Miami Heat gives one-year extensions to several staff members

To soften the blow of massive employee pay cuts, Miami Heat president Pat Riley has granted one-year extensions to several members of the basketball operations staff.

Riley, coach Erik Spoelstra and other key members of the front-office staff were among those in the organization who recently accepted pay reductions of up to 20 percent for the upcoming season.

Riley told his staff nearly two months ago that cutbacks were necessary to avoid further layoffs. The Heat in May dismissed 20 employees from its business operations staff amid an economic downturn that has affected several professional teams.

Failure not an option for Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra

Perfection was the ever-elusive goal of little Erik Spoelstra, whether he was an 80-pound eighth-grader just trying to get noticed or a slightly heavier varsity starter with Division I potential.

So when the diminutive playmaker needed to miss a free throw with his high school team's playoff life on the line, he aimed for perfect imperfection.

Future NBA point guard Damon Stoudamire, three years younger than Spoelstra, was watching from the stands and was confident Spoelstra would miss flawlessly.

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Wizards: Gilbert Arenas stored firearms in locker

The Washington Wizards said point guard Gilbert Arenas stored firearms in his locker at the Verizon Center and that the NBA is investigating the matter.

"The Washington Wizards have learned that Gilbert Arenas stored firearms in a locked container in his locker, unloaded and without ammunition," the team said in a statement. "The Wizards organization and Arenas promptly notified the local authorities and the NBA, are cooperating fully with law enforcement during its review of this matter and will have no further comment at this time."

Arenas told the Washington Times that the incident happened around December 10. Arenas said after his new daughter was born he didn't want the guns in his house and around the kids anymore. Arenas told the newspaper he took the guns to his lock box at the Verizon Center and then about a week later turned them over to team security, and told them to hand the weapons over to the police.