And then the NBA draft hit the fan. …

After weeks of being written off as a low-wattage, no-superstar affair, the usual cloud of intrigue descended as the minutes ticked off before the draft Thursday.

Aside from previously disclosed reports, or erroneously reported, or laughable reports came this one:

The San Antonio Spurs tried to trade into the top 10 to draft Klay Thompson, Mychal's son and newly crowned prodigy.

The Washington State junior was totally off the radar until burning up the pre-draft circuit, trying out for teams all the way up to Cleveland at No. 4.

Due in New York on Tuesday for pre-draft festivities, Klay detoured to San Antonio to meet Coach Gregg Popovich and General Manager R.C. Buford.

However, with the Spurs also asking teams to take forward Richard Jefferson with three years worth $30 million on his contract, no one has stepped up yet.

The Lakers tried to trade up even higher, to Minnesota at No. 2, where they would have taken Derrick Williams.

The Lakers offered Lamar Odom, not Pau Gasol, as in some reports.

Minnesota said no, ending the dialogue several days ago.

Somehow Andrew Bynum's name got in trade reports.

If Minnesota GM David Kahn mentioned it, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak probably told him, "Could you say that again? There's something wrong with this phone."

Then there was Phoenix's reported maybe-they-won't-notice offer, Steve Nash for the No. 2 pick, based on Minnesota's interest last season.

Apparently, the Suns hoped that might be enough to persuade the Timberwolves to trade the second pick for a 37-year-old point guard, with three (Ricky Rubio, Luke Ridnour, Jonny Flynn) on Minnesota's roster.

The draft is still hours away. Imagine the possibilities.

mark.heisler@latimes.com

Armed with only second-round draft picks in the NBA draft and an aging roster, the Lakers unsuccessfully tried to trade for the Minnesota Timberwolves' No. 2 overall pick in the first round.

The Lakers offered sixth man of the year Lamar Odom for Minnesota's No. 2 pick, according to two NBA officials who were not authorized to speak publically on the matter, but L.A. was turned down.

The Lakers wanted to use the second pick on Arizona's Derrick Williams, an athletic 6-foot-8, 248-pound forward, both officials said.

When the Odom deal was rebuffed by Minnesota, the Timberwolves then inquired about trying to acquire All-Star forward Pau Gasol or center Andrew Bynum from the Lakers, both officials said.

Because the Lakers were not interested in trading Gasol or Bynum, talks broke down between L.A. and Minnesota, and the teams stopped talking, an NBA official said.

Bynum was never an option to be traded because Jim Buss, son of Lakers owner Jerry Buss and the team's executive vice president of player personnel, has let it be known that the 7-foot center he had a hand in drafting in 2005 is not available.

The proposed deal sending Odom to the Timberwolves could have worked under the current NBA collective bargaining agreement because Minnesota is far enough under the salary cap to take on the 6-10 forward's contract without having to send another player to the Lakers.

Odom is guaranteed to make $8.9 million next season, but his 2012-13 salary is only partially guaranteed; Odom has a buy-out worth about $2 million.

It appears Odom has become the Lakers' hot commodity to move because of his contract, versatility and what he might be able to bring back to the team.

Odom, 31, has averaged 14.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and 4.0 assists over his 12-year career.

He averaged 14.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists last season when he played in all 82 regular-season games, 35 as a starter.

The Lakers gave their 2011 first-round pick to New Jersey when they traded Sasha Vujacic to the Nets, making it the second consecutive year L.A. has not had a first-round pick.

If the Lakers don't make a move before the draft Thursday, they will have four second-round picks — the No. 41 selection (received from the New York Knicks); 46 (from the Miami Heat); 56 and 58 (received from the Golden State Warriors via the Nets from the Vujacic trade).

The Lakers, who had 10 players on their roster 30 or older this past season, are in need of a point guard and an outside shooter —– though that probably will be difficult to find with second-round draft picks.

One possibility for the Lakers is Duke's Nolan Smith, a 6-2 guard who impressed the Lakers with his workout. But Smith might not be around when the Lakers make their pick.

broderick.turner@latimes.com

twitter.com/BA_Turner

The Lakers announced Tuesday that Bill Macdonald and John Ireland will be the play-by-play announcers for the team for the 2011-12 season.

