NEW ORLEANS — Chris Paul and the Hornets reached a contract agreement that could keep the All-Star point guard with the team for at least the next four seasons.

Lance Young, Paul’s agent, said Paul agreed to a three-year extension with a player’s option for a fourth year. The total value of the deal is $68 million.

Paul, who recently completed his third NBA season and has been selected to play for the United States in the Olympics, has one season remaining on his current contract. Under league rules, the first day the Hornets can formalize Paul’s new contract is July 9.

Arenas will stay with Wizards

WASHINGTON — Gilbert Arenas has agreed to re-sign with the Washington Wizards for $111 million over six years, essentially taking millions less so that his team could have more financial flexibility, two newspapers reported.

Arenas told the Washington Times and Washington Post that he was offered a maximum deal in the neighborhood of $127 million on Tuesday, the first day of the free agency period.

The three-time All-Star became a free agent after opting out of the final year of his six-year, $65 million contract.

GYMNASTICS

Hamm failed drug test

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Gymnast Morgan Hamm, who was selected for his third Olympic team last month, received a warning Thursday for getting a prescribed anti-inflammatory shot without the proper clearance from anti-doping authorities.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Hamm tested positive May 24 at the U.S. gymnastics championships for a glucocorticosteroid, a cortisone-like drug that is only allowed during competitions with an exemption. Hamm said he received the shot May 2 for pain and inflammation in his left ankle, which he initially injured last August.

“It was an innocent mistake,” Hamm said. “You always need to get the forms, that’s the most important thing, and that’s my failure.”

Hamm accepted the warning for his first doping violation, and his results from the May 24 competition at nationals were thrown out. Results from that day, as well as the first day of nationals and two days of Olympic trials, were used to help determine the U.S. team for Beijing.

GOLF

Marino leads PGAtournament

BETHESDA, Md. — Steve Marino used to consider it a treat the few times he played Congressional as a teenager. It was a thrill on Thursday to play bogey-free in the first round of the AT&T National and shoot 5-under 65 for a one-shot lead.

Marino, who grew up a half-hour away in Fairfax, Va., birdied three of his opening four holes, never had a par putt longer than 5 feet and finished off his round with an 8-foot birdie.

Jeff Overton, Frank Lickliter, Rod Pampling and Bob Estes opened with 66s, and the large group at 67 included Anthony Kim and Notah Begay III, a teammate of Tiger Woods at Stanford who received one of the sponsor’s exemptions.

AUTO RACING

Moss buys share of truck team

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Troy Aikman. Terry Bradshaw. Tim Brown. Julius Erving. Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Jim Kelly. Mark Rypien. Roger Staubach.

The list of top athletes who have come and gone through NASCAR is a collection of big aspirations with bank accounts that couldn’t keep up. Some never reached the track, others spent millions searching for success before finally calling it quits.

Randy Moss insists he’s different.

New England’s All-Pro receiver became the latest athlete to cross into NASCAR when he announced Thursday he has purchased 50 percent of Morgan-Dollar Motorsports, a fledgling Truck Series team racing this season without sponsorship.

It costs at least $6 million a season to run a successful truck program, and if Moss can’t find funding, he’ll have to reach into his own pocket to pay the bills.

Moss, who wouldn’t reveal the purchase price of his latest venture, said he has the funds to foot the bill and the desire to build a winning program.

“Yeah, I am prepared. I’ll leave it at that,” he said at Daytona International Speedway, where he’ll be attending his first NASCAR race this weekend. “I have been in the league 11 years, so I think I’m good. I am not really saying that I am 100 percent certain that it’s going to work, but at the same time, you’ve got to think positive. I think if you go out there and think in the negative light, bad things will happen.”

So Moss heads into a new sport with lofty aspirations. He’s renamed the team Randy Moss Motorsports, and changed the truck number from 46 to 81 to reflect his jersey number. The revamped team will make its debut July 19 at Kentucky Speedway with Willie Allen behind the wheel.