Chris Kaman talks about Chris Paul trade rumors

Chris Kaman has heard the rumors, because as he said after practice Wednesday, it was impossible not to hear all the trade chatter that had him a part of the deal in which the Clippers would send him to New Orleans for Hornets point guard Chris Paul.

The normally talkative Kaman didn’t speak at media day Tuesday, saying he didn’t want to talk about the trade speculation involving him. The talks appear to be dead again.

Kaman said he understands how this works after seven years in the NBA.

“This is a business and they [Clippers management] can do anything they want to do to make their business-life better and you’ve just got to deal with it,” Kaman said. “So for me, I’ve just got to keep playing, try to help my team, the team I’m on right now. And if something happens where they have to make a decision to do something different, then that’s their decision. I can’t control that.”

Kaman was asked if he wanted to be with the Clippers.

“Yeah, I’m happy with the position I’m in right now,” Kaman said.

The Clippers said that Chauncey Billups, whom they acquired Sunday by winning the waiver auction bid after the New York Knicks used the new amnesty provision on him, was in town Wednesday getting his physical.

The Clippers also said that Billups will be at practice Thursday.

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Clippers' Chris Kaman says contract year doesn't affect his approach

 -- Broderick Turner

Photo: Clippers Chris Kaman looks to pass between Phoenix's Robin Lopez, left, and Amare Stoudemire in 2010.Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

Clippers match offer sheet to DeAndre Jordan

The Clippers have matched the offer sheet that restricted free agent DeAndre Jordan signed with Golden State, a four-year deal worth $43.2 million.

Jordan had received the offer from the Warriors on Sunday, and less than 24 hours later, the Clippers matched it to ensure they retained their 23-year-old center, as they'd said they would do.

Jordan, who made $854,389 last season, will earn $10.4 million this season, $10.5 million in 2012-13, $10.9 million in 2013-14 and $11.4 million in 2014-15.

Jordan has to take a physical, but the Clippers expected him to be at practice Monday night at the team’s practice facility in Playa Vista.

“We’ll get him in here as soon as possible and get him in condition and on the same page with everybody,” Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro said after Monday morning's practice.

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Clippers withdraw from Chris Paul trade

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Chris Kaman says contract year won't affect approach

 -- Broderick Turner

Photo: Clippers center DeAndre Jordan is fouled on a shot attempt by Minnesota guard Luke Ridnour during a game last season at Staples Center. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

Clippers end Chris Paul talks, say Hornets' price was too high

The Clippers acknowledged that they talked with the New Orleans Hornets on Sunday night about acquiring all-star point guard Chris Paul, but the L.A. team pulled out of the talks early Monday because the Hornets’ asking price was way too high.

The Clippers wouldn’t say what exactly the Hornets wanted, just that it would have left them bare.

“We entered into discussions with the New Orleans Hornets,” said Neil Olshey, the team’s vice president of basketball operations. “They proposed a trade we felt was too high for our team to accept.”

The Clippers were not going to trade Eric Gordon, one of the players the Hornets badly wanted in the deal.

It also had been reported that the Clippers would have sent the Hornets center Chris Kaman, guard Eric Bledsoe, forward Al-Farouq Aminu and the 2012 first-round draft pick they got from the Minnesota Timberwolves, which has the potential to be a high lottery pick.

Some reports said the Hornets wanted the Clippers to sign center DeAndre Jordan to the offer sheet of $43 million over four years that he got from the Golden State Warriors and make him part of the package for Paul.

Olshey preferred to not talk about what players were discussed in the talks.

Olshey said he and Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro met with the team before Monday’s practice. They acknowledged to the players that there had been talk about trading for Paul but told them the team standing there was the one they planned on having this season.

Paul, who will make $16.3 million this season, had informed the Clippers that he would have exercised his contract option for the 2012-13 season, worth $17.7 million.

The Clippers didn’t want to give away all of their assets going forward and not have a competitive team, so they decided it was in the team’s best interest not to try to acquire Paul, Olshey said.

“The aggregated compensation that we were going to have to convey to them was just too much,” Olshey said. “And it was just going to hamstring our franchise in the long term.”

ALSO:

Lakers trade Lamar Odom to Mavericks

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-- Broderick Turner

Photo:  Chris Paul. Credit: Derick E. Hingle / US Presswire

Caron Butler agrees to deal with Clippers

The Clippers got their man, agreeing to a three-year, $24-million deal with free-agent forward Caron Butler on Thursday.

Butler’s agent, Raymond Brothers, confirmed his client will leave the Dallas Mavericks, the team he played for last season.

“He’s a Clipper now,” Brothers said in a phone interview. “I think he’s great fit for the Clippers on and off the court.”

Butler is the sort of small forward the Clippers were looking for to fill a void.

