Olajuwon Reportedly Retiring

Toronto Raptor center Hakeem Olajuwon will retire from the NBA on Nov. 2, according to a published report.

The New York Post’s Peter Vecsey reported Tuesday that Olajuwon will end his career on a night when the Raptors visit his original team, the Houston Rockets, for their third game of the season.

Olajuwon, 39, remained in Houston because of an injured back while the Raptors began training camp last month. Plagued by a deteriorating injury and a variety of creaky joints, his retirement will end a failed experiment by the Raptors.

Acquired last season from the Rockets, Olajuwon was supposed to provide the presence and leadership that comes from being a 12-time NBA All-Star and a two-time NBA champion. However, he averaged 7.1 points and 6.0 rebounds and missed 21 games because of injuries.

Olajuwon is under contract for $12 million over the next two seasons.

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Latrell Sprewell met with players’ union director Billy Hunter in New York to discuss appealing the $250,000 fine levied against him by the Knicks.

The union received official notification of the fine, believed to be the largest levied by an NBA team against a player. Sprewell and Hunter met for about an hour in preliminary talks on the appeal, expected to be filed later this week.

Aside from the fine for failing to notify the team of a hand injury, the Knicks have ordered Sprewell to stay away from the team indefinitely. He will be sidelined by the injury until mid-November.

Because Sprewell was not officially suspended, he will continue to be paid his full salary of $12.6 million.

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Cleveland Cavalier center Zydrunas Ilgauskas pleaded no contest to drunken driving and was sentenced to one year of probation in Rocky River, Ohio.

The judge suspended a 30-day jail sentence, fined Ilgauskas $1,000 and suspended his driver’s license for one year, although he is allowed to drive to work, counseling sessions and the grocery store.

The Lithuanian-born Ilgauskas was stopped Sept. 15 for erratic driving in suburban Cleveland and failed field sobriety tests. His blood-alcohol level was 0.167, above Ohio’s legal limit of 0.10.

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Seattle SuperSonic forward Rashard Lewis had an MRI exam on his injured left shoulder.

Results were not available, a team spokeswoman said.

The 6-foot-10 Lewis, playing under a new $60-million, seven-year contract he signed last month, injured his shoulder Sunday night in an exhibition loss to the Utah Jazz.

The team is reportedly concerned that Lewis, who dislocated the same shoulder in last season’s playoffs, will require surgery and miss most of the season.

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Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller said he would consider selling the team’s nickname to the New Orleans Hornets.

“I’m willing to sit down and talk about it,” Miller said in New York.

Ray Wooldridge, co-owner of the New Orleans Hornets, said he’d “love” to bring the Jazz nickname back to the city where it began. The original team, the New Orleans Jazz, moved to Salt Lake City in 1979 and took the nickname with it.

Acknowledging that he and Miller hadn’t talked yet, Wooldridge said he had no idea what it would take to acquire the nickname.

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Center Oliver Miller, a first-round pick in 1992 who has been kept out of the NBA by constant weight problems, is trying to win a roster spot in training camp with the Indiana Pacers.

Miller, 32, who is 6-9 and 325 pounds, hasn’t played in the NBA since the 1999-00 season in which he ballooned to about 375 pounds while playing for the Phoenix Suns, his original team.