Entertainment mogul and rapper Jay-Z has started the process of divesting his small share of ownership with the Brooklyn Nets to extend his Roc Nation Sports representation business into basketball, sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Jay-Z will have to divest his share of the Nets to become certified as an NBA agent. (USA Today Sports)Jay-Z – whose real name is Shawn Carter – owns less than 1 percent of the Nets, but has been a central public figure in the franchise's marketing and move from New Jersey to Brooklyn.

Selling his share of the Nets is a necessary prelude for Jay-Z to obtain his National Basketball Players Association certification as an agent.

NBA rules mandate that no one individual affiliated with a player representation company can have an ownership stake with an NBA team.

Jay-Z's Roc Nation company has partnered with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to launch a sports representation business that recently secured New York Yankees star Robinson Cano.

The process is expected to be completed in time for Roc Nation to compete for players entering the June NBA draft,

After crumbling to the court and needing to be carried to the locker room, an initial examination of Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari suggested a season-ending tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, league sources told Yahoo! Sports on Thursday night. Danilo Gallinari grimaces after injuring his knee. (USA Today Sports)

"The doctor indicated that the ligament was loose," one source told Yahoo! Sports. "They expect that it's a torn ACL."

Gallinari will undergo a full MRI examination on Friday to survey the complete damage to the knee. After driving on Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki in the Nuggets' 95-94 victory on Thursday night, Gallinari planted his left leg only to have his knee buckle beneath him.

The Italian writhed in pain on the floor, and needed to be carted to the locker room.

Gallinari, 24, is a vital part of the Nuggets' success, and losing him for the season clearly damages Denver's chances of making a run at the Western Conference championship. For now, the team is the No. 3 seed in the West, trailing

Pat Riley called Celtics general manager Danny Ainge a "whiner." (AP)

Miami Heat emperor Pat Riley isn't responsible for creating the NBA's culture of hard fouls and cheap shots, but no one in its history has profited so handsomely in the pursuit of perfecting it.

In honoring two historically indisputable professional habits – establishing himself as the patriarch and protector of his star player; and wrapping himself in downright disdain for the Boston Celtics – Riley sent a missive to one of his messengers on Good Friday.

"Danny Ainge needs to shut the [expletive] up and manage his own team," Riley proclaimed. "He was the biggest whiner going when he was playing and I know that because I coached against him."

This was a spectacularly jarring response to Ainge, who had chastised LeBron James and his declaration that the NBA and its officials don't do enough to protect him. "I think that it's almost embarrassing that LeBron James would complain about officiating," Ainge had told WEEI radio in Boston.

For Ainge, he has been his vintage self:

MILWAUKEE – Leaning on a crutch, Kobe Bryant limped through the corridor of the Bradley Center, bone spurs in his foot, Utah and Dallas on his heels. Here hobbled a peerless personification of the Los Angeles Lakers' season, sputtering and spitting out dust in the final push for the playoffs.

"Inflamed on me," Bryant told Yahoo! Sports. "It's been ongoing with me for a while now."

"I'll be all right," he said.

It was late Thursday, late in the regular season, and Bryant and these Lakers were on the way out of one more humiliating, humbling defeat. Metta World Peace is gone for the season now. Steve Nash tried to play with a hip injury, but had to come out of this flattening 113-103 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Lakers are sluggish, slow and threatening to lose the eighth seed in the Western Conference. They have lost four of five games now, lost momentum. No longer do people speak of them climbing into a sixth seed. The Lakers now try to spare themselves the

CHICAGO – For all the magnificence of the longest NBA winning streak in more than 40 years, for the ease with which LeBron James has obliterated the rest of the sport in victory upon victory, the Chicago Bulls had left the game's greatest player exasperated at the end of this historic pursuit, left him flustered with a flurry of ferocious physicality.

These Bulls had come hard for James, come with blunt force, and James' message was unmistakable on Wednesday night: From the Bulls and beyond, why has it become open season on him?

"I know that a lot of my fouls are not basketball plays," James said late Wednesday inside the United Center. "First of all, Kirk Hinrich basically grabbed me with two hands and brought me to the ground. Taj Gibson was able to collar me around my shoulder and bring me to the ground. Those are not basketball plays – and it's been happening all year.

LeBron James wasn't happy with Kirk Hinrich wrapping him for a hard foul. (AP)"I've been able to keep my cool and try to tell [Erik Spoelstra], 'Let's not worry about it too

CHICAGO -- LeBron James and the Miami Heat's bid for the NBA's forever winning streak finally ended on Wednesday night.

After a magnificent 27-game run of victories by Miami, the Chicago Bulls vanquished the Heat 101-97 at the United Center. The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers' record of 33 consecutive victories survives – and may ultimately stand the test of time in this modern NBA.

The Heat hadn't lost since Feb. 1 before falling to the Bulls. (AP)Without 2011 NBA MVP Derrick Rose and All-Star center Joakim Noah, the Bulls' relentless defense and sharp shooting in the fourth quarter managed to stop the Heat six games short of their place in history.

The Bulls' lone All-Star on the floor, forward Luol Deng, was brilliant in the victory, closing out the Heat with 28 points, seven rebounds and five assists. In the final minutes, the Bulls played defense in the way they've grown accustomed under coach Tom Thibodeau: contesting every shot, battling strong on the boards and fighting for every loose ball.

James was whistled for a flagrant-one

After leaving the NBA's Development League Rio Grande Valley Vipers without permission last week, Houston Rockets first-round pick Royce White will return to the team, sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Royce White has had an up-and-down tenure with the Rockets' organization. (Getty Images) White, who has an anxiety disorder, announced a team doctor told him it would be healthier to leave the Vipers and begin preparing for next season, but multiple sources told Yahoo! Sports that no organizational permission had been granted to White.

At the risk of earning his second suspension without pay this season, White planned to be in uniform for the Vipers game Tuesday night against Tulsa.

The No. 16 overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft, White has clashed with the Rockets over his inability to constantly make himself available for practices, workouts and team commitments. After a three-week suspension in January, White finally agreed to the team's plan to send him to the D-League. Despite weighing nearly 300 pounds, White averaged 9.6 points and 5.6 rebounds in 12 games for Rio

Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg has emerged as an intriguing NBA head-coaching candidate, multiple front-office executives told Yahoo! Sports.

After resurrecting the Cyclones program and nearly pushing them into the Sweet 16 of the 2013 NCAA tournament, Hoiberg's college coaching success, combined with his pro pedigree, has convinced league officials he's the ideal college coach to make the transition to pro basketball.

Fred Hoiberg has taken Iowa State to the NCAA tournament in consecutive seasons. (AP) "If I had to make a hire this year, [Hoiberg] would be one of the first calls I'd make," one NBA general manager told Yahoo! Sports on Sunday. "He is a natural for our league."

Among seven GMs contacted on Sunday, there wasn't a single one who expressed skepticism about Hoiberg's ability to make an immediate leap to an NBA coaching job should he have a desire to do so.

Two GMs who expect to have openings told Yahoo! Sports that they planned to feel out Hoiberg's interest in the NBA once they begin search processes.

[Related: Another bad call