He averaged 15 points per game last season. But Butler played in just 29 games after having surgery in January to repair a ruptured tendon in his knee.

In his nine-year career, Butler, 31, has averaged 16.6 points and shot 44.1% from the field, including 31.9% from three-point range.

Butler spent two days with the Clippers this week at the team’s practice facility in Playa Vista.

Butler can’t actually sign the deal until Friday.

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-- Broderick Turner

Photo: Caron Butler. Credit: Alexander Gallardo / Los Angeles Times.

Caron Butler to visit Clippers on Monday

Free-agent forward Caron Butler will visit the Clippers’ training facility Monday to discuss his possible future with the team, his agent Raymond Brothers said Sunday night.

Butler averaged 15 points last season with the Dallas Mavericks. But he played in only 29 games after having surgery in January to repair a ruptured right patella tendon.

The NBA informed team executives over the weekend that they would be allowed to have direct contact with free agents starting at 7 a.m. Pacific time Monday. The free-agency period begins Friday, which is the first day teams can sign players or make trades, provided the new collective bargaining agreement is ratified.

The Clippers are in need of a veteran small forward, and the feeling in the organization is that Butler, a nine-year veteran, can fill that void.

Butler also has drawn interest from the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs.

Tayshaun Prince, a free-agent small forward who played for the Detroit Pistons last season, also remains interested in the Clippers, his agent Billy Duffy said.

-- Broderick Turner

Photo: Mavericks forward Caron Butler (4) applies defensive pressure against Blazers guard Patty Mills during a game last December. Credit: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images

Clippers reach out to free agent Tayshaun Prince

The Clippers have reached out to free agent Tayshaun Prince to gauge his interest in playing for them this season, a source said Wednesday afternoon.

Prince, a 6-foot-9 forward who has played all nine of his NBA seasons with the Detroit Pistons, fits the need the Clippers have for a veteran, quality small forward.

He averaged 14.1 points last season on a declining Pistons team. Prince is known as an outstanding defender who can guard small forwards and shooting guards. He has made 36.8% of his three-pointers over his career, 46.4% of his field goals.

Prince, 31, made $11.1 million last season and may command a hefty salary.

But the Clippers have the money to spend.

Their payroll is $45 million, $13 million below the projected $58 million salary cap.

Prince also is a Los Angeles native, having attended Dominguez High School.

Teams were allowed to start talking to players’ representatives on Wednesday about contracts for free agents but cannot officially make verbal or written agreements until the free agency period and training camps open on Dec. 9.

The Clippers also have interest in talking to Dallas Mavericks small forward Caron Butler.

ALSO:

Mitch Kupchak confident as Lakers get to work.

NBA players can use team facilities beginning Thursday.

NBA free agency frenzy will be caused more by time than talent.

-- Broderick Turner

Photo: Tayshaun Prince. Credit: Elsa Hasch / Getty Images.

Penn State comment on ESPN raises questions

Just after 8:30 this morning on the West Coast, ESPN returned from a commercial break showing Penn State players who were chanting and moving rhythmically in a large circle, firing themselves up before the game.

Then, from off camera, came the words: "Where's that little kid?"

It sounded like Lee Corso's voice. Corso was with the network's GameDay crew at Stanford, but that unit was commenting on the pregame action in State College, Pa., where Penn State and Nebraska were preparing to kickoff.

FULL COVERAGE: Penn State scandal

Corso wasn't heard from for several minutes while others spoke with shots of Penn State coaches and players in the background.

An ESPN spokesman contacted by The Times' Diane Pucin was not aware of the incident and said he would check into it.

There might be an innocent explanation for it. But the juxtaposition of that camera shot and that off-camera remark was startling.

Someone needs to answer for it.

[UPDATE 10:15 a.m. It was Lee Corso. ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz offered this plausible explanation:

Each week, Corso announces which team he's picking in ESPN's game of the week by putting on a funky hat related to the team. This week, a charity auction was held and the winner got to hand the hat to Corso.

The winner, Krulewitz told Diane Pucin, was a child. Corso was looking for that child. His comment had nothing to do with the image ESPN cameras were carrying from Penn State.

Indeed, about 10 minutes later on ESPN's GameDay broadcast from Palo Alto, Corso reached over the back of the stage and came back with a Stanford tree hat. He was picking the Cardinal over Oregon.

So his earlier comment, it seems, was merely a shocking coincidence.]

ALSO:

It was an emotional day after at Penn State

Plaschke: This should be the end of Paterno State

Scandal will have an effect on Penn State program for years

--Mike Hiserman

Photo: ESPN GameDay crew (from left) Chris Fowler, Lee Corso (in headgear) and Kirk Herbstreit before a Texas-Ohio State game. Credit: ESPN.

Former Lakers coach Phil Jackson is into LLWS, Brent Musburger says

Brent Musburger isn't trying to hide his affection for the Billings, Mont., Little League team that will play Ocean View of Huntington Beach in Saturday's Little League World Series U.S. division championship game.

Musburger grew up in Billings and his father founded the Little League program there.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I expect this to be happening," Musburger said Friday. Musburger is on the ESPN/ABC broadcast team that will call Saturday's U.S. title game and the International division championship game between Mexico and Japan, as well as Sunday's championship.

Musburger said the entire state of Montana is buzzing about the state's first representative in the LLWS. He said his brother, Todd, even got a text message from former Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who has a home in Montana. "He texted my brother during the game when Montana beat Ocean View," Musburger said.

Musburger said his father coached the first Montana team that won a state championship. "They went to Richland, Washington, for the regionals," Musburger said, "and lost to a team from Santa Monica. That was the first of 21 times that Montana was knocked out of regional play."

When he's on television Saturday, he said, "I'm not going to hide from the fact I'm from Billings. I'm amazed at what's happening but I don't have a stake in the outcome. Whatever happens happens and now it's just frosting on the cake.

"I think California should be favored. They're going to come back with that pitcher [Nick] Pratto who dominated Montana until he left the game. The Montana team goes about its business and if you make a mistake, Montana takes advantage. I think California will press hard and try to score early because as long as you let an underdog stay close, in any sport, the better off it is for the underdog."

-- Diane Pucin

MORE:

Ocean View advances to U.S. championship game

Little League dreams can be nightmares on the pocket book

Umpires feel the pressure, too, in Little League World Series

Photo: Fans cheer for the Billings, Mont., Little League team during a 1-0 victory over Ocean View of Huntington Beach on Thursday. Credit: Tom E. Puskar / Associated Press

Little League World Series game did big ratings in Los Angeles

The Little League World Series game Wednesday night between Ocean View of Huntington Beach, the team representing the West, and the Northwest team from Billings, Mont., making the state's first-ever LLWS appearance, was the highest-rated LLWS game on ESPN ever in the Los Angeles market.

Ocean View lost, 1-0, on a Montana walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. The game did a 2.6 rating in Los Angeles. The previous highest-rated game in the market was Chula Vista against Warner Robins, Ga., in 2009. That game did a 2.2 rating. The records have been kept since 2001.

Thursday at 5 p.m. PDT, Ocean View will play Clinton County, Pa., the Mid-Atlantic team, in an elimination game televised on ESPN2.

MORE:

Mexico wins again in extra innings

Huntington Beach Little Leaguers lose, 1-0

-- Diane Pucin in South Williamsport, Pa.

 Photo: Huntington Beach first baseman Nick Pratto, left, dives to first base as teammate Christian Catano looks on. Credit: Tim Shaffer / Reuters.

USC football: Matt Barkley, Matt Leinart, Tim Tebow talk quarterback sneak

USC pulled off perhaps the most famous quarterback sneak in college football history when Reggie Bush assisted Matt Leinart into the end zone with the so-called "Bush Push" at Notre Dame in 2005.

Leinart, current Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley and Tim Tebow are among the voices in a story about the art of the quarterback sneak play in ESPN The Magazine.

Some excerpts from the conversation-style story:

"I just called "Kill!" in the huddle and everyone knew what we had to do."

-- Tim Tebow, Denver Broncos quarterback

"It's not just a meathead play. There is an art to it. You have to know what the defense is going to do before the ball is snapped, know certain guys will slant a certain way when we're in an empty set or that a team doesn't load the box in the red zone."

-- Matt Barkley, USC quarterback

"I think I had six rushing touchdowns my senior year at USC and three were QB sneaks from the 1-yard line. I stole a lot of TDs."

-- Matt Leinart, Houston Texans quarterback

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-- Gary Klein

Photo: USC quarterback Matt Barkley. Credit: Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times

On the ESPYs red carpet [Video]

Some great athletes were in attendance at the 2011 ESPYs on Wednesday, including Blake Griffin, Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Russell Westbrook. 

Yet a scrawny 17-year-old named Justin Bieber drew the most excitement (read: screams) from fans on the red carpet outside of the Nokia Theater. 

Welcome to Los Angeles.

Though Beiber deftly avoided any contact with the media (sorry to disappoint), we were able to chat with some of the athletes as they strolled by looking dapper in fine suits and flashy dresses. 

Nowitzki said that if he could play with any player in the league, he would choose Kobe Bryant. Former Laker Robert Horry said the Lakers needed a new point guard. Griffin said he was excited to see Beiber. Then he giggled. I'm not 100% sure whether he was joking. 

Kevin Love said Griffin was his greatest competition in the league. Jason Kidd said his was anyone under the age of 30. 

Does that include Bieber?

At the awards ceremony, Nowitzki was named male athlete of the year and skier Lindsey Vonn was named female athlete of the year. 

-- Melissa Rohlin