MIAMI (AP) -- Detroit Lions quarterback Joey Harrington has decided to sign with the Miami Dolphins, his agent said Wednesday, giving the team a backup to new starter Daunte Culpepper.
With Culpepper facing an uncertain timetable in his recovery from a serious knee injury, Harrington might be Miami's No. 1 quarterback when the season begins.
The Dolphins and Lions are expected to complete a trade soon, sending Harrington to Miami. The Lions decided a month ago not to retain Harrington, a starter during his four seasons in Detroit.
"I look forward to joining the Miami Dolphins whenever I am released or a trade is completed," Harrington said in a statement from his agent, David Dunn. "The Dolphins are an ascending team with great coaching, and I can't wait to get started."
The Dolphins barely missed the playoffs last year after winning their final six games. Optimism about the 2006 season rose when Miami acquired Culpepper from Minnesota a month ago.
Gus Frerotte and Sage Rosenfels were the quarterbacks in Nick Saban's first season as Miami coach last year.
Harrington, drafted No. 3 overall in 2002, was 18-37 as a starter with the Lions under three coaches: Marty Mornhinweg, Steve Mariucci and Dick Jauron. He threw 60 touchdown passes and 62 interceptions with the Lions, and his career quarterback rating is a modest 68.1.
"I learned so much in Detroit, and I will always value those relationships and that experience," Harrington said. "At the same time, I am eager to get to work with my new team, whether that happens in a day, a week or a month."
The Dolphins and Lions have been trying for two weeks to work out a trade for Harrington. Lions spokesman Bill Keenist said the team did not have a comment on the situation. Dolphins spokesman Harvey Greene didn't return a call seeking comment.
The Lions are certain to part with Harrington before June 15, when he is due a $4 million bonus. He'll likely be replaced by Jon Kitna or Josh McCown, both former starters who agreed to terms with Detroit last month.

PHOENIX (AP)
-- Major League Baseball gave Barry Bonds a slap on the wristbands Wednesday.
Bonds was fined $5,000 for wearing wristbands that violated baseball's apparel rules because of their size and logo design.
Bob Watson, baseball's vice president for on-field operations, confirmed that a letter was sent to Bonds on Tuesday. Bonds has appealed the ruling, Watson said.
"It probably will go to an arbitrator," Watson said.
Watson also said Bonds had previously run afoul of baseball's uniform guidelines before.
"He's appealed it before," Watson said. "He's been fined before."
Bonds' appeal then was heard by Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer. It's unclear whether appeal now will be heard by John McHale, a baseball executive vice president, or whether there will be a grievance filed by the players' association that is heard by an arbitrator.
"The union believes the matter is subject to the grievance procedure and will be heard by the neutral arbitrator," said Michael Weiner, the union's general counsel.
Rob Manfred, MLB's executive vice president of labor relations, had a different view.
"It's on-field misconduct, and it is handled like any other on-field misconduct, and that is an appeal to Mr. McHale," he said.
Bonds was not in the starting lineup Wednesday night, but it was because of his knees and elbow, not his uniform. Manager Felipe Alou said he wanted to rest his slumping slugger, who had played six straight days.
MLB.com first reported the fine. In an interview before the game, Bonds said the logo on his wristbands complied with earlier specifications issued by MLB.
"My wristbands have already been changed and they're the exact wristbands I wore in 2004 and 2005," Bonds told MLB.com. "They're exactly the same. They can't come after me now if they didn't come after me in 2004. The wristband hasn't changed since 2004, so this can't be right."

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)
-- The prosecutor compared the indecency case against former Vikings running back Moe Williams to buying a house, "it's all about location, location, location," he said.
Prosecutor Steve Tallen gave his closing Thursday morning, urging a jury to find Williams guilty because he fondled the breasts of a dancer in a public space aboard a tour boat on Lake Minnetonka in suburban Minneapolis.
Defense lawyer Joe Friedberg countered in his summary that Williams was not guilty because he did not intend to break the law and that his brief encounter with the dancer was in a remote part of the boat.
