LeBron James has announced plans to give up uniform number 23 as a means of honoring Michael Jordan. "I just think what Michael Jordan has done for the game has to be recognized some way soon," James told reporters.

James wants the league's twelve other twenty-threes to follow suit. One of them -- Jason Richardson of the Phoenix Suns -- already declared he's on board via his Twitter feed, saying "the NBA should of retired 23 years ago."

The league-wide retirement of a number would be a first for the NBA, but other sports have gone that route to honor all-time greats. Major League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson's 42 in 1997 -- the 50th anniversary of Robinson's debut in the big leagues. And the NHL has officially retired 99 for Wayne Gretzky -- and un-officially retired 66 for Mario Lemieux.

• LeBron Giving Up #23 to Honor Michael Jordan
• Should the NBA retire Michael Jordan's Number?

Byron Scott became the first NBA coach to lose his job this season when the Hornets dropped the axe this week. Scott's departure wasn't unexpected -- his contract expires after this season, and his high salary and middling job performance made him an obvious target for the perpetually cost-cutting Shinn family. When the Hornets stumbled out of the gate to a 3-6 record -- including a loss to the lowly Knicks -- Scott's fate was sealed.

Stealing a page from the Minnesota Timberwolves' "You made this mess, you clean it up" Playbook, the team has given general manager Jeff Bower the coaching job for the remainder of the season. The T-Wolves did the same last year with general manager Kevin McHale -- who, you'll note, is no longer employed by the team. Bower's short-term prospects seem similarly bleak.

Bower will be assisted by Tim Floyd -- the ex-USC head coach who quit earlier this year amidst allegations he made payments to representatives of Trojan guard O.J. Mayo.

In other words, he was probably willing to work cheap.

This situation is going to get worse before it gets better. Already there are reports that franchise player Chris Paul is not pleased with the development and the fact that he wasn't consulted beforehand. Meanwhile, the Hornets are painfully thin on the perimeter, where big-money free agents Peja Stojakovic and James Posey have been major disappointments -- and management is desperate to shed another $3 million in salary to avoid the dreaded luxury tax... so don't expect reinforcements.

Best guess? The 2010-11 season will be Chris Paul's last in a Hornets uniform... and quite possibly, the team's last in New Orleans.

Here's an observation that should terrify Memphis fans:

He leads by example.

- Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, on Zach Randolph

Uh, Mr. Tillery? That's the problem.

Phil Jackson gave Laker fans -- and fantasy basketball players -- a scare yesterday when he suggested forward/center Pau Gasol might not be back until Christmas.

Gasol is recovering from a hamstring injury and has yet to play this season. He has been listed as "day-to-day," which usually means "he won't play today or tomorrow, but he could go this weekend."

Not, "you won't see him on the floor for another five weeks."

Jackson later back-tracked, telling ESPN the Christmas comment was a joke, and that Gasol is still day-to-day. It's not surprising that he's frustrated with Gasol's progress -- what was initially diagnosed as a minor injury has already sidelined Gasol for a month.

• NBA Injury Updates

Syracuse will struggle to replace Jonny Flynn, Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf this season -- but one thing is clear: Jim Boeheim's trademark 2-3 zone is back this season.

The early-season nominee for quote of the year comes from Albany guard Mike Black, a freshman point who faced Syracuse in the Great Danes' season-opener. When coach Will Brown asked his floor leader to get the ball into the high post, Black responded, "Coach, I can't see the high post."

'Cuse won the game, 75-43 -- giving Boeheim 800 W's for his career.

Binghamton doesn't have a total monopoly on misbehaving basketball players this season.

• Five Arkansas Razorbacks players -- including starters Courtney Fortson and Stefan Welsh -- have been suspended while authorities investigate an alleged rape.
• Seton Hall guard Keon Lawrence has been suspended indefinitely after being charged with driving under the influence.
• Minnesota forward Royce White -- already in trouble for a run-in with a Mall of America security guard in October -- allegedly swiped a laptop. Another Minnesota forward, Trevor Mbakwe, is dealing with an assault charge he claims is a case of mistaken identity.
• The Sporting News raised the possibility that Villanova freshman Mouphtau Yarou is actually 25 years old, after discovering a player with a very similar name and home town listed as a participant in the 2007 FIBA Africa Cup. But according to 'Nova coach Jay Wright, they've got the wrong guy.

Back when the Bulls drafted Joakim Noah, Chicago Tribute columnist Rick Morrissey said he'd eat his column -- with salsa, no less -- if Noah became a productive NBA player within three years.

Three years later, a bulked-up Noah has become a double-double machine... and Morrissey has learned that three-year-old newsprint is tasty with a little tomato/jalapeno/onion.

Mental note: when predicting the future, don't offer to do embarrassing things when proven wrong.

No one -- I mean, no one -- thought the Grizzlies' acquisitions of Allen Iverson and Zach Randolph would turn out well. But most observers thought that meant AI and Z-Bo would impede the development of young players like O.J. Mayo, Rudy Gay, Hasheem Thabeet and Mike Conley and cause the Grizz to lose more games than expected.

I don't think anyone was expecting a complete implosion before Thanksgiving. But that's where we seem to be at this point.

Let's review:

• Allen Iverson started complaining about his role after appearing in exactly one game.
• After three games, he left the team for unspecified personal reasons and is reportedly considering retirement.
• Meanwhile, Randolph collided with Thabeet during Tuesday's loss to the Blazers -- breaking the rookie's jaw in the process.

This is getting ugly, folks.

Can this team be saved? Hard to say... but Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post offers an intriguing scenario.

Could the Grizzlies ship Iverson to Cleveland? Iverson is making just over $3 million this year, on a one-year deal, and Memphis is about $900,000 under the cap right now, so the numbers can be worked out fairly easily.

The bigger stumbling block is an NBA restriction -- newly-signed free agents can't be traded until they've been with the team for three months or before December 15th (whichever comes first). That means it'll be another month or so before this situation can be resolved via trade.

(Thanks to Tim Hyland of About College Football for the link.)

NBA players have subjected an unsuspecting public to a lot of bad music over the years... from Shaquille O'Neal's collaborations with the Fu-Schnickens to Ron Artest's Tru Warier label to Tony Parker's French rhymes to J.J. Redick's forthcoming album.

(I admit, I've yet to hear the musical stylings of J.J. Redick. Perhaps it's unfair to suggest his album will be awful. But I'm not too worried that he'll prove me wrong on that point.)

But none of those musical crimes come close to the 2009-10 Chicago Bulls singing the greatest hits of the 80s.

In fairness... maybe these guys weren't that familiar with the source material. After all Derrick Rose -- whose version of the theme from Ghostbusters could be used to make the most hardened criminals spill their guts -- was born in 1988. (That's four years after the movie was in theaters.)

(h/t: Jimmy Traina/Hot Clicks)

With his first victory of the 2009-10 season, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim will reach the 800-win plateau. He'll be just the eighth coach in men's basketball history to reach number 800. Among active coaches, only Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Connecticut's Jim Calhoun have more W's -- but unlike Coach K and Calhoun, every one of Boeheim's wins has come with the Orange.

The Orange open their season at home against the University of Albany on Monday, November 9th in the first game of the 2k Sports Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Ordinarily, we'd pencil in a W when Syracuse faces a team from the America East... but don't forget, Boeheim and company lost an exhibition game to Division II LeMoyne last week. An uncharacteristically slow start shouldn't surprise anyone.

• Jim Boeheim Profile
• Winningest Active Coaches
• Winningest Coaches of All Time