Staff writer Scott Howard-Cooper is part of The Bee's coverage team at Kings training camp and a regular contributor to the Kings blog. Below is an excerpt from Thursday. To read it in its entirety, go to www.sacbee.com/ kingsblog.
The Warriors are retaining the option to extend the 30-game suspension of guard Monta Ellis, possibly all the way to voiding the six-year, $66 million deal he signed in July. Golden State would only throw that switch if Ellis struggles mightily to recover from an ankle injury that is now expected to sideline him until December or January, and even then would be a tough call, probably in summer 2009 at the earliest. He turns 23 next weekend, and players have come back from much worse. It's just that the W's don't want to be on the hook for $66 mil for damaged goods, since Ellis violated the contract by riding a moped and then lied to management by claiming he got hurt in a pickup game. In the unlikely event the deal is voided, Ellis would be waived but not go back to his previous status as a restricted free agent in a negotiating advantage for the Warriors. He would be unrestricted.
• Lawrence Pedowitz, the chief architect of the internal investigation by the NBA into its referee system and gambling, said he would push to ban the traditional card games on charter flights if he owned a team. Chances of it actually happening: somewhere between zero and zero. Millionaire vs. millionaire at 30,000 feet is such an ingrained part of the subculture that even Commissioner David Stern has little interest in the crackdown at the very time the league is trying to rid itself of the Tim Donaghy stench. "Larry Pedowitz would be a difficult owner for me because players of all sports have been playing cards in the back of buses and planes forever," Stern said.
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