Adam Morrison

WASHINGTON -- Former lottery pick Adam Morrison has been waived by the Washington Wizards, less than a month after signing with the team.

The Wizards also have waived center Sean Marks, and Thursday's moves allow the team to cut its roster to 15 players.

Morrison averaged five points and two rebounds in five preseason games with Washington. He was drafted with the No. 3 overall pick by the Charlotte Bobcats in 2006 after starring in college at Gonzaga.

The 6-foot-8 forward has played in four NBA seasons, two with Charlotte and two with the Los Angeles Lakers, with career averages of 7.5 points and 2.1 rebounds.

Marks has played for five teams since entering the league in 1998. He didn't appear in any games for the Wizards this preseason.

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Jordan Farmar

Name: Jordan Farmar
Position: PG
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 180 lbs
Birth Date: November 30, 1986 (age 23)
Birth Place: Los Angeles, CA
Number: 2
Drafted:  26th pick of the First Round in 2006 by the Los Angeles Lakers
Experience: 4 years
Contract: $4 million

On Offense: Essentially, this part of Farmar’s game is going to be intriguing to watch.  In his four years in the NBA, he’s been running the triangle offense, which limits the importance of a point guard.  Sure, it’s a successful formula, so who cares as long as you’re winning.  However, the Nets don’t run the triangle offense and this could open things up for Farmar.  He’s not a particularly explosive point guard in the vein of Allen Iverson in his prime, but Farmar seems to be a solid shooter when a basket is needed and provides some much-needed three-point shooting to create space.   In regards to being that second coach on the floor, Farmar never really had the opportunity to shine as he did in UCLA.  He’s capable of leading a fast break, as well as slowing the tempo and getting the job done in a half-court offense.  Again, it’s going to be intriguing to watch Farmar.

On Defense: Farmar doesn’t possess the speed, long arms, lateral quickness, or keen defensive intuition to jump passing lanes to be an outstanding defender, but he at least has the will to play defense, stay in front of his man, and give up his body.  He may not always stop his man, but the latter set of characteristics will endear Farmar to head coach Avery Johnson, as well as Nets fans.

Miscellaneous: Farmar has two NBA championship rings and in 75% of his NBA career, he’s been to the NBA Finals.  That pedigree gives him credibility to his teammates and while he won’t be looked at for sage advice as someone like Derek Fisher would, Farmar’s presence will still be an important one and should help change the attitude and environment of the Nets.

Comment: Should Devin Harris be traded for that Carmelo Anthony guy, Farmar will obviously be a downgrade as he isn’t starter material.  And if he is, he’s a low-grade starter.  He’s definitely a good fill-in type of player when Harris makes his annual visit to injury-land, but a full-time starter?  Nets fans would need to hope that the Lakers’ triangle offense was holding back the next Isiah Thomas.

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Lakers

LOS ANGELES -- Ron Artest has used his Twitter account in a variety of attention-grabbing ways, even infamously posting on his account earlier in the playoffs that Lakers coach Phil Jackson should "shut his yapper."

On Thursday, Artest opened up his wallet and plopped down $18,000 on two courtside seats for Game 1 of the NBA Finals and gave the tickets away to a fan who tweeted him.

"In the season I've been giving away a lot of tickets," Artest said. "I've been buying tickets and giving them away to fans, but it was championship time and I though the fans deserved to sit courtside."

Artest also has used the social media device this season to show off his flamboyant hairstyles before unveiling them at a game and also to organize games of touch football on the beach.

"Ninety-eight percent of people in L.A. don't go see a Lakers game," Artest said. "So, when I'm giving my two tickets that are up in the 10th row, they're extremely happy about those, if they're courtside, [they must be so happy that] I don't know if they're going to make it home tonight.

"I'm sure they were happy. Nine thousand dollars for a ticket . . . I don't know what happened to the $5,400 per ticket when I was here last year [as a spectator in the Western Conference finals]. I'm not happy about that, I was thinking about selling them [for more] when I bought them."

Artest was asked if he planned on buying courtside seats for a lucky fan for Game 2 out of superstition because the Lakers won Game 1 in convincing fashion, 102-89.

"No," Artest said. "That is it."

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Rat King

Rat King is a very rare phenomenon first observed in Germany in which a huge number of rats grow together by stacking up with each other with help of their tails. The tails are joined together by mud, blood and dirt. The rats are unusually large in size and grow collectively. They even die in the same bunch. These rats are a source of a number of contagious diseases including plague. In German culture, king rats are considered as a very bad omen.

The phenomenon was prevalent in the times when rats were black but later when they were replaced by brown and grayish colored family of rats, the trend slowed down. The clusters of rats have been found in a couple of locations and they have been preserved in museums. Usually rats between thirty and fifty in number are group into such huddle. Whenever the rat king is detected, it is immediately killed as they are extremely infectious and can cause serious illness.

The largest mummified rat king is kept in the museum of Mauritianum, Altenburg at Thuringa. It comprises of thirty two rats which were discovered in the annum 1828. The rats are sometimes preserved in alcohol and they are also kept in museums of Stuggart, Hameln and Goettingen. Various species of rats become part of the cluster especially Rattus rattus and Rattus rattus brevicaudatus. The latest remains of these rats were found in the month of April in the annum ‘86 and are maintained in the museum.

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Ron Artest

If there's a faster point of redemption in Lakers playoff history, it wasn't coming to mind, not after Jack Nicholson looked so stunned, Kobe Bryant looked so irritated and Ron Artest looked so confused.

Staples Center had fallen silent after Jason Richardson banked in a three-pointer with 3.5 seconds left, not long after practically the entire crowd begged Artest to stop shooting when he missed two open looks from the left side near the one-minute mark.

But then Artest, of all people, maligned much of the season as Lakers fans pined for Trevor Ariza, carved out the franchise's latest slice of playoff lore with an improbable play against the Phoenix Suns.

Bryant's herky-jerky three-point attempt missed badly from the right side with 2.5 seconds left, but Artest beat Richardson to the airball and put in an off-balance follow that banked in as time expired, giving the Lakers a 103-101 victory Thursday in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.

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Queensbridge

After hitting the game winning shot in game five of the Western Conference Finals between the Phoenix Suns/Los Angeles Lakers, Ron Artest granted an interview with TNT's Craig Sager.

Most of what Ron says is pretty much scatter-brained but before he leaves, he gets Craig Sager to give a shout-out to his home locale of "Queensbridge".

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