News from January 13.

Michael Jordan (Chi) announced his retirement from the NBA.  Jordan, one
of the greatest in NBA history, ends his career after 13 seasons, a league
record high 31.5 points average, and 6 NBA Championships.

The LA Clippers named Chris Ford as head coach.  He was signed to a
reported 3 year, almost $3 million contract.  Ford had coached the last
two seasons with Milwaukee.  Before that, he had one season off and spent
the previous five seasons as coach of Boston.  The Clippers also named Jim
Brewer and Jim Todd as assistant coaches.  With the Clippers finally
having named a head coach, there are currently no coaching vacancies.

RUMOR: There are reports that the start of training camp and free agent 
signings will be moved to Tuesday, January 19 and that the start of the 
season will be February 7 instead of February 5.  The possible delays are 
believed to be due to the time it is taking to get the new collective 
bargaining agreement finalized in writing and scheduling conflicts.