■BASKETBALL
Jackson hopes to return
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson hopes to be back with the team next season, a report on Friday on the NBA Web site said. Jackson stopped short of saying a contract extension was a certainty, but said that unlike a year ago he did not expect his health would be a determining factor, the Web site reported. The 64-year-old Jackson, who has had hip replacement operations since 2006 and an angioplasty to clear a blocked heart artery in 2003, had said last June he did not know if his health would allow him to continue coaching before he was given the all clear to return this season.
■SAILING
Cup teams drop claims
The teams in last month’s America’s Cup have agreed to drop outstanding legal claims against each other. The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), under whose colors BMW Oracle sailed, said in a statement on Friday the agreement included its “breach of fiduciary duty” claim against the Societe Nautique de Geneve’s (SNG) Alinghi team. “In place of controversy we seek consensus. Instead of continuing argument we are pleased to have reached agreement,” GGYC commodore Marcus Young said. SNG confirmed it had reached a settlement with GGYC. BMW Oracle won the 33rd edition of the sailing series off Valencia, Spain last month against defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland. Russell Coutts, head of the BMW Oracle team, said: “Our focus is on looking ahead and making the 34th edition of the oldest trophy in international sport the best America’s Cup yet.”
■FIGURE SKATING
Nagasu takes lead
While Olympic champion Kim Yu-na crumbled, American Mirai Nagasu soared at the World Figure Skating Championships in Turin, Italy, on Friday. Nagasu was in first place after a nearly flawless short program. Kim, who has lost only one competition over the last two seasons and was downright majestic in winning gold in Vancouver, was in seventh place after three major errors in an uncharacteristically sloppy performance. Coming off the ice, Kim told reporters that her left foot was “shaking.” But it was unclear if there was a medical issue. Nagasu scored a season-best 70.40, putting her two points ahead of Olympic silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan. Finland’s Laura Lepisto was third. Later Friday, Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada added a world title to their gold medal, edging training partners Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the US.
■BASKETBALL
Arenas spared jail term
NBA star Gilbert Arenas won’t spend time behind bars for taking guns into the Washington Wizards locker room, a judge instead sentencing him on Friday to 30 days in a halfway house. District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Robert Morin sentenced Arenas, who had pleaded guilty on Jan. 15 to a felony gun charge of carrying an unlicensed pistol — a violation of the US capital’s strict gun laws. Prosecutors had recommended that the player be sentenced to three months in jail. In addition to the time in a halfway house, Arenas was sentenced to 400 hours of community service, which cannot be conducted at basketball clinics. He was fined US$5,000 and must register as a gun offender. He is already suspended from the National Basketball Association through the remainder of the season. Arenas, whose actions in the wake of the event irked NBA officials who felt he didn’t take the incident seriously, apologized in court. “Every day, I wake up wishing it did not happen,” Arenas 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