Macdonald will call the games on TV alongside commentator Stu Lantz on FS West and KCAL 9.

Ireland, who had been the Lakers' sideline reporter on KCAL 9 since the 2002-03 season, will call the games on 710 AM ESPN radio alongside commentator Mychal Thompson.

Spero Dedes, who was supposed to move over from Lakers radio play-by-play to replace Joel Meyers on television, decided against taking the job after giving the Lakers a "verbal agreement," Lakers public relations director John Black said. Black said Dedes hadn't signed a contract.

"Spero had a change of heart," Black said. "He decided to pursue other options. We wish him well. We're happy with Bill Macdonald and John Ireland."

There are reports Dedes is headed to become a play-by-play announcer for the New York Knicks.

— Broderick Turner

Pat Riley says he won't coach, expects Eric Spoelstra and the Miami Heat to succeed

Pat Riley expects better days are ahead for the Miami Heat.

Speaking Tuesday, more than a week after the Heat season ended with a loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA finals, Miami's team president said that not winning the title was a disappointment — but insisted the season still had plenty of successes.

"I'll say it. I'm not afraid to say it," Riley said at his annual end-of-season availability. "We are going to be multiple contenders, OK? I have no problem saying that. We will contend. That's all it's about. When you have a team that can contend for a championship, that's what you want, because then you have a shot at winning.

"I know what everybody expected here, but it didn't happen," Riley added. "But we had a great season."

Riley said the team would add more pieces to complement LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh next season, plus was looking forward to seeing what can happen with a healthy Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller, both of whom had their 2010-11 campaign marred by injuries.

He also said Erik Spoelstra would coach, shooting down any notion that the Hall of Famer was considering a return to the bench.

"No, I'm not going to," Riley said.

Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki is considering joining the German national team this summer to help their chances of qualifying for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

HOCKEY

Nothing has been set yet, but new Lakers Coach Mike Brown has been interviewing coaching candidates to be assistants on his staff.

Former University of Utah coach Jim Boylen was the latest to speak with Brown, the two meeting Monday at the Lakers' practice facility, according to an NBA official not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

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.

It already has been reported that former Detroit Pistons coach John Kuester and former Moscow CSKA coach Ettore Messina are also expected to join Brown's staff, but nothing has become official.

If hired, Kuester, Boylen and Person would be on the bench beside Brown, the NBA official said, and Snyder and Messina would be behind the bench in roles more as "special assistants."

Boylen spent four seasons at Utah before he was fired last March. He was an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets for 11 years and also served in the same role with the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks.

Snyder coached three seasons in the NBA Development League with the Austin Toros before he joined the 76ers in 2010. He was the head coach at the University of Missouri from 1999 to 2006, an assistant coach at Duke from 1993 to 1999 and an assistant coach with the Clippers under Larry Brown from 1992 to 1993.

Person has been on the Lakers' staff the last two seasons. He was the team's defensive coordinator last season.

Kuester and Mike Brown worked together for two seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Kuester was fired by the Pistons earlier this month. He had a tumultuous season; four of his players revolted when they decided to skip a team shoot-around.

Also, Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw will interview this week with the Indiana Pacers about becoming the lead assistant coach on Frank Vogel's staff, the Indianapolis Star reported.

If hired, Shaw may also get the title of associate head coach, an NBA official said.

Shaw interviewed for the head coaching job with the Pacers in 2007 and he was a teammate on the Boston Celtics with Larry Bird, who is the president of the Pacers.

broderick.turner@latimes.com

twitter.com/BA_Turner

Just when you thought it was time to sell your courtside seats and buy a beach home . . .

Peace in our time in Lakerdom?

Despite Kobe Bryant's silence, people close to both sides say Coach Mike Brown has won over his new star in two face-to-face meetings.

Their first was May 31 at Bryant's home in Newport Beach, on Brown's way to his news conference in downtown Los Angeles . . . more or less.

Photos: Kobe Bryant through the years

Apparently, the meeting went well. The second was 10 days later at the El Segundo practice facility, where they went through plays on the court

So why hasn't anyone bothered to mention it?

