Jerry Zgoda's short takes: Nov. 9

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: November 8, 2008 - 3:46 PM

Denver veteran Kenyon Martin on the five-player trade that sent Allen Iverson to Detroit and brought Chauncey Billips home to Colorado: "They weren't going to trade [Iverson] for nothing. They already did something like that."

The Nuggets last summer traded Marcus Camby to the Los Angeles Clippers for next to nothing (other than as much as $20 million in salary-cap tax savings). Monday's swap brings Denver a true point guard to replace Andre Miller, who was sent to Philadelphia for Iverson two years ago, and gives the Pistons massive salary-cap room next summer after Iverson's $22 million salary expires.

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Tony Parker's 55-point total Wednesday was the highest ever against a Wolves team, but it didn't approach a San Antonio record. David Robinson scored 71 against the Clippers on April 25, 1994, breaking George Gervin's team record of 63 -- 55 in the first half alone -- set on the last day of the 1978 season.

Gervin's big game against the New Orleans Jazz at the Superdome reclaimed the league scoring title for him after Denver's David Thompson scored 73 points earlier that day.

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Kevin Garnett in Houston on election night wore a special-edition adidas shoe on which was printed "Embrace Change" after the NBA nixed the words "Obama for Change."

"I'm not going back to the '90s, when I needed a ballpoint to write on my sneakers," Garnett said. "Now I have my sneaker company to put something on my sneakers for me."

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