Report: Pierce to Stay With Celtics

The Boston Celtics have agreed to terms with forward Paul Pierce on a three-year contract extension worth almost $60 million, according to a newspaper report.

Terms of the extension, which is subject to league approval, weren’t released, but the Boston Herald reported on its website that the deal will be for three years and almost $60 million.

Celtics spokesman Jeff Twiss confirmed on Thursday that the team was talking to Pierce about an extension that would keep him in Boston beyond the 2007-08 season, when he has a player option for about $16 million. Twiss said the deal would not be final until the league had approved it.

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The Orlando Magic signed guard Keith Bogans, ending a bid to keep DeShawn Stevenson after the starting guard opted to test the free-agent market.

Bogans most recently played for the Houston Rockets, who acquired him in a trade with Charlotte for forward Lonny Baxter in February. Bogans averaged 11 points last season.

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Eric Piatkowski became the latest in a long line of sharpshooters to join the Phoenix Suns, signing a two-year, $2.3-million contract.

“He’s a great shooter and we need shooters,” Suns Coach Mike D’Antoni said.

Piatkowski, a former Clipper, played in a career-low 29 games last season for the Chicago Bulls, averaging two points a game.

He holds the Clippers’ franchise record for most three-point baskets (738), three-point attempts (1,835) and three-point percentage (.402).

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Center Ben Wallace signed a four-year, $60-million contract with the Chicago Bulls after leaving the Detroit Pistons, the team he helped lead to four consecutive Eastern Conference finals and a championship.

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Free-agent swingman Anthony Parker signed a three-year, $12-million contract with the Toronto Raptors.

Parker returns to the NBA after playing six seasons overseas, including the last two, in which he was Euroleague MVP for Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv.

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USA Basketball announced that Pierce will skip training camp for the U.S. national team, which opens Wednesday in Las Vegas.

Pierce is expected to have minor surgery on his left elbow in August.

Center Greg Oden, the national high school player of the year, will attend the opening of camp but won’t take part. He recently underwent surgery for a torn ligament in his right wrist and will be out until the fall.

USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo and Coach Mike Krzyzewski expect the 18-year-old center to have a role in the future, so they added him, anyway.

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Center Jarron Collins agreed to terms on a new contract with the Utah Jazz. He was an unrestricted free agent when the two-year deal he signed in 2004 expired July 1. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.