News from September 2. Utah signed restricted free agent Byron Russell to a 2 year contract with a 3rd year option. Unrestricted free agent Stephen Howard (Uta) signed a contract with Pistoia, a team in Italy. Detroit named K.C. Jones as an assistant coach. News from September 3. The Dallas Mavericks have signed their first round draft pick, Jason Kidd, to a 9 year deal worth rumoredly a little under $60 million. To reach the deal, Dallas renounced the rights to unrestricted free agents Fat Lever, Tony Campbell, and Randy White (this also briefly put the team under the salary cap). Rumor has it that Kidd's first year salray will be more than $3 million and that he received a $1 million signing bonus. The contract does _not_ include the infamous opt-out clause. Deon Thomas, Dallas' second round draft pick, signed a contract with TDK Manresa of the Spanish Pro League. Rumors: Cedric Ceballos (Pho) is supposedly on the trading block. The problem is that even though his $2.1 million salary counts against the salary cap, he is a base year player and is worth only $235,000 in trading. Phoenix supposedly wants a draft pick in return. The Lakers have shown interest. News from September 6. Denver re-signed restricted free agent Darnell Mee and signed Reggie Slater. Minnesota named Mike Schuler as an assistant coach. Schuler was an assistant coach for Sacramento last season. News from September 8. Mike Gminski (Cha) announced his retirement as a player. He will be a color commentator for Charlotte's radio broadcast this season. Phoenix signed unrestricted free agent Danny Manning to a 1 year, $1 million contract. Manning was inserted into Mark West's salary slot. Unrestricted free agent Craig Ehlo has reportedly agreed to a 3 year deal with Atlanta and will sign sometime next week. Ehlo became an unrestricted free agent by using the opt-out clause, so if the contract is signed before the courts come back with a decision about the opt-out clause, expect the league to disapprove it. Former NBA player Ralph Sampson will have a 2 day work out with Philadelphia. Sampson also reports that 6 teams have shown interest in him. No, it is not a permanent thing. But, Micheal Jordan will play in Scottie Pippen's charity game tonight. It is the last scheduled event for Chicago Stadium. News from September 9. Minnesota hired Randy Wittman as an assistant coach. Wittman was an assistant coach for Dallas last season. A report has surfaced that Bill Cartwright has signed a multi-year contract with Seattle. Scottie Pippen's charity game: White 187, Red 150 Micheal Jordan (White) had 52 points on 24-46 FG. Anfernee Hardawy (White) had 42 points. Scottie Pippen (Red) had 24 points including 10-23 FG. News from September 12. A judge upheld Toni Kukoc's 6 year, $24.5 million contract with Chicago, A.C. Green's 5 year, $26 million contract with Phoenix, and Chris Dudley's 6 year, $24 million contract with Portland. He could not reach a decision regarding Horace Grant's contract with Orlando. The judge cited the court ruling made last year regarding Chris Dudley's contract with Portland as the reason for the validating the contracts. Kukoc, Green, and Dudley had used the opt-out clause that was in their contract from last year to become free agents. Grant will face more time in court trying to get his contract validated while the NBA tries to prove that the contract is an attempt to circumvent the salary cap. Grant's contract contrains the infamous opt-out clause for next season. News from September 13. Seattle signed unrestricted free agent Bill Cartwright to a 3 year contract. The last two years are at Seattle's option. The NBA Competition Committee came back with some rules changes and recommendations. Hand checking is now illegal. Players who leave the bench during a fight will be automatically suspended and receive a fine up to $20,000. Technical fouls now cost $500 each. The committe recommended moving the 3-point line in to 22 feet (at its furthest, the line is currently 23'9" and 22' at its shortest). They also recommended that 3 free throws be awarded to a player who is fouled while attempting a 3 pointer (and misses). The Board of Governors will be voting on the recommendations in the meeting in early October. Unrestricted free agent Danny Schayes has been spotted in Phoenix and has shown a large interest in playing there. News from September 14. Seattle named Dwane Casey as an assistant coach. Casey replaced Bob Kloppenburg, who was named team vice president of personnel and scouting. Seattle also hired Rick Sund as a consultant to new team president and GM Wally Walker. Sund had been the VP of basketball operations for Dallas before being fired last April. Other rule changes recommended by the NBA Competition Committe: A player who commites two flagrant fouls will be ejected. (For last year's rule, it was only two unsportsman flagrant fouls that resulted in ejection [and caused some confusion during one of the Miami-Atlanta playoff games]). Fouling a player who has a clear path to the basket on a break away will result in two free throws and the team retaining possession of the ball - even if the foul occurs in the backcourt. (For last year's rule, the foul had to be committed in the frontcourt.) News from September 15. Phoenix signed their 2nd round draft pick Antonio Lang to a 3 year contract and signed Winston Garland to a 1 year contract. Phoenix waived Jerrod Mustaf, thus freeing up a $850,000 salary slot. Phoenix is expected to sign unrestricted free agent Wayman Tisdale into that slot. Atlanta re-signed unrestricted free agent Craig Ehlo to a 2 year contract. LaPhonso Ellis suffered a stress fracture in his right kneecap during a pick up game. He is expected