Mike Brown is interviewing various assistant coaches for the post of assistant manager of LA Lakers. Philadelphia's Quin Snyder, who was in charge of player development with the 76ers last season, met with Brown last Thursday, much of the conversation about the offense, the official said.

Chuck Person, the only holdover from Phil Jackson's staff, has interviewed several times with Brown about a position on the staff, the official said.

The Chief Executive of LA Lakers, Jim Buss has been sleeping a lot about the team recently. "Looking back on it, we should have contacted Kobe," Jim Buss said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that ran Saturday night. "Kobe said it was management's job to pick a coach. He just said, 'Defense first.' That's what we were doing, but we should have reached out to him."

The LA Lakers are very close to overtaking the San Antonio Spurs and Kobe Bryant could be the magical player to do that exactly.With the Los Angeles Lakers on an absolute tear since the all-star break and San Antonio finally falling prey to the injury bug, Kobe Bryant and Co. have moved to within striking distance of the Spurs for the best record in the Western Conference and maybe the league.

LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant has said that winning is the only thing that is on his mind right now. With the end of his career relentlessly drawing closer -- although just 32, he has played 1,276 regular-season and playoff games -- Bryant continues to hunt championships, which is one reason he has downplayed his climb up the scoring list this season.

"I can't pass the one I want to catch, and that's Bill Russell," Bryant said -- referring to Russell's record 11 championship rings -- when he moved ahead of Oscar Robertson for ninth on the scoring list. "That's all I care about."

The soft economy is still hitting the NBA — the average ticket price to go see an NBA game has fallen for the second consecutive year.

The average NBA ticket costs $48.08, down 2.8 percent from last year, according to Team Marketing Report, which puts together these lists for every major sporting league. However, they still costs more than Cheltenham Hospitality Tickets.

Los Angeles Lakers basketball games are often star-studded events. Jack Nicholson famously attends nearly every game, while Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher, the Kardashians, Nicole Ritchie and dozens of other celebrities have been known to show up courtside every once in a while. Now another famous face will be joining theirs – but this time, it'll be for charity.

One lucky bidder will get to take actress Charlize Theron to a Lakers game – for the steep price of $20,000 (or you can get England Rugby Tickets