TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
S P ORTS
West wins third in a row over East in All-Star Game News
in brief
Shanghai take Drogba row to FIFA BEIJING: Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua will take its battle against star striker Didier Drogba’s move to Turkish side Galatasaray to football’s governing body FIFA this week, domestic reports said yesterday. The Ivory Coast striker left the club in acrimonious circumstances last month, with Shanghai saying he had breached his contract. “We now have evidence which we believe will give Shenhua a 99 per cent chance of winning a lawsuit at FIFA,” a lawyer acting for the club told the Sina web portal. The anonymous source from “Shenhua’s legal team” said papers would be submitted to the sport’s governing body tomorrow. The report said Shenhua will provide evidence that Drogba breached his contract and that Galatasaray had violated FIFA rules by luring a player away from his current club. Shenhua declined to comment when contacted by AFP. Chinese media previously reported Drogba had asked FIFA to nullify his contract after the club defaulted on payments following a shareholder dispute dating back to September. Drogba came off the bench to score five minutes into his Galatasaray debut on Friday, a 2-1 victory over the Turkish league’s bottom club Akhisar. The striker signed an 18-month, 10 million euro ($13.5 million) deal with the Istanbul side, who are due to play German side Schalke 04 tomorrow in the last 16 of the Champions League. Celta Vigo replace coach MADRID: Spanish Liga outfit Celta Vigo have fired head coach Paco Herrera and replaced him with Abel Resino, the relegation-threatened club announced yesterday. “Celta Vigo have signed Abel Resino as first team coach. He will replace Paco Herrera on the bench.” read a statement on the club website. Herrera guided the team back into the top flight last season but has seen results slide during this campaign as the team sit 18th in La Liga and four points from safety with just five wins from 24 matches. The team who have never won the Spanish title, lost their last outing 3-1 at Getafe on Saturday which was enough for club management to bring down the axe on Herrera’s reign. Resino who was a former goalkeeper with Atletico Madrid and helped the capital club to Spanish Cups in 1991 and 1992 before coaching the team for a brief spell in 2009 and leading them to qualification for the Champions League. The 53-year-old has also had spells at Valladolid, Granada and Valladolid.” The new coach will be presented tomorrow (Tuesday) after first team training,” continued the statement. Robinson hired as rugby director LONDON: Former England and Scotland coach Andy Robinson was appointed as director of rugby for Championship club Bristol yesterday. Robinson resigned as Scotland coach following a disappointing November Test series that culminated in a defeat against Tonga after losses to New Zealand and South Africa. But the 48-yearold was keen to get back in the game and watched Bristol beat Rotherham at the Memorial Stadium on Sunday and he has agreed to take charge of the promotion-chasing west country outfit on March 1. Robinson was a member of England’s coaching staff under Clive Woodward during their triumphant 2003 World Cup campaign, but had only limited success once he replaced Woodward in the top job between 2004 and 2006. He was more successful at club level, coaching Bath to the 1998 European Cup final, and Bristol chairman Chris Booy had been keen to land the former England flanker for several weeks. “I am delighted to be joining Bristol Rugby at such an exciting time for the club,” Robinson said. “I firmly believe that with the passion for rugby in the region and the vision of the owners, Bristol has the potential to be one of the most successful sides in England. “I am looking forward to building a squad with a blend of experience and young, home-grown talent, to play an exciting and winning brand of rugby.
