■ BASKETBALL
NBA honors Garnett
Kevin Garnett, who helped boost the Boston Celtics to the NBA’s best record, was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year on Tuesday. Garnett averaged 19.0 points and a team-high 9.2 rebounds a game in his first season with the Celtics after a trade from Minnesota. He also averaged 1.4 steals and 1.2 blocked shots a game. In voting by a North American media panel, Garnett received 493 points, including 90 first-place votes, with Denver’s Marcus Camby second on 178 and Houston’s Shane Battier was third with 175 points. The Celtics made the greatest one-season turnaround in NBA history, finishing 66-16 with 42 more triumphs than a season earlier, six more than the old mark set by San Antonio in 1998.
■ BASKETBALL
Seahawks release Alexander
The Seattle Seahawks released running back Shaun Alexander on Tuesday, just two years after he won the NFL’s player of the year and signed a US$62 million contract as the franchise’s cornerstone. Seahawks president Tim Ruskell said on Tuesday the team released Alexander unconditionally hours after the running back passed a physical. It’s been a rapid fall for the 30-year-old. When he signed that mammoth deal, he was coming off a stellar season in 2005 and a Super Bowl appearance. Now he’s looking for work, coming off of two unimpressive and injury filled seasons. “Yeah, it’s sad, really,” Ruskell said after announcing a move that had been expected in Seattle for six weeks, since the signings of free agent running backs Julius Jones and T.J. Duckett. “He’s been such an upstanding guy through my whole tenure here. I don’t think we have that Super Bowl run if it wasn’t for Shaun. ... It shows you have tough this game is, how ever-changing it is, how you can’t play forever. ... You just can’t do it.”
■ SWIMMING
Coach discusses expulsion
Australian head coach Alan Thompson insisted yesterday the controversy over Nick D’Arcy’s expulsion from the Olympic swimming team has not affected preparations for Beijing. He acknowledged the issue had been discussed in team meetings but said everyone had put it behind them and the sport’s reputation remained intact. “Our team has moved on,” Thompson told reporters in Canberra where the squad is at a training camp. “Swimming’s reputation is still impeccable.” D’Arcy, 20, was thrown off the Australian Olympic team on Friday for an alleged assault on former Commonwealth swimming champion Simon Cowley, which left him with a broken jaw, a broken nose and a fractured eye socket.
■ CRICKET
Boards meet to reach deal
Billionaire businessman Allen Stanford held another meeting with officials from the England and West Indies cricket boards to discuss a lucrative match between the sides. Stanford met at Lord’s with David Collier, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), and West Indies Cricket Board president Julian Hunte and chief executive Donald Peters. The ECB said on Tuesday that Monday’s “constructive and positive discussions” advanced initial talks held between the two sides earlier this month. Stanford, a Texan who owns several companies in the Caribbean, is offering a winner-takes-all pot of US$20 million to the winner of a Twenty20 match between England and an all-star West Indies side at his personal cricket ground in Antigua on Nov. 1. Stanford also wants to continue that format over several years.
■ SOCCER
Rijkaards’ home burgled
Thieves broke into the home of Frank Rijkaard and stole jewelry, valuables and cash while the FC Barcelona coach and his family slept. Rijkaard and his wife were not stirred by the robbers, who broke in on Sunday, El Mundo’s Web site reported on Tuesday. The newspaper said that Rijkaard’s son was the only one with suspicions when he noticed a shadow in the garden after the family dog barked. Rijkaard said he and his family were “fine” on Tuesday when asked about the report at a news conference for yesterday’s Champions League match against Manchester United.
■ RUGBY UNION
No evidence on Barkley
England flyhalf Olly Barkley had an assault charge against him dropped on Tuesday. Barkley was charged with causing actual bodily harm on Dec. 19 after being accused of attacking a guest during a wedding reception on July 15 last year. After a hearing at Aylesbury Crown Court, the charge was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service for lack of evidence. “I am really pleased that I am now able to put this behind me,” Barkley said. “I refused to allow it to affect me on the pitch, and hopefully my performances have demonstrated that. But now I am just happy to move on from it and do what I can to bring home some silverware this season.” The 26-year-old Barkley has played 21 games for England, including at last year’s World Cup, but he did not play in this year’s Six Nations. He has played for club Bath since being charged. The Rugby Football Union’s director of elite rugby, Rob Andrew, said he was happy for Barkley.
■ SOCCER
Hleb charged over ‘slap’
Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb was charged with violent conduct by the Football Association (FA) on Tuesday over a clash with Reading’s Graeme Murty. The incident happened off the ball during Arsenal’s 2-0 Premier League victory. Hleb appeared to thrust an open hand into Murty’s face, but the incident was missed by referee Peter Walton. Having reviewed the incident on television, Walton and the FA have decided to charge Hleb. He could be facing a three-game ban. An FA statement said: “Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb has been charged with violent conduct. Hleb was involved in an incident with Reading defender Graeme Murty during the second half of the match at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday April 19. The incident was not seen by referee Peter Walton. Having now watched video footage of the incident, Walton has informed the FA that, had he seen it at the time, he would have shown Hleb a red card for violent conduct.” Hleb had until 6pm yesterday to admit or deny the charge. A regulatory commission will hear the case today.
■ SOCCER
Toffees tie up Pienaar deal
Everton agreed a deal to sign midfielder Steven Pienaar on Tuesday, and will make permanent his loan signing at the end of the season. Everton had an option to sign the South African for £2.05 million (US$4.1 million) provided they paid before the end of the season. Pienaar had expressed concerns about how long it was taking for them to agree to do that, but manager David Moyes insisted the club was not to blame. he deal, as far as I am concerned, has been agreed,” he said. “It seems the problem lies with the agent’s fee.” Pienaar has agreed to a three-year deal, leaving Moyes to decide whether to take up an option on another on-loan midfielder, Manuel Fernandes. “Steven has done well for us,” Moyes said. “He is one of the reasons our football has improved.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier