Ken Berger

NEW YORK -- Leave it to Metta World Peace, the Artest formerly known as Ron, to weigh in on the Jeremy Lin phenomenon in ways that make you laugh, scratch your head and wonder if the world is about to end.

World Peace and Linsanity colliding at Madison Square Garden may simply be too much for the atmosphere to handle.

I never do this, because rarely are all the quotes worth your time. But A) I want to watch the game, and B) all the quotes are amazing, bizarre and will make for enjoyable reading during timeouts. But only during timeouts, as the Knicks' Linsation has nine of their first 13 points as New York leads the Lakers 13-4 as I type this in the first quarter.

Here ya go. Pay special attention to Artest's -- I mean, World Peace's -- fashion advice toward the end, when he suggests a new haircut and shades and says, "You're Jeremy Lin, for godsakes."

Q: Your impressions of Lin.

A: I was like, 'Wow, he had 25 in one game and everybody was going crazy.' New York media, you know? And then it happened two more times and I was like, 'Oh, yeah, it’s good. It’s good.' … Looking from the outside in, everybody’s pretty happy for him. It’s good to see something special for the first time. It’s kind of like when Yao came in and when Toni Kukoc came and everybody was talking about how he was Michael Jordan overseas. It’s good to see something for the first time. And he’s doing it without his two star players.

Q: Who were the Knicks' point guards when you started watching them?

A: (Charlie) Ward, (Derek) Harper, those old rugged guys, real basketball. This is like play-play basketball now. I miss the Harpers. They put that forearm on you and you can’t go nowhere. That’s New York City. That’s hard-nose. I miss that. I miss that. You can’t do that with these soft, cotton candy players. They cry all the time. Babies. Cotton candy.

Q: How good can he be?

A: He still has to play some New York City street ball to break himself in. He has to like go to Hunter College and Rucker and Kingdome and then he would be a real New York City insanity, or whatever you said.

Q: What do you think about all the attention he's getting on Twitter?

A: I think it’s good because it’s a first. It’s the first time. It’s just not normal to see an Asian-American in the NBA, and he’s the first. (Actually, he's the fourth. But who's counting.) And it’s great because Asian-Americans play a whole lot of basketball throughout America. You see it all the time. How many Asian-Americans do you see playing basketball in the street who actually want to play in the NBA? I’m assuming there’s a lot of them. And he did what it takes to play, and he’s a role model. Good in school, he’s a role model all the way around.

Q: What did you know about him before?

A: I know he used to miss layups on the fast break in Golden State. I know he used to turn the ball over at half court. He was trying to find himself. He was the first Asian-American to play (again, the fourth), he must’ve had a lot of pressure on him. He was pretty good. He was athletic. You saw that, but it wasn’t converted to his game. But now he’s playing ball now. He’s showing why he’s a good player. If he had that Ron Artest in his prime defense on him, that would've been a problem. That would've been a major problem. I don’t even think Metta World Peace wants to see that.

Q: Did the Lakers talk about him in the locker room?

A: Do we talk about him? Yeah, we talk about him. We think he needs a better haircut. I don’t like that style. You’re in New York, the fashion capital. Change your haircut, OK? You’re a star now. Wear some shades. Shades, OK? Put down the nerdy Harvard book glasses. Put on some black shades, OK? With some leather pants. Change your style. Fashion.

Q: Do you wear leather pants?

A: No, I won’t wear them, but he should wear leather pants. He’s the type of guy who should wear leather pants, some nice shoes and change his fashion. You’re Jeremy Lin, for godsakes. You know what I’m saying? You know? Put down that law book, stop reading the New York Times and start reading the Daily News. Newsday, that’s the one. I like that one because there’s always color in that one. What else? Wall Street Journal. Get some swag. You’re in New York City. Put your hat to the back, too. Put your hat on backwards. Come to practice with your pants sagging and just tell them, 'I don’t feel like practicing.' Practice? You know? Practice? And wear an Iverson jersey. You know? Come to practice with a cigar. Lit. 'I’m Jeremy Lin.' You know? He should change. We're all excited to play tonight. It’s like the first time for everybody. Everybody’s excited. Kobe’s excited. He wants to get 50. He wants to welcome Jeremy Lin to his new level."

And this concludes this episode of, "I never thought I'd type that and post it online."

Enjoy the game.

