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Ray Allen lingered on the court for a bit after his Boston Celtics lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals to the Miami Heat last month, shaking hands and offering congratulations.
A few minutes later, Allen made a vow about his future.
“There’s still a lot of basketball left in my legs” – he said.
The Heat apparently were listening, apparently agree — and will soon officially welcome Allen to their club.
Allen told the Heat on Friday night that he intends to accept their contract offer and leave Boston after five seasons, even though the Celtics could have paid him about twice as much as the reigning NBA champions will be able to next season. Miami could only offer Allen the mini mid-level, worth about 3 million dollars a year.
Heat owner Micky Arison tweeted the news just after 9:30 p.m. Friday, or about 2:30 a.m. Saturday in Europe, where Arison has been for several days.
“I was just woken up with great news” – Arison wrote. “Welcome to the family.” Arison ended the tweet by making mention of Allen’s jersey No. 20, but didn’t mention the NBA’s leading 3-point shooter by name. No matter — Allen’s agent, James Tanner, confirmed the plan to The Associated Press moments later.

Ray Allen.

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Only in the NBA, and in this nutty offseason, would spurning the Dallas Mavericks for the New York Knicks actually feel like a good idea. And though the Knicks aren’t about to set the Eastern Conference ablaze, something about veteran Jason Kidd deciding to leave the Mavericks as a free agent and join New York just feels right. Even if the Dallas Mavericks might be a few tweaks and trades away from being better next year. Even if the Mavs are led by a billionaire who actually thinks things out. Even if the Knicks are the Knicks.
Jason Kidd lives in the New York metropolitan area. He’s enjoyed two stints with the Dallas Mavericks with the latter culminating in an NBA championship in 2011. But he’s also shot just over 36 percent from the field his last two seasons. He turned the ball over on nearly a quarter of the possessions he used up last year, his defense has faded significantly, and his 3-point shooting has dipped down to the ranks of below average. And yet two teams wanted him, badly, enough to potentially pay him until he turned 42 — even if we’re currently unaware of just how many years this three-year deal is guaranteed for.
And he chose the Knicks!

Jason Kidd.

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The Los Angeles Lakers made a significant move that should keep them a contender in the NBA’s Western Conference.
On Wednesday, they reached an agreement to acquire point guard and two-time MVP Steve Nash from the Phoenix Suns in a sign-and-trade deal that will send four future draft picks and 3 million dollars in cash to the Suns.
Teams cannot officially sign or trade free agents until July 11, but Nash will receive a three-year, 27 million dollars made possible by the trade exception gained when the Lakers traded forward Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks last season.
The Suns will receive first-round picks in 2013 and 2015 and second-round picks in 2013 and 2014 plus 3 million dollars in cash from the Lakers.
“This is what I call a family values contract” – Nash’s agent Bill Duffy told USA TODAY Sports. “He was seriously considering retiring so he could remain close to his children. We had to twist his arm to have an open mind. He didn’t want to be away from his children, and this allows him to be in a competitive situation, and even though it’s a rival, he wanted Phoenix to get some value back. It’s a win-win.”
Nash has three children, but is divorced from their mother, who lives in the Phoenix area. Nash and his ex-wife have twin daughters, Lola and Bella, who are 7 years old, and a son, Matteo, who will turn two in November.
Phoenix is a one-hour flight from Los Angeles, making it easy for Nash to travel between the two cities.

Steve Nash.

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Andy Griffith (an actor whose folksy Southern manner charmed audiences for more than 50 years on Broadway, in movies, on records, and especially on television, most notably as the small-town sheriff on the long-running situation comedy that bore his name) died Tuesday at his home on Roanoke Island in North Carolina. He was 86.
The Dare County sheriff, Doug Doughtie, said Mr. Griffith died Tuesday morning.
Mr. Griffith was already a star, with rave reviews on Broadway in “No Time for Sergeants” and in Elia Kazan’s film “A Face in the Crowd,” when “The Andy Griffith Show” made its debut in fall 1960.
He delighted a later generation of television viewers in the 1980′s and 90′s in the title role of the courtroom drama “Matlock.”
But his fame was never as great as it was in the 1960′s, when he starred for eight years as Andy Taylor, the sagacious sheriff of the make-believe Southern town of Mayberry, running herd on a collection of eccentrics like his ineffectual deputy, Barney Fife, and the simple-minded gas station attendant Gomer Pyle while, as a widower, patiently raising a young son, Opie.

Andy Griffith.

