Andrew Bynum backs down Thunder center Nazr Mohammed during the Lakers' season-ending Game 5 loss Monday night in Oklahoma City. (AP)

Monday night’s loss to the Thunder ended the Lakers’ season and now they have some moves to make on their three team-optioned players.

The most expensive of the three is center Andrew Bynum, who would receive $16 million if the Lakers picked up his team option. In a postgame interview Bynum responded to questions about a long-term contract with uncertainty.

“I’m not sure,” Bynum said. “It really doesn’t matter to me. I’ll play anywhere. I think for the most part I had a pretty decent season and OK postseason. This last game was probably the worst game I played in the playoffs. It sucks. We’re going fishing, and now the focus is next year and coming back stronger and adding things to your game.

TNT’s Craig Sager followed up his previous question by inquiring about Bynum’s desire to stay with the Lakers, and Bynum answered positively.

“I definitely want to stay,” Bynum said. “You kind of asked an open-ended question. Obviously things are going to be different come next year, but I’m going to be ready.”

Bynum, 24, averaged 16.7 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 3.1 blocks over 12 playoff games this postseason.

Pacers forward Danny Granger has received a technical foul in each of the last three games of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Heat. (AP)

LeBron James called out Pacers forward Danny Granger for his behavior in the Eastern Conference semifinal series, saying that he thought Granger was trying to bait the Heat. James even called it “stupid.”

Granger has received a technical foul in each of the last three meetings between the teams, backing up his assertion that he wasn’t going to back down from the Heat. In Games 2 and 3, the Pacers star confronted James, and then in Game 4 Granger took issue with Dwyane Wade after Wade was fouled by Roy Hibbert.

James said that if Granger was seeking some sort of altercation, he wouldn’t get a reaction from the Heat.

“Nobody is fighting on the basketball court. Come on,” James said. “I’m not going to fight because I mean too much to our team and I can’t afford to be suspended for a game or do something stupid to get thrown out of a playoff game.”

Granger said that he is playing with a chip on his shoulder, and that’s the reason behind his actions.

“There’s a line and I’m tiptoeing it. That’s a product of the chip on my shoulder and we have on our shoulder as a team of not being respected,” he said. “That goes not just for this series, but all year. We had the fourth or fifth best record in the NBA and I think we only had one televised game.”

Wade also took issue with Granger’s confrontational mentality.

“I’m all for standing up for your guys, but certain things you just can’t keep doing,” Wade said. “My message to Granger was that you just can’t keep running up into people’s faces for altercations. We’re not fighting on this basketball court, so let’s not act like we’re going to fight. We can be physical and do all that, but certain things got to stop. Are you out here to play basketball or are you out here to be a tough guy?”

Dwight Howard reportedly has asked to be traded from the Magic. (AP)

Even though coach Stan Van Gundy and general manager Otis Smith lost their jobs with the Magic on Monday, Magic center Dwight Howard reportedly still wants to be traded out of Orlando by the start of next season, according to former ESPN basketball analyst Chris Sheridan.

Earlier this season, it was reported that Howard requested Van Gundy be fired. Although it happened Monday, Sheridan’s source said that Howard “wants out of Orlando more than he ever did before in order to start a new chapter of his career.”

The Nets are considered the frontrunners for Howard, but the source insisted “it is not going to be a one-horse race.” The source listed the Mavericks, Knicks, Clippers and Lakers as teams that Howard would be interested in joining.

According to Sheridan, Magic executives are expected to meet with Howard soon to discuss his future.

Jeremy Lin appears likely to return to the Knicks, but his agent says it's not a sure thing. (AP)

Jeremy Lin might not be back with the Knicks next year.

The Knicks point guard is a restricted free agent this offseason, and after a breakout season, Lin has the opportunity to see the contract offers he can get from other teams. However, thanks to a clause in the CBA, New York can match any offer made to Lin.

“We don’t have assurances of anything,” Lin’s agent, Roger Montgomery, said in an interview with the New York Post. “I know history shows most restricted free agents go back to their team, but I’m not going to assume anything. We’re waiting to see what happens.”

This statement comes after Knicks coach Mike Woodson said Lin would “absolutely” be back with the team next year.

Lin’s contract situation is complicated due to the ongoing dispute of whether Lin, Steve Novak, J.J. Hickson and Chauncey Billups should be able to re-sign with their teams by using the Bird or early Bird exceptions to the salary cap.

If the Knicks cannot use their Bird rights on Lin, the Knicks are still expected to sign him. However, the team would have difficulty also signing Novak, who led the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage.

Kenrick Ellis

Jets defensive lineman Kenrick Ellis is expected to serve 45 days in jail starting June 15 after he pleaded guilty to an assault and battery charge that stemmed from a 2010 incident in Virginia while he attended Hampton University.

At a hearing in Hampton, Va., on Monday, Ellis was sentenced to 179 days in prison, with 89 days suspended. Based on Virginia law, the 24-year-old will serve 45 days with good behavior, according to Ellis’s attorney Timothy Clancy.

This sentence allows Ellis to avoid missing any of the NFL season and will not result in him being deported to his home country of Jamaica.

Ellis had originally faced a felony malicious wounding charge from the fight, and he would have spent up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Had Ellis, who is not a U.S. citizen, been convicted of felony assault, he would have faced deportation, according to immigration law.

