The Bulls hope to come to terms on contract extensions for Ben Gordon and Luol Deng before the season starts, but with training camp starting Monday, nothing is imminent.

The deadline to get contract extensions done is Oct. 31, the day the Bulls open the regular season at New Jersey. Gordon and Deng -- the team's top scorers, respectively -- are most likely looking for more than the $47.5 million, five-year extension that the Bulls agreed to give Kirk Hinrich on deadline day last year.

''We've talked,'' general manager John Paxson said. ''But if something doesn't get done, it will speak more to the fact that those two kids have such great confidence in themselves that they'll expect to go out and have a terrific year. Which is great for us and for them. We are not going to lose them.''

Glen Taylor, owner of the Wolves, said that the Kevin Garnett trade might have never developed had Garnett not come to Kevin McHale last spring and asked for a three-year contract extension.

But Garnett, who was being paid $22 million a season, refused the suggestion of Taylor that KG take a cut in salary, so the decision was made to make the trade. Taylor said that the Chicago Bulls were interested in Garnett but not at the salary he demanded.

Dennis Rodman could be in trouble yet again - this time for allegedly slapping a woman's behind.

The retired hoops star is under investigation after the woman accused him of whacking her behind in a bar near his home in Newport Beach, Calif., gossip Web site TMZ.com reported yesterday.

The Orange County sheriff's office is probing the incident, in which one source told the Web site that Rodman hit the woman so hard, he left a "major mark."

"A police report was taken and is currently with the sex crime unit," Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County sheriff, told TMZ.

Ben Wallace is visiting New York City to support the launch of the Big Ben Wallace Collection, his own line of reasonably priced sneakers and athletic apparel available exclusively at Steve & Barry's stores.

The new Big Ben Wallace sneakers, which Wallace will wear beginning this coming NBA season, retail for just $14.98. The Collection is the result of the phenomenal success of Starbury - the line of $14.98 sneakers and clothes created by Stephon Marbury and Steve & Barry's a year ago.  

For people in the New York area, Ben Wallace will be appearing at the Manhattan Mall on 6th Avenue and 33rd Street and the Menlo Park Mall on 55 Parsonage Road in Edison, New Jersey this Saturday.

Former Chicago Bulls player Scottie Pippen is close to signing a two match deal with Finland's Torpan Pojat (ToPo), the team said on Thursday.

The plan is that Pippen, a six-time NBA champion and now 41 years old, would play in ToPo in December or January.

"We are discussing details now, such as when and in which matches he will play," ToPo's general manager Aleksi Valavuori said.

"He would be the best player ever to have played in Europe."

Ben Gordon sued his former financial advisers Wednesday, alleging they charged him excessive fees and improperly borrowed $1 million of his money to invest in a real estate deal for themselves.

The Bulls guard said in the lawsuit that he signed a deal with California-based Larry Harmon & Associates in 2004 that called for him to pay a fee of $4,000 to $6,000 per month for financial consulting.

In May 2006, Harmon proposed changing the deal so Gordon instead would pay a percentage of his total income, the lawsuit said.

The Bulls player never agreed to that and, in fact, "on multiple occasions, expressed concerns and reservations about such an arrangement," according to the suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.

Gordon alleges that when he hired new financial advisers, it was discovered Harmon and his company had been charging Gordon a fee of 1.5 percent of his total income.

Luol Deng and Thabo Sefolosha, close friends and neighbors as well as teammates, squared off on opposite teams in the first leg of a European Championships B Division promotion game in front of 500 spectators in the northern English steel town of Sheffield.

It was hard to imagine a setting farther removed from the United Center -- or even the Eurobasket tournament currently going on in Spain -- as Deng's Great Britain and Sefolosha's Switzerland met in an inner-city "leisure centre".

For the record, Deng took the honors, finishing with 31 points, 12 boards, 4 assists and 3 steals. Sefolosha ended the game with 21 points, 9 boards and 5 fouls, fouling out of the contest.

More importantly, in a tie that will be decided by aggregate score over the two games or "legs," Great Britain won by a 74-41 score line.

"This isn't over, you can't say that," Deng said. "But obviously we want to finish off a great summer in style so we need to concentrate on the job in hand.

Luol Deng is a popular commodity in Europe as he represents Great Britain.

Moments after the buzzer sounded to end the game, Deng was swamped for autographs from opposition players, the Chicago Tribune is reporting.

The scene is witnessed by 2,000 Union Jack wavers gathered to watch Britain edge closer to a berth in the 2012 Olympic Games in the young Bull's adopted home city of London.

"The UK took my family in when we left the Sudan," Deng says. "I feel I want to put something back."

To earn an invitation to the Olympics, Britain must first earn promotion to Europe's A Division. It will play the first of a two-game finals series Tuesday night against Switzerland, led by Bulls teammate Thabo Sefolosha.

The Nets are about to add more size and experience up front by signing 6-10 free agent forward Malik Allen. The six-season veteran will sign a one-year non-guaranteed contract today.

Allen, 29, averaged 4.0 points and 2.0 rebounds in 60 games with the Bulls last season. Allen, whom the Nets have courted several times in the past, is a career 6.0 scorer and 3.3 rebounder. If he sticks with the team and earns a roster spot, he'll make the veteran's minimum for his experience, just over $1 million.

The Nets already have added free agents Jamaal Magloire and Robert Hite plus draft pick Sean Williams this summer.

The Chicago Bulls announced today the promotion of Matt Lloyd to Director of College Scouting.

?This promotion is a natural progression for Matt, who has been instrumental in formulating our extensive college scouting database,? said Bulls Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations John Paxson. ?In his new role as Director of College Scouting, Matt will continue to assist our Director of Player Personnel Gar Forman in our evaluation of college talent for the NBA Draft as well as maintain the statistical analysis of both professional and amateur players.?

Lloyd, 34, is entering his ninth season with the Bulls and has spent the last four seasons serving as Senior Manager of Basketball Operations/Scout.