NBA Franchise Notes: Lakers Selling Well Sans Shaq

In L.A., Mike Bresnahan reports Lakers season-ticket holders have renewed at a 97% rate, down from 98%, “but more than acceptable to Laker officials who feared the worst after Shaquille O’Neal was traded” to the Heat. Lakers Senior VP/Business Operations Tim Harris said there was “some nervous time” after the Lakers traded O’Neal, but added the “demand [for tickets] is still there.” Bresnahan notes the team had a 6% increase in ticket sales for this season, and Harris noted that a few early cancellations in the lower bowl of Staples Center came “with reasons unrelated to the Lakers.” Harris: “We weren’t getting, ‘You traded Shaq’ or anything like that. We were getting, ‘I’m retiring and can’t write this off anymore as a business expense,’ or ‘My business is closing.’ It was normal economic reasons” (L.A. TIMES, 10/29).

KNICKS: In N.Y., Marc Berman reports Knicks President of Basketball Operations Isiah Thomas has mandated that all morning shootarounds on game days be at Madison Square Garden and not at the Knicks’ practice facility in Westchester. Thomas also wants the players “to know the city better.” Only G Penny Hardaway and Fs Kurt Thomas and Tim Thomas live in Manhattan. The team’s Westchester residents “are afforded hotel rooms during the day with a chance to explore Manhattan” (N.Y. POST, 10/29).