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Here are today's links:

• Mitch Kupchak: Los Angeles Lakers likely to trade first-round pick - ESPN
  The NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers will likely unload at least one of their three draft picks. They have the 29th pick in the first round and the 42nd and 59th picks in the second round of Thursday's draft. General manager Mitch Kupchak said Wednesday that there was a "better than even likelihood" the team would get rid of its first-round pick.
• Kurt Rambis, Phil Jackson mull life ahead with Lakers - Los Angeles Times
  Rambis said the idea is to keep Jackson healthy for the long run and physically fit so the Lakers have a better chance at defending the championship they just won. "Everybody benefits," Rambis said. "Phil remains fresh without having the season and the travel wear him down. It gives me valuable coaching experience. What the future holds beyond Phil, I don't know. But this keeps continuity of what we're doing, what we do defensively and offensively."
• There’s no comparison between Kobe and Michael - Lakers blog - OCRegister.com
  Why must Kobe Bryant be compared to anyone? But he is — constantly to Michael Jordan — but at least Scottie Pippen made a seemingly smart comparison by saying you can’t compare the two.

• Kobe 24/8: Kobe v. Jordan
  Look closely at them, and you'll see what I mean. Kobe v. Jordan. I think it is a happy marriage of names, and a marriage it is. For time, for all eternity -- Kobe v. Jordan. In a sense, Kobe has already attained to the highest heights, just because his name is married inextricably to the highest. How did this happen? Because truly there can be no challenger, v. Jordan. But apparently Kobe has risen somehow to the challenge; or his name would not appear wherever Jordan's name appears...
  ...Because truly there can be no challenger, v. Jordan. Does Matisse challenge Picasso? Who can challenge Picasso? Still, their names have a certain consanguinity. But it is the wrong analogy anyway, because Kobe is Picasso, so we would have to invent yet a greater twentieth century artist and with more care than if he was our own child name him and then juxtapose the names. But certainly Kobe v. Jordan shall go on juxtaposing through time and eternity.

• Kobe Bryant, Lebron James remind of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson - Ian Thomsen - SI.com
  "A season for the ages," commissioner David Stern said of this NBA year gone by. But I prefer to view it as a recasting of the 1980s: The names have changed, but the dynamics are familiar.

Click on through more the rest of the links....

• Latest NBA trade chatter - ESPN
  Multiple servings of draft-week trade chatter and other basketball business culled from various sources.

• Washington and Minnesota pull off a nice one - Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sports
  The Timberwolves have a new GM who wants nothing to do with what Kevin McHale brought on board. And Kevin McHale brought a ton of shoot-first "point guards" on board. Randy Foye can play, but he's also a limited player who seemed to do his best work last season at shooting guard, always going right. And Mike Miller? Seemingly frustrated with being sent to the Timberwolves ("28 teams are better than the Grizzlies, they find the one team that's worse to trade me to?"), Miller spent the whole of 2008-09, and I don't toss this out there lightly, more or less throwing games.
• What Will the Timberwolves Do Next? - SportingNews.com - The Baseline
• Sources: Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors near Jamal Crawford trade - ESPN
  The Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors are closing in on a trade that would find a new home for Jamal Crawford.
• Miami Heat | Sun-Sentinel Blogs: The (trade) exception to the rule
  When considering the Heat's options during the draft, consider two options that may have gone overlooked. While the Heat does not have a first-round pick in Thursday's NBA Draft, and while it has no cap space and no wiggle room against the luxury tax, it does hold two trade exceptions, including one of the largest ones currently available in the league. While the Heat does not have a first-round pick in Thursday's NBA Draft, and while it has no cap space and no wiggle room against the luxury tax, it does hold two trade exceptions, including one of the largest ones currently available in the league. What is a trade exception? It is a salary slot created through a previous trade, essentially when you send out more money than you acquire. What can you do with a trade exception? You can acquire in a trade a player making a salary up to the amount of the exception.
• Tyler Hansbrough remains determined in workout for Nets - NBA - SI.com
  Hansbrough responds to critics in Nets workout.
• Bobcats allow Sean May to become unrestricted free agent - NBA - SI.com
  CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- After four years of seemingly never-ending knee and weight issues, Sean May faces an uncertain summer as an unrestricted free agent after the Charlotte Bobcats decided not to make a qualifying offer to their former first-round pick. Philadelphia 76ers return to old logo, uniforms - Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sports
• Rondo Was Fined For Being Tardy - CelticsBlog
• The 2008-09 NBA Worsties: November - Basketbawful
  The very best of the worst of professional basketball.
• The Goofy Guide to the NBA Draft - TrueHoop By Henry Abbott - ESPN
• Too much Rod Benson: You've got to be hungry ... - Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sports
  Kobe Puppet's words have been playing through my head over and over again for the past week. "You've got to be hungry, Rod."
• NCAA Coaches Critical of NBA Age Limit -- NCAA Basketball FanHouse
  Could the NBA and its minimum age requirement really be guilty of hypocrisy?"If you follow the NBA, if you look at the guys who are promoted as the face of the NBA, you are talking about Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett," Capel said. "Those are four that jumped right out and none of those guys attended college and I don't think it hurt them."