By SCOTT HOWARD-COOPER, Sacramento Bee

Tuesday night, it was black sports coat, white button-down shirt with blue pinstripes, blue jeans.
The uniform of the day.
Kenny Thomas still was a highly paid and highly rested Sacramento King, as removed from the NBA's buyout fad as from his team, literally removed while watching in street clothes from his seat near the bench at Arco Arena but not actually on the bench.

This has always been the way, right? A constant debate topic for his 15 NBA seasons, riding a lightning rod from his debut in 1993-94 to his retirement after last spring's nine-game comeback with the Warriors.
Controversial. And so it apparently will be for Chris Webber in retirement as well.

The Boston Celtics lost to the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas, to the Golden State Warriors a night later, and to Portland on Tuesday despite the Trail Blazers missing their best player, injured Brandon Roy. That made it official.

The Great NBA Coaching Purge has gotten so bad that six teams made changes so far this season; 14 have had a switch since the end of last season; Erik Spoelstra took over in Miami in the summer and already is tied for 17th in tenure; and Mike Woodson, in his fifth season in Atlanta, has the longest active run in the Southeast Division by four seasons.

It was tough to tell over the shrieking celebration with noisemakers and streamers, but they'll love the Ron Artest trade in Houston, too.

LAS VEGAS -- The Detroit Pistons thing went bad in the end and the New York Knicks thing went bad the entire time among other coaching stops. So Larry Brown joins the Charlotte Bobcats for his latest attempt to rehabilitate a 32-50 team and his reputation.

Getting cancer has been a blessing, seeing his right leg turn into some high school geometry project of angled slashes a positive, needing knee-replacement surgery because so much of the original joint was ravaged a good thing.

After it became a matter for psychiatrists, because most everyone outside his organization told Phoenix general manager Steve Kerr he needed his head examined, and after it became a religious experience, because Shaquille O'Neal said "Prayer, believe in prayer," it became about basketball.The Suns, their style of play, their new roster.

This is the year Pat Riley makes the Hall of Fame, a first-ballot automatic who next week should be named a finalist for enshrinement and seven weeks later have his rightful place in Springfield, Mass., made official in the announcement at the Final Four in April.This was the moment Pat Riley made his legacy.

That was great theater as Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling publicly fell out of love with his next former coach, but the real issue is "The Donald" is on the loose again after the years of self-restraint that, in some coincidence, accompanied the greatest playoff success in team history. His comment to the Los Angeles Times -- "Do you think anybody loves their coach?