■BASKETBALL
Jose Calderon close to deal
Jose Calderon reached a “preliminary agreement” on Tuesday to remain with the Toronto Raptors for another season. The 26-year-old Spanish guard wrote on his Web site that his agent and the NBA club had reached a deal. “I want to thank ... all of the Raptors family for the confidence that they have placed in me. I am sure that together we are going to achieve big things in the future,” Calderon said. Calderon, who was in the Spanish capital on Tuesday to meet with his Spain teammates ahead of the Olympic Games, has averaged 8.7 points and 6.1 assists per game in three seasons with Toronto.
■BASKETBALL
NBA hires army general
The NBA hired US Army Major General Ronald Johnson on Tuesday as senior vice president of referee operations, a newly created position to help strengthen the league’s officiating programs following a gambling scandal involving one of its refs. The move splits executive vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson’s role into two positions, a plan commissioner David Stern announced last fall. Johnson will oversee all aspects of officiating, while Jackson will continue to handle all other domestic and international basketball matters. Johnson recently retired after 32 years of service as a combat engineer. He was commanding general of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region division, from 2003-2004, responsible for overseeing US$18 billion of reconstruction funds in Iraq.
■NASCAR
Franchitti team shut down
NASCAR team co-owner Chip Ganassi has shut down Dario Franchitti’s race team because of a lack of sponsorship. Last year’s Indianapolis 500 winner and Indy Racing League Series champion has struggled in his first season in the top tier of US stock-car racing driving Ganassi’s No. 40 Dodge. Longtime sponsor Coors Light left at the end of last season, and Ganassi was unable to secure funding for Franchitti. Franchitti ranks 41st in the points standings. “If I keep going, I run the risk of dragging the other two teams down. I don’t want to do that,” Ganassi said. “There’s no money. It makes no sense to be running this out of my pocket. I had to put a stop to it.”
■SOCCER
Industry unites for charter
Europe’s soccer family united on Tuesday to launch the “Social dialogue of European football,” the initial stages toward establishing a future charter for the profession. Among those present at the Lutetia hotel in Paris included representatives from FIFPro, the international players’ union, ECA, which groups 103 of Europe’s top clubs and successor to the old G14, and the EPFL, a body which groups 17 of Europe’s leagues.
■SWIMMING
Australians to make deal
The Australian swimming team will thrash out a deal with Malaysia to ensure their Asian hosts’ Olympic training schedule is not turned upside down just weeks before the Games. Local media reports had said the Australians, who have rented Malaysia’s National Aquatic Center, were refusing to share pool time with the Malaysian swimmers, forcing them to get up before dawn to squeeze training in. But Swimming Australia yesterday said that the reports were inaccurate. “[Australian head coach] Alan Thompson has been in contact with the Malaysian head coach to make sure it’s all worked out,” Swimming Australia media director Ian Hanson said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB