BASKETBALL
Cavs fire Brown — again
Mike Brown was fired as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers for a second time on Monday after the team finished 10th in the Eastern Conference and missed the NBA playoffs. Brown rejoined the struggling Cavs at the start of the season after previously being released from the Los Angeles Lakers. It was his second stint in charge at Cleveland. He served as head coach between 2005 and 2010, when the Cavs made the playoffs each time and LeBron James was playing for the franchise. However, the Cavs have not qualified for the postseason since James left in 2010 and went 33-49 under Brown this season.
SOCCER
Liverpool’s Rodgers honored
Liverpool’s Brendan Rodgers was named the League Managers Association’s (LMA) Manager of the Year on Monday after he helped lift the Merseyside club out of the doldrums and took them to the brink of the Premier League championship. The LMA also honored Crystal Palace boss Tony Pulis with the Premier League Manager of the Year award for an impressive six months in which he replaced Ian Holloway mid-season and pulled the club out of relegation danger. Liverpool, after finishing seventh a year ago in Rodgers’ first season in charge, had been in pole position to win the title before late slip-ups to Chelsea and Crystal Palace saw them finish second, two points behind Manchester City. “There can be no greater tribute to a manager and his work than a tribute awarded by his matchday foes and peers,” LMA chairman Howard Wilkinson said of the award, voted on by all coaches in England’s four professional leagues.
SOCCER
Atalanta fined for banana
Serie A club Atalanta BC were fined 40,000 euros (US$55,000) on Monday after a banana was thrown onto the pitch during Sunday’s 2-1 win at home to AC Milan. Serie A’s disciplinary tribunal also ordered that their Curva Nord stand be closed for one game, but suspended the sanction for one year. A statement said the sanction will only be implemented if a similar offense is committed during that period. The banana landed near Milan’s Guinean defender Kevin Constant who picked it up, showed it to the referee and handed it to teammate Nigel de Jong, who threw it off the field. Milan players sarcastically applauded the section of the Atalanta fans where the banana was thrown from. Atalanta said in a statement on their Web site that club president Antonio Percassi had telephoned Milan’s chief executive Adriano Galliani to personally apologize.
CRICKET
Ahmed leaves England
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) says Mushtaq Ahmed has been hired as the new spin-bowling coach of the national team, ending his six-year spell in the England coaching set-up. The PCB made the announcement on Monday, saying Mushtaq was preferred to another former Pakistan spinner — Saqlain Mushtaq. The move has yet to be confirmed by England. Mushtaq Ahmed played 52 Tests for Pakistan from 1990 to 2003, claiming 185 wickets. Since the 5-0 defeat to Australia in the Ashes series Down Under, Andy Flower has been replaced as England head coach by Peter Moores and batting coach Graham Gooch has also left. England has allowed Mushtaq to explore other possible employment opportunities in recent weeks. He was hired by England in 2008 after knee injuries forced him to end his playing career.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
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