgeon a 4-ounce animal to death, it takes either a small man or a totally unthinking one—with no respect or consideration for lives humbler than his own. This is a time when athletes in particular need to be on their best behavior around any animal and show that they have brains and a heart, not just reactionary brawn.”

PETA added: “Bats always try to avoid contact with humans, and there are plenty of easy ways to keep bats out of a basketball arena (or your home). We hope that the next time someone’s life is on the line, Manu Ginobili will take just a few seconds to think before he acts.”

Perhaps bracing for the inevitable PETA protest, Ginobili swears he didn’t mean to kill the bat, and doesn’t think he did. He said afterward the bat was still moving when he scooped it up.

“I just stunned him,” Ginobili told the San Antonio Express-News.

Reports conflict as to the ultimate fate of the bat. Saturday night, multiple arena sources confirmed the animal’s demise. Sunday afternoon, team officials reported the bat had actually recovered and flown away.

Whatever its fate, Ginobili’s teammates left the AT&T Center on Saturday shaking their heads once more at what Ginobili had done.

“Unbelievable,” Tony Parker said. “The thing is, he hit it. He’s good at interceptions and stuff. But then he grabs it and puts it in the garbage.”

Parker shook his head. “He always does crazy stuff.”

Manu Ginobili sanitizes his hands after his close encounter with a bat.

According to Jeff McDonald of the Express-News, it wasn’t the first time some Spurs players had seen a bat behaving badly during a basketball game. Roger Mason Jr. recalls a bat interrupting a pickup game in Las Vegas this summer.

“You had these big, tough guys, like Chauncey Billups and Rudy Gay, running for cover,” Mason said. “And then there’s Manu, swatting it like it was a fly.”

This time, the only people who were judging West were the 20,000 Cavaliers fans in attendance at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, and they delivered an uplifting verdict to the troubled Cavaliers guard.

West scored 13 points in 24 minutes off the bench in Cleveland’s 90-79 victory over the Bobcats, all of them coming in the second half when he finally got rid of the rust. It was his first game back since getting arrested in September on weapons charges.

Cavaliers guard Delonte West, right, is defended by Raymond Felton of the Bobcats (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Cavaliers fans were not the only ones who were happy to see West back on the court.

LeBron James was glad to have West back in the rotation because he knows the 6-3 guard is a key player in the Cavaliers’ hopes of winning an NBA title.

“He’s important to our team. I don’t want to keep stressing on how important he is. I’ve said it 20 times,” James said. “He’s important to our team just like everybody else. He knows how to play the game of basketball and he’s really good.”

And if there were any concerns if West was going to disrupt the flow of the team, James said, “I have said this before, Delonte is one of those guys who doesn’t need to do anything. He can sit out for two weeks, he comes back in and he’s right in the flow. He’s just that type of guy.”

James also noted that the reaction of the fans is something that can have a lasting impact on his teammate’s confidence.

“We’ve got great fans,” James said. “They get behind whoever is part of this team. That was great for Delonte the fans did that for him because they didn’t have to do at all.”

The Celtics defeated the Cavaliers on opening night 95-89, and their last two victories have been blowouts. They limited the Bobcats to 59 points and took apart the Bulls 118-90 on Friday night. That’s 101.6 points per game while limiting the opposition to a paltry 79.3.

Ray Allen and Paul Pierce continued their torrid shooting against the Bulls, a carry-over from the epic seven-game series between the two teams last season. Pierce was 5-of-7 from threes (22 points) and Allen was 2-of-3 (20 points).

But that highly competitive series is a thing of the past and the Celtics made sure to send a statement to the Bulls that this Celtics team is far different from the one that struggled against them in the postseason.

For one, Kevin Garnett is back and, so far, the bum knee that sideline him in last season’s playoffs is not an issue. New Celtics Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels have also bolstered the Boston bench.

Coach Doc Rivers says he wants to monitor Garnett’s minutes this season to ease him back to health. Well, Rivers hasn’t had to extend KG too much with these one-sided games as the Big Ticket has played less 30 minutes per game.

I know the NBA title can’t be won in the first week, but the Celtics are off to a great start and it’s hard to ignore that.

Vince Carter scored 16 points in his return to New Jersey but left the game with an ankle injury. (GETTY IMAGES)

With the theme song of the evil Republic playing in the background, Vince Carter was introduced to New Jersey Nets fans in East Rutherford, N.J., on Friday night, but this time as a member of the Orlando Magic.

For the most part, the crowd was appreciative and there were more cheers than boos. The cheers got even louder when Carter drove to the basket and slammed one home early in the first quarter.

But in typical Vince Carter fashion, the promising night turned into disappointment as Carter went down with ankle injury in the second quarter and never returned.

Carter, who has been referred to as Wince Carter for being so injury-prone and overly dramatic whenever he falls on the hardwood, scored 16 points before leaving the game against his former teammates. Dwight Howard more than made up for his absence with 20 points, 22 rebounds and four blocks to lead Orlando to a 95-85 victory.

“I heal like a young guy so I’ll be good tomorrow,” Carter told the Associated Press after sitting out the second half. “Hopefully, I’ll be back Sunday. We’re going to be smart about it. It’s a long season. I’m feeling better now that I am walking on it.”

Carter spent the second half in the trainers’ room and had his ankle wrapped. X-rays were negative.

His night ended with 3:05 left in the first half. Dribbling around the top of the key, Carter stepped on Harris’ foot and immediately fell to the court, clutching his ankle.

Carter needed about a minute before getting up and going to the bench. He stayed there for about a minute and went to the locker room for the rest of the game.

Excerpts from the book “Blowing the Whistle: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA” were recently posted Deadspin.com and among the allegations reportedly made by Donaghy was that he was able to bet on games based on information on the styles of officials and some of their relationships the veteran referees had with certain players and teams.

With the help of writer Tommy Craggs of Deadspin.com, here are some of the excerpts from Donaghy’s book:

Donaghy claimed that he and his co-workers would sometimes place bets on which one of them would call the first technical foul or the first foul.

Donaghy wrote: “To have a little fun at the expense of the worst troublemakers, the referees working the game would sometimes make a modest friendly wager amongst themselves: first ref to give one of the bad boys a technical foul wouldn’t have to tip the ball boy that night.”

“After the opening tip, it was hilarious as the three of us immediately focused our full attention on the intended victim, waiting for something, anything, to justify a technical foul. If the guy so much as looked at one of us and mumbled, we rang him up. Later in the referees’ locker room, we would down a couple of brews, eat some chicken wings, and laugh like hell.”

Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy, left, alleges that his former colleagues practiced favoritism and held grudges against certain players. (REUTERS)

“We had another variation of this gag simply referred to as the “first foul of the game” bet. While still in the locker room before tip-off, we would make a wager on which of us would call the game’s first foul. That referee would either have to pay the ball boy or pick up the dinner tab for the other two referees. Sometimes, the ante would be $50 a guy. Like the technical foul bet, it was hilarious — only this time we were testing each other’s nerves to see who had the guts to hold out the longest before calling a personal foul. There were occasions when we would hold back for two or three minutes — an eternity in an NBA game — before blowing the whistle. It didn’t matter if bodies were flying all over the place; no fouls were called because no one wanted to lose the bet.”

“We played this little game during the regular season and summer league. After a game, all three refs would gather around the VCR and watch a replay of the game. Early in the contest, the announcers would say, “Holy cow! They’re really letting them play tonight!” If they only knew…”

“I became so good at this game that if an obvious foul was committed right in front of me, I would call a travel or a three-second violation instead. Those violations are not personal fouls, so I was still in the running to win the bet. The players would look at me with disbelief on their faces as if to say, “What the hell was that?”

Donaghy claimed that the relationships between NBA players and referees were generally all over the board — love, hate, and everything in-between. Some players, even very good ones, were targeted by referees and the league because they were too talented for their own good.

He wrote: “You would think that the NBA would love a guy who plays such great defense. Think again! Star stoppers hurt the promotion of marquee players. Fans don’t pay high prices to see players like Raja Bell — they pay to see superstars like Kobe Bryant score 40 points. Basketball purists like to see good defense, but the NBA wants the big names to score big points.”

“If a player of Kobe’s stature collides with the likes of Raja Bell, the call will almost always go for Kobe and against Bell. As part of our ongoing training and game preparation, NBA referees regularly receive game-action video tape from the league office. Over the years, I have reviewed many recorded hours of video involving Raja Bell. The footage I analyzed usually illustrated fouls being called against Bell, rarely for him. The message was subtle but clear — call fouls against the star stopper because he’s hurting the game.”

“If Kobe Bryant had two fouls in the first or second quarter and went to the bench, one referee would tell the other two, “Kobe’s got two fouls. Let’s make sure that if we call a foul on him, it’s an obvious foul, because otherwise he’s gonna go back to the bench. If he is involved in a play where a foul is called, give the foul to another player.”