"There is an element of intent here, and that's what Moe Williams didn't have," he said.
The charges stem from a party attended by Williams and several other Minnesota Vikings that prosecutors characterized as a "floating orgy" that offended and frightened the ships' crew.
The jury began deliberating late Thursday morning.
Williams, 32, is the first player to be tried on charges of indecent conduct, disorderly conduct and lewd or lascivious behavior. Two other Vikings, tackle Bryant McKinnie and cornerback Fred Smoot, face the same charges and are scheduled to go on trial in May. Charges against former quarterback Daunte Culpepper were dropped.
The prosecution presented its witnesses Wednesday. Moe, who sat quietly in a dark suit throughout, didn't testify and the defense called no witnesses of its own.
The prosecution's key witnesses, Jamie Lyons and Erika Chepokas, were working as waitresses on the "Avanti" -- a boat owned by Al & Alma's Restaurant and Cruises -- Oct. 6 when Vikings rookies took the veterans out for a cruise.
Lyons and Chepokas described women carrying bags aboard the boat with team members, then quickly changing into thongs and scanty tops. Lyons and Chepokas said the women began giving lap dances to men on the boat, and eventually some of them took off all of their clothes.
"After we left the dock, it turned into a strip club," Lyons testified.
The women each said they came across Williams and a woman who were together in a tight space in the lower part of the boat, near a bathroom. Both said Williams was touching the woman, including on her breasts.
"I wish I hadn't," Lyons said when Tallen asked for her reaction to seeing Williams and the woman dancing with him.
Friedberg said in his opening statement Wednesday that Williams spent most of the night in the boat's bar area, drinking cranberry vodkas. He didn't deny that Williams had contact with one of the dancers, but said it wasn't against the law.
"Mr. Williams was having a good time with a woman who was 100 percent consenting," Friedberg said.
The boat scandal was a low point for a disappointing season for the Vikings. Soon afterward, Culpepper suffered a serious knee injury that ended his season. He was traded to Miami during the offseason after his relationship with the team soured.
Williams, a free agent after 10 years in the league, missed the last half of the season with a knee injury. The Vikings don't plan to re-sign him, and Friedberg described him in court Wednesday as "retired."

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York Yankees minor league manager Oscar Acosta and team official Humberto Trejo were killed in a car accident in the Dominican Republic, the New York Post reported Thursday.
Acosta, the manager of the Gulf Coast Yankees of the Rookie League, and Trejo, the Yankees' field coordinator in the Dominican, were killed in an accident on a highway outside of Santo Domingo on Wednesday night, the newspaper reported.
"Not much is known at this time," Mark Newman, head of the Yankees' minor league operations, told the newspaper.
Acosta, 49, was the pitching coach at Triple-A Columbus from 1996-98, and served in a similar capacity at the major league level with the Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers. He was in his third year as manager of the Gulf Coast team, which he led to league championships the last two seasons.
Trejo, 38, was in his 16th season working for the Yankees, serving in a number of capacities, including as a manager, coach and coordinator of the team's Latin America player-development program.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)
-- Tiger Woods will take time off from the PGA Tour while his father battles cancer, the world's No. 1 player said Thursday.
Woods said it was possible he would not make an appearance in a golf tournament before the U.S. Open in June.
He did not give specific details of his planned break, except to say he would not start playing "for a while," and the failing health of his father, Earl, would have a major influence on his future schedule.
"It's kind of up in the air with the situation back home, so I don't know what's going to happen," said Woods, who is in New Zealand to attend the wedding of his caddie Steve Williams. He is also due to drive in a charity motor race Monday on New Zealand's North Island.
"I'm taking time off. I'm here for this event and for Steve, and to enjoy time off and be with my father, so I won't play for a while," Woods said.
"My father is hanging in there, the guy is an absolute fighter and walking miracle."
Woods said he would definitely seek his 11th major title in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y., from June 15-18.

LOS ANGELES (AP)
-- Kobe Bryant did his best this season to turn around the Los Angeles Lakers. He hopes what he and the team accomplished is just the beginning.
Bryant scored 27 of his 35 points in the first half to officially win his first scoring title with the NBA's highest scoring average in 19 years, and the Lakers beat the New Orleans Hornets 115-95 Wednesday night to clinch seventh place in the Western Conference.
"It was a good season for me individually. I'm more proud of what we accomplished as a team, getting to the postseason," Bryant said.
The Lakers face the two-time reigning Pacific Division champion Phoenix Suns in the first round of the playoffs. The best-of-seven series begins Sunday in Phoenix.
The Lakers enter the postseason having won five straight games -- their longest winning streak in more than two years -- and 11 of their last 14 to put them a season-high eight games over .500 at 45-37.
"At the end of the season, here we are -- playing our best basketball," Bryant said.
The mood is entirely different than at this time last year, when the Lakers dropped 19 of their final 21 to finish 34-48 and miss the playoffs for just the second time in 30 years.
"This is why you come out and work," Lakers forward Lamar Odom said. "You put your time out in the gym, and being a little kid from New York, shoveling snow, dreaming of one day playing in the NBA playoffs, give yourself a chance to win the NBA championship."
Bryant, making a late-season case for league MVP honors, averaged 35.4 points, the NBA's best since Michael Jordan averaged 37.1 points in the 1986-87 season. Bryant all but sewed up the scoring title several weeks ago.
Bryant came out of the game with 2:21 left in the third quarter and the Lakers leading 91-55. He played 29 minutes and shot 13-of-26 from the floor, including 4-of-10 from 3-point range, and 5-of-5 from the foul line.
Bryant's average is the eighth-highest in history, and his 2,832 points rank seventh on the all-time single-season list. The only players to score more points in a season are Wilt Chamberlain, who did it five times, and Jordan, who did it once.
"If feels good to be mentioned among the elite players who have ever played the game," Bryant said. "The ultimate goal is to win a title. That's my focus, from here on out, the rest of my career, to get back to the top.
"That's what drives me. It might take some time. It might be sooner than later."
Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal led the Lakers to three championships, from 2000-02, and to the NBA Finals two years ago. O'Neal was traded and coach Phil Jackson let go after the Lakers lost to Detroit in the 2004 Finals, but last season was a disaster.
Jackson returned this season, and with Bryant leading the way, the Lakers accomplished their goal of making the playoffs.
"It's been a remarkable year for him," Jackson said. "Out of necessity, he kind of carried us on his shoulders the first couple months, and as the season got into the middle part, he actually took off and had some remarkable games. He just went on a tear from that point on in the season. Things just clicked for him."
Kwame Brown had 19 points and eight rebounds, Brian Cook scored 12 points, and Smush Parker and Devean George added 10 apiece for the Lakers.
P.J. Brown scored 16 points and Marc Jackson had 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Hornets, who lost 19 of their last 26 games to finish with a 38-44 record. They played the finale without four prominent players -- leading scorer David West (sore left ankle); third-leading scorer Speedy Claxton (sore knees); Kirk Snyder (sore hamstring), and Aaron Williams (sore right knee).
The Lakers never trailed. Cook scored seven points during a 16-4 run to finish the first quarter, giving them a 32-20 lead. The Hornets weren't closer than 12 points after that.
"It's been a long, strange year," said Hornets coach Byron Scott, whose team played most of its games in Oklahoma City because of the Hurricane Katrina. "It doesn't matter what happened tonight -- I was going to be proud of the way our guys played this season.
"We didn't end it the way we wanted to the last four games, but we made big-time progress from where a lot of people expected us to be at this particular point, and we have a lot to look forward to."
Notes: Chris Mihm played for the first time since severely spraining his right ankle March 12. Mihm, a starter before being hurt, had two points and one rebound in 14 minutes. "I'm just happy to be back and have a chance to go here," he said. "I don't know how much better it's going to get. Final rehab and rest is what's going to heal this thing fully." ... The Lakers went 3-1 against the Hornets this season, and have won 15 of the last 18 games between the teams, including nine of the last 10 in Los Angeles ... Scott, who played 11 seasons for the Lakers, said he'll be pull