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak is awaiting word on details of a workout Gilbert Arenas is planning in Los Angeles later this week and is open-minded about attending, two people with knowledge of the situation told CBSSports.com Wednesday.

Although the Lakers have publicly been noncommittal about whether to pursue the three-time All-Star, Kupchak has nothing to lose by evaluating Arenas as a potential solution to the team's point guard woes. The workout date has not yet been set, but Kupchak is said to be willing to attend depending on timing and logistics.

"The Lakers are going to take a look at him," one of the people familiar with the matter said.

Arenas, 30, was waived by the Magic via the amnesty clause after averaging 8.0 points in 49 games for Orlando last season, including two starts. In a total of 70 games for Orlando and Washington in 2010-11, Arenas averaged 10.8 points -- his first full season since serving a 50-game suspension for bringing guns into the Wizards' locker room in December 2009.

Arenas played only 47 games in the previous three seasons due to an assortment of knee injuries, and there are doubts among NBA executives about whether he has anything left. But the Lakers, with no ball-handling guard who can break down opposing defenses, are seeking a spark anywhere they can find it. The team also has been linked with Cleveland's Ramon Sessions and Houston's Jonny Flynn, though neither situation has progressed.

While the Lakers are on the East Coast, losing in Philadelphia Monday night and playing at Boston Thursday and at New York Friday, Kupchak has stayed in L.A. and would be in position to attend Arenas' workout personally.

 

NEW YORK – This was partly about Jeremy Lin and his own personal party at Madison Square Garden Saturday night. It was about Lin, the first NBA player from Harvard in 58 years and only the fourth American-born Asian to play in the league, putting on a show with 25 points, seven assists with the crowd chanting his name.

And then Pearl Jam singing his name over the PA system as thousands stayed in their seats for the on-court TV interview.

He had toiled in the D-League, been tossed aside by the Warriors and Rockets, and wasn’t sure he’d be long for this part of the basketball world, either. How unsure was he? Lin had been crashing at his brother’s place when coming home late from road games, as the Knicks did after a crushing loss in Boston Friday night. But there was no room at the inn – his brother had ample house guests, Lin said – so he slept on teammate Landry Fields’ couch the night before the best game of his life.

“I think I may just go move in with him,” Lin said.

Or get his own place. It’s only one game, but it was precisely the spark the Knicks needed after losing 11 of their previous 13 with an offense predicated on quality point-guard play “grasping at straws” without one, coach Mike D’Antoni said.

“The biggest thing is, he’s got a point guard mentality,” D’Antoni said. “He has a rhyme or reason to what he’s doing and players can kind of play off that. Whereas when you don’t know, you’re just grasping at straws. He gives us a good feel. Again, it’s one game, so let’s not get too excited. But he gives us what we sorely need.”

And this is where the story of Lin having a career night turns into a story that is really about something else. Having a point-guard play the way Lin did Saturday night – attacking and beating pick-and-roll double teams, aggressively getting into the paint and scoring – only underscored how lost the Knicks were without that.

And how lost they will continue to be if they don’t keep getting it.

“We’ve got to make sure we continue to keep the floor spaced and move the ball,” said Amar’e Stoudemire, limited to 17 points and in foul trouble in the Knicks’ third game in as many nights. “We’ve got to continue to do that consistently. We can’t do it one game and then the next game go back to what we’ve been trying not to do.”

Stoudemire was a factor only sporadically due to foul trouble and the grueling stretch of games. Carmelo Anthony was 3-for-15 for 11 points. In the Knicks’ third consecutive game against the kind of elite point guard they lack – Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo and Deron Williams – somehow Lin was the best player on the floor. If you’d told Stoudemire before the game that Lin would’ve had almost as many points as Stoudemire and Anthony combined Saturday night, “I would’ve woken up from a bad dream,” he said.

Was it a fluke that Lin made 13 of 19 from the field – jumpers, floaters, reverse layups – on his dream night? Yeah, that’s not going to happen again. But the way Lin directed the Knicks’ directionless offense? The way he gave it purpose and an actual method of attack? Having seen him a time or two in the D-League, where he was the best player on the floor of every game I’ve seen in person, Lin can do that.

But the fact that D’Antoni already said he was thinking seriously about starting Lin Monday night against the Jazz? That speaks more to the Knicks’ state of desperation than anything else. They’re going nowhere without a point guard to run the offense, and who knows when Baron Davis is going to be ready. And when he’s ready, who knows how much of Baron Davis is going to show up.

So for now, for this snapshot in time, the Knicks have a point guard. Dare I say it was the best a point guard has played for D’Antoni since a gentleman named Steve Nash was doing stuff like this every night for him. So Jeremy Lin saved the Knicks from their 12th loss in 14 games, saved D’Antoni from another day of speculation that he’ll be fired, and generally just took a tense, desperate situation and let everyone breathe a little.

“I’m just thankful to be here right now for this team,” Lin said.

Believe me, the team feels the same way.

NEW YORK -- Something changed for the Knicks Tuesday night. The ball moved. The players moved. The Knicks got good, open shots and made them. Sixty percent of them, to be exact.

What changed? Carmelo Anthony returned from a two-game absence to rest his ankle and wrist, and found his shooting stroke -- and his passing instincts.

What else? The Knicks were playing the Pistons.

The Knicks ended a three-game losing streak and a stretch in which they'd lost nine of 10 with an ego-boosting, problem-solving 113-86 victory over the Pistons.

"I got my pop back and I felt pretty good for the most part," Anthony said.

"We know the system works," said Amar'e Stoudemire, who had 15 points. "We just need to keep playing the way we did tonight and we will be fine."

But is it over? Are the problems gone? Hardly. New York begins a stretch of three games in three nights Thursday night at home against the Bulls, then goes to Boston and back home to face New Jersey. Even after a 25-point performance in which he made 9 of 14 shots from the field and also dished out six assists, Anthony didn't want to think about the upcoming back-to-back-to-back.

"It's the schedule," he said at his locker afterward. "We have to play it. It is what it is. ... I'm not sure, so we'll see. Right now sitting here talking to you guys, I feel fine. Tomorrow may be a different story."

With two days off since their most recent loss in Houston, the Knicks got to load up on two rare commodities in this lockout-compressed sprint of a regular season: rest and practice.

"That really helped us," Tyson Chandler said.

So did the Pistons, who allowed their opponent to shoot more than 50 percent from the field for the fourth time during their current six-game losing streak. The Knicks shot 42-for-70 including 9-for-18 from 3-point range. The Pistons (4-19) have allowed their opponents to shoot 52 percent on 3-pointers (50-97) during the losing streak.

"It's embarrassing for all of us when teams can shoot what they've been shooting over the past five or six games," coach Lawrence Frank said.

Sometimes, one team's embarrassment is another team's elixir.

In the least surprising news of the lockout-shortened season, the Wizards have fired coach Flip Saunders and replaced him with lead assistant Randy Wittman, multiple sources confirmed to CBSSports.com Tuesday.

Wittman will take over on an interim basis, paving the way for the Wizards to limp their way with some semblance of dignity to as high a lottery pick as possible. After that, sources say, widespread changes are expected.

"They need to clean house," one league front office source said.

Washington started the season 2-15, and hit rock bottom Monday night with a 103-83 loss in Philadelphia. Tempers flared during the first half of that game, as players were "upset about being subbed out" when the Wizards were down by as many as 30 points, a person with knowledge of the situation told CBSSports.com.

"At that point," the person said, "no one had the right to complain about anything."

Players were informed after the loss in Philadelphia that a coaching change was coming, a source said. But the writing had been on the wall since at least the eighth game of the season, Washington's eighth consecutive loss to start the season. After the 93-72 loss to Minnesota, Andray Blatche stated that the players had begun to tune Saunders out.

"Flip is definitely doing his job," Blatche said that night. "I just don't feel like guys are listening and following behind what he says and what he wants us to do."

The Wizards won their first game two nights later against Toronto, but things only got worse from there as they lost seven of their next eight. The lone victory came against the West's top team, Oklahoma City, but the string also included a putrid 64-point effort in a loss to the Bulls without Derrick Rose.

 

Roy Hibbert wants to stay in Indiana, but is unlikely to agree to an extension by Wednesday's deadline to re-sign 2008 draft picks, his agent, David Falk, said Monday.

"There's no rush," Falk said. "I think it’s unlikely that we’ll come to agreement this week. It doesn’t mean in any way that he's not happy in Indiana. ... We've had very friendly discussions, and both sides recognize that the discussion is probably premature."

