The Cavaliers are expected to sign center Jelani McCoy before training camp opens for veterans Thursday.

McCoy, a 6-foot-10, 255-pound center, has five years of NBA experience, playing three years in Seattle, one with the Lakers and last season with the Raptors. He was originally drafted by the Sonics in the second round in 1998 and has averaged 4.9 points and 3.7 rebounds over 242 games in his career.

He averaged 6.8 points and 5.3 rebounds in 67 games with 25 starts for the Raptors last year after making the team out of training camp. He won an NBA Championship ring with the Lakers in 2002, though he played just 21 games and was left off the playoff roster.

Guard Smush Parker, who seemingly wore out his welcome as a rookie in Cleveland, has received a camp invitation from the Hawks, as have NBA veterans Tierre Brown and Obina Ekezie. There is a chance free-agent swingman DerMarr Johnson, who missed last season after a horrific car crash, also could return to the Hawks. ...

Coach Paul Silas needed only two weeks of summer league to determine that rookie LeBron James would be the Cavaliers starting point guard.

Silas raved about James' uncanny passing ability and how his height and strength advantage over many of the NBA's point guards would be major assets for the Cavs.

But those plans have changed.

"There's going to be enough pressure going on, so I don't want to add to it by playing him at point guard to start the season," Silas said. "It might be point guard by committee. Anyone can initiate our offense. Not just one person."

Initiating the offense from someone other than the point guard isn't a new concept for Silas.

Last year while coaching in New Orleans, Silas' starting point guard Baron Davis was injured for most of the season. While he was out, one of the smaller guards in Silas' offense would bring the ball up court. Once past half court, the offense was then initiated by 6-8 forward Jamal Mashburn, who is the same height as James.

During the off-season, the Cavs signed free-agent point guard Kevin Ollie and acquired point guard J.R. Bremer from Boston in a trade. If Ollie or Bremer start at the point, then that means James will either play shooting guard or small forward. That could mean a starting lineup of either Ollie or Bremer, James, Ricky Davis, Carlos Boozer and Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

The Heat completed one aspect of its bench Tuesday when it reached back to its past and signed veteran guard Bimbo Coles, a member of the organization in the 1990s, to a one-year contract.

Now all Miami has to do is complete its reserve unit with a big man or two, which it is trying to do, and it will be ready when training camp opens Oct. 1.

Coles, 35, will earn $1.3 million, the minimum wage for a player with 13 years' experience. He's averaged 8.0 points and 4.4 assists in his career with Miami, Golden State, Atlanta, Cleveland and Boston.

Last season with Cleveland and Boston he averaged 4.4 points and 2.1 assists per game.

At 6-feet-2, Coles is known as a defensive-minded player who is expected to be an extension of coach Pat Riley to a certain extent.

LeBron James hasn't dripped a drop of sweat in a regular-season game and he's already worth more than the government of Botswana.

The kid is swimming in gravy.

If only we could grab a ladle . . . and sneak a dip.

Thanks to Caesars Palace, maybe we can.

You know Caesars, it's that house of sin in Las Vegas where Evel Knievel successfully jumped his motorcycle over the fountains - and unsuccessfully landed. Caesars is still inflicting that kind of pain as the permanent home of Celine Dion and her facial contortions (cheapest ticket for Celine's entertainment extravaganza: $87.50).

Caesars has enough sense, though, to give LeBron his "props," as in proposition bets.

The Caesars Palace Race and Sports book has opened at least 50 LeBron/Cavaliers bets in five categories.

You can wager on King James' scoring average this season: 30.1 points a game or higher is a tempting 75-to-1 (a hundred bucks on that could pay for a pair of Cavaliers season tickets or feed a family of four at a Gund Arena concession stand). Zero to 2.0 points a game is 100-to-1. (That's a sucker bet. LeBron must play in at least 50 games for the wager, and if he's playing 50 or more games, he's going to be scoring more than Gene Simmons. He's the Chosen One, not the frozen one.)

LeBron James believes he and Maurice Clarett are kindred spirits.

They share similar backgrounds, similar career expectations, and now have similar off-field troubles. James, like Clarett, faced a suspension for amateur-status violations last winter. The Cleveland Cavaliers rookie says he knows exactly what his friend from Warren is going through.

``I went through some of this last year when basketball was taken away from me. I know it is tough for him because he loves the game of football just as much as I love the game of basketball,'' James said Friday before shooting a commercial in downtown's Public Square.

``When it happened to me I didn't look at the situation as `Why me?' I tried to let it make me a stronger person and I know it will make Maurice a stronger person because we share the same worlds.''

James was suspended for a game, and St. Vincent-St. Mary was forced to forfeit another he had played in February. The Ohio High School Athletic Association ruled two free throwback jerseys he received from a store in Shaker Heights violated the governing body's amateur-status rules.

James was originally suspended for the remainder of the season, but he sued and a judge later reduced the penalty to one game plus the forfeit.

LeBron James will start living out his childhood dream when the NBA season opens next month and he hopes to inspire similar desires in several hundred Akron youngsters.

James, U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona and Nike will launch a new NikeGO initiative called PE2GO at Margaret Park Elementary School in Akron today. The program includes teacher training, specialized physical education curriculum and equipment that will be offered in 23 Akron schools. Also, three outdoor and two indoor courts will be refurbished.

Nike and James split the cost of funding the program in Akron. PE2GO is set to expand to Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, Tenn., New York, Washington and Portland, Ore.

"I was inspired to do this because I had so much fun when I was a little kid and I didn't want any kid to lose out on their childhood," James said. "I want them to have fun. I'm not just throwing my name in this. I'm going to give 100 percent. I want this program to last not just this year but for many years to come."

NIKEGO is Nike's community affairs initiative and the company's long-term commitment to getting children physically fit. The program's mission is to increase physical activity in children by offering them the support and motivation to become physically active.

Cavaliers coach Paul Silas' plan of helping his team to develop a bond by spending several days of training camp away from Cleveland has been canceled.

The Cavs planned to spend Oct. 3-7 at the University of Toledo. That stint also was to include a preseason scrimmage. However, the league notified the Cavs that the open scrimmage, which included a charge for admission, would constitute a ninth preseason game. The Cavs had to make a change, because the maximum number of preseason games is eight.

Training camp begins Sept. 30 for players with less than four years of NBA experience and Oct. 3 for veteran players. The Cavs' preseason opener against Detroit in Auburn Hills, Mich., is Oct. 7.

Cavs General Manager Jim Paxson said in a written statement that the University of Toledo athletic scholarship fund, which was to benefit from the scrimmage, would still receive a donation from the team.

Cavaliers rookie LeBron James is still two months away from playing in his first regular-season NBA game, but the No. 1 choice in the 2003 draft is already a star in advertising circles.

James will be featured prominently in the NBA's national advertising campaign, as well as in the promotional campaigns of the league television partner, TNT. That's in addition to planned advertising campaigns by Nike and Coca-Cola, companies that recently signed James to multimillion-dollar contracts.

James will be one of several players featured in the league's new print marketing campaign for League Pass, the NBA's subscription package for televised games.

The TV portion of the campaign, which does not include James, will begin Sept. 14, while the print version will begin in late September or early October and will run in national publications like USA Today, Sports Illustrated and the Sporting News, as well as daily newspapers.

In all of the ads, Bill Walton portrays a League Pass executive interacting with the players as employees. In the ad featuring James, Walton is hanging James' picture as the "Employee of the Month."

It's James' first spot for the league, but likely won't be his last, according to Matt Bourne, NBA director of public relations.