Lakers name Mike D'Antoni as new head coach

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Los Angeles Lakers hired Mike D'Antoni late Sunday night, signing the former coach of the Suns and Knicks to replace Mike Brown.

The Lakers and D'Antoni's agent, Warren LeGarie, confirmed the deal two days after the Lakers fired Brown five games into the season.

D'Antoni agreed to a three-year deal worth $12 million, with a team option for a fourth season.
D'Antoni got the high-profile job running the 16-time NBA champions only after the club's top brass extensively discussed the job with former Lakers coach Phil Jackson.

The 11-time NBA champion coach met with Lakers owners Jerry and Jim Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak on Saturday to weigh a return for a third stint on Los Angeles' bench.

The Lakers instead went with D'Antoni, a respected offensive strategist who coached Lakers point guard Steve Nash in Phoenix during the best years of their respective careers. D'Antoni was less successful during four seasons in New York, but at least restored the once-moribund Knicks to competence before resigning last March.

''Dr. (Jerry) Buss, Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak unanimously agreed that Mike was the best coach for this roster at this time,'' Lakers spokesman John Black said.

The 61-year-old D'Antoni underwent knee replacement surgery earlier this month, and could be physically limited early in his tenure. Black said the Lakers aren't certain when D'Antoni will travel to Los Angeles to begin work.

Interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff will continue running the Lakers until D'Antoni arrives. Los Angeles beat Sacramento 103-90 on Sunday night, improving to 2-0 under Bickerstaff after a 1-4 start under Brown.
The Lakers' next game is Tuesday night against San Antonio at Staples Center.

After Brown's dismissal, Nash and Kobe Bryant both expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of playing for D'Antoni, although Bryant also campaigned eagerly for Jackson.

Bryant idolized D'Antoni while growing up in Italy, where D'Antoni was a star player for Olimpia Milano in the Italian pro league. D'Antoni also has been an assistant coach on various U.S. national teams featuring Bryant, including the gold medal-winning squad at the London Olympics.

Nash won two MVP awards while running D'Antoni's signature up-tempo offense for the final four seasons of the coach's five-year tenure with the Suns.

Nash and D'Antoni won at least 54 games each season and reached two Western Conference finals - and they eliminated Bryant's Lakers from the first round of the playoffs in 2006 and 2007, still the only first-round exits of Kobe's 17-year career.

***

In a stunning development late Sunday night, the Los Angeles Lakers opted to sign former Knicks and Suns coach Mike D’Antoni to a four-year deal as their next coach, ending negotiations with 11-time NBA champion coach Phil Jackson. He was believed to be the prohibitive favorite to replace Mike Brown, who was fired last Friday.

D’Antoni and former Lakers, Blazers, Bucks and Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy interviewed with the Lakers over the weekend. But they were fallbacks, interviews done just in case the Lakers, somehow, could not reach a deal with the 67-year-old Jackson, who’d won five titles in Los Angeles during two stints as head coach.

But the Lakers could not reach agreement with Jackson, whose representatives had made it clear last summer that Jackson wanted a much bigger role in any organization that he joined, with hiring authority for coaches and other positions in the organization.

Negotiations with Jackson ended Sunday night, and the Lakers called D’Antoni’s agent, Warren LeGarie, as their home game against the Kings was ending. The two sides quickly worked out a contract somewhat along the lines of what Brown — another LeGarie client — received, though specific dollar amounts were not immediately available.

The Lakers never contacted other potential coaching candidates like former Blazers coach Nate McMillan, or former Jazz coach Jerry Sloan.

In the end, D’Antoni’s relationships both with Steve Nash, whom he helped get two MVPs in Phoenix, and with Kobe Bryant, who has known D’Antoni since he was finishing his playing career in Italy when a young Bryant lived there, made him the choice over Dunleavy.

D’Antoni’s Suns gave as good as they got with the Lakers in the playoffs, rallying from a 3-1 deficit to defeat L.A. in a 2006 first-round series. And his “Seven Seconds or Less” offensive system, which demanded pushing the ball up court — even after opponents scored — to get a good shot early in the shot clock, was much more in line with the old “Showtime” Lakers of Magic Johnson than the halfcourt-based Princeton offense that Brown tried to run.

***

The Lakers could have had Jackson. Jerry Buss could have made things uneasy for son Jim Buss and paid the money necessary to make it worth Phil's while to save the Lakers' floundering fortunes for the third time in 13 years, and the Lakers could have decided that with the team's massive payroll and the millions they're still on the hook to pay Mike Brown over the next few years that they may as well go ahead and pay the coach Kobe wanted the most. Instead, they picked up Kobe's second choice, and it's probably the best deal for all involved.

It's true the Lakers players weren't listening to Phil when he and the team uneasily parted for the second time in 2011, same as was the case in 2004, but a few years away tends to change that. That's the guess, at least. It would have been a marvelous pairing once again, but one we'll never get to see.

For those disappointed in ego and money and control (those minor things) getting in the way of something special again, D'Antoni's presence is superb consolation.

***

Phil Jackson was prepared to return to the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday morning if negotiations between his agent and the team went well, a league source told ESPNLosAngeles.com late Sunday night.

When the Lakers called to tell Jackson that they had instead chosen Mike D'Antoni to be their next head coach, he was "stunned," according to the source, because he had been under the impression "it was his job to turn down," although no formal offer had ever been made.

Sources over the weekend said Jackson had made significant contract demands, including salary, personnel decisions and the ability to skip some road games, but ESPN NBA analyst Kurt Rambis -- who has since spoken to Jackson; the two are close friends -- said that was never the case.

Rambis, a former Lakers player and assistant coach who worked on Jackson-led staffs from 2001-2004 and 2005-2009 and remains close friends with Jackson, said Jackson told him there had never been any discussions of salary or restrictions on a potential return, and that he and the Lakers had agreed to wait until Monday to negotiate.

***

Between the hours of Mike Brown's firing and a meeting on Saturday morning with history's most accomplished coach, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak privately told people there was one candidate: Phil Jackson.

Jackson wanted to humiliate Lakers vice president Jim Buss far more than he wanted to coach the team. He wanted significant allowances on travel, coaching duties and an ability to veto player personnel moves that didn't fit his vision. With an unprecedented 11 coaching championships, Jackson had every right to make unprecedented demands. He doesn't have the right to be surprised when the Lakers rejected them and hired a pliable, cheaper coach in Mike D'Antoni.

"Phil wanted Jim Buss to walk away with his tail between his legs," one source with knowledge of the discussions told Yahoo! Sports. "He thought he had time to still negotiate with them, and see how much they would give him."

Now, the Lakers are going out of their way to spare Jackson the embarrassment of his overreaching, but this is pointless spin. They're working with him to sell the public that he hadn't asked for too much, that somehow the franchise chose D'Antoni over Jackson on sheer merit. It's noble, but laughable. Jackson heard those chants in the Staples Center and never believed the Lakers had the guts to call his bluff before circling back to him on Monday.

"Phil's assistants convinced him that they had his back on the concerns [Jackson] had about his load as head coach, and he was ready to get a deal done on Monday," a source with knowledge of the talks said. "But this was about Jim Buss giving him a royal you-know-what in the end."

Mike Brown fired after 5 games

The Los Angeles Lakers fired coach Mike Brown on Friday after a 1-4 start to his second season in charge.

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak announced the surprising move several hours before they hosted Golden State. Assistant coach Bernie Bickerstaff will coach the Lakers against the Warriors while the club's top brass searches for Brown's replacement after just 18 months in charge.

''The bottom line is that the team is not winning at the pace we expected this team to win, and we didn't see improvement,'' Kupchak said at the Lakers' training complex in El Segundo.

Los Angeles began the season with championship expectations after trading for center Dwight Howard and point guard Steve Nash, adding two superstars alongside Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. But the Lakers went 0-8 during the preseason last month for the first time in franchise history before stumbling into the regular season with an 0-3 start, losing to Dallas, Portland and the Clippers.

After finally beating Detroit last Sunday for their first win, the Lakers looked listless again in a loss at Utah on Wednesday, dropping to last place in the Western Conference. Los Angeles' defense has been largely poor, and the players still haven't figured out the new offense installed by Brown during training camp.

Combined with their aging core of talent and a massive payroll, Kupchak and owners Jim and Jerry Buss decided they couldn't wait another game to start winning. Brown was dismissed in a morning meeting.

''We're not looking five or 10 years down the road,'' Kupchak said. ''This team was built to contend this year. There's no guarantee that this team can win a championship, but we feel that it can be deeply in the hunt. We're also aware that our players ... are getting older, so our feeling is that we can contend at this level for another couple of years.''

Brown was hired in May 2011 to replace 11-time NBA champion Phil Jackson, signing a four-year deal worth roughly $18 million in May 2011. Kupchak said the eight-figure payout they'll have to make on Brown's contract wasn't a factor in their decision.

''It's a pretty direct message to all of us,'' Gasol said while leaving the Lakers' shootaround Friday morning in El Segundo. ''There's no messing around. It's time for all of us to step it up.''

In a brief news conference, Kupchak did nothing to squelch speculation that Jackson could return for a third tenure with the Lakers. The 67-year-old Jackson walked away from the club in 2011 with few apparent hard feelings, and his health has markedly improved during his time away from the NBA.

Kupchak said he hasn't reached out to any candidates for the job, but thinks it's likely the Lakers will hire an experienced coach who isn't currently working. Kupchak said he hasn't talked to Jackson, but Jim Buss' sister, Lakers executive Jeanie Buss, is Jackson's longtime girlfriend.

''When there's a coach like Phil Jackson, one of the all-time greats, and he's not coaching, I think you would be negligent not to know that he's out there,'' Kupchak said.

***

After losing four of five games to start the season, the Los Angeles Lakers fired coach Mike Brown on Friday.

Assistant coach Bernie Bickerstaff will serve as interim coach while the Lakers search for a long-term replacement. In a news conference, team general manager Mitch Kupchak left open the possibility of the Lakers making a run at bringing back Phil Jackson for a third time as coach.

"I think you'd be negligent not to be aware that [Jackson's] out there," Kupchak said.

On Friday morning at the Lakers' practice facility, Brown was meeting with his coaching staff to discuss the evening's home game against Golden State, when a Lakers employee interrupted and asked him to step out for a few minutes. Nearly 10 minutes later, Brown returned and informed his staff that he had been fired.

The Lakers will cease running the Princeton offense immediately, sources told Yahoo! Sports. Management was unhappy with the offense implemented this season, and Bickerstaff was told that he needed to move away from it. Some elements could still be used on Friday night but the team plans to install more traditional pick-and-roll NBA sets moving forward.

Another coaching candidate prominently being discussed as a long-term possibility: Mike D'Antoni.

D'Antoni has been without a job since leaving the New York Knicks in 2011. D'Antoni had knee replacement surgery in the past couple weeks and is not yet on his feet. Would still need time to rehabilitate before he could go back to work.

Indiana Pacers assistant Brian Shaw also could become a candidate – though that's a dicier proposition, given the acrimony that ensued between the Lakers front office and Shaw after the team chose to replace Jackson with Brown over Shaw.

Also, the Pacers aren't expected to be willing to let Shaw, their associate head coach, leave for a potential head coaching job with the Lakers, sources with direct knowledge of his contract told Yahoo! Sports.

In conversations on Thursday, Kupchak made a case to Lakers owner Jerry Buss and executive vice president Jim Buss to give Brown more time before deciding to fire him, sources told Y! Sports. Brown also made a case to management that he could get the Lakers into championship contention, sources said.

''The bottom line is that the team is not winning at the pace we expected this team to win, and we didn't see improvement,'' Kupchak told reporters.

The irony is that Jerry Buss' son who runs the day-to-day operations of the franchise, Jim – and not  Kupchak – was the primary advocate in the hiring of Brown and the firing of him. Kupchak was partial to Rick Adelman as a replacement, sources said. Nevertheless, the Buss family lost patience with the team's sluggish start to the Princeton offense, and didn't accept the excuses of a weak bench with such a star-studded starting five of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash.

***

What sort of franchise hires a coach without at least discussing the prospects and candidates with their team's best player and the league's most headstrong star?

What sort of team hires a coach who routinely failed to make headway with his top star at his previous spot, sliding him into a role that even the legendary Phil Jackson couldn't handle toward the end of his run?

What kind of team watches as the coach cheerily embraces an offense that doesn't utilize typical point guard roles even after the franchise swings a trade for one of the finest point guards in NBA history?

What kind of franchise blames the coach for the fact that the triptych of Steve Blake, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol combine to put together perhaps the league's worst pick-and-roll defense at the two most prominent pick-and-roll positions, looking the other way when the hoped-for salve in Dwight Howard can't overcome the rustiness and pain that is obvious to anyone tuning in with standard-definition TVs?

What kind of team fires a guy on a game night?

It's the Los Angeles Lakers, chippies; and for all their front-office brilliance in acquiring some of the finest players of the last 16 years to lead them to their 17th title, they also blew it with the hiring, embracing and eventual firing of coach Mike Brown. USA Today's Sam Amick reported on Friday that the beleaguered coach will be glared at no more, at least during games, as the Lakers have sent the former Cavs head man and Spurs assistant packing just five games into an outright failure of a season.

Cable TV — and not the blogosphere, which has been pretty heady in its analysis mainly because they have Internet access — has prattled on for over a week about the Lakers' iffy offense, and the attempts to worm facets of the Princeton playbook into the Lakers' scheme. On the surface, Brown's interest in the offense seems a sound move; mainly because there really is no Princeton playbook, just a series of reactions based off of solid spacing and quick but deliberate movement. To a quotemonger, though, the idea was off — you don't take the ball out of Steve Nash's hands, you don't walk the ball up.

The problem is that the Lakers weren't walking the ball up. The team's 23rd ranking in possessions per game had more to do with their defensive issues than anything else as they took the ball out of the net. The team is seventh in offensive efficiency this season, an improvement over last season's 10th showing and an impressive showing considering two things:

1). Steve Nash has played just 50 minutes, all season. Steve Blake, his replacement, has had a miserable season.

2). The team turns the ball over on nearly 18 percent of its possessions, good for 29th out of 30 teams so far this year. That might damn Brown's offensive schemes all to hell, but to rank seventh in the NBA in offense in spite of giving the other team the rock on nearly a fifth of your possessions? That's remarkable stuff.