McGrady’s China team finish bottom BEIJING: Tracy McGrady’s Qingdao Eagles have finished bottom of the Chinese basketball league at the end of a frustrating season for the former NBA star. McGrady scored 30 points and nine rebounds in Sunday’s 121-104 defeat to Guangdong Hongyuan, who topped the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league of 17 teams, with the top eight now qualifying for the play-offs. Despite some impressive individual performances from former Houston Rockets shooting guard McGrady, his first season has been marked by poor results with Qingdao winning just eight of their 32 games. The 33-year-old arrived in China to a hero’s welcome before the season started in November, but Qingdao went on a winless streak until late December. McGrady was suspended for one game last month after he criticised referees on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo following his team’s loss to Bayi Rockets. Gilbert Arenas, another former NBA star, also failed to carry his team into the play-offs, with his Shanghai Sharks side finishing 14th. But Stephon Marbury, who was the most famous overseas player in China before McGrady’s arrival, will again feature in the knock-out stages after his team, the Beijing Ducks, finished third. Marbury played a starring role in Beijing’s run to the 2012 title. The defending champions will play Zhejiang Guangsha in the first round of play-offs, which begin on February 27. Nearly 30 former NBA players are now playing in the CBA, raising standards and making basketball, already one of China’s favourite sports, even more popular, with a reported television audience of more than 700 million over a season. — AFP
HOUSTON: Chris Paul scored 20 points and passed out 15 assists to spark the Western Conference over the Eastern Conference 143-138 on Sunday in the 62nd NBA All-Star Game. NBA scoring leader Kevin Durant had a game-high 30 points for the West and Paul’s Los Angeles Clippers teammate Blake Griffin added 19 points, both of them jamming down spectacular slam dunks thanks to set-up passes from Paul. Clippers guard Paul was voted the NBA All-Star Game’s Most Valuable Player as the West won the annual showdown of elite hoops talent for the third time in a row and fourth time in five games. “You just never expect something like this,” Paul said. “All these great players I have the chance to play with, it’s an honor and a privilege.” Paul joined Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas as the only All-Star Game players to produce at least 20 points and 15 assists in one game. “To be mentioned with those guys, it’s an honor,” Paul said. “To be on the court with all these guys I don’t get the chance to play with, it’s an privilege.” Carmelo Anthony led the East with 26 points and 12 rebounds while LeBron James added 19 points and Paul George contributed 17. The West led 69-65 at half-time and had the same margin, 108-104, entering the fourth quarter when a showy game of dunks and flashy moves found intensity. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Kyrie Irving pulled the East within 119-118, but Durant had two slam dunks in an 8-2 West run to boost the lead to 127-120. Anthony sparked a 6-2 East run to pull his side within 129-126 but Paul followed with a 3pointer and Kobe Bryant played tight defense on James in what became a manon-man rivalry between playmakers in the final minutes. Br yant made a driving layup and blocked a James shot to set up a fast break slam dunk by Durant to put the West ahead 136-126. Bryant later added another block of James as the two traded taunts on
HOUSTON: LeBron James #6 of the Miami Heat and the Eastern Conference drives between David Lee #10 and Zach Randolph #50 of the Memphis Grizzlies and the Western Conference during the 2013 NBA All-Star game at the Toyota Center on Sunday. — AFP the court. Durant became the first player to score at least 30 points in three consecutive NBA All-Star Games. Paul answered an East basket with his fourth 3-pointer of the game and after George hit back-toback 3-pointers, Griffin answered with a free throw and a fast break slam dunk that included a pass to himself off the backboard. Spectacular slam dunks by James, Durant and Griffin produced the most sparkling moments of the first half. Dwyane Wade set up Miami teammate James for the East but made one of his best passes to Tyson Chandler for a run-
ning one-handed alley-oop jam while Bryant and Paul kept Durant and Griffin set up for dunks. “If they run, I have fun just assisting and passing the ball,” Paul said. Durant made 8of-12 shots for 19 points in the first half while every basket by Griffin in the first half came on a slam dunk. Big men Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan tried to see who could sink a rare 3-pointer first while guards took turns dribbling between the legs of rivals as the players used the light-hearted matchup for fun moments that regular NBA games
