ICE HOCKEY
Shawn Burr dies at 47
Shawn Burr, who played 16 years in the NHL, mostly with the Detroit Red Wings, died on Monday. He was 47. Dave Goetze, a friend of Burr’s, says Burr was making progress in a fight against leukemia, but he died from brain trauma after a fall at his Detroit-area home. Goetze has worked for the Shawn Burr Foundation in support of blood cancer research. Burr was a first-round draft pick by the Red Wings in 1984. He made his NHL debut in 1984-1985 and was with the Red Wings until 1995. He also played for the Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks. In 878 NHL games, Burr scored 181 goals with 259 assists and 1,069 penalty minutes.
SOCCER
Woman ‘voice of football’
Female former newsreader Charlotte Green was on Tuesday appointed by the British Broadcasting Corp (BBC) as the reader of the classified soccer results on BBC Radio 5 Live. Green will take over from James Alexander Gordon, who stepped down from his role last month after almost 40 years in the job. “I’m delighted to be offered this opportunity as I’ve been a football fan all my life,” said Green, who supports Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. “In fact, as a six-year-old I used to sit at the dining room table reading the football scores out loud from the newspaper, so this really is a dream come true. It is a huge honor to take over from James Alexander Gordon.” Green will read the soccer results for the first time during the station’s Sports Report program on Sept. 28. Green previously worked as a newsreader on BBC Radio 4, before taking voluntary redundancy earlier this year.
BASKETBALL
Heat-Bulls to open season
The Miami Heat will open their title defense against the Chicago Bulls on Oct. 29 in the expected return of Derrick Rose, with an all-Los Angeles matchup later that night in the Lakers’ first game without Dwight Howard and the Clippers’ first with Doc Rivers. The NBA’s 2013-2014 schedule, released on Tuesday, also features a potential LeBron James-Kobe Bryant duel at Christmas in Los Angeles, right after scoring stars Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant match up across the country in New York. Howard’s first visit to the Lakers since leaving for Houston as a free agent does not come until Feb. 19, giving Bryant plenty of time to get back to full strength from his torn Achilles’ tendon near the end of last season.
SOCCER
Pepe back for friendly
Portugal coach Paulo Bento has named a 23-man squad for the upcoming friendly match against the Netherlands at the Estadio do Algarve, with Real Madrid defender Pepe making his return. Pepe, 30, is available again after a ban prevented him from featuring in the 1-0 win against Russia in June that left Portugal in top spot in World Cup qualifying Group F. “The return of Pepe opens up a number of possibilities for us. He has a player with potential and the capacity to be a leader,” Bento said at a press conference on Tuesday ahead of the game on Wednesday next week. The friendly is Portugal’s last game before they travel to face Northern Ireland in Belfast in a qualifier for the World Cup in Brazil next year on Sept. 6. “These two teams play in different ways, but the objective is always the same: to be better than them,” Bento said of his side’s next two opponents.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
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