Last year, only five of the 30 first-round picks agreed to in-season extensions that took them off the restricted free-agent market, including a five-year, $85 million deal for Kevin Durant in Oklahoma City. So far this year, only the Bulls' Derrick Rose and Durant's teammate, Russell Westbrook, have gotten extensions done. Sources say the most likely candidates to beat Wednesday's deadline for new deals are Kevin Love (Timberwolves), Danilo Gallinari (Nuggets), Ryan Anderson (Magic) and Nicolas Batum (Trail Blazers) -- with Eric Gordon (Hornets) also a possibility.

Hibbert, 25, is averaging 13.9 points and 9.9 rebounds and is shooting 54.2 percent from the field in his fourth season, leading the Pacers to an 11-4 start -- including a 98-96 victory over the Lakers Sunday. Hibbert's scoring and rebounding numbers have gone up every season he's been in the league.

WASHINGTON -- There's no question which team is the worst in the NBA. That would be the Wizards, in case you didn't know -- and hopefully you don't, because that would imply that you haven't seen them.

To see them is to understand that the 2008-09 Nets' NBA-record 0-18 in start just might be in jeopardy.

In a performance labeled "sickening" and "embarrassing" by Andray Blatche, whose own performance also could've been thusly described, the Wizards fell to 0-8 Sunday with a 93-72 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Afterward, Blatche (10 points in 31 minutes on 5-for-16 shooting) attempted to get coach Flip Saunders' back, but ended up making his coach look bad in the process. It's been that kind of start to the season for the Wizards, who can't even fall on their swords properly.

"Flip is definitely doing his job," Blatche said. "I just don't feel like guys are listening and following behind what he says and what he wants us to do."

Never a good sign, eight games into the season.

"Guys want to try to do it their own way, and it's not working," Blatche said. "The record shows that. I feel like everybody should go home and focus and think and take consideration for what Flip is saying, because it can't hurt. It damn sure ain't helping us our way."

The Wizards scored 17 points in each of the first two quarters and were mesmerized by Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio. When Rubio entered the game with 1:30 left in the first quarter, he orchestrated a 17-2 run and controlled everything that was happening on the floor during his 31 minutes off the bench with 13 points, 14 assists and six rebounds.

"It's on us as players, because we're the ones being put out there at the end of the day, embarrassing ourselves," Blatche said.

Somehow it made matters worse for the Wizards that Rubio was doing this to them after they'd traded the No. 5 pick in the 2009 draft to Minnesota for Randy Foye and Mike Miller, who were gone after one season. The Wolves drafted Rubio with the fifth pick, and unlike the Wizards at the time, had the luxury of waiting two years for Rubio to show up.

If only the Wizards had known that they had that luxury, too. If they'd kept the pick, Saunders said, "Who knows who it would've been? And if it was Rubio, then John Wall might not be here."

Wall, no doubt, already is wishing he weren't.

"I didn't expect it to be this tough," said Wall who was 3-for-10 with 10 points and six assists. "It's just not good right now. ... You've got to have some type of urgency out there on the court to want to play. You've got to have some type of self-esteem or some type of pride that you don't want to keep being 0-8. It's a pride game now."

Saunders said he was going home Sunday night to ask himself: "What can I do as a coach to get us better? Right now, I haven’t done a good enough job. That’s evident. We’re not totally getting through to some guys and some guys continue to play the way they want to play and not the way we need to play as far as a team."

After his postgame interviews were over, Blatche sauntered out of the Wizards' locker room and turned toward the arena exits. Someone chased him down to shake hands and ask, "How you doing?" "Not good," Blatche said.

And it's hard to figure out how that is going to change.

Bucks center Andrew Bogut is expected to miss "a few more games" while he tends to a private matter that has nothing to do with his own health, according to a statement released Thursday by his agent, David Bauman. 

"It is important to note that this is not related to Andrew's personal health in any way," Bauman said in a statement released to CBSSports.com. "Andrew appreciates the support of the Bucks, his teammates and his fans, and he expects to be back after a few more games' absence fully prepared to play the game that he loves and 100 percent ready to help the Bucks win games."

Bogut is in his native Australia taking care of what has been described as a personal family matter. Given the distance, the earliest he could possibly return would appear to be Sunday's game in Phoenix. After that, the Bucks return home for games Tuesday against the Spurs and Thursday against the Pistons.

"In the interests of the situation, he asks that his privacy be respected," Bauman said.

The Bucks are off to a 2-3 start with Bogut averaging 14.3 points and 10 rebounds in the four games he's played.