Today’s News and Notes

by Lang Whitaker

QUOTES OF THE DAY
“He’s a hell of a kid.” — Larry Bird, on Marquis Daniels.

THE LINKS…
LeBron, Carmelo, Dwyane and Bosh all plan to sign shorter contracts than they initially agreed to. Sam pretty much sums up my feelings here.

Paul Pierce is set to ink an extension to keep him a Celtic through 2011. Anyone who voluntarily ties themself to Danny Ainge for that long needs to have their brain type checked.

• And Drew Gooden might be leaving Cleveland.

• More on the Amare Stoudemireinjury documentary.”

• Congrats to our recent cover man Greg Oden, who just won his second Gatorade National High School Athlete of the Year award.

• SUMMER LEAGUE: Wow. Guess who showed up to play in Long Beach? Penny Hardaway ….. Celts coach Tony Brown got himself ejected from a game for the second year in a row ….. Marty Burns catches up with Andrea Bargnani and raves about the Foye and Roy show ….. Lots of updates from the Vegas league with a Portland slant …..

• The Spurs signed Francisco Elson and Jackie Butler to offer sheets. Like hearing that Elson’s nickname with the Nuggets was “Geico.”

• Is there anyone who actually thinks getting Jeff Foster and Anthony Johnson for Al Harrington would be better than getting Troy Murphy and Mikael Pietrus? I mean besides Billy Knight, of course.

Flip Saunders says he’s ready to go next season. The alarming part of this article is that he’s described as wearing “designer jeans.”

Mitch Albom blasts Ben Wallace for leaving Detroit and says he “probably won’t listen to any athlete the same way again.” Zzz…

• I have no idea whether or not Mikael Gelabale can play or not, but he sure looks cool.

• The Toronto Raptors signed Tony Parker. Wait, the other Tony Parker.

• After DeShawn Stevenson‘s agent told the Magic that D-Steve had at least two better offers on the table, the Magic said fine and signed Keith Bogans instead. Whoops.

• Only the Post would use this headline.

• LaSalle’s Steven Smith is playing on two summer league teams.

Shammond!