Walk into the New Orleans Hornets’ practice facility, an old recreation center where Chris Paul’s genius can be pre-empted for bird fairs and reptile expos, and you’ll find the Alario Center suggests everything about the efficiency with which general manager Jeff Bower has to run his franchise for the sheerest of basketball survival. Never mind success.

As franchises go, the Hornets have the most streamlined front office in the NBA. Beyond the practice gym, there are modest connecting offices with thin walls between Bower and his assistant GM, Brian Hagen. There’s the front office, just a GM and his assistant. The Hornets have two full-time scouts on the road. And that’s it. Most teams have three and four times the personnel, but not the New Orleans Hornets.

They’re the barest-bones operation in the NBA, and yet under Bower they’ve shown themselves to be a model of resourcefulness and resolve.

George Shinn is the one NBA owner without another industry where he makes his money. The

The Oklahoma City Thunder doctors have red-flagged a turf toe condition with newly acquired center Tyson Chandler and the New Orleans Hornets trade has been voided, league executives said Wednesday night.

“It’s blown up,” one league executive said.

The Hornets and Thunder completed the Chandler trade on Tuesday for Joe Smith,Chris Wilcox and the rights to draft pick DeVon Hardin, but lingering problems with a "turf toe" injury crushed the deal, league sources said.

Chandler had surgery on the toe two years ago.

"It’s not going to end his career," one source familiar with the injury said, "but it could hinder it.”

Blazers up ante for Carter

As the market dries up on Vince Carter’s expensive contract, the Portland Trail Blazers have raised the price on the New Jersey Nets to complete a trade. Portland now wants a first-round draft pick, a league executive familiar with the talks said Wednesday night.

The Blazers and Nets have discussed several scenarios centering on Carter, including one

PHOENIX – This had to be one of the most humiliating weekends in the franchise's history, a collision of misjudgments and mistakes that transformed the biggest celebration in the Phoenix Suns’ history into an agonizing examination of the franchise's fall. Suns owner Robert Sarver had made a mess of trades talks with Amare Stoudemire, botched beyond belief the firing of Terry Porter and transformed an envied enterprise into an embarrassment.

Somehow, Shaquille O'Neal had become a saving grace for the Suns. This was his gift to bosses who are stuck with his steep salary. They turned out the lights inside US Airways Center and Shaq gave him what he does best now, a laugh, a masked dance, a stand-up routine for basketball's most irreverent and irrelevant night.

As a return on the Shaq investment goes, this promised to be the biggest night of his Suns career. The Suns needed a court jester to make everyone laugh here, to deflect the chaos consuming this franchise.

The NBA's tabulation of

PHOENIX – They marched him to a podium with the NBA Finals MVP trophy that’ll bear his name now, and the words had barely begun tumbling out of Bill Russell’s mouth when his hands began to tremble, his eyes welled, his voice cracked. Russell had always controlled the room with that guttural laugh and peerless presence, but the game’s greatest champion had seldom appeared so mortal, so vulnerable.

He just turned 75 years old, just lost the love of his life, Marilyn, to cancer, and now the league’s linking of his legacy to that annual award moved Russell to such bittersweet sorrow.

“I just lost my special person,” Russell said, the words stopping short. Somehow, this touched him to his core. No one saw it coming in the room, and no one could breathe. He just fought back those tears, fought back the ache of loss that comes with time’s passage.

Russell is the NBA’s forever champion, the center on the Boston Celtics’ forever teams. Eleven titles in 13 seasons belong to him, and yet the NBA

PHOENIX – Believing that Amare Stoudemire could make the difference with winning an NBA title and ultimately keeping LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers made a bid to the Phoenix Suns for the All-Star power forward, two league sources familiar with the offer said Friday.

Cleveland general manager Danny Ferry offered the expiring contract of Wally Szczerbiak, rookie J.J. Hickson and a first-round pick for Stoudemire earlier in the week, sources said. Anderson Varejao was mentioned in a possible scenario too, sources said.

Nevertheless, the proposal has generated little enthusiasm out of Suns GM Steve Kerr.

When asked about the Cavaliers' interest in Stoudemire on Friday, Ferry texted to Yahoo! Sports, "No discussions at this time."

Odds are, the Cavaliers and Suns would need to find a third team to get Stoudemire in the frontcourt with James.

As the Cavaliers try to find more size to compete with the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers for a title, league sources say they're

The Miami Heat have completed a trade with the Toronto Raptors, acquiring Jermaine O'Neal, Jamario Moon and a future first-round pick in exchange for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks, multiple league executives said Friday. The Raptors also will receive cash considerations in the deal.

PHOENIX – As the Miami Heat continue their pursuit of All-Star forward Amare Stoudemire, Heat president Pat Riley has enlisted the Memphis Grizzlies to be a third-team facilitator with the Phoenix Suns, league sources said Thursday night.

The proposed multiplayer trade is fluid, but the framework would include the Suns receiving a package that includes Miami forward Shawn Marion and Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay. Miami would send rookie Michael Beasley to the Grizzlies. More players would be needed to balance out salary-cap rules.

“Miami knows that they can’t get this done directly with Phoenix,” one league executive said. “The big thing is that they know the Suns like Gay.”

Suns owner Robert Sarver directly called Memphis’ Michael Heisley to discuss trade possibilities between the two teams. The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that the Grizzlies rejected a Suns’ proposal of Gay, forward Hakim Warrick and point guard Mike Conley for Stoudemire. It also reported the possibility of a

PHOENIX – The New Jersey Nets and Dallas Mavericks have discussed a trade that would reunite Vince Carter and Jason Kidd, with Carter joining the Mavericks, a league source familiar with the discussions said Thursday night.

The proposed deal, which isn’t imminent, would send Carter, Keyon Dooling and Eduardo Najera to the Mavericks for Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse.

Nets executives are still reluctant to trade Carter, but are determined to let teams make their best offers all the way to next Thursday’s trade deadline.

The Mavericks have lost guard Jason Terry to a broken hand and desperately need perimeter scoring to stay a contender in the Western Conference. The Nets’ and Mavericks’ front offices engineered the Jason Kidd-Devin Harris blockbuster at the trade deadline a year ago. Nets GM Kiki Vandeweghe and Mavs GM Donnie Nelson have been active trading proposals, league sources say.

Carter, 31, has inspired significant interest throughout the league. The San Antonio Spurs are