Around the nba

OK WITH IDEA: Magic Johnson would go along with LeBron James' plan to have NBA players stop wearing No. 23.

James said last week he would change jersey numbers next season in honor of Michael Jordan , and said no other players should wear it, either.

Critics of his plan said other players before Jordan deserved the honor at least as much, with some using Johnson and Larry Bird as examples. But Johnson said if there was a decision to retire No. 23, he and Bird would "be the first ones to say it should happen."

CAVALIERS: Shaquille O'Neal could miss Cleveland's next couple of games with a strained shoulder.

O'Neal did not travel with the Cavaliers for their game at the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night, the third consecutive time he sat out.

TRAIL BLAZERS: Forward Travis Outlaw had surgery Wednesday to repair a stress fracture of the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot.

The team says he will be sidelined three to five months.

Outlaw, who averages 9.9 points, hurt the foot during the first quarter of the Trail Blazers' game against Charlotte on Saturday night.

HEAT: Forward Udonis Haslem sat out against the Atlanta Hawks because of an ailing left shoulder that has hurt since a weightlifting stint.