Royce White's NBA debut nears

Minneapolis' Royce White is a step closer to playing his first NBA game after Sacramento recalled him from a two-game D-League assignment. He didn't join the Kings for Sunday's game against the Timberwolves at Target Center but could play Tuesday at home against Washington.

White hasn't played a regular-season game since Houston drafted him 16th overall in 2012 and traded him to Philadelphia late last season when the two sides couldn't agree on how to manage his anxiety disorder. The 76ers cut him during preseason play.

"I see Royce as a mature guy who is trying to get where he needs to go," Kings GM Pete D'Alessandro told the Sacramento Bee. "There is untapped potential. Can he get there? That's really going to be up to him. I have to give him credit. A lot of players would not have been willing to come to the D-League, and we spoke about that from the beginning. And he's already come in here and done some good things."

Not for him

An 11-time NBA champion as a coach, Phil Jackson late last week reached an agreement with New York to run the Knicks' basketball operations.

Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman — nearly 25 years in the same kind of job — said he never aspired to making such a transition.

"No, I don't think so," he said. "Maybe another time if you would have had the opportunity to get into it. … The guys who are in that position, you've really got to work at something like that. You have to get used to how to do it and how to put it together. I've been in a couple situations where I had a lot of input into what was going on. You don't have final say, but you have say. So, to each his own…"

Parting words

TNT's Charles Barkley on Jackson joining the Knicks' front office: "The Zen Master is going to have to go see Dr. Phil after seeing that team play."