“Allen Iverson provides a good example of a player who generated strong reaction, both positive and negative, within the corps of NBA referees. For instance, veteran referee Steve Javie hated Allen Iverson and was loathe [sic] to give him a favorable call. If Javie was on the court when Iverson was playing, I would always bet on the other team to win or at least cover the spread. No matter how many times Iverson hit the floor, he rarely saw the foul line. By contrast, referee Joe Crawford had a grandson who idolized Iverson. I once saw Crawford bring the boy out of the stands and onto the floor during warm-ups to meet the superstar. Iverson and Crawford’s grandson were standing there, shaking hands, smiling, talking about all kinds of things. If Joe Crawford was on the court, I was pretty sure Iverson’s team would win or at least cover the spread.”

Donaghy claimed that veteran referee Dick Bavetta was a master at game manipulation and “knew how to take subtle — and not so subtle — cues from the NBA front office and extend a playoff series or, worse yet, change the complexion of that series.”

He wrote: “From my earliest involvement with Bavetta, I learned that he likes to keep games close, and that when a team gets down by double-digit points, he helps the players save face. He accomplishes this act of mercy by quietly, and frequently, blowing the whistle on the team that’s having the better night. Team fouls suddenly become one-sided between the contestants, and the score begins to tighten up. That’s the way Dick Bavetta referees a game — and everyone in the league knew it.”

Tim Donaghy calls longtime referee Dick Bavetta the "go-to guy."

“Fellow referee Danny Crawford attended Michael Jordan’s Flight School Camp years ago and later told me that he had long conversations with other referees and NBA players about how Bavetta propped up weak teams. Danny told me that Jordan himself said that everyone in the league knew that Bavetta cheated in games and that the players and coaches just hoped he would be cheating for them on game night. Cheating? That’s a very strong word to use in any sentence that includes the name Dick Bavetta. Is the conscious act of helping a team crawl back into a contest “cheating”? The credo of referees from high school to the NBA is “call them like you see them.” Of course, that’s a lot different than purposely calling more fouls against one team as opposed to another. Did Bavetta have a hidden agenda? Or was he the ultimate company man, making sure the NBA and its fans got a competitive game most times he was on the court?”

“The 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings presents a stunning example of game and series manipulation at its ugliest. As the teams prepared for Game 6 at the Staples Center, Sacramento had a 3–2 lead in the series. The referees assigned to work Game 6 were Dick Bavetta, Bob Delaney and Ted Bernhardt. As soon as the referees for the game were chosen, the rest of us knew immediately that there would be a Game 7. A prolonged series was good for the league, good for the networks, and good for the game. Oh, and one more thing: it was great for the big-market, star-studded Los Angeles Lakers.”

“In the pregame meeting prior to Game 6, the league office sent down word that certain calls — calls that would have benefitted the Lakers — were being missed by the referees. This was the type of not-so-subtle information that I and other referees were left to interpret. After receiving the dispatch, Bavetta openly talked about the fact that the league wanted a Game 7.”

“As history shows, Sacramento lost Game 6 in a wild come-from-behind thriller that saw the Lakers repeatedly sent to the foul line by the referees. For other NBA referees watching the game on television, it was a shameful performance by Bavetta’s crew, one of the most poorly officiated games of all time.”

“The 2002 series certainly wasn’t the first or last time Bavetta weighed in on an important game. He also worked Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and the Trail Blazers. The Lakers were down by 13 at the start of the fourth quarter when Bavetta went to work. The Lakers outscored Portland 31–13 in the fourth quarter and went on to win the game and the series. It certainly didn’t hurt the Lakers that they got to shoot 37 free throws compared to a paltry 16 for the Trail Blazers.”

Donaghy also mentioned referee Tommy Nunez and his affinity for the San Antonio Spurs and Nunez impacted the 2007 playoffs, the year the Spurs won the NBA title.

He wrote: “My favorite Tommy Nunez story is from the 2007 playoffs when the San Antonio Spurs were able to get past the Phoenix Suns in the second round. Of course, what many fans didn’t know was that Phoenix had someone working against them behind the scenes. Nunez was the group supervisor for that playoff series, and he definitely had a rooting interest.”

“Nunez loved the Hispanic community in San Antonio and had a lot of friends there. He had been a referee for 30 years and loved being on the road; in fact, he said that the whole reason he had become a group supervisor was to keep getting out of the house. So Nunez wanted to come back to San Antonio for the conference finals. Plus, he, like many other referees, disliked Suns owner Robert Sarver for the way he treated officials. Both of these things came into play when he prepared the referees for the games in the staff meetings. I remember laughing with him and saying, “You would love to keep coming back here.” He was pointing out everything that Phoenix was able to get away with and never once told us to look for anything in regard to San Antonio. Nunez should have a championship ring on his finger.”

Many thanks to Craggs and Deadspin.com for the content, and for Jay Christensen of The Wiz of Odds for alerting me to this incredible development that could have strong ramifications and a permanent black eye to the NBA and its league of officials.