New Orleans Hornets guard Jannero Pargo is the latest player to turn his back on the NBA for Europe.

Pargo signed a one-year deal with Dynamo Moscow of the Russian League, agent Mark Bartelstein told The Associated Press in a phone interview Friday.

The one-year deal is worth nearly $4 million and is about twice what Pargo made for the Hornets last season, Bartelstein said. Pargo joins a growing defection of NBA players lured overseas by higher salaries.

“Jannero’s probably one of the higher profile players to go over,” Bartelstein said.

Josh Childress began the exodus of role players in July when he spurned the Atlanta Hawks and signed a three-year deal with Greek club Olympiakos worth about $20 million after taxes. Earl Boykins, Carlos Arroyo, Nenad Krstic, Carlos Delfino and Jorge Garbajosa have since left the NBA for European teams.

Dynamo also signed Bostjan Nachbar, who averaged 9.8 points for the New Jersey Nets last season.

The 6-foot-1, 175-pound Pargo is a six-year NBA veteran out of Arkansas. He averaged 8.1 points and 18 minutes a game as a reserve for the Hornets last season, and was the team’s fourth-leading scorer in the playoffs with 10.2 points per game.

New Orleans attempted to re-sign Pargo after he opted out of the final year of his contract in hopes of getting a more lucrative deal. Bartelstein said he had a handful of offers from the NBA, and the short length of the contract means the 28-year-old backup point guard has some future flexibility.

“We had a couple of interesting offers,” Bartelstein said. “We just thought it was a great opportunity. He expects to do this for a year, take a deep breath and decide what to do next year. By no means does this mean we’re saying goodbye to the NBA.”

A Pennsylvania woman who claims Michael Jordan fathered her son has been sentenced to a week in jail for not complying with a court order.A Crawford County judge barred 35-year-old Lisa Miceli of Meadville from contacting the former NBA star, his family or his representatives. Miceli also had to write a letter promising she would comply.

The judge says Miceli wrote she couldn’t comply because she believes her son is being cheated out of child support.

Jordan sued Miceli this year to enforce a 2005 agreement that required her to stop contacting him after two DNA tests showed he wasn’t the boy’s father. Jordan’s attorneys say Miceli continues to violate the deal, which Miceli says she was forced to sign.

The Los Angeles Clippers acquired Steve Novak, a forward who can shoot from the perimeter, in a deal with the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.

In return, the Rockets will have the option to exchange second-round picks with the Clippers in the 2011 NBA draft.

Last season, his second in the NBA, the 6-foot-10, 220-pound Novak averaged 3.9 points while playing in 35 games for Houston. He went 34-of-71 (.479) from 3-point range.

Selected 32nd overall in the 2006 NBA draft, Novak had set a Marquette record for career 3-pointers made (354), and finished 10th in school history in career points (1,567).

The 76ers re-signed guard Louis Williams on Monday, keeping a key member of Philadelphia’s first playoff team in three years.

The deal was reportedly worth more than $25 million over five years.

Williams, who was a restricted free agent, averaged 11.5 points in 23 minutes per game last season.

The 21-year-old Williams was selected out of high school with the No. 45 overall pick in the second round of the 2005 NBA draft. He’s averaged 7.2 points, 2.2 assists and 1.5 rebounds in his first three seasons.

Philadelphia signed two-time All-Star forward Elton Brand earlier this summer, and added free-agent guards Royal Ivey and Kareem Rush last week. Forward Andre Iguodala remains a restricted free agent.

The Denver Nuggets acquired forward Renaldo Balkman from the New York Knicks on Monday for guard Taurean Green, forward Bobby Jones and a second-round draft pick in 2010.

The Nuggets also get cash in the deal announced by Mark Warkentien, Denver’s vice president of basketball operations.

A former first-round pick, Balkman was going to struggle to find minutes in a crowded forward rotation. The Knicks took another forward, Danilo Gallinari, with the No. 6 selection in the June draft.

