NBA roundup: Burkle bumped from Sacramento ownership group
Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner Rob Burkle is no longer part of a group seeking to buy the Kings and keep them in Sacramento, due to a violation of league rules, the NBA announced Tuesday.
Burkle is an investor in Relativity Media, a film studio where the COO, Happy Walters, represents about a dozen players as an NBA player agent, and oversees Relativity Sports, a division of Relativity Media. In February, prominent NBA player agent Dan Fegan joined Relativity Sports as Basketball President and the company now represents more than 50 NBA players, according to Sports Business Daily.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson told the paper that "other investors would pick up the financial slack," but didn't offer specifics.
--New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony is the NBA's top scorer and owner of its most popular jersey.
Anthony passed MVP LeBron James for the top sales spot, the league announced. He's the first Knicks player to lead since the list was released in 2001-02.
The list is based on sales at the NBA Store in New York and NBAStore.com since last November. Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant is third, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant and the Chicago Bulls' Derrick Rose.
The Knicks also remained first in team sales, followed by Miami and the Lakers.
--The Houston Rockets assigned center Tim Ohlbrecht to the team's D-League partner in Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday.
Ohlbrecht has appeared in three games with Houston this season, scoring one point. Ohlbrecht has averaged 13.4 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.63 blocks in 32 regular-season games with Rio Grande Valley.