It's the defense, dummies. It's that miserable defense that was apparent from the start, with Nash and Gasol (two of our favorites at anything, ever) losing their way amongst quicker guards and big forwards, with a still recovering Dwight Howard unable to cover all the open spaces. The next coach will be the beneficiary of Howard's eventual defensive recovery (anyone can dunk, as Dwight has made over 67 percent of his shots on the season; but not everyone can hedge and dissuade three different opponents from easing into an easy shot), but for now the Lakers are a mess on that end.

This will be the ends justifying the means, assuming the Lakers choose the right replacement. Brown had to go. All this handwringing in the second week in November won't mean a thing once Howard has his sea legs back, and Steve Nash helps Kobe Bryant re-discover what a brilliant player Pau Gasol can be when he's put in the right spots. This is a low point, for the Lakers, but one they have 77 games and a playoff run to work their way out of.

For now, though, it's the final kiss-off on the Busses' great lost year of 2011. One in which they fired low-level employees just to keep the payroll tidy, dismissed longtime scouts without the benefit of an explanation, and treated the notoriously pouty Bryant as if he were training camp fodder in choosing the leader that would have to guide Kobe through the most stubborn seasons of his career.

This probably won't serve as a wake-up call to Lakers ownership. Hell, far from it. They'll just back into another championship or three, leaving us wondering why they couldn't find it in themselves to appreciate what Phil Jackson — 2011 sweep at the hands of the eventual champs or not — did for them.

Never change, El Lay. You big, bloated, mess of a thing that will somehow charm us by May.

***

Mike Brown had arrived at the Lakers' practice facility for the morning shootaround believing he needed a victory over the Golden State Warriors on Friday night to spare his job. Ownership and management had been meeting about his future throughout Thursday, and general manager Mitch Kupchak advocated to give the beleaguered Brown longer than five games before firing him, sources said.

Jim Buss, the Lakers' executive vice president, had gone along with the plan on Thursday, but something changed overnight into Friday. Jerry Buss wanted Brown out, and wanted him out now. As Brown gathered his assistants to plan for Friday night's game, a request came for him to step outside the room. The forever chipper, eager Brown returned to his coaching staff 10 minutes later with a decidedly different disposition.

"They fired me," Brown simply said.

All around the franchise, the belief was that the decision had come from Jerry Buss, who had lost patience with his $100 million roster investment losing four out of five games to start the season. He was tired of the Princeton offense, tired of the season-ticket holders' complaining, tired of the coach who he let his son, Jim, hire two years ago. For the $100 million of payroll – and the $30 million more of luxury tax – the old man wanted to bring Showtime back to the Staples Center. This was Jerry Buss playing the part of patriarch again.

Eventually, Kupchak would turn to his old NBA coach with the Washington Bullets, Bernie Bickerstaff, to get the team through Friday night's game against Golden State. Dump the Princeton offense, Bickerstaff was told. Showtime doesn't do Ivy League, and few in ownership – nor management – had to be convinced that the brief exploration had been a failure.

Only, the Lakers were sixth in offensive efficiency. In this short sampling, the bigger issues were defense and the bench. "Kobe likes the offense, and has from the start," one league source briefed on the conversations told Yahoo! Sports. "But they told Bernie: 'This is about the offense. It has to go.' "

This is about public relations now, about feeding that Staples Center and Hollywood monster, and Buss needs a coach with a pedigree. The greatest coach of all, Phil Jackson, could be waiting to come cash Buss' checks again, and motivated and inspired, his hiring would be a bargain at any price. He still needs to decide that he wants to coach again, that he wants the Lakers, but he's forever a sucker for the drama, for riding back to save the franchise. Two years ago, he couldn't wait to get out of the Lakers, get out of the NBA, and you wonder what's changed except for boredom and that lust for the next big score, that next big Hollywood ending.

"We want Phil," the Lakers fans chanted on Friday night in the Staples Center. "We want Phil."

Jerry Buss' plan is to give the people what they want: the great Phil Jackson. They remember the five titles with the Lakers, but everyone wants to forget the end, the way that Jackson dragged himself, dragged a team, to the finish line. This job is a grind, and those cheers fade fast. There are no Hollywood endings in the NBA – just old guys staying too long, coming back for all the wrong reasons.

Bruce Lee, the father of MMA?

More than a quarter century before the UFC, the late martial artist and film star Bruce Lee described in great detail what ultimately would become the sport of mixed martial arts.

The UFC was founded in 1993, partly in an effort to determine which fighting style is best. But as Lee had pointed out years before, it is a mixture of styles, not simply one, that is the most effective fighting form.

"The best fighter is not a boxer, karate or judo man," Lee once said. "The best fighter is someone who can adapt to any style. He kicks too good for a boxer, throws too good for a karate man, and punches too good for a judo man."

Nearly 40 years after his untimely death at 32 in 1973, Lee's fighting philosophies are on display in cages around the world. Fighters who were born many years after his death idolize him nonetheless and credit him with shaping them as athletes.

UFC president Dana White calls Lee the father of modern MMA. While there are others who deserve to be in that conversation, there is no question Lee's impact upon the sport is still being felt.

The UFC will host its first card on Chinese soil on Nov. 10 at UFC on Fuel 6 in Macao, a gaming mecca near Hong Kong where Lee grew up.

To honor Lee, White had an image of the martial arts icon included on the official promotional poster for the event.

"It's pretty amazing when you look back at 'Enter the Dragon,' " said Lee's daughter, Shannon. "There he is in the opening sequence in the shorts and the fingerless gloves, ending it in an arm bar. It's almost as if he knew what was coming. But that all sprung from his belief about what it meant to be a complete fighter. He really believed fully that in order to be a complete fighter, you had to have many different things in your arsenal and be able to defend against and attack in whatever situation may present itself."

Run Anyway

NEW YORK >>Never mind the cancellation. Here comes the marathon.

Thousands of runners poured into New York City's Central Park on Sunday morning to do what they had prepared so long to do — put in 26.2 miles.

That's despite the abrupt announcement Friday evening that the world's largest marathon had been called off because of Superstorm Sandy.

Hundreds of other runners, wearing their marathon shirts and backpacks full of supplies, took the ferry to hard-hit Staten Island and ran to hard-hit neighborhoods to help.

Shortly after dawn, groups of runners started gathering on the edges of Central Park to warm up, take photos and drop off clothing and other items for storm victims.

Italians stretched en masse near the Plaza Hotel. The Germans started from Columbus Circle. Everyone plunged into the park to pursue their own race. Some ran around the park clockwise, some counterclockwise, taking over startled dog walkers with a riot of color.

"A lot of people just wanted to finish what they started," said Lance Svendsen, who organized an alternative marathon called Run Anyway. By 8:45 a.m., his group had sent off five waves of runners from the marathon's official finish line, which had not yet been taken down. "It is amazing. My guess is about 600 people have left so far."

It was a throwback to the original New York City Marathon in 1970, which was run ragtag with 127 people and stayed completely within Central Park.

600 lbs vs. 169 lbs

ouch

Giants win, the Giants win

DETROIT >> Finally pressed in the World Series, the San Francisco Giants finished off a most unexpected and stunning sweep.

Marco Scutaro delivered one more key hit this October, hitting a go-ahead single with two outs in the 10th inning that lifted the Giants over the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in Game 4 on Sunday night.

Nearly eliminated over and over earlier in the playoffs, the Giants sealed their second title in three seasons when Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera looked at strike three right down the middle for the final out.

On a night of biting cold, stiff breezes and some rain, the Giants combined the most important elements of championship baseball — great pitching, timely hitting and sharp defense.

Series MVP Pablo Sandoval and the underdog Giants celebrated in the center of the diamond at Comerica Park after winning six elimination games this postseason.

NBA season previews

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic
Boston Celtics
Brooklyn Nets
New York Knicks
Philadelphia 76ers
Toronto Raptors

Central
Chicago Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers
Detroit Pistons
Indiana Pacers
Milwaukee Bucks

Southeast
Atlanta Hawks
Charlotte Bobcats
Miami Heat
Orlando Magic
Washington Wizards

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Southwest
Dallas Mavericks
Houston Rockets
Memphis Grizzlies
New Orleans Hornets
San Antonio Spurs

Northwest
Denver Nuggets
Minnesota Timberwolves
Oklahoma City Thunder
Portland Trailblazers
Utah Jazz

Pacific
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Phoenix Suns
Sacramento Kings

***

Hardwood Paroxysm (can't believe this is free)

***

[10/30/12] BDL, AP, NBA.com, PBT, hoopshype, theguardian, grantland,
SI.com: burning questions, crystal ball, 5-minute guide, best case, worst case, scout's analysis, Chris Mannix

***

50 Most Worthless Players
25 Worst Draft Picks of the last decade
25 Biggest Draft Steals of the last 10 years

NBA deals 2012

2012 free agent tracker


2/21/13 - The five dullest deadlines since 1987

2/21/13 - The big names stay put

2/21/13 - Knicks sign Kenyon Martin, send Ronnie Brewer to Oklahoma City for second round pick.  Oklahoma City sends Eric Maynor to Portland.

2/21/13 - J.J. Redick, Gustavo Ayon, Ishmael Smith traded from Orlando to Milwaukee for Doron Lamb, Tobias Harris, Beno Udrih

2/21/13 - Marcus Morris traded from Houston to Phoenix for second round pick

2/21/13 - Jordan Crawford traded by Washington to Boston for Leandro Barbosa and Jason Collins

2/21/13 - Houston acquires Thomas Robinson, Francisco Garcia, Tyler Honeycutt from Sacramento for Patrick Patterson, Cole Aldrich, Toney Douglas.

1/30/13 - Rudy Gay and Hamed Haddadi traded from Memphis to Toronto for Jose Calderon and Ed Davis.  Jose Calderon traded from Memphis to Detroit for Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye.

10/27/12 - James Harden, Cole Aldrich, Lazar Hayward, Daequan Cook traded for Oklahoma City to Houston for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, two first-round draft picks and a second-round pick

10/3/12 - Rasheed Wallaces comes out of retirement to join Knicks

9/14/12 - Matt Barnes signs with Clippers

9/12/12 - Andre Blatche signs with the Nets

8/29/12 - Don't crown the Lakers just yet.  Remember Gary Payton and Karl Malone?  (Of course it didn't help that Malone got injured.)

8/13/12 - Carlos Delfino to sign with Houston

8/10/12 - Dwight Howard (and Earl Clark and Chris Duhon) to be traded from Orlando to Lakers.  Andrew Bynum will go from Lakers to Philadelphia.  Andre Iguodala will be sent from Philadelphia to Denver.  Denver will send Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Nikola Vucevic, rookie Moe Harkless, three first round picks and 2013 second-round pick to Orlando.  Jason Richardson will go from Orlando to Philadelphia.

Wait the first rounders are supposed to be from each of the three teams.

So Orlando gets Afflalo, Harrington, Vucevic, Harkless, three first rounders, one second rounder and gives up Howard and Richardson.

Lakers gets Howard, Duhon, Clark and gives up Bynum and a first rounder.

Philadelphia gets Bynum and Richardson and gives up Iguodala and a first rounder.

Denver gets Iguodala and gives up Afflalo, Harrington, Vucevic, Harkless, a first rounder and a second rounder.

8/7/12 - Terry Stotts hired as Portland head coach
8/7/12 - Dan Roundfield drowns in Aruba

7/30/12 - Nate Robinson signs with Bulls
7/30/12 - Willie Green traded from Hawks to Clippers for rights to Sofoklis Schortsanitis

7/28/12 - Jacque Vaughn named new head coach of Orlando
7/28/12 - Andrei Kirilenko signs with Minnesota for two years, $20 million

7/27/12 - Robin Lopez and Hakim Warrick traded from Phoenix to New Orleans; Wes Johnson and future first round pick goes from Minnesota to Phoenix; New Orleans sends contracts of Jerome Dyson and Brad Miller to Phoenix; Minnesota also receives three second-round picks (and gets to sign Andrei Kirilenko)

7/24/12 - Minnesota trades Wayne Ellington to Memphis for Daunte Cunningham
7/24/12 - Houston signs Omer Asik for three years $25 million after Chicago fails to match

7/20/12 - Denver signs Anthony Randolph

7/19/12 - Courtney Lee to be sign-and-traded from Houston to Boston for JaJuan Johnson, Sean Williams, E'Twaun Moore, and second-round pick

7/18/12 - Antawn Jamison to sign with Lakers
7/18/12 - Portland matches Minnesota's offer for Batum
7/18/12 - Denver re-signs JaVale McGee
7/18/12 - Denver amnesties Chris Anderson
7/18/12 - Clippers amnesties Ryan Gomes

7/17/12 - Knicks decline to match Rockets offer for Jeremy Lin (surprise, anticipation)
7/17/12 - Kris Humphries re-signs with Nets for two years, $24 million
7/17/12 - Grant Hill to sign with Clippers
7/17/12 - Wizard amnesties Andray Blatche

7/16/12 - O.J. Mayo to sign with Dallas
7/16/12 - Aaron Brooks signs with Sacramento
7/16/12 - Kyle Korver traded from Chicago to Atlanta for trade exception and cash
7/16/12 - Phoenix puts in the winning bid for Luis Scola, amnesties Josh Childress
7/16/12 - Nets sign Jerry Stackhouse
7/16/12 - James Johnson traded from Toronto to Sacramento for second round pick

7/15/12 - Knicks unlikely to match Houston's offer to Jeremy Lin

7/14/12 - New Orleans matches Phoenix's offer and retains Eric Gordon
7/14/12 - Raymond Felton to be signed and traded from Portland to New York with Kurt Thomas for Jared Jefferies, Dan Gadzuric, draft rights to Kostas Papanikolaou and Giorgos Printezis and second round pick
7/14/12 - Knicks decline to match Toronto's offer to Landry Fields
7/14/12 - Brendan Haywood awarded to Charlotte
7/14/12 - C.J. Watson agrees to contract with Nets

7/13/12 - Mavericks claim Elton Brand off amnesty waivers
7/13/12 - Kwame Brown agrees to deal with Philadelphia for 2 years, $6 million
7/13/12 - Pablo Prigioni signed by Knicks

7/12/12 - Pacers trade Darren Collison and Dahntay Jones to Dallas for Ian Mahinmi
7/12/12 - Pacers sign Gerald Green
7/12/12 - Mavericks anmesty Brendan Haywood, may bid for Brand
7/12/12 - Minnesota amnesties Darko Milicic
7/12/12 - Pacers agree to deal with D. J. Augustin
7/12/12 - Charlotte agrees to contract with Ramon Sessions, release D.J. Augustin
7/12/12 - Bucks re-sign Ersan Ilyasova
7/12/12 - Jeremy Lin to return to Knicks
7/12/12 - Boris Diaw will return to Spurs
7/12/12 - Roy Hibbert re-signs with Pacers, George Hill too
7/12/12 - J.J. Hickson re-signs with Portland
7/12/12 - Houston amnesties Luis Scola

