The NBA has signed off on Michael Jordan's bid to buy the Charlotte Bobcats, and commissioner David Stern expects the league's board of governors to approve the $275 million purchase by the end of next week.

Stern said he expects the vote to pass "very easily." Jordan will become the first ex-player to own an NBA team and the second black majority owner. He'll replace the first, Bob Johnson, who has lost tens of millions of dollars annually.

"He considers himself a North Carolina native and he's quite anxious to make this team into an important part of the community," Stern said. "

Stern said the league updated its background and financial checks on Jordan and found nothing to stop the deal. Stern said the six-time NBA champion is the sole investor in the ownership group for now and is putting up all the cash in the deal, but he expects him to try to find local partners.

Disability activist Marc Buoniconti presented Miami with an award to recognize the team's support of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Buoniconti, the son of NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti, has been paralyzed from the neck down since making a tackle for The Citadel in 1985. He and his father have helped raise nearly $350 million since for neurological research, and both credited Heat owner Micky Arison for being a significant supporter.

Coach George Karl will skip the last three games of Denver's road trip as he adjusts to a feeding tube that was placed into his stomach as part of his cancer treatment. The Nuggets coach has already missed two games since being diagnosed with neck and throat cancer last month. He is undergoing a rigorous six-week treatment program of radiation and chemotherapy.

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