rarely allow. “You need a three, give it to me,” West center Howard said. Before the game, played on the 50th birthday of NBA legend Michael Jordan, James-a modernday displayer of Jordan’s gravity-defying, high-leaping moves-tweeted his best wishes to six-time NBA champion Jordan. “Happy 50th MJ! U inspired a kid from Akron Ohio without u even knowing,” James tweeted. “All by just playing the game u loved. I appreciate what u did for the game and don’t take it for granted.” James ended the messages with the hashtag GOAT for Greatest of All Time. — AFP
Jerry Buss, Los Angeles Lakers’ owner, dead at 79 LOS ANGELES: Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers’ playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships from the ‘80s Showtime dynasty to the Kobe Bryant era, died yesterday, his assistant said. Buss died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Bob Steiner, his assistant. He was 79. He’d been hospitalized for cancer, but the immediate cause of death was kidney failure, Steiner said. Under Buss’ leadership since 1979, the Lakers became Southern California’s most beloved sports franchise and a worldwide extension of Hollywood glamour. Buss acquired, nurtured and befriended a staggering array of talented players and basketball minds during his Hall of Fame tenure. Few owners in sports history can even approach Buss’ accomplishments with the Lakers, who made the NBA finals 16 times through 2011 during his 32 years in charge, winning 10 titles between 1980 and 2010. The Lakers easily are the NBA’s winningest franchise since he bought the club. Few owners have ever been more beloved by their players than Buss, who always referred to the Lakers as his extended family. Working with front-office executives Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak, Buss spent lavishly to win his titles despite lacking a huge personal fortune, often running the NBA’s highest payroll while also paying high-profile coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson. Always an innovative businessman, Buss paid for the Lakers through both their wild success and his own groundbreaking moves to raise revenue. He co-founded a basiccable sports television network and sold the naming rights to the Forum at times when both now-standard strategies were unusual, adding justification for his induction into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. Magic Johnson and fellow Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy formed lifelong bonds with Buss during the Lakers’ run to five titles in nine years in the 1980s, when the Lakers earned a reputation as basketball’s most exciting team with their glamorous Showtime style. Jackson then led Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant to a threepeat from 2000-02, rekindling the Lakers’ mystique, before Bryant and Pau Gasol won two more titles under Jackson in 2009 and 2010. Although Buss was proudest of his two hands full of NBA title rings, he also was a scholar, Renaissance man and bon vivant who epitomized California cool - and a certain Los Angeles lifestyle - for his entire public life. The father of six rarely appeared in public without at least one attractive, much
younger woman on his arm at USC football games, boxing matches, poker tournaments and, of course, Lakers games from his private box at Staples Center, which was built under his watch. Buss earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at age 24 and had careers in aerospace and real estate development before getting into sports. With money largely from his Santa Monica real-estate ventures, Buss bought the then-struggling Lakers, the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and both clubs’ arena - the Forum from Jack Kent Cooke in a $67.5 million deal that was the largest sports transaction in history at the time. In January 2011, Forbes estimated the Lakers were worth $643 million - the second-
USC for graduate school, eventually becoming a chemistry professor and working as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines before his life took an abrupt turn into wealth and sports. The former mathematician claimed his fortune grew out of a $1,000 real-estate investment in a West Los Angeles apartment building with partner Frank Mariani, an aerospace engineer. Buss purchased Cooke’s entire Los Angeles sports empire in 1979, including a 13,000-acre ranch in Kern County. Buss’ love of basketball was the motivation for his purchase, and he immediately worked to transform the Lakers - who had won just one NBA title since moving west from
LOS ANGELES: In this Oct. 26, 2010 file photo, Los Angeles Laker owner Jerry Buss, right, walks out onto the court during the NBA championship ring ceremony as Kobe Bryant, left, and Derek Fisher look on before a basketball game against the Houston Rockets in Los Angeles. Buss, the Lakers’ playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. — AP most valuable NBA franchise. Buss also helped change televised sports by co-founding the Prime Ticket network in 1985, even receiving a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 for his work in television. Breaking the contemporary model of subscription services for televised sports, Buss’ Prime Ticket put beloved broadcaster Chick Hearn and the Lakers’ home games on basic cable. Buss also sold the naming rights to the Forum in 1988 to Great Western Savings & Loan - another deal that was ahead of its time. Born in Salt Lake City, Gerald Hatten Buss was raised in Wyoming and attended
