Luxury Tax

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Edmonton Oilers each tried to shore up a weak spot by swapping backup goaltenders yesterday, with the Penguins acquiring Mathieu Garon for Dany Sabourin, minor-league forward Ryan Stone, and a fourth-round draft pick in 2011. Neither goalie was satisfying his team. The Los Angeles Kings activated Jack Johnson from the injured-reserve list after the defenseman missed 41 games because of a shoulder injury. Pro basketball Darius Miles' appearance Friday night with the Memphis Grizzlies was a costly one for the Portland Trail Blazers, his former team.

LeBron James insisted facing the NBA champions in January was no ordinary regular-season game. He and his teammates proved it. James scored 38 points, harassed Paul Pierce all over the floor, and strengthened his case to be the league's MVP front-runner as the Cleveland Cavaliers improved to 19-0 at home by beating the staggering Boston Celtics, 98-83, last night in a game oozing with postseason intensity. James scored 23 in the second half. He added seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and three blocks.

The New York Yankees not only failed to make the playoffs, they were hit with their highest luxury tax in 3 years. The Yankees were assessed a $26.9 million tax by the commissioner's office yesterday, up from $23.9 million last year and their biggest bill since paying nearly $34 million for 2005. The Detroit Tigers, who also failed to qualify for the postseason, are the only other team that must pay tax and owe $1.3 million to the commissioner's office. Checks are due by Jan. 31. Both teams got little for what they spent.

With the Sixers beginning training camp next week at Duke University, Ed Snider won't be pinned down making predictions. But the Sixers' chairman said he was comfortable with the direction the franchise was headed in, even though the team was likely to be picked by many to finish last in the five-team Atlantic Division. Unlike previous seasons, when the Sixers tried to find players who would fit into Allen Iverson's style of play, the Sixers, according to Snider, aren't going for any quick fixes this time.

The NBA's salary cap for the 2007-08 season was announced yesterday at $55.630 million, while the luxury tax has been set at $67.865 million. Teams that exceed the luxury tax level will have to pay a dollar for every dollar over that amount. For the 76ers, it is a workable figure. The Sixers would like to stay near or below the luxury tax level. Two years ago, teams were given the chance for a one-time amnesty rule in which they still would pay a player, but his total wouldn't count on the luxury tax. The Sixers waived Aaron McKie, who was owed $19.5 million over the final three years of his contract.

It was a ritual of the off-season for Billy King, whether the 76ers made the playoffs or spent the day after the end of the regular season cleaning out their lockers. The Sixers' president and general manager would try to find the right players to take the court with Allen Iverson, the leading scorer and star of the show. But no matter whom he brought to Philadelphia, the fit never was quite good enough to make more than one serious run at an NBA championship. At least this off-season, King can build from a new blueprint.

The silence on Thursday was hardly surprising. Despite all the noise in the weeks leading up to the NBA's trade deadline - Pau Gasol is going to the Bulls! Jason Kidd is going to the Lakers! - at the end of the day, we had what we normally have: a few minor deals that will have absolutely no impact on the playoff race or June's draft. Teams are traditionally reluctant to do major deals during the season, fearing that the adjustment period for both incoming and existing players to one another may be too long.

He is ready now to admit what he wouldn't on national television, when he was still dreaming of playing for the Lakers, in the city he once said he would walk naked to in order to sign on the dotted line. "I had just gotten off the phone with Phil Jackson," Chris Webber said last week, explaining why he denied what had been accurately reported - that he would play the rest of this season with Detroit, his hometown team. That decision had been made almost as soon as he and the 76ers agreed on the terms of his buyout in mid-January - he would give back about $6.2 million of the remaining $43 million on his contract, the Sixers would get under the luxury tax, everyone would be happy.

THE BUZZ Owners make news on revenue The league's omerta was shattered last week, when the Seattle Times published a letter from eight NBA owners - who sounded an awful lot like small-market NFL owners - to commissioner David Stern. The letter is significant, because NBA owners, unlike their brethren in pro football and baseball, have been remarkably disciplined over the years in maintaining their silence on just about every issue. But the Times got somebody to drop the dime, publishing a September letter to Stern signed by Portland's Paul Allen, Memphis' Michael Heisley, Charlotte's Bob Johnson, Utah's Larry Miller, New Orleans' George Shinn, Milwaukee's Herb Kohl, Indiana's Herb Simon, and Minnesota's Glen Taylor.

By the time baseball's newly agreed upon collective-bargaining agreement expires in 2011, the sport will have enjoyed a historic 16-year run without a divisive strike or lockout. The unprecedented era of peace in the modern game was ushered in before the world's media last night on baseball's biggest stage: the World Series. It was further evidence of how the partnership between management and players has grown as impressively as the game itself in the last four years. Gone was the acrimony that historically marked the beginning, middle and end of past negotiations.