News from June 29.
 
The Basketball Hall of Fame announced the inductees for 1998.  They are:
  Larry Bird          played with the Boston Celtics 79-80 - 91-92
  Jody Conradt        University of Texas' women's basketball coach, won
                      700 games
  Alex Hannum         12 years coaching in the NBA and 4 in the ABA, won
                      titles with the 1958 St. Louis Hawks, 1967
                      Philadelphia 76ers, and 1969 ABA Oakland Oaks
  Marques Haynes      40 years with the Harlem Globetrotters and the
                      Magicians
  Arnie Risen         13 seasons in the 40s and 50s with the NBL and the
                      NBA
  Aleksandar Nikolic  101-39 record as coach of the Yugoslavian National
                      Team and record of 357-200 at the club level in 
                      Europe
Larry Costello, Adrian Dantley,  Artis Gilmore, Gus Johnson, Grady Lewis,
Ubiratan Pereira Maciel, Sidney Moncrief, Harley Redin, John Thompson,
Chet Walker, and Tex Winter were nominated but did not receive the 
required 18 of 24 votes for being inducted.
 
With no surprise, the NBA announced that there will be a lockout of the
players starting at 12:01 am July 1.  The NBA and the players are trying
to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement and the two sides are
worlds apart.  The current agreement expires July 1.  The lockout means
that teams can have no contact with players, no players can be signed, no
trades can be made, team workout facilities are closed to the players, and
NBA sponsored summer leagues are cancelled.  It is believed that this will
be a looong lockout, likely to extend into November or later - meaning the
loss of games and training camp.

Cleveland released Shawnelle Scott.