Around The Rim

Lamar Odom has let the Clippers know that he wouldn't mind seeing them draft Hofstra senior Speedy Claxton with the No. 18 pick, Los Angeles's second choice. Odom and Claxton were teammates at Christ the King High in Queens, N.Y.; when Claxton, who is 1� years older, went to college, Odom would spend weekends in his dorm room. If L.A. would rather not take Claxton, it could pick St. John's sophomore Erick Barkley, who replaced Claxton as Christ the King's point guard and who is also close to Odom. The Clippers, who are looking for a point guard anyway, won't do itself any harm by making Odom feel happy....

The biggest surprise at the predraft camp in Chicago was Michigan freshman Jamal Crawford, who played only 17 games this season because he accepted money from a Seattle businessman while in high school, and was suspended by the NCAA. Scouts see the 6'5" Crawford as the one big point guard in the draft. "He might have played his way into the lottery," says one Western Conference G.M....

When Michael Jordan said he would take 18-year-old Darius Miles if he had the No. 1 pick, he did so from personal experience. Miles played last summer at Jordan's camp in Santa Barbara, Calif. "He always picked me on his team," Miles says. "We played against college players, and Michael was talking noise at them—'You're not going to let the high school players beat you.' We won mostly all the games."