7/11/12 - Dallas reaches agreement with Chris Kaman for 1 year $8 million
7/11/12 - Nets reach deal with Brook Lopez for four years $61 million
7/11/12 - Gerald Wallace re-signs with Nets
7/11/12 - Tim Duncan re-signs with Spurs for three years, $36 million

7/10/12 - Lou Williams agrees to deal with Hawks
7/10/12 - Rashard Lewis to sign with Miami
7/10/12 - Dorell Wright traded from Golden State to Philadelphia for Edin Bavcic who goes to Charlotte for Jarrett Jack who goes to Golden State
7/10/12 - J.R. Smith re-signs with Knicks

7/9/12 - Marcus Camby traded from Houston to Knicks for Toney Douglas, Josh Harrelson, Jerome Jordan, second round picks in 2014 and 2015 and cash
7/9/12 - Danny Green re-signs with Knicks for three years, $12 million
7/9/12 - Steve Novak will stay with Knicks for four years, $15 million

7/8/12 - Kirk Heinrich returning to Chicago for mini mid-level exception
7/8/12 - Ryan Anderson sign-and-traded from Orlando to New Orleans for Gustavo Ayon

7/6/12 - Ray Allen headed to Miami
7/6/12 - Philadelphia signs Nick Young, amnesties Elton Brand

7/5/12 - Brandon Roy signs with Minnesota for two years $10.4 million
7/5/12 - Jeremy Lin agrees to four year, $28.8 million offer sheet from Houston
7/5/12 - Jason Kidd to sign with Knicks for 3 years, $9 million
7/5/12 - Kyle Lowry traded from Rockets to Raptors for Gary Forbes and a future first-round pick
7/5/12 - Jamal Crawford signs with Clippers for four years, $25 million, Billups re-signs

7/4/12 - Phoenix agree to terms with Goran Dragic for four years, $30 million
7/4/12 - Phoenix trades Steve Nash to Lakers for two first round picks, two second round picks, and $3.1 million.
7/4/12 - Eric Gordon agrees to max deal offer sheet with Suns
7/4/12 - Oklahoma City signs Hasheem Thabeet
7/4/12 - Michael Beasley agrees to deal with Suns for 3 years, $18 million
7/4/12 - Deron Williams re-signs with Nets for five years, $98.75 million

7/3/12 - Jason Terry to sign with Celtics (from Dallas)
7/3/12 - Joe Johnson traded from Atlanta to Brooklyn for Anthony Morrow, Jordan Farmar, DeShawn Stevenson, Jordan Williams, Johan Petro, and a draft pick
7/3/12 - Marvin Williams traded from Atlanta to Utah for Devin Harris

6/29/12 - Mo Williams traded from Clippers to Utah, Utah sends trade exception to Dallas, Lamar Odom traded from Dallas to Clippers.  Houston receives rights to Clippers 53rd pick (Furkan Aldemir), give cash considerations to Dallas.

6/29/12 - draft day trades:
Tyler Zeller (no. 17 pick) and Kelenna Azubuike traded from Dallas to Cleveland for Jared Cunningham (no.  24 pick), Bernard James (no. 33 pick), Jae Crowder (no. 34 pick)

Arnett Moultrie (no. 27) traded from Miami to Philadelphia for Justin Hamilton (no. 45) and future first round pick


2011-2012 Transactions

6/27/12 - Houston trades Samuel Dalembert, 14th pick in the draft [John Henson], future second round pick, cash to Milwaukee for Jon Brockman, Jon Leuer, Shaun Livingston and the 12th pick [Jeremy Lamb]

6/26/12 - Chase Budinger traded from Houston to Minnesota for 18th pick [Terrence Jones]

6/26/12 - Ben Gordon and future first-round pick traded from Detroit to Charlotte for Corey Maggette

6/20/12 - Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza traded from New Orleans to Washington for Rashard Lewis [waived] and a second round pick

6/18/12 - Mike Dunlap hired as new head coach of Charlotte Bobcats

nba.com fantasy draft

Tonight: The stars from TNT and NBA TV will take place in the NBA.com Fantasy Draft on NBA TV.

and the results

Funny that Shaq (and 3D) took Horford and not Andrew Bynum (Dwight Howard was the first center taken, Horford was seventh, Bynum was eighth).

Emanuel Steward

Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward, a genius in the ring and a goodwill ambassador for boxing outside of it, died Thursday at 68 in a Chicago hospital following a lengthy illness.

A 1996 International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, Steward was best known as the trainer who developed Thomas Hearns into one of the most fearsome fighters of his generation.

Considered the greatest trainer of his era, he worked with dozens of world champions and was instrumental in the success of not only Hearns, but elite fighters like heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, ex-heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, Oscar De La Hoya and many others.

In addition to being a great trainer, he developed a reputation as an outstanding analyst on HBO. Steward's excitement about a good fight was palpable – boxing pundits will recall his famous exclamation at the end of the ninth round of the May 18, 2002, fight between Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward, "This should be the Round of the Century!"

Though he trained fighters of all sizes and styles, ultimately he became something of a heavyweight expert. He took over as Lewis' lead trainer in 1995, not long after Lewis was knocked out by Oliver McCall. Steward had coincidentally trained McCall to the win over Lewis on Sept. 24, 1994.

Under Steward's tutelage, Lewis went 16-1-1, with wins over Mike Tyson, Vitali Klitschko and Evander Holyfield, among others. In 2004, he took over as Wladimir Klitschko's trainer and Klitschko was promptly beaten by Lamon Brewster in a massive upset.

But, just as he had done with Lewis, he slowly turned Klitschko around and helped him become the top heavyweight in the world. Klitschko won 16 fights in a row under Steward.

Steward also got heavyweight title wins with McCall and Evander Holyfield, which put his record as the trainer of heavyweights at 34-2-1.

In a sport marked by infighting and bitter personal conflicts, Steward had no known enemies and was almost universally revered in the industry. He frequently reached into his own pocket to help the fighters he trained, and was always a friendly, accessible expert for journalists looking for help on a story.

David Stern to retire in 2014

David Stern will step down as NBA commissioner on Feb. 1, 2014.  Deputy commissioner Adam Silver will replace Stern.

Stern sent an email to key NBA executives that he's retiring, and that the Board of Governors has picked Silver to replace him.

"The Board has selected Adam Silver to succeed me as NBA Commissioner, and I am very pleased with their choice," Stern said in the email. "As you know, Adam is a world-class business executive who has influenced so many areas of our business during his 20-year tenure with the league, from television, to digital, to international, to merchandising, to sponsorships, to team business, to, of course, labor negotiations. I know that the organization will be in very good hands when Adam becomes Commissioner.

"What we have achieved together and will continue to achieve is extraordinary – and we will have 15 months to talk about it."

Stern, 70, became NBA commissioner on Feb. 1, 1984. His resignation date will mark his 30th anniversary leading the league.

***

[1/30/14] David Stern oral history

Duke Kahanamoku, true hero

This week marks the 87th anniversary of a life-saving effort by Hawaii’s greatest athlete that happened in an ocean far away from Duke’s Oahu home. It was June 14, 1925, along the shores of Corona Del Mar in Newport Beach, Calif., where the 34-year-old Olympian gathered with a few of his actor and actress friends from Hollywood for a day of surfing. Just a few years before, Duke had helped popularize the sport in Southern California as he lugged the giant boards that often weighed between 100 and 200 pounds to the southland’s sandy beaches. Corona Del Mar was one of his favorite surf spots as the waves often built up along a sand-bar that was then offshore.

Duke just happened to have his surfboard in hand when the waves became in his words “building up to barnlike heights.” In an interview described by biographer Malcom Gault Williams, Duke says, “From shore, we suddenly saw the charter fishing boat, the Thelma, wallowing in the water, trying to get to safe water and it was a losing battle.”

The boat was filled with more than two dozen fishermen, and when it suddenly capsized and its passengers were tossed into the water, Duke jumped into action.

“Fully clothed persons have little chance in a wild sea like that,” he was quoted as saying. “Neither me nor my pals were thinking about heroics, we were simply running – me with my board and the others to get their boards – hoping to save lives. Don’t ask me how I made it, for it was just one long nightmare of trying to shove through what looked like a low Niagara Falls.”

Duke furiously paddled through the gigantic waves, oblivious to his own safety. Miraculously, he made one trip after another into the churning surf, pulling as many to safety as he could.

In all, 17 people drowned that day, but incredibly Duke and his friends were able to save 12 potential drowning victims. Duke was credited with saving eight of those himself. Befitting his humble personality, he didn’t stick around to try to grab headlines. He left the scene before reporters even arrived.

The Newport Beach chief of police, Capt. James Porter, was quoted in the local newspapers: “Kahanamoku’s performance was the most superhuman rescue act and the finest display of surfboard riding that has ever been seen in the world.”

a new/old rivalry at Kalani and Kaiser

Rich Miano won’t be a Cal Lee supporter on Thursday evening. But he will on election day.

“For sure I’ll vote for him,” Miano said of Lee, who was one of his high school football coaches and a colleague on the University of Hawaii staff until last year. Lee is running for Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee.

“He will do a great job on behalf of the Hawaiian people,” Miano continued. “I’ll contribute financially. I’ll even hold signs for Cal.”

The admiration is reciprocated by Lee, as well as by his brother, Ron, who was also a Warriors staff member. And Ron was the head coach at Kaiser High School, where Miano starred as the Cougars won the 1979 Prep Bowl. That was an early highlight in the legendary coaching careers of the Lees. It was a springboard for Miano, a former diver, to college football at UH and then a long NFL career.

“We’re close,” Cal Lee said. “And we’ve remained close.”

Not quite as physically close as they were at UH. Now they’re a school apart, separated by a couple of miles of Kalanianaole Highway and Lunalilo Home Road.

The Lees, now coaching at Kalani High (where Cal was a star linebacker in the ’60s), and Miano, head coach at his alma mater, collide Thursday night when the Falcons — who don’t have their own stadium — play their homecoming game at Kaiser against the Cougars.

It’s the greatest thing to happen to public high school football in East Honolulu since … well, since Kaiser won the Prep Bowl 33 years ago.

These aren’t the best teams in the state. Neither is in the state’s Top 10. Both are feisty members of the OIA White Division, small enrollment schools that actually belong there.

But they’re up and coming. Kalani (4-3, 4-4 overall) has steadily improved since Ron Lee joined Greg Taguchi’s staff in 2010 as offensive coordinator and got another boost when Cal came on board to run the defense last spring. Meanwhile, Kaiser (6-1, 6-2) has won six in a row in Miano’s first season of coaching in the prep ranks.

The Falcons are playing Thursday for a shot at the White playoffs, and the Cougars for top seed. But there’s much more at stake. There’s that formerly nasty R word that we’re not supposed to acknowledge exists in high school sports. Recruiting. There, I wrote it.

The Interscholastic League of Honolulu powerhouses and other public schools used to mine the talent in this area without having to worry about Kaiser or Kalani. Now, with their big-name coaches, they have the ability to stand up to them — and each other. Miano said the outcome of Thursday’s televised game could determine where some future stars end up going.

“As much as I like the Lee brothers, it’s a recruiting war,” Miano said. “To me, it’s probably more intense than when I was at the University of Hawaii, because we have our rivals right down the street.”

Since before the turn of the millennium, football was all but dead at Kalani and critically ill at Kaiser.

“I’d drive by Kalani and they used to have these small little pods of players,” Miano said. “I always wondered if these (football programs) could survive on their own, maybe they’d have to combine. Now this whole area is revitalized with the Lee brothers and what’s happened at Kaiser. You have to give (the players) a reason to stay. We have the reasons now.”

Now, with the big-name coaches on board, Kalani and Kaiser both keep more of the athletes from their districts. And whatever you want to call it, they’re already attracting others from outside the borders.

“Actually, it’s more that they’re staying home. Especially this year, we had a great turnout for JV, about 50 kids,” Ron Lee said. “The other real noticeable thing is I’ve been going to the same places for everything for years and years. Now all of a sudden the people who work at Zippy’s, Longs, the bank, they all tell me they’re Kalani grads and they follow the team.”

There’s something new about this rivalry, but there’s something traditional about it. It’s great to see these coaches who weren’t retained at UH are still in the game, at their old schools (Ron Lee, a Saint Louis graduate, started his coaching career at Kalani), and for the right reasons. Hawaii high school football coaching was already very good, and it’s now this much better.

“When you go to your alma mater, it’s special,” Cal Lee said. “I’ve come full circle in the sense I started here and coming back to where I started my football career. I have a lot of aloha for the school.”

Miano is too busy and too happy to worry about not getting the UH head coaching job he applied for last year.

“I have so much respect for (the Lee brothers). I wouldn’t be sitting in this chair if it weren’t for them, because I wouldn’t have played football,” he said. “I’m really content and I find myself at peace.

Finally being a head coach. Having great kids who work tremendously hard and a great staff. My goal was to never leave Hawaii.”

- Dave Reardon, Star-Advertiser, 10/10/12

Kaiser rolls over Kalani

Alex Karras

Alex Karras was one of the NFL's most feared defensive tackles throughout the 1960s, a player who hounded quarterbacks and bulled past opposing linemen.

And yet, to many people he will always be the lovable dad from the 1980s sitcom ''Webster'' or the big cowboy who famously punched out a horse in ''Blazing Saddles.''

The rugged player, who anchored the Detroit Lions' defense and then made a successful transition to an acting career, with a stint along the way as a commentator on ''Monday Night Football,'' died Wednesday. He was 77.

Karras had recently suffered kidney failure and been diagnosed with dementia. The Lions also said he had suffered from heart disease and, for the last two years, stomach cancer. He died at home in Los Angeles surrounded by family members, said Craig Mitnick, Karras' attorney.

''Perhaps no player in Lions history attained as much success and notoriety for what he did after his playing days as did Alex,'' Lions president Tom Lewand said.

Time Warner Sports Net

Time Warner Sports Net is the new "Lakers Channel" which debuted at the beginning of the month.  They took over the rights to telecast the Lakers games from Fox Sports.

I was licking my chops figuring I was going to be able to see all the Lakers games this season.  But they blacked out the first game!

Which makes about as much sense as blacking out the San Francisco Giants (and Sacramento Kings) games in Hawaii.

Apparently they will show the games in areas designated as Lakers territory.  According to nba.com

Home and away Lakers games will be on Time Warner Cable SportsNet and Time Warner Cable Deportes in the Lakers territory. The Lakers territory, designated by the NBA, includes all of Southern California, Nevada and Hawaii.

[That kind of doesn't make sense.  I would think they would black out the games IN Lakers territory.  But the games are sold out anyway.  So I guess so.  It makes sense to black out the games in other territories to encourage fans to support their own team.]

So what gives?  I emailed Oceanic and I expect a canned response.

OK, here's their response..

There is a current issue with TWC Sports Net channel and unfortunately there is no estimated time of when the service will be back up. Our technicians are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your patience.

[Oh boy, it's worse than I thought.]

I wrote a follow-up email saying the channel is fine, but it's just the game that's blacked out.  And got this reply.

Unfortunately you are correct and it is an issue with just the basketball games. Our technicians are working on the issue and hope to have it up and running soon.

So maybe there's hope.

[10/11/12] Hey, I saw the Lakers vs. Portland game was on yesterday.  So I guess it's working now.  [Thanks]

Jim Donovan placed on indefinite leave

[7/11/12] University of Hawaii officials have placed athletic director Jim Donovan and Sheriff Center manager Rich Sheriff on an indefinite paid administrative leave while an investigation of the canceled Stevie Wonder concert takes place.

UH vice president Rockne Freitas, a former UH assistant athletic director in the 1980s, was named acting athletic director until the investigation is complete, UH-Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple said at a news conference this afternoon.

Apple said the school has contacted the FBI about the missing money from the concert fiasco.

UH said it put down a $200,000 deposit from athletic department funds on the planned Aug. 18 concert. The event was to have been a benefit for UH athletics.

It was cancelled Tuesday after UH said it learned that the event was planned without Wonder's knowledge.

[7/14/12]  The mystery continues

[8/12/12] University of Hawaii officials said today that athletic director Jim Donovan has been cleared of wrongdoing in the Stevie Wonder concert debacle and will return to the school in a new position Monday.

They did not specify the title of his new position but said he “will have significant responsibilities in designing, creating, articulating, marketing and communicating to the community, including assisting with the evolving land grant mission of the university,” according to a press release issued today.

"I am very pleased that I have been cleared of any wrongdoing as I have always acted in the best interests of the university,” Donovan said in the release.

[Dave Reardon] Sunday's release also quotes the new Manoa chancellor, Tom Apple, as saying, "Jim served the University well as our Athletics Director."

But if UH truly feels good about the job Donovan has done as AD, why is it moving him to a different position? That makes no sense at all.

[8/22/12] On the eve of a Board of Regents session to discuss the Stevie Wonder concert fiasco, University of Hawaii President M.R.C. Greenwood said Tuesday that athletic director Jim Dono­van was on his way out before the ill-fated venture.

In her first public statement on the issue since Dono­van was removed as AD on July 11, Greenwood maintained "at the same time and almost coincidentally, (the) UH administration had determined that after 41⁄2 years of a five-year agreement, it was time to search for a new director of athletics."

Greenwood ended five weeks of public silence on the issue with a mass email to the "University ‘ohana" Tuesday afternoon, much of which dealt with Dono­van's employment and the Wonder controversy.

Greenwood wrote, "Plans for the process and timetable for this action (removing Dono­van) would have commenced regardless of the concert cancellation and ensuing investigation. The discussions regarding this personnel decision were in the early stages and not yet public, but the attention of campus leadership had already turned to the recruitment process."

She did not address why Dono­van, who has been reassigned to an as-yet-unnamed position, will be retained with a $211,200-a-year, three-year contract when his AD contract expires March 23. She did not say why Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple had effusively described Dono­van's job performance as "fantastic" and lauded his "incredible talents" at an Aug. 13 news conference.

[9/20/12] UH hires law firm to prepare for Senate hearing.  I wonder how much money they'll wind up spending to investigate the loss of $200,000?

[10/2/12] State senate panel puts costs of non-concert at $1,135,200.

[10/5/12] Attorney Bert T. Kobayashi Jr., a longtime key supporter of the University of Hawaii athletic department, has resigned from the ‘Ahahui Koa Anuenue booster club, citing a lack of respect for embattled Manoa chancellor Tom Apple.

In a letter to members of the Koa Anuenue board of directors dated Thursday and obtained by the Star-Advertiser, Kobayashi wrote, “... I strongly believe in AKA and its mission; however, I find myself in a situation where if I stay with AKA that I would have to work with chancellor Tom Apple, for whom I have no respect.”

[10/11/12] the Thank your for the leadership letter mystery / Apple clarifies, more

[11/8/12] A federal grand jury in Honolulu has indicted two mainland promoters on charges related to the bungled Stevie Wonder concert that cost the University of Hawaii $200,000.

The U.S. attorney's office and the FBI officials said this morning that the grand jury returned indictments Wednesday against Marc Hubbard, 44, of North Carolina, for wire fraud, and Sean Barriero, 44, of Miami, for related offenses of transporting $200,000 taken by fraud. FBI officials said the UH cash appears to be unrecoverable at this time.

Hubbard turned himself to authorities at the federal court house in Charlotte, N.C. today and will be extradited later, officials said.

Barriero, who is a British citizen, will be in Honolulu district court this afternoon to enter a plea before U.S. Magistrate Kevin Chang. The FBI would not say if Barriero testified before the grand jury earlier this week as part of any plea agreement.

If convicted, Hubbard faces up to 20 years in prison and Barriero up to 10 years.

TSN ranks the college coaches

Sporting News has ranked the 124 FBS head coaches by conference. Now it’s time to see how they rate overall.

First, some notes about our list:
 
— The Big 12 coaches have by far the best average ranking: 27.2, which crushes the second-best SEC’s average ranking of 43.3. Next in line: the Pac-12 (43.8), ACC (45.6) and Big Ten (46.8).

— In our top 25 are five coaches apiece from the SEC and Big 12, four apiece from the Big Ten and Pac-12, and two apiece from the ACC and Mountain West. College football’s Independents outrank any other conference, with BYU’s Bronco Mendenhall and Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly (in that order) also making the top 25.

June Jones is 22nd and first in Conference USA

Norm Chow is 98th and 7th in the Mountain West 

Miguel Cabrera wins triple crown

Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera became the first player in 45 years to win baseball's Triple Crown on Wednesday night, joining an elite list that includes Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig.

Cabrera's milestone wasn't official until the Yankees pinch hit for Curtis Granderson in their game against the Boston Red Sox. Granderson had homered twice to reach 43 for the year, tied with the Rangers' Josh Hamilton and one shy of Cabrera.

Cabrera went 0 for 2 against the Royals before leaving in the fourth inning to a standing ovation. He finished the regular season with a .330 average, four points better the Angels' Mike Trout, his biggest competition for MVP. Cabrera was the runaway leader with 139 RBI.

Boston's Carl Yastrzemski was the previous player to achieve the Triple Crown in 1967.

NFL referees are back

So long, replacement refs. The NFL's regular crews will be back on the field starting Thursday night.

After two days of marathon negotiations -- and mounting frustration among coaches, players and fans -- the NFL and the referees' union announced at midnight Thursday that a tentative agreement had been reached to end a lockout that began in June.

Commissioner Roger Goodell, who was at the bargaining table Tuesday and Wednesday, said the regular officials would work the Browns-Ravens game at Baltimore.

"Welcome back REFS," Buffalo Bills running back C.J. Spiller tweeted shortly after the news broke.

The replacements worked the first three weeks of games, triggering a wave of outrage that threatened to disrupt the rest of the season. After a missed call cost the Green Bay Packers a win on a chaotic final play at Seattle on Monday night, the two sides really got serious.

"We are glad to be getting back on the field for this week's games," referees' union president Scott Green said.

The tentative eight-year deal is the longest involving on-field officials in NHL history and was reached with the assistance of two federal mediators. It must be ratified by 51 percent of the union's 121 members, who plan to vote Friday and Saturday in Dallas.

The agreement hinged on working out salary, pension and retirement benefits for the officials, who are part-time employees of the league. Tentatively, it calls for their salaries to increase from an average of $149,000 a year in 2011 to $173,000 in 2013, rising to $205,000 by 2019.

Under the proposal, the current defined benefit pension plan will remain in place for current officials through the 2016 season or until the official earns 20 years' service. The defined benefit plan will then be frozen.

Retirement benefits will be provided for new hires, and for all officials beginning in 2017, through a defined contribution arrangement. The annual league contribution made on behalf of each game official will begin with an average of more than $18,000 per official and increase to more than $23,000 per official in 2019.

LeBron and the Dream

Imagine if Martin Scorsese had stopped making his own films 10 or 15 years ago and instead had signed on as Paul Thomas Anderson’s second-unit director. Or say Warren Buffet dropped Berkshire Hathaway to serve exclusively as Mark Zuckerberg’s financial advisor. Think of Kate Upton, tutored in the kitchen by Rachel Ray.

Unfair, right? Overkill. The rich, the gifted and the awesome don’t need to get that much richer, more gifted or awesomer, do they? Yet that is what happened in the NBA when LeBron James enlisted the help of no less than Hakeem Olajuwon as his post-moves coach.

As described in the fine feature story by Mike Berardino of the Sun-Sentinel, the teacher-pupil relationship between arguably the NBA’s most swift and elusive Hall of Fame center ever and its most dominant active player began during the lockout. Stinging from Miami’s loss in the 2011 Finals, his ears burning from ceaseless criticism, James sought out Olajuwon to add a new wrinkle to his game: Balance, footwork, deception and scoring tricks in the low post.

It was like Eric Clapton making a pilgrimage to Les Paul.

The Lakers Network

The Lakers' partnership with Time Warner Cable (let's call it TWC from here on out; we all know I'm not referring to The Weather Channel, right?) that will debut two Lakers-centric regional sports networks -- one in English, one in Spanish -- on Oct. 1 is not just a game-changer. It's an industry changer.

TWC is paying the Lakers somewhere between $2-$5 billion over the next 20 to 25 years -- there have been different estimates bandied about -- in the new endeavor. Whatever the actual amount is, it will dwarf anything that any other NBA team receives for its games. And that only increases the huge financial edge the Lakers have to acquire and keep players.
Luxury tax, schmuxury tax.

All-A-Twitter in Seattle

SEATTLE -- Golden Tate shoved a Green Bay defender out of the way, wrestled another for the ball and was awarded a disputed touchdown on the final play. But it was another 10 minutes before the game actually ended, when the Seattle Seahawks and the stunned Packers were called back on the field for the extra point.

Replacement ref rage may have peaked Monday night.

Just when it seemed that NFL coaches, players and fans couldn't get any angrier, along came a fiasco that trumped any of the complaints from the weekend. The Seahawks' 14-12 victory featured one of the most bizarre finishes in recent memory, and was certain to reignite frustrations over the locked-out officials."Don't ask me a question about the officials," Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy said. "I've never seen anything like that in all my years in football."

Russell Wilson threw the 24-yard touchdown pass to Tate. The crew of replacement officials agreed that Tate caught the pass.

"We both had possession of it. I don't even know the rule but I guess the tie goes to the receiver," Tate said.

Asked later if he got his hands on Wilson's pass first, Tate wasn't so sure.

"I think so. ... Oh, well maybe he did. But I took it from him," Tate said.

Wilson scrambled from the pocket and threw to the corner of the end zone as the clock expired. Tate shoved Green Bay's Sam Shields out of the way, then wrestled with M.D. Jennings for possession. It was ruled on the field as a touchdown and after a lengthy review, referee Wayne Elliott came out from under the hood and announced "the ruling on the field stands" and CenturyLink Field erupted in celebration.

Elliott told a pool reporter after the game that the play was ruled as simultaneous possession that was confirmed by the replay official.

"They both possessed it," Elliott said.

The Packers were far from convinced that Tate had possession. Jennings said he had the ball pinned to his chest the entire time. A handful of Packers players began venting on their Twitter accounts right after the game, posting protest messages to their followers -- many of them too profane to print. Offensive lineman T.J. Lang even challenged the NFL to "fine me and use the money to pay the regular refs."

***

Twitters / more twitters

Nevada 69 Hawaii 24

Hawaii's defense denied Nevada on its first possession of the game, forcing a three and out.

After that, it was a dire evening in Halawa as the Wolf Pack and Stefphon Jefferson ran roughshod on the Warriors in a 69-24 rout.

Jefferson scored a UH opponent record six rushing touchdowns and Nevada rolled up the most points by a Warriors foe at Aloha Stadium. Jefferson's seven total scores tied a major-college record.

In its first two games, UH did not allow a 100-yard rusher. It ranked 11th nationally in rushing defense at 62.5 per game. Nevada arrived with two key players — running back Jefferson (176.3) and quarterback Cody Fajardo (116.3) — averaging triple digits on the ground through its pistol offense.

Something had to give, and by halftime it was clearly the overwhelmed hosts.

Jefferson netted 170 yards on 31 carries. When he wasn't going off, Fajardo did the damage himself, either on the ground or through the air. [Brian McInnis]

***

When the University of Nevada cheerleaders paraded through the north end zone at Aloha Stadium waving their blue-and-white Wolf Pack flags after a first-quarter touchdown Saturday night, the display drew a robust round of boos from the Hawaii partisans in the stands.

So did a repeat after the second, third and fourth touchdowns.

But by the time the sixth, seventh and eighth scores were registered in the third quarter, amid a run of 42 unanswered points, there was nary a futile peep to be heard in Halawa.

By the time the ninth and 10th touchdowns were rung up in the fourth quarter of a 69-24 thumping of the Warriors, there were too few resigned remnants of the original 29,002 to matter.

It was the most points given up by UH at home since a 74-20 loss to Stanford on Jan. 2, 1950. To put it in perspective, UH coach Norm Chow was 3 years old then.

Andy Roddick announces retirement

The man who has defined American tennis, for better and worse, over the last decade or so, announced on Thursday, his 30th birthday, that this year's U.S. Open will be his last tournament.

He's calling it quits at the scene of his biggest triumph, the 2003 U.S. Open, and at the place where his name was virtually always on the marquee, even as his days as the world's top-ranked player faded further into the rearview mirror.

[9/5/12] Andy Roddick loses to Del Potro in his retirement match