Brown did mention it, which, in the absence of a single peep from Bryant, didn't settle the issue.

So why is Bryant still maintaining his silence, allowing the perception that he's unhappy to stand?

Unhappy at having been left out of the loop on the hiring, he's letting his silence speak for him, as he did in after his days or rage in 2007, leaving the Lakers to spend three months wondering if he would report for training camp until he showed up that morning.

Bryant signaled his skepticism when Brown's hiring was announced May 25, exchanging texts with him but declining to talk on the phone.

Of course, Bryant knew more about LeBron James' split with Brown in Cleveland than Jim Buss, who hired Brown.

Among the things that went down in flames last spring was Brown's relationship with James.

With James passing the word he wanted a former player who would drive him as coach, the Cavaliers fired Brown and hired Byron Scott, who was also close to Chris Paul, LeBron's close friend.

However, as mild-mannered as Brown comes off before microphones, one-on-one his charm and intensity jump out.

Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert, who hired him in 2005, said Brown's interview was the best he had ever seen.

Brown has since blown away Jim Buss and Kobe Bryant, pretty much covering the spectrum.

Jim Buss, on the other hand, hasn't had two one-on-one meetings with Bryant since the hire, or ever.

Personal relationships with their franchise players is one more thing that has yet to make the transition from Jerry Buss to his son.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in 2009 investigated allegations that Shaquille O'Neal was connected to a beating, robbery and kidnapping by gang members of a man claiming to have a sex tape of the basketball star, according to records reviewed by The Times.

Detectives found phone records showing a "flurry of calls" between the alleged ringleader of the assault and O'Neal's business partner around the time of the February 2008 incident, a sheriff's investigative report said.

O'Neal and his business partner, Mark Stevens, denied any involvement in the attack when interviewed by sheriff's investigators. Neither man has been charged in connection with the case.

The victim, Robert Ross, told authorities in early interviews that he believed O'Neal was behind the attack because of a business deal gone bad, and because O'Neal believed he had a tape of the former Lakers center having sex with a woman other than his wife.

This week, Ross testified in Los Angeles County Superior Court during a preliminary hearing for seven members of the Main Street Crips gang accused of kidnapping him at gunpoint from West Hollywood and beating him while demanding the videotape. The gang members face charges of kidnapping, robbery, assault with a firearm and criminal conspiracy.

Law enforcement officials Wednesday declined to say what role, if any, O'Neal and Stevens had in the incident. But early in the investigation, it was clear that detectives suspected the pair might somehow have been involved.

In a July 2009 letter asking for leniency in Ross' sentencing for unrelated federal drug and firearm charges, a sheriff's captain wrote that Ross was cooperating with law enforcement as a victim and witness in a West Hollywood incident that may implicate a "celebrity" — an apparent reference to O'Neal.

"The motive for the crime was retaliation by a 'celebrity' who believed Ross was having an affair with his wife," Capt. David Smith of the sheriff's homicide bureau wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Times. "The celebrity enlisted the help of seven 'Main Street Crip' gang members with extensive criminal histories to commit the kidnap, robbery and assault."

"The on-going investigation regarding the celebrity and his manager may also result in charges filed," Smith wrote at the time.

On Wednesday, sheriff's officials would not comment on how their investigation had progressed in the two years since Smith's letter, or how their understanding of the motive behind the alleged kidnapping may have changed. Det. Paul Fournier, the lead investigator on the case, declined to discuss the investigation, saying the probe was ongoing.

Attorney Nicholas Tonsich, who represented both Stevens and O'Neal during their interviews with sheriff's investigators, did not respond to repeated requests for comment late Wednesday. O'Neal's management company also did not respond to requests for comment.

Ross walked into the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th Street Division in February 2008, with his face cut and bleeding and his clothes bloody, according to the sheriff's January 2009 investigative report.

He said armed Main Street Crips members, whom he had grown up with and recognized, kidnapped him in West Hollywood and ordered him to drive his Rolls-Royce to the South L.A. house of Ladell Rowles, the gang's alleged shot-caller. There, the gang members beat him up and took from him $15,000 in cash, a diamond necklace and earrings, and a Rolex watch, he told investigators.

