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Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says the NBA should examine how free agents LeBron James(notes), Chris Bosh(notes) and Dwyane Wade(notes) all ended up with the Miami Heat.

Cuban tells a group of reporters at the NBA’s summer league in Las Vegas that he intends to ask the league’s Board of Governors to inquire about the situation.

According to a story posted on the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s website Sunday, Cuban says the league needs to develop more definitive rules governing the issue of player tampering.

NBA owners are scheduled to meet Monday in Las Vegas.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have no plans to push for an NBA probe into the circumstances that led to LeBron James joining Team USA colleagues Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, according to sources with knowledge of the team’s thinking.

NBA commissioner David Stern said Sunday that the league would investigate the Heat’s signings of James and Bosh for any illegal negotiating or planning before free agency officially started if the Cavaliers or Toronto Raptors make that request.

Reached Sunday by ESPN, Stern said: “Whenever a team lodges a tampering charge, it is investigated.”

The Cavaliers declined official comment Sunday, but one source briefed on Cleveland’s intentions told ESPN.com that — in the wake of owner Dan Gilbert’s vitriolic open letter to Cavs fans that slammed James for leaving his home-state team — the organization wants to try to keep the focus from here on its post-James future as much as possible.

Toronto likewise declined comment, but one source with knowledge of the Raptors’ thinking indicated that they will not press for an inquiry, either, preferring to let league officials decide if any sanctions are warranted with regard to recent acknowledgements from the three players that they have been talking about teaming up for some time.

Stern also declined further comment but is expected to expound on the subject Monday night when he is scheduled to meet with reporters in Las Vegas following an owners meeting devoted to the league’s ongoing labor negotiations with the NBA Players Association.

Although labor matters were initially expected to dominate the agenda, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said Friday that he intends to push for renewed discussion about the league’s tampering rules and how they are enforced.

Concerns about this issue have been mounting since an ESPN.com report in late June that James, Wade and Bosh met face-to-face before free agency to discuss their plans. Yet the league’s general position has been that players are not subject to the same tampering restrictions as teams except for “the most egregious cases,” when it can be proven that a player was operating as a direct extension of team management.

Miami’s counter to any tampering claims figures to center on the premise that James, Wade and Bosh have openly dreamt of playing together at some level since the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and that the Heat turned out to be the only team in the league in the long-anticipated summer of LeBron that had the requisite salary-cap space to sign all three players.

The Heat will also undoubtedly point to the fact the Cavaliers and Raptors — to ensure that neither team lost its franchise player without compensation — just willingly completed sign-and-trade deals with Miami for James and Bosh.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported in Sunday’s editions that James, Wade and Bosh actually hatched the idea of playing together during a stint with Team USA in the summer of 2006 at the World Championships in Japan, which contributed to each of them signing new contracts in 2007 containing an opt-out clause after three seasons to become unrestricted free agents in the summer of 2010.

Tensions nonetheless remain high in various cities around the league, starting obviously with Cleveland, some 72 hours after James announced in a one-hour special on ESPN that he would be leaving the Cavaliers after seven seasons to play alongside Wade and Bosh.

A comment made by Bosh at a welcoming rally Friday night in Miami has only fueled accusations that the three stars began plotting their joint move to South Florida well before they were technically allowed to. Bosh initially told the assembled crowd that the trio had been talking about landing with the same team for “months” before catching himself and amending that statement to “days.”

Cuban told a group of reporters Friday at the NBA’s annual summer league in Las Vegas that he would urge Stern to look into the matter whether or not Cleveland or Toronto asks, saying: “I’m going to bring it up to the league that we really do have to re-evaluate the issue of player tampering. Who knows what will happen? But I have to suggest it to them because there has to be more definitive rules.

“It’s not just the Cavs,” Cuban continued. “It could be any team. It could be the Heat in a couple years. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. But there has to be a way to keep these guys away from each other for the last week anyway.”

Wade and Bosh are represented by the same agent — Chicago-based Henry Thomas — and were together throughout the league’s moratorium period between July 1-7 when teams and free agents could meet and negotiate deals to the point of reaching agreements in principle. Thursday was the first day that teams and players could actually execute new contracts.

James and two of his closest advisors — business manager Maverick Carter and agent Leon Rose — took a different approach, inviting six teams to the Cleveland area to make their pitches over a three-day span before committing to the Heat.

But James and Wade acknowledged at a press conference Friday night that the three players were in frequent contact as they finalized their decisions where to sign, with the information flow also facilitated by the fact that Thomas joined Rose at CAA in July 2009.

Wade acknowledged Friday night that what he termed as “the possibility” that all three stars could someday wind up on the same team was established “a long time ago.”

Stern, however, has made it clear that he would not punish player-to-player interaction with the same vigor that the league threatens to punish team contact with players that they don’t employ, suggesting that it is unrealistic to try to put limits on or police player fraternization.

At the NBA Finals, when asked about the prospect of various top free agents holding a so-called “summit” — as Wade playfully suggested to the Chicago Tribune in late May — Stern said he would not try to stop it or punish participants for getting together.

“They can have it,” Stern said on June 3.

ESPN.com reported June 28 that James, Wade and Bosh held a scaled-down version of the summit to seriously discuss the prospect of playing together with the Heat.

Sources in the initial report told ESPN.com that the sitdown took place in Miami during the weekend before July 1, which was subsequently denied strenuously by Thomas. But sources close to the process reconfirmed to ESPN.com on Wednesday that the players convened at least one face-to-face meeting before July 1, except that sources now acknowledge that the meeting was on James’ Northeast Ohio turf on the Saturday before the NBA draft.

The Plain Dealer reported in Sunday’s editions that Wade flew with Bosh to Akron to meet at James home, where Wade– still under contract to the Heat — pointed out that only Miami had the cap space to afford all three players.

The newspaper also reported that the Cavaliers were aware of a November meeting Heat president Pat Riley had with James and Michael Jordan in Miami, with Jordan in town to do some Nike work with Wade. But Cleveland, according to the Plain-Dealer, did not register a tampering complaint with the league about the meeting, believing that Riley’s primary purpose was convincing James that more modern players need to pay homage to Jordan, who at the time had not yet become majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.

After James’ Cavaliers beat Wade’s Heat on Nov. 12, with Riley and Jordan watching together courtside, James made the announcement that he no longer wants to wear No. 23 and that all players, in a bow to Jordan, should forsake that number.

Former Astros All-Star Jeff Bagwell is taking over as Houston’s hitting coach after the team fired Sean Berry on Sunday.

Berry became “a victim of circumstances” as the offense sputtered this season, general manager Ed Wade said. He believes the offense can do more and hopes Bagwell helps that happen.

“We know we can get better, but we also know there are players here that should be better and hopefully with a different voice in Jeff Bagwell, they’ll recognize the measure of accountability that they have in this whole process so we will get better,” Wade said.
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Bagwell had been thinking about what his next challenge would be when Wade approached him about the position.

“There comes a point in time where you realize you have to do something and that your life has to go on,” Bagwell said. “I’m 42 years old and it’s time for me to do something else. This is what I know. I know baseball. Hopefully we’re going to find out in a couple of months that I know a little about hitting too.”

The move gives Houston hitters a chance to work with one of the most beloved and successful players in franchise history.

In 15 seasons with the Astros, the former first baseman set club records with 449 home runs and 1,529 RBIs. Bagwell was the National League rookie of the year in 1991, the NL’s MVP in 1994 and a four-time All-Star.

Berry, who has been the hitting coach the past five seasons, was given a chance to remain with the franchise in a development role. He hadn’t decided if he’ll accept that opportunity.

Bagwell hasn’t been promised anything past this season and said the remainder of this year will be a sort of test for him.

“This is 2 1/2 months to see if I’m any good at it, can I get some results out of these guys and ultimately is this something that I want to do full time,” he said.

Wade knows great players don’t necessarily make good coaches, but believes Bagwell will be successful after what he’s shown working with the team as special assistant to the general manager since retiring in 2006.

“He’s very levelheaded,” Wade said. “He communicates very well, particularly with regard to the nuances of the game. We’ve seen him have a significant impact on some of our minor league hitters with the information he’s able to convey. So he’s got the interest and the passion in doing this and we think it’s appropriate to give him the opportunity to see if it works or not.”

Bagwell was not in uniform for Sunday’s game against the Cardinals and will join the team Thursday in Pittsburgh for a workout. Houston starts the second half on Friday.

“Fans love Bagwell, so that’s the first thing. He’s a legend here,” center fielder Michael Bourn said. “(He) did a lot of damage here, so of course he knows how to hit.”

The Astros entered Sunday’s game with the second-worst batting average in the majors (.237), the worst on-base percentage (.295) and tied for 28th with just 57 home runs. Only Seattle and Pittsburgh have fewer hits than the 691 that Houston has managed this year.

“This is going to be interesting,” Bagwell said. “I’m going to give it everything I’ve got. I’m going to try to prepare the guys the best I can so that when they get in that batter’s box, they have the best opportunity to succeed.”

Star slugger Lance Berkman entered Sunday’s game hitting .252 and cleanup hitter Carlos Lee is batting .238. Each has 12 home runs. Second baseman Jeff Keppinger has the best average in Houston’s starting lineup at .279.

Berkman said it stings to know the struggles of the offense cost Berry his job.

“I haven’t hit and Carlos hasn’t hit like he can and others haven’t and it’s not Sean’s fault,” Berkman said. “It’s one of those things that when things aren’t going well with the players, you have to shake something up and the most expendable pieces a lot of times are the coaching staff.”

Though he was disappointed to see Berry leave, Berkman looks forward to working with Bagwell.

“Jeff has always been one of my mentors in the game and I’m excited that he’s going to be around more,” Berkman said. “I told him (Saturday) that he helps me more than anybody even when he’s not around just from all the things that he told me during the time that we played together. So it will be great to have him around and have his expertise available.”

Cliff Lee was going to a contender no matter what. Turns out it was the Texas Rangers, not the New York Yankees. “Just heard from [Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik],” Lee texted to ESPN The Magazine’s Amy K. Nelson. “It’s official. From last [place] to first.”

After talks between the Seattle Mariners and Yanks fell apart Friday afternoon, the Rangers jumped in and reached agreement on a trade for the left-hander.

The M’s sent Lee and reliever Mark Lowe to Texas for first baseman Justin Smoak and minor-leaguers Blake Beavan, Josh Lueke and Matthew Lawson.

The Mariners will also send $2.5 million to the Rangers to subsidize the $4 million still owed to Lee. Texas has financial limitations due to bankruptcy hearings associated with the sale of the team. There has been speculation that the Rangers — despite leading the AL West — would not be able to add weapons for the stretch run.

Lee is 8-3 with a 2.34 ERA this season for the Mariners, his first in Seattle. The Phillies traded him this offseason after acquiring Roy Halladay.

Lee won the Cy Young while with Cleveland in 2008. Over nine seasons he is 98-55 with a 3.84 ERA.

It’s unusual for a team to trade a start pitcher within it’s own division, but the Mariners have been a huge disappointment. Heading into Friday’s action, they trailed the Rangers by 16 games.

When asked how he felt about the deal, Lee texted “good I guess. Gonna be on a very good team. Definitely gonna be hot!”

The Yankees had offered Seattle a three-player package, centered around catcher Jesus Montero — who is rated as one of the best prospects in baseball, despite questions about whether he can be a catcher in the big leagues — second baseman David Adams and a young prospect.

But the deal began to unravel, a source told ESPN.com, when the Mariners became concerned about the health of Adams, who is out with a sprained ankle.

A source told ESPN.com that Seattle and Texas were very close to a deal for Lee on Wednesday. But the Mariners were pushing for Smoak, the Rangers balked and that deal stalled.

So on Thursday, the Mariners turned their attention to the Yankees and began closing in on that deal. But when those talks blew up, the Rangers — who by then were aware of all the reports about that Seattle-New York deal — got back into the picture and agreed to trade Smoak. So the pieces came together very quickly at that point because the two teams almost had a deal done 48 hours earlier.

And now Lee is on his way to Arlington.

“Bout to go get my stuff from the field,” he texted. “Gonna miss my teammates and coaching staff! Good people!”