“Renaldo really had no role after we drafted Gallinari, and with the emergence of Wilson Chandler his minutes would be nonexistent,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said in Macau, where is on the U.S. Olympic team staff. “So it really wasn’t fair to him to keep him in a spot that he wouldn’t play and also gives us an opportunity to clear up a roster spot and move on.”

The 6-foot-8 Balkman averaged 3.4 points and 3.3 rebounds in 65 games for the Knicks last season. He has averaged 4.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in two seasons with the Knicks, shooting .499 from the field.

Police arrested a passenger in a car driven by Shawne Williams of the Indiana Pacers for marijuana possession, an incident that team president Larry Bird said jeopardizes the forward’s future with the Pacers.

Williams was not arrested but was written up for a window tint and seat belt violation after the police stop about 6 p.m. Friday in Carmel, said Lt. Jeff Horner, a spokesman for police in the northern Indianapolis suburb. The car did not belong to Williams.

A passenger, 21-year-old Darrell Smith Jr. of Williams’ hometown of Memphis, Tenn., was arrested on a misdemeanor charge after police found he had a small amount of marijuana, Horner told The Indianapolis Star. Smith was not in custody Sunday and his whereabouts were not clear.

Bird said Saturday he planned to meet with Williams to discuss the latest incident.

“While Shawne Williams was not involved in any arrest or any criminal wrongdoing, we are extremely upset and hugely disappointed he once again has put himself in a position that jeopardizes Shawne’s future as a member of the Indiana Pacers,” Bird said in a statement released by the team.

Williams’ agent, Happy Walters, said Williams had not heard from the team and hoped to talk with Bird on Monday. Walters said the incident was blown out of proportion and noted that Williams hadn’t been charged.

“He’s not going to be charged. He did nothing wrong,” Walters said Sunday.

Last month, Bird had said Williams was on “thin ice” with the team.

Suddenly, basketball matters in Iran.Normally the sport is an afterthought given the popularity of soccer, weightlifting and wrestling. But that has all changed now that Iran’s national basketball team is preparing for its first Olympic appearance in 60 years.

“For every athlete, it is like a dream to participate in the Olympic Games — especially for us because basketball in Iran is not that … important,” captain and forward Samad Bahrami said. “Everyone is looking for you and taking care of you.”

By beating Lebanon for the FIBA Asian Championship last year, Iran clinched its first Olympic basketball berth since 1948—a different era for both the Olympics and the world. The ‘48 Games took place in London, which was still cleaning up the rubble left by years of bombing raids during World War II. Iran itself was only a decade removed from being known as Persia.

Eddie House had virtually disappeared from the Boston rotation during the Celtics’ run to the NBA title. When he got in the game, though, he showed his worth.

House, who made a key 3-pointer while pouring in 11 points in 25 minutes in Game 4 against the Los Angeles Lakers, agreed to terms with the defending champions on Monday. Tony Allen, another backup guard whose development slowed when he tore ligaments in his knee during the 2006-07 season, also re-upped with the team.

The Celtics lost sixth man James Posey to free agency last week, but Monday’s deals give the team a chance to return most of its key players when it goes for an 18th title next season. All five starters are under contract, and only injured Scot Pollard and aging veterans P.J. Brown and Sam Cassell are left on the market.

Although better suited as a shooting guard, House was the backup to point guard Rajon Rondo for most of the regular season, averaging 7.5 points and 19 minutes per game. After Boston signed Cassell in March, House’s role was reduced. He played a total of 2 minutes over six games late in the Eastern Conference finals and early in the NBA finals against Los Angeles.

But in Game 4 against the Lakers, House scored nine of his 11 points in the second half, including a baseline jumper with 4:07 left to give Boston its first lead of the game, 84-83. The Celtics went on to win in six games for their unprecedented 17th NBA championship.

Allen was coming into his own as a rising star, averaging 19 points in a 14-game span for the otherwise woeful Celtics in December 2006 before he blew out his knee on a meaningless breakaway dunk and missing the rest of the season. He has shown signs of returning to that form, but his minutes have largely gone elsewhere.