Wizards’ new owner is still early to be confirmed

Since the death of longtime Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin in November, it had been almost sure that Ted Leonsis will buy the team to be the successor. Well, it has been not so sue because of an internal e-mail.

According to The Associated Press, Leonsis’ group is “surprised and disappointed” about an internal e-mail among Wizards staff. The e-mail seeks to downplay the perception the Leonsis will be the inevitable new owner and says “there is no exclusive right for anyone to purchase the Wizards.”

Leonsis and his Lincoln Holdings group has owned 44 percent of the Wizards and the rest of Pollin’s Washington Sports & Entertainment empire since Pollin welcomed him into the WS&E family in 1999 by selling him the NHL’ Washington Capitals. As the former AOL executive, he was also anointed by Pollin his successor. So Leonsis has the inside track to purchase the other 56 percent and would have to fail to clear all of several hurdles not to do so.

However, the e-mail written by WS&E president of business operations Peter Biche says there’s nothing to keep the Pollin family from marketing the Wizards to other potential buyers “at this time.”

At this time, the Wizards star guard Gilbert Arenas has been suspended for the remaining season and will not be in his No. 0 Wizards jersey until next season begins. At this time, an exclusive appraisal process is ongoing. The Pollin’s family has chosen an appraiser to value the team, so does the Leonsis group. If Leonsis’ group is willing to offer the price offered by the appraisers, in case they value the team for the same price, or a price offered by a neutral appraise in case the two appraisals fail to yield a mutually agreeable sale price, the new owner is to be Leonsis; if not, other buyers could make their offer, but Leonsis’ group has the right of first refusal to match any offer the Pollins or Washington Sports receive.

Lakers ended losing streak by beating Bucks 95-77

Kobe Bryant knew he was not playing his best basketball but he and his supporting cast still tried best to play better and managed to end their two-game losing streak by beating the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday night.

Still putting on his No. 24 NBA jersey despite broken right index finger, Bryant had 12 points on 4 of 21 shooting, his fourth consecutive sub-par shooting performance. But his teammates did quite good job. Andrew Bynum became the top performer by having 17 points and a career-high 18 rebounds, Shannon Brown added 19 points, Jordan Farmar scored 17 points and Derek Fisher had 11.

Milwaukee’s 77 points were the fewest the team has ever scored against the Lakers. Their top performer Jodie Meeks had only 12 points and 5 rebounds. Hakim Warrick had 14, Brandon Jennings, Luke Ridnour and Charlie Bell each added 10 points.

Young players helped Thunder win

The Oklahoma City Thunder keeps finding that young players in their first year of wearing NBA jerseys are contributing to the team’s improvement. And Friday night’s win over the Detroit Pistons proved that again.

Kevin Durant scored 27 points, and a pair of rookies led Oklahoma City on a key run in the fourth quarter as the Thunder snapped a three-game losing streak with a 109-98 victory over the Pistons on Friday night.

With Durant and the other starters failing to play with the energy, Coach Scott Brooks was seeking, turning to his bench, and he had rookies James Harden and Serge Ibaka to lead the way in a tight game.

“Those two rookies, they came in and did a great job of controlling the game in the fourth quarter,” Brooks said.

Harden scored Oklahoma City’s first seven points of the fourth quarter to help the Thunder stretch their lead, and Nick Collison’s tip-in pushed the advantage to 86-77.

After Charlie Villanueva scored the next five points for Detroit, Harden and Ibaka combined on a 9-0 run to give Oklahoma City its largest lead of the night, 95-82. Harden hit a 3-pointer and then assisted on back-to-back baskets by Ibaka.

Harden totally scored 14 points and had career-high eight assists while Ibaka scored a career-high 12. Thus the Thunder won their first game after losing their last two home games against the Dallas and Denver respectively.