The legal issues are not over for Ellis, though, as he still faces a $3 million civil suit that was originally filed last April by the victim, Dennis Eley, who was being mentored by Ellis’ girlfriend.

The Jets selected Ellis in the third round of the 2011 draft. He appeared in five games last season, recording six tackles.

Stan Van Gundy is out as coach of the Magic. (AP)

Coach Stan Van Gundy and general manager Otis Smith are no longer with the Magic. In a statement from the team Monday afternoon, the Magic announced they have fired Van Gundy and agreed to part ways with Smith.

Van Gundy leaves the Magic as the winningest coach in franchise history with a 259-135 regular-season record in five seasons. The 51-year-old led the Magic to the playoffs in all five seasons, capturing the Southeast Division title three times and the Eastern Conference title once, in 2009.

The dismissal of Van Gundy comes following rumors that Dwight Howard had requested the Magic fire Van Gundy.

Smith leaves having never missed the postseason as the team’s general manager. Smith had served as director of player development for two seasons before being named assistant general manager for the 2005-06 season and being named GM the following year. Smith also was promoted to president of basketball operations in 2010.

Before his career in the front office, Smith was a player for the inaugural 1989-90 Magic and remained with the team through the 1991-92 season. He played six years in the NBA, with the Nuggets, Warriors and Magic.

Tight end Kellen Winslow said he's been told the Bucs are putting him on the trading block. (AP)

It appears that Kellen Winslow has played his last game with the Buccaneers, as the tight end said in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio on Monday morning that he was told the team intends to trade him.

Winslow, who recorded 75 receptions for 763 yards and two touchdowns last season, said he was told his absence from offseason workouts with the team was part of the reason new coach Greg Schiano and the organization made the decision to try to move him.

“[Schiano was] kind of upset that I wasn’t there with the team working out in the offseason and then the first week of OTAs,” Winslow said. “I’ve been there the last three years and I’ve had a successful career so far. You just don’t get rid of one of your best players because of that.”

Winslow, 28, will be playing for his third NFL team if he is traded, as he played for the Browns before being traded to the Bucs in 2009. Winslow was drafted sixth overall by Cleveland in 2004 and had his best season in 2007 when he caught 82 passes for 1,106 yards and five touchdowns.

With the probable departure of Winslow, former Colts tight end Dallas Clark might be the man to fill Winslow’s spot on the offense. The 32-year-old was released by the Colts this offseason and has since worked out for the Patriots as well as the Bucs and the Chiefs.

In his nine-year career with the Colts, Clark caught 427 passes for 4,887 yards and 46 touchdowns. Clark was named All-Pro in 2009 when he became the second tight end in NFL history to have 100-plus receptions.

Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie's marital difficulties became public when his wife faked a suicide attempt, leading to police intervention. (AP)

According to a New York Post report, Terricka Cason Cromartie, wife of Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie, was forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after faking a suicide attempt in order to prevent her husband from cheating on her.

At 2 a.m. on May 6, Cason Cromartie sent her husband a series of text messages stating, “God forgive me, I don’t want to die. What have I done?” and, “I cut my wrists. I took those pills.”

The cornerback, who lives with his wife in New Jersey but was in Miami when he received the messages, called the New Jersey police, telling them, “There’s a problem at my house. She’s bleeding. She cut her wrists.”

When the cops broke through the door of the Cromartie household, they found Cason Cromartie, seven months pregnant, laying in bed with her two daughters and no sign of blood.

Cason Cromartie admitted to faking the suicide attempt because she thought her husband was “cheating on her,” according to the police report.

The 31-year-old mother also admitted sending text messages “to the woman she believes is romantically involved with her husband.”

When police told her she needed to undergo psychiatric evaluations, she became “belligerent, uncooperative, irrational and argumentative” but eventually agreed. The state’s child-protection agency took temporary care of her children.

Cromartie is the father of 10 kids, including eight with seven other women.

This 1920 Babe Ruth jersey sold for a record $4.4 million. (SCP Auctions)

The Sultan of Swat apparently knows no recession.

On Sunday, Babe Ruth‘s 1920 Yankees jersey, the earliest known to still exist, was bought for a record-breaking $4,415,658.

The winning bid, made by memorabilia auction house Lelands.com, surpassed the $4,338,500 paid in 2010 for Dr. James Naismith‘s founding rules of basketball, making Ruth’s jersey the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia in history.

SCP Auctions, which ran the sale, had been speculating it would go for at least $1 million. Lelands, however, presumably expects the jersey to eventually sell for even more than its $4.4 million price tag, as the company intends to turn around and sell it to a private collector.

“Such a spectacular piece will find a home with one of our private clients who truly appreciates its historic significance.” said Lelands president Mike Heffner.

The jersey is the road model Ruth wore in 1920, his first season after leaving the Red Sox.

Coincidentally, Ruth’s old house in Sudbury also is for sale. The owners are evidently hoping to cash in on the Bambino’s name as well, listing the house for $1.65 million — more than half a million more than real estate website Zillow.com estimates the house to be worth.

Also during this past weekend’s auction, a 1934 Ruth hat — famously purchased and worn by David Wells for one inning during a game in 1997 — set a record for a cap when it was sold for $537,278. Wells, who paid $35,000 for it, sold it to raise money to renovate his old high school’s field in San Diego.

Lawrence Taylor‘s Super Bowl XXV ring, sold by Taylor’s son, T.J., brought $230,401.