to be out for 8 weeks. (from Justin Ridge's NBA News: ) Detroit released Greg Anderson, Charles Jones, and Marcus Liberty. Minnesota signed Randy Carter (F) and Melvin Robinson (C). Unrestricted free agent Warren Kidd (Phi) will play in Spain this season. News from September 16. Utah made its big off season move. They traded Tyrone Corbin and a 2nd round draft pick in 1995 to Atlanta for Adam Keefe. Karl Malone should be content now. (sarcasm) As expected, Phoenix signed Wayman Tisdale to a one year contract. The NBA approved the contract between Danny Manning and Phoenix. As wasn't expected, Chicago signed unrestricted free agent Ron Harper to a multi year contract, rumoredly at $2.5 per year. Rumors had been floating around that Harper was going to sign with New York. Dallas signed their other 1st round draft pick, Tony Dumas, to a 4 year contract. To do so, Dallas waived Tim Legler and Greg Drieling, who are unrestricted free agents. Jamal Mashburn (Dal) had a fingernail ripped off his left hand in Friday's morning practice of Dallas' mini-camp. He missed the evening practice. News from September 20. Orlando signed unrestricted free agent Horace Grant to a 5 year contract with an opt-out clause after the 2nd year. The league is expected to approve this contract. The LA Clippers hired Jim Brewer and Barry Hecker as assistant coaches. Bob Ociepka, who was an assistant for the Clippers last season, was also named as an assistant for this season. News from September 20. Portland signed unrestricted free agent James Edwards to a one year contract. Phoenix did not match the offer sheet made to restricted free agent Oliver Miller by Detroit. Thus, Miller is now a Piston. His contract is for 4 years, $10 million. The Oakland Press reports that Detroit is close to signing rookie Grant Hill to an 8 year, $44 million contract and that they are also close to signing rookie Billy Curley to a 5 year, $5.5 million contract. The LA Clippers signed free agents Alphonso Ford (G) and Keith Smart (G). Another blast from the past is getting a chance to try out with the NBA. Three teams have reportedly invited Darryl Dawkins for a visit. >From Justin Ridge's NBA News Houston re-signed restricted free agent Larry Robinson to a multi- year contract. Houston also signed Tim Breaux (F) to a multi-year contract. San Antonio signed free agent Keith Johnson (G). News from September 21. Chicago signed unrestricted free agent Larry Krystowiak to a one year contract. Chicago coach Phil Jackson said that he believes that it is unlikely that Scottie Pippen will now be traded. Phoenix is reportedly close to completing a trade that will send Cedric Ceballos to the LA Lakers for a 1st round draft pick. Roy Tarpley is one step and probably one week away from being reinstated by the NBA. Tarpley will meet with commisioner David Stern and then Stern will make the decision regarding Tarpley's reinstatement. The decision could come before the end of this month. News from September 22. The LA Clippers re-signed restricted free agent Harold Ellis. Golden State signed their 2nd round draft pick Dwayne Morton to a 1 year contract. Chicago re-signed unrestricted free agent Bill Wennington to a multi-year contract. Orlando signed unrestricted free agent Brian Shaw to a 1 year, $683,000 contract. News from September 23. As expected, Phoenix traded Cedric Ceballos to the LA Lakers for a 1st round draft pick in 1995, '96, or '97. Indiana has agreed to terms with their 2nd round draft pick Damon Baily. Baily will receive a 1 year contract, which will also cover him the first half of the season while he undergoes and recovers from knee surgery. In completing the last step of the reinstatement process, Roy Tarpley met with commisioner David Stern Friday. Stern is expected to come back with a decision regarding Tarpley's reinstatement next week. News from September 26. Minnesota signed their 1st round draft pick Donyell Marshall to a rumoredly $42 million, 9 year contract. Indiana re-signed restricted free agent Dale Davis to a $20 million, 5 year contract. Rumor: There is a rumor floating around that Portland will trade Clyde Drexler to Miami for Harold Miner. [Note that this will not work as a straight trade (ie, Miami will have to throw someone else in the deal) due to the difference between Drexler's and Miner's salaries.] News from September 27. Unrestricted free agent Larry Nance announced his retirement from the NBA. He cited his problems with his right knee as the reason for his retirement. Cleveland plans on retiring Nance's #22 sometime this season. Denver re-signed restricted free agent Mark Randall and signed Ryan Yoder (G). News from September 29. As expected, Grant Hill signed a $45 million, 8 year contract with Detroit. And Jalen Rose signed a $10.2 million, 6 year contract with Denver. Minnesota signed Charles Shackleford (C). Chicago signed unrestricted free agents Greg Foster (C) and Jud Buechler (F) to 1 year contracts. News from September 30. The NBA reinstated Roy Tarpley. Tarpley was given a "life suspension" (since renamed to "indefinite suspension") on Oct. 16, 1991 with a strike three in the league's anti-drug program after he refused to take a drug test. Dallas is expected to sign Tarpley to a contract sometime next week. Dallas signed Popeye Jones to a 3 year contract extension. [Yaaaa!] Indiana signed unrestricted free agent Duane Ferrell. Golden State signed rookie free agent Travis Ford to a 1 year contract. Orlando re-signed unrestricted free agent Tree Rollins. Rollins will continue his role of a player-assistant coach. Phoenix signed unrestricted free agent Danny Schayes to a 1 year contract. Schayes was inserted into Oliver Miller's vacated salary slot.