■ Baskeball
Yao blasts shorter season
Yao Ming has blasted China's decision to shorten its pro basketball season, saying players need more competition if they hope to improve. "We will pay for that," the Houston Rockets star, a Chinese national team stalwart, was quoting as saying by the official China Daily newspaper. "It is like killing the hen to get the eggs," said the 2.26m center. The Chinese Basketball Association's decision to cut 100 games from the season was intended to allow the national team more time for training ahead of the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, in December. However, Yao said more competition, not drills, was what was really needed. "The lack of matches will effect the passion of players and coaches," Yao said.
■ Motor racing
Date set for Brock funeral
Victorian state Premier Steve Bracks yesterday announced details of a state funeral for Australian motor racing legend Peter Brock, as police continue to investigate the rallying accident that killed him. Brock's family had approved a state funeral in Melbourne next Tuesday and a public memorial service on Sept. 22 at Melbourne's Sandown raceway, where the touring car champion achieved many of his finest wins, Bracks said. Brock, 61, died last Friday when the Daytona Coupe racecar he was driving skidded off the road and struck a tree during the Targa West rally near the Western Australian city of Perth.
■ Soccer
Aragones decides to stay
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on Monday said it had rejected an offer by national team coach Luis Aragones to resign. Aragones has been under fire after a humiliating 3-2 defeat by Northern Ireland last week in a Euro 2008 qualifier. An RFEF spokesman said on Monday that Aragones "met the federation president this morning and indicated to him he wanted to go." The spokesman said the RFEF had reiterated that the veteran coach still enjoyed "the full confidence" of the organization, adding that Aragones was going to spend "a couple of days" thinking things over. The RFEF later quoted Aragones as saying "that having thought it through I've decided to stay on."
■ Basketball
Kukoc set to retire
Toni Kukoc is set to conclude his NBA career, the 13-year veteran saying he plans to call it quits because the only clubs near his home are not interested in him. "It looks like I'm done," Kukoc told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday at a charity golf tournament. "There are teams that want me but I don't want to go far from home." The Croatian forward, who lives in suburban Chicago, spent six seasons with the Bulls and the past four with the Milwaukee Bucks. "Milwaukee is going with a young team and Chicago is in need of a big guy, so that's it," said Kukoc, who turns 38 in a week. "It's time for me to move away from basketball. It was a huge part of my life and gave me pretty much everything I desired but there comes a time when you just can't take it anymore."
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