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Swathed in the red and yellow colours of Spain, hundreds of thousands packed central Madrid to give a hero’s welcome home Monday to “La Roja” — the national soccer team that erased the economically struggling country’s gloomy mood by winning the Euro 2012 Championship with flair.
With the celebrated team back, it was time to party for a second straight night. After a 2 1/2 hour open-air bus ride through the fan-packed streets, squad members took to a stage in Cibeles plaza against the backdrop of Madrid’s majestic town hall and danced to pop music while spraying each other with sparkling wine.
“It was a merited triumph, we made history and now it’s time to celebrate it” – said mastermind midfielder Xavi Hernandez, adding that Spain hopes to build on the success of the past four years. “Next we*ll go for the Confederations Cup [2013] and then the World Cup in Brazil (2014), but first we want to enjoy this one.”
Earlier, King Juan Carlos and members of the royal family congratulated the players at the Zarzuela Palace outside Madrid within hours of their returning from Kyiv, where they crushed Italy 4-0 to defend their title Sunday night. The Iberia plane that brought them to the Spanish capital bore the logo “proud of our national team.”
Team captain and goalie Iker Casillas proudly held the tournament cup as he emerged from the plane in Madrid with coach Vicente del Bosque.

Spain.

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Blue Ivy Carter just got a bunch of shiny new toys to play with.
The BET Awards took place in Los Angeles on Sunday, and big winners included Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, and, of course, Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce.
The show kicked off with a Kanye-induced bang as the rapper, decked in all-white, joined 2 Chainz and eventual Best New Artist winner Big Sean to perform their runaway rap hit “Mercy,” which Music Mix can verify has been blaring from 90% of car stereos in Brooklyn all summer. West (who brought Kim Kardashian as his date to the awards) also ran through “Theraflu,” the cut that outed the couple in the first place.
That performance segued to host Samuel L. Jackson coming out with Red Hook Summer director Spike Lee to deliver a parody version of the Jay and Kanye single “N—-s in Paris”.
Other performances at the event came from the likes of Usher, Nicki Minaj and 2 Chainz, Melanie Fiona, D’angelo(!), Rick Ross and his on-fire Maybach Music Group, and Chris Brown.

BET Awards 2012.

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The Pirate Bay is down at the moment. So naturally people start to get worried.
Those who wonder whether their ISP has started to block access to the site can be assured though, the downtime is global.
Still, every time the site goes offline for a few minutes thousands of people start to worry that something awful has happened to their beloved site. Luckily, this is usually not the case.
When the site’s not responding someone probably tripped over a cable. They’re working on software upgrades, replacing hardware or facing another technical difficulty.
TorrentFreak contacted the Pirate Bay team and we’ll post an update as soon as we get a reply.
The best advise for worried users is to relax. Take a deep breath, and try to visit the site again in a few hours.

The Pirate Bay.

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What went so wrong so quickly?
Just days ago, Tom Cruise was as exuberant as ever about his love for Katie Holmes, telling PEOPLE that his perfect day is “the time with Kate.”
Sadly, those days appear to be over.
On Thursday, five days before Cruise’s 50th birthday, Holmes (33) filed divorce papers in New York, leaving Cruise “deeply saddened” – and their fans searching for answers.
Although the couple have faced breakup rumors ever since their whirlwind romance led to an engagement, baby and then marriage, the timing and circumstances of the breakup still came as a shock – and raised the question of whether the actor was taken by surprise.
Cruise confirmed that it was Holmes who filed papers (not him) and the brief statement from his rep spoke of the star needing privacy to “work this out.”

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise.

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Don Grady, who played Chip and Ernie’s wholesome (heartthrob big brother Robbie on the long-running television sitcom “My Three Sons”) died on Wednesday at his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 68.
A family spokesman said the cause was cancer.
Mr. Grady, a versatile musician and singer who got his start in television as a Mouseketeer on “The Mickey Mouse Club,” considered music his vocation and his acting career something of an accident. At 14, he was an aspiring musician in high school who played ukulele, drums, accordion and clarinet while acting on the side when he was called to audition for the part of Robbie Douglas, one of three sons of the wistful, pipe-smoking widower Steve Douglas, played by Fred MacMurray.
The producers had already cast another actor. “But, for reasons I never found out, they needed to replace him” – Mr. Grady wrote in the forward to “Fred MacMurray” – a 2007 biography by Charles Tranberg. “I was summoned to a hastily held audition at noon, and by 3 p.m. I was cast as the new Robbie. My acting abilities probably helped, but I still believe the reason I got the part was because the cleft in my chin looked like Fred’s.”

Don Grady.

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The ASUS Nexus tablet, Google’s first tablet in the Nexus family is finally here and it’s called the Google Nexus 7. Surely you saw all of our coverage from earlier today. From the announcement post, or immediate hands-on coverage and more, but now we’re diving in a little deeper with tons of info and our initial review impressions.
Google’s new tablet is pretty impressive. Is this just a Kindle Fire fighter? Yes and no. Of course this will directly compete with the Kindle Fire – and kill it – but it also competes with all of the Android tablets currently available. Not just 7-inch models. Coming with impressive specs, the latest version of Android, and an awesome price how could it not? Below we’ll show you a few more videos, plenty of screenshots, and as usual some benchmarks of that quad-core Tegra 3 processor. Stay tuned and enjoy it all below.

Google Nexus 7.

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