Minneapolis in 1960 - into a star-powered endeavor befitting Hollywood. “One of the first things I tried to do when I bought the team was to make it an identification for this city, like Motown in Detroit,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. “I try to keep that identification alive. I’m a real Angeleno. I want us to be part of the community.” Buss’ plans immediately worked: Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and coach Paul Westhead led the Lakers to the 1980 title. Johnson’s ballhandling wizardry and Abdul-Jabbar ’s smooth inside game made for an attractive style of play evoking Hollywood flair and
West Coast cool. Riley, the former broadcaster who fit the LA image perfectly with his slick-backed hair and chiseled good looks, was surprisingly promoted by Buss early in the 1981-82 season after West declined to co-coach the team. Riley became one of the best coaches in NBA history, leading the Lakers to four straight NBA finals and four titles, with Worthy, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and A.C. Green playing major roles. Overall, the Lakers made the finals nine times in Buss’ first 12 seasons while rekindling the NBA’s best rivalry with the Boston Celtics, and Buss basked in the worldwide celebrity he received from his team’s achievements. His womanizing and partying became Hollywood legend, with even his players struggling to keep up with Buss’ lifestyle. Johnson’s HIV diagnosis and retirement in 1991 staggered Buss and the Lakers, the owner recalled in 2011. The Lakers struggled through much of the 1990s, going through seven coaches and making just one conference finals appearance in an eight-year stretch despite the 1996 arrivals of O’Neal, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent, and Bryant, the 17-year-old high schooler acquired in a draft-week trade. Shaq and Kobe didn’t reach their potential until Buss persuaded Jackson, the Chicago Bulls’ six-time NBA champion coach, to take over the Lakers in 1999. Los Angeles immediately won the next three NBA titles in brand-new Staples Center, AEG’s state-ofthe -art downtown arena built with the Lakers as the primary tenant. After the Lakers traded O’Neal in 2004, they hovered in mediocrity again until acquiring Gasol in a heist of a trade with Memphis in early 2008. Los Angeles made the next three NBA finals, winning two more titles. Through the Lakers’ frequent successes and occasional struggles, Buss never stopped living his Hollywood dream. He was an avid poker player, frequently participating in high-stakes tournaments, and a fixture on the Los Angeles club scene well into his 70s, when a late-night drunk-driving arrest in 2007 - with a 23-year-old woman in the passenger seat of his Mercedes-Benz - prompted him to cut down on his partying. Buss owned the NHL’s Kings from 1979-87, and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks also won two league titles under Buss’ ownership. He also owned Los Angeles franchises in World Team Tennis and the Major Indoor Soccer League. Buss’ children moved into leadership roles with the Lakers in their father’s later years. — AP
Yao still involved in basketball, just not on the court HOUSTON: Yao Ming looks like he could still tangle with Dwight Howard under the basket but the former National Basketball Association number one draft pick clearly has put his playing days in the rear-view mirror. The eight-time Houston Rockets AllStar left the game following the 2010-11 season after the final five years of his career were filled with injuries, most notably to his foot and ankle. “I’m not going to try to come back, I’m not Grant Hill,” he told Reuters with a laugh, referring to the 40-year-old Los Angeles Clippers forward who has
returned to the court following a series of career-threatening injuries. “He’s unique. He keeps coming back no matter how many surgeries he’s had.” Yao, 32, was a judge for the NBA Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday in the run-up to Sunday’s All-Star game, returning to the city where he played since being selected as the number one overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft. A 7-foot-6 (2.29 m) center with soft hands, Yao still works with the NBA, promoting the game in his native China, and owns a team in the Chinese Basketball Association. But he is also involved with
his foundation, which helps needy children in the western part of China. The third Chinese to play in the NBA, he is also back in college to complete his degree and lives in Shanghai. Without the injuries that derailed his career, Yao might have ultimately landed a spot in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was not crushed, however, when he left the game. “If you look at the timeline, I didn’t have a career-ending injury,” said Yao. “I had multiple injