Michael Jordan last played in an NBA game on April 16, 2003. (Getty Images)

As Tim Grover walked out of the Hall of Fame induction speech four years ago, the observances of Michael Jordan's old slights, the settling of old scores, had already come and gone in the trainer's mind. All those years with Jordan, and Grover understood to always be lurching toward tomorrow with the game's greatest player.

"I heard that speech differently than everybody else," Grover said. Grover heard Jordan raising the idea of playing in the NBA in his 50s, and that was all the nod he needed to begin preparations.

"If I ever get that call," Grover said, "I was going to be prepared for it. And I am."

Fifty pages inside a binder sit on Grover's desk inside his suburban Chicago home now, information and studies and research and innovations into regenerating the muscle fibers and anti-aging advances and nutrition. From his trips to Europe and Asia and the Far East, Grover has incorporated a small library of intelligence – backed with the most intimate knowledge of Jordan's

After a bout of disruptive behavior from Ben Gordon targeted at Charlotte Bobcats coach Mike Dunlap, the franchise's desire to trade the guard has deepened, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Ben Gordon is averaging 12.6 points this season. (AP)As Dunlap led the Bobcats in a morning shootaround on Monday before a victory over the Celtics, Gordon refused Dunlap's request to stop bouncing a ball as the coach spoke, sources said. Before long, Gordon began baiting Dunlap, telling him that he needed to "humble himself," sources said.

Gordan refused to give the ball to Dunlap, and eventually tossed it toward a ball rack, sources said.

Bobcats general manager Rod Higgins was in the practice session and ultimately intervened, sources said.

"Beyond disrespectful," was how one league source described the scene.

The front office didn't suspend Gordon, a decision sources said was based in part on the belief the incident would diminish his trade value so close to the league's deadline next Thursday. The Brooklyn Nets are still mulling

The U.S. Attorney's office is investigating the authenticity of a National Basketball Players Association contract that authorized future payment of more than $3 million to an investment firm that employed the son of executive director Billy Hunter, sources told Yahoo! Sports.

One of the focuses of the probe centers on the legitimacy of the signatures on the union's document with the company, Prim Capital, including those of the NBPA's late general counsel Gary Hall and NBPA director of player services Purvis Short, sources said.

After issuing a report on its investigation of the union's business practices that included doubts about the legitimacy of an NBPA agreement with Prim, the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison recently secured several past union agreements to give handwriting experts a chance to examine Hall's signature, sources said. Those documents were shared with the U.S. Attorney's office to assist in its ongoing probe of the union, sources told

As the Phoenix Suns try to reshuffle their roster for the future, their front office remains motivated to try to acquire New York Knicks guard Iman Shumpert, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Iman Shumpert is averaging 5.6 points for the Knicks this season. (USA Today Sports)The Suns are willing to give New York a package that includes forward Jared Dudley and possibly a future first-round pick for Shumpert, but the Knicks have so far shown no inclination to do such a deal, sources said.

After tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament in the Knicks' opening game of last season's playoffs, Shumpert returned in January and has started the past 11 games. While Shumpert is still working himself back to the high level with which he performed as a rookie, the Knicks' front office remains a strong proponent of his talent, sources said.

After regretting they passed on Shumpert in the 2011 NBA draft, the Suns pushed the Knicks to include him in sign-and-trade scenarios discussed for Steve Nash in July. In the past week, the Suns have scouted Shumpert in person,

Andre Drummond, the Detroit Pistons' explosive rookie center, could miss four to six weeks with a stress fracture in his back.

Drummond, 19, hurt his back attempting to block a shot in Sunday's loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Drummond will miss the Rising Stars Challenge in Houston during All-Star weekend.

Pistons GM Joe Dumars told Yahoo! Sports that he and his staff are investigating available short-term replacements in the frontcourt, and deciding if there's a player whom they believe could help them.

The loss of Drummond will likely offer Russian rookie center Slava Kravtsov, who has appeared in only six games, a chance to earn minutes.

After dropping to the ninth spot in the June NBA draft, Drummond has averaged 7.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in less than 20 minutes a game for the Pistons. His minutes have steadily increased, and Drummond has shown himself to have the chance to be a dominant center in the NBA.

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BOSTON – Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard had always been a reluctant partnership, two stars long suspecting what turned out to be the indisputable truth: They were destined to be terrible teammates.

When Bryant and Howard hung up on a pre-trade deadline call a year ago, the suspicions of a toxic mix were confirmed with a most uncomfortable conversation. They had different visions on the way Howard would fit into the Lakers, which promised to compound the gulf between them as people. They were going to win with the Lakers and tolerate each other; or lose and develop a deep disdain.

On his way out of the Garden, out of a humiliating 116-95 loss to the Boston Celtics, Bryant returned a clichéd question – "Are Dwight and you on the same page?" – without a clichéd response.

With a bemused face and a shrug, Bryant told Yahoo! Sports: "What page is there to be on? Defend. Rebound…"

He shrugged again.

"I mean, what else is on the page?"

[Also: Past champions highlight 2013 Dunk

BOSTON – As pressure within and outside the Los Angeles Lakers has grown with the injury to Pau Gasol, All-Star center Dwight Howard plans to return to the lineup against the Boston Celtics on Thursday night, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

With Gasol out with a partial tear of his plantar fascia and the Lakers fighting to climb back into the Western Conference playoff race, Kobe Bryant has made public proclamations suggesting Howard needs to manage the pain and return to the floor. Others in the organization and locker room have privately been saying the same things, sources said.

Howard has missed the past three games, including consecutive Lakers victories over Detroit and Brooklyn, with soreness in his right shoulder from a torn labrum. As a free agent this summer, Howard is eligible for a five-year, $108 million contract extension with the Lakers and doesn't want to jeopardize his long-term health and value.

[Related: With Pau Gasol injured, will Dwight Howard step up?]

NEW YORK – As Kobe Bryant turned the corner and made a hard move for the rim, he committed those old legs to a most improbable assignment: rising over the rubble of this Los Angeles Lakers season and transcending himself. Whatever else had lapsed in his basketball life – the years, the knees, the busted-up shoulder and failing foot of the Lakers' crumbling 7-footers – Bryant had come to elevate over everything, elevate over everyone on Tuesday night.

These were old times in a different New York basketball address, a christening in the borough of Brooklyn inside the freshest basketball arena in the NBA. Game on the line, the Lakers in a precarious place, and suddenly the congestion and clutter of the season gave way to space, a line to the rim and a chance for Bryant to leap out of a long-ago time and deliver a dunk – a moment – to remember him in the Barclays Center.

"Everybody was really concerned about me passing, so everybody stayed home," Bryant told Yahoo! Sports on