Once Mike Dunleavy pushed past David Falk and reached out to Elton Brand, appealed to his star’s sensibilities and sentimentality for his Clippers’ home, the belief was that the most cunning and cutthroat agent of them all decided to treat this end-around as an act of treason.

Negotiations had stalled, management had grown uneasy, fearful of Falk’s influence and the Clips coach brought the franchise’s case directly to Brand. After all these years, the most famous agent of all was back in the game, back on the big stage, back with basketball waiting on his next move.

“From that point on,” one NBA GM said, “Falk was going to do everything he could to screw the Clippers.”

Along the way, too, everyone else could see what was happening here: The Bald Eagle was emboldened again. Falk was empowered. He was alive again, and the Clippers were done. As it turned out, he didn’t just screw the Clippers. Falk drilled them.

This was the ultimate retro week, with the promise of basketball’s

In a dramatic ending to a whirlwind courtship, Elton Brand is on the brink of spurning the Los Angeles Clippers and signing a five-year, $80 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, a source familiar with the negotiations said.

Brand can’t officially sign with 76ers until 12:01 EST on Wednesday, but Sixers officials are privately telling peers around that league that Brand has convinced them he’s coming to play in Philadelphia.

The Los Angeles Times first reported Brand had made a verbal commitment to sign on Tuesday night.

As Yahoo! Sports reported Tuesday afternoon, Brand had been swayed the 76ers’ way on Tuesday and dismissed a late push by the Clippers to return to his Eastern roots. After angering Brand by refusing to raise its initial offer upon his opt-out last week, Philadelphia GM Ed Stefanski deftly created more cap space to accommodate the Sixers’ offer.

Now, Brand, one of the league’s elite power forwards, joins Sam Dalembert and Andre Iguodala to give Philadelphia a

Philadelphia 76ers forwards Rodney Carney, Calvin Booth and a future No. 1 pick have been traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves to free as much as $2 million in additional salary cap space for the Sixers to offer Elton Brand or Josh Smith, multiple league sources said.

Minnesota sends Philadelphia its $2.8 million trade exception from a 2007 deal of Mark Blount to the Miami Heat.

Carney and Booth have been told of the deal, sources said. The deal can’t be finalized until the NBA trade moratorium is lifted on Wednesday.

Sixers general manager Ed Stefanski has methodically cleared room over several months to make his franchise a major player to lure Brand or Smith. Now, the NBA's July free agency period has been delivered a deeper drama. Stefanski's intentions are clear: Get into the bidding with the Clippers and Warriors for Brand or make an offer to the Hawks restricted free agent, Smith, that will be too steep for Atlanta ownership to match.

Getting Carney and Booth off the cap gives

Chris Paul completed his contract negotiations with the New Orleans Hornets on Thursday, agreeing to a four-year extension worth $68 million, said Paul’s agent, Lance Young. The final season of the contract is at Paul’s option.

Paul, who met with Hornets officials on Wednesday, is expected to sign the contract Thursday evening.

The Hornets offered Paul a five-year extension worth approximately $87 million, the maximum allowed, but the All-Star point guard opted for a shorter contract – an approach LeBron James and Dwyane Wade previously took when they signed extensions to their rookie contracts. Paul will now have the ability to become a free agent in the summer of 2012, giving him leverage to ensure the Hornets commit to maintaining a championship-contending team.

At a late night dinner in Manhattan on Monday, Mike Dunleavy had left a starry-eyed Beno Udrih intrigued with the possibility of playing point guard for the Los Angeles Clippers. Udrih had listened to the coach’s pitch and suggested to friends that he had gone to bed torn between staying with the Sacramento Kings and leaving for L.A.

Dunleavy had played the cool hand of a sincere recruiter, because his mind must have been somewhere else at the witching hour. Word out of Golden State that Baron Davis had opted-out of $17.8 million had spread with shock among league executives, who immediately alleged that the Clippers had hatched a plan to secure Davis. Nevertheless, the 12:01 a.m. ET pursuit of Udrih played out as the perfect alibi.

Just understand: Once Tuesday morning had come, and the Clippers had gone into all-Baron mode, Udrih and his reps were fortunate to get a call returned. Elgin Baylor is on the top of the Clippers' letterhead, but Dunleavy learned his lessons best with his

The San Antonio Spurs have targeted Corey Maggette and are the front-runners to sign the Los Angeles Clippers' free agent forward, multiple league sources said Tuesday night.

While no deal was imminent, Maggette would be expected to sign a multi-year deal for the mid-level exception, a move that would fulfill the Spurs' desperate need for perimeter athleticism and scoring. Maggette would be leaving the Clippers, just as the team came to an agreement with Golden State free agent Baron Davis on a contract. With so much sudden salary cap space, the Warriors could be a threat to swoop in and take Maggette for themselves. The Boston Celtics have also shown serious interest in Maggette.

Another team with salary cap room, the Philadelphia 76ers, will present Atlanta Hawks restricted free agent Josh Smith an offer sheet on Wednesday when he visits with Sixers general manager Ed Stefanski in Philadelphia, two league sources said.

The Spurs struggled to generate points in the Western Conference

The agent for New Orleans Hornets star Chris Paul, Lance Young, is traveling to meet with general manager Jeff Bower on Wednesday to work out the final details of a multi-year contract extension.

Bower offered Paul a five-year extension worth approximately $87 million, the maximum allowed, just past midnight on Tuesday, but it appears Paul, a first-team All-NBA guard and MVP runner-up to Kobe Bryant, could be leaning toward a four-year deal worth approximately $67 million.

"Jeff and I will talk some more, and I think we'll try to get something done before I leave town on Thursday," Young said Tuesday afternoon from his Washington, D.C. office. "Chris may join us later in the meeting, and talk to Jeff about the future of the franchise."

Paul, 23, is the cornerstone of the Hornets franchise, the man most responsible for saving pro basketball in New Orleans. He has a deep affinity for his teammates, coach and front office, and feels a strong connection to the New Orleans community.

All the Washington Wizards had to do, Gilbert Arenas promised, was re-sign Antawn Jamison and he would come running back to the franchise, the city that made him Agent Zero. Arenas promised that he would take less money, too.

Now, the Wizards won’t even ask him to do that: Owner Abe Pollin has OK’d a six-year, $125 million offer for Arenas, a league executive said Tuesday.

The Warriors, emboldened with Baron Davis’ opt out, have offered Arenas five years for $95 million, but were losing hope on Tuesday that Arenas could be lured back to his original team, a Western Conference executive said.

The Washington Post first reported the Wizards’ counteroffer.

The All-Star guard missed 69 games with a knee injury last season, but as it turns out, he won’t have to take a dollar less to stay in Washington. Arenas started his career in Golden State as a second-round draft pick in 2001, but he’s always insisted that Washington was where he wants to end it. Now, Agent Zero has his chance.