During the beating, Rowles — known as "Del Dog"— told Ross, "Mark and Shaq know who the real boss is now," and demanded the "videotape" and $100,000, according to the report.

Ross told investigators that events leading to the kidnapping started with a business deal gone sour. Ross introduced rap artist Ray J to O'Neal's and Stevens' record label expecting to receive a percentage of the profits but was later cut out of the deal. Around the same time, O'Neal, who was having marital troubles, had his wife followed by a private investigator who took photos of her having lunch with Ross, according to the report.

Ross, upset over the deal, told Stevens and O'Neal through a friend that he had a surveillance tape of O'Neal having sex with a woman at Ross' home in July 2007. Ross told investigators that he was "bluffing" to get the money he felt he was owed. The attack occurred two weeks later.

Ross said O'Neal and Rowles knew each other because he had introduced them. O'Neal funded a documentary for Rowles through his record label and mentioned Rowles and Ross by their gang monikers in one of his rap songs, Ross told investigators.

O'Neal was interviewed by investigators in September 2008 at a locker room at USC's Galen Center. When he was told of Ross' allegation that O'Neal had ordered the kidnapping to retrieve the sex tape, O'Neal "adamantly denied" having been involved, according to the sheriff's report.

Even if there had been a sex tape, he told investigators, he wouldn't have cared if it was made public because he and his wife were getting a divorce. He told Stevens to pass that message to Ross, the report states.

The Chicago Bulls took a chance on Tom Thibodeau last June and, in return, he took them to the Eastern Conference finals in his first year as an NBA head coach.

Thibodeau, who won coach-of-the-year honors too, was one of 10 coaches in the 30-team league this season who had no NBA head coaching experience before being hired for that position. But despite, in most cases, their relative newness to the job, seven of them made it to the 16-team playoffs.

It seems the long-held belief that professional sports is made up of coaching retreads just isn't true anymore. In fact, since 2010, 26 of the 43 hires made by teams in the four major sports leagues have been first-time head coaches.

PHOTOS: Lakers' coaches through the years

In the NHL, 12 of the 30 teams are led by first-time head coaches. And of the 30 Major League Baseball teams, 12 of the managers had no experience as the top guy before getting the job.

And then there is the National Football League, where 24 of its 32 teams are run by men who were hired as first-year coaches.

Executives, coaches and others say all these rookie hires reflect several factors, from the copycat nature of teams searching for success to the cutthroat ideologies of owners, who have cut coaching life spans and limited second chances.

One possible reason for the success of first-timers is if the coaches have certain personality traits or backgrounds that immediately mesh with the players.

But it all starts with the franchise.

Bob LaMonte, a sports agent who runs Professional Sports Representation and represents executives and coaches on 26 NFL teams, delivered a lecture at New York University a few years ago titled "The Avocado and the Onion."

Decades ago, if you peeled back the layers of an organization, he said, you'd find, like in an avocado, a solid core, a unifying philosophy, such as the "Steeler Way" that embodies the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers.

"In the 20th century," he said, "it has become the onion: You peel away, and there's nothing there."

Part of that, LaMonte said, is that most owners now expect immediate returns — especially as player salaries have skyrocketed — and if they don't get it, heads roll.

"And as you get mega-, mega-billionaires involved in this industry, they're used to firing tens of thousands of people, so it's not that big of a deal to fire a coach," LaMonte said, adding, "It's no longer about the Xs and O's; it's about the CEOs."

For coaches, the job is daunting enough.

"You prepare your whole life for that job and you sit down in that chair for the first time and you realize you have no clue what you're doing," said Brian Billick, an NFL Network analyst and former coach of the Baltimore Ravens, his first stint at the helm. "It's all on-the-job-training."

And even when Billick won a Super Bowl in his second season, 2000, that didn't make it easier.

"When you're able to put that Super Bowl ring on, that puts you in a different group and a different status," he said, "but you immediately recognize, 'Now what do I do?' Because you set that bar. You're going to be measured going forward because of that."

Mike Scioscia lacked managerial experience at the major league level before the Angels hired him in 1999, and he won the World Series in his third season. But he said it's rare to achieve quick success.