11 days to free agency

[June 21, 2010]  (AP) -- The countdown to the start of the July 1 NBA free agency period, when stars such as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and others are expected to hit the market:

DAYS REMAINING: 11.

AT STAKE: The value of a max contract the players like James, Wade and Bosh could sign will be known in the coming days, when the NBA announces the 2010-11 salary cap number. (It's all based on that and will almost certainly be in the range of $125-127 million for a six-year deal. But without the official cap number, it all remains a guessing game.) And of course, it'll tell teams exactly what they have to spend when the free agency window opens.

DON'T LE-LEAVE!: One of the Cleveland Indians' minor league teams is hoping to help keep James around. The Lake County (Ohio) Captains, the team's Class A affiliate, plan to change their name to the LeLake LeCounty LeCaptains for "Please Stay LeBron!" night on July 1. Every LeCaptains player plans to add the "Le" prefix to his first name for the game. The team is asking fans to wear Cavs' gear and some tickets will be $6 to honor James' new jersey number.

WADE PACKETS ARRIVE: The kits of items like signs and stickers from the "We Want Wade" organizing campaign run by the Miami Heat arrived in many mailboxes last week. (Supplies are completely gone, the Heat say.) So now, the team plans to give away T-shirts and posters to the first 3,000 plans at their draft party Thursday night.

TWEET OF THE DAY: From Quentin Richardson, who had a big 2009-10 season for Miami and is a free agent as well. "Happy Father's Day to all the Father's out there handling their biz and taking care of their kids and being real Fathers," he tweeted.

[Associated Press]

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