PORT ARTHUR — Odds on Memorial ex J’Covan Brown sticking with the Miami Heat as a free agent went from long to astronomical last week, after the NBA champs pulled off the coup of signing Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. Allen, of course, is the NBA’s all-time leading 3-point shooter and Lewis is a big guard who can also fill it up from outside the arc. Both took far less money than they could have gotten elsewhere, which speaks volumes about Heat GM Pat Riley and the opportunity to win championship rings. Complicating the situation even further for Brown is that an Achilles strain will apparently keep him from participating with Miami’s team in the Las Vegas Summer League this week. Looks like the NBA Developmental League or Europe will be the next destination for the Big 12 scoring leader . . .  In a Heat-related note, it looks like America’s hate affair with LeBron James is over, and it’s about time. On the ESPY Awards Wednesday night,  where winners are determined by fan vote, James was the winner in three categories — Best Championship Performance, Male Athlete of the Year and NBA Player of the Year. Even though James had the advantage of being in the spotlight most recently, all three awards were 100 percent deserved. For my money, he’s the best athlete and best player in any sport. Yes, he handled announcing his move from Cleveland to Miami poorly, but the ongoing criticism of him was absurd. Like him or not, he’ll be the most dominant force on the most dominant team in sports for the next five years or so.

Don’t think it’s going out on a limb to say Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has all of a sudden become someone many Southeast Texans admire, as a result of Larry Bodin’s story last week about how Coach K reached out to Nederland basketball player Kirby Hanley and his mother after Rory Hanley’s death. Krzyzewski, who is about to take the latest USA Dream Team to the London Olympics, certainly didn’t invite the Hanleys to be his guest at a Duke game next year to add to his already monster fan base, but he’s become pretty popular in the story’s aftermath. Bodin posted it on his Facebook site and said he’s been bombarded with positive reaction from all over. We’ve also gotten considerable feedback in the sports department. Anyone who missed the story should go to panews.com and read it . . . Speaking of Krzyzewski and the USA Olympic Team, what was Kobe Bryant smoking when he popped off Wednesday that the current group could beat the original Dream Team? As you may have read, both Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley said they fell over laughing when they heard what Kobe said. Barkley was quick to point that the 1992 Dream Team had 11 players who wound up in the NBA Hall of Fame, while the current group will probably only have three — Bryant, James and Kevin Durant. It’s a great topic for a sports talk show, but you’d have to be naive to think Bryant’s group could beat Jordan’s outfit. According to the Las Vegas gambling outlet Pregame.com, the oddsmaker consensus is the 1992 team would be a six-point favorite. I doubt it would be that close, especially because the 2012 team couldn’t match up at center.

Sports Illustrated has a summer double issue out that’s a must read for anybody who was/is a fan of Earl Campbell. Campbell, pictured on the cover in his Houston Oilers uniform striking a Heisman Trophy pose as a rookie, opens up in a compelling piece by Lee Jenkins titled “To Hell and Back.” It will be a stunner to those not aware of the addictions he battled for many years after his football career ended. The good news is a seemingly happy ending that includes Campbell’s summer workouts in Austin with PA Memorial ex Jamaal Charles . . . Charles, by the way, hosted a live chat on ESPN.com Wednesday afternoon that offered a revelation I’d never have guessed. Asked who his favorite NFL player was when  he was a kid, Jamaal didn’t list any of the great running backs you would suspect. Nor did he name any of the good but not great running backs who might have been an influence. He said his favorite player was former Denver QB John Elway and added that the Broncos were his favorite team. Raise your hand if you saw that one coming . . . If you are among the many who have watched the captivating baseball movie Bull Durham over and over and over, here’s a stunning piece of information I’d never heard. When it came time to cast the role of Crash Davis, superbly played by Kevin Costner, he was hardly a slam-dunk choice. High on the list were Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell and Harrison Ford. Costner was such a perfect Crash, it’s hard to imagine any of the other three, especially Gibson, being rookie pitcher Nuke Laloosh’s mentor. Oh, yes, and Charlie Sheen, not Tim Robbins, was the first choice to play Laloosh. All that info and more is available in a story titled “Worshipping at the Church of Baseball” in the same SI issue that has Earl Campbell on the cover.

PN-G ex Lew Ford, long one of Southeast Texas’ most amazing baseball stories, may be on the verge of writing the most amazing chapter to his life story. Once the American League Player of the Week for the Minnesota Twins in a 2004 season that saw him hit for a .299 average while belting 15 home runs, driving in 72 runs and stealing 20 bases, the 35-year-old Ford is trying to fight his way back from the proverbial outhouse to the penthouse. Thrown on the scrap heap after the 2008 season, he’s spent the past few years playing in a Japanese minor league, the Mexican League and with the Independent League Long Island Ducks. Signed by Baltimore earlier this year, at the recommendation of a former coach who remembered him from Boston’s minor league system, Ford is tearing up AAA pitching for Baltimore’s team in Norfolk, Va. In 46 games since joining the Tides, he leads the team with a .341 batting average and has 9 homers and 29 RBI. If he keeps up the pace, there’s a an outside chance he could land with the Orioles when MLB rosters expand on Sept. 1 . . . Not surprisingly, the Houston Astros rank last in the National League in attendance, and by a rather sizable margin. At the All-Star break, the Astros were averaging 22,049 — that’s tickets sold, not actual attendance. Surprisingly, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the surprise leader of the NL Central, are next worst at 25,475. If the Astros were in the American League, however, there attendance would be better than five other teams — Cleveland (19,256), Tampa Bay (20,583), Oakland (21,011), Seattle (21,940) and the Chicago White Sox (23,091). It’s interesting to note Houston will be in AL West with two of those teams — Oakland and Seattle — next season.

Joe Paterno once said he couldn’t retire and leave college football to the likes of Barry Switzer and Jackie Sherrill. So has there ever been a better example that people who live glass houses shouldn’t throw stones? Whatever Switzer and Sherrill may have done as college football coaches, pales alongside Paterno’s crime of not using  his position and power to stop no telling how many young boys from being abused by Jerry Sandusky. The unforgivable sin that has forever stained “Saint Joe’s” reputation is just one more reason I’m always wary of anyone who comes off or is portrayed as “holier than thou.” . . . Based on comments in a story in the Arkansas-Democrat-Gazette, it sounds like Terrence Singleton may not be the only high-powered Memorial recruit who gets switched from offense to defense. Titans running back Nathan Holmes will get a shot to play that position with Arkansas, but a switch has clearly a possibility. “We’re going to start him at running back. That’s where he wants to play,” said Razorback defensive ends coach Steve Caldwell, who helped recruit Holmes. “But over on our side of the ball, he could play corner. You watch him run and it’s just effortless.” And running backs coach Tim Horton has this to say: “Nate’s a guy that could play running back, could play wideout, could play corner.” Holmes’ position is being listed as “athlete.”

Sports editor Bob West can be e-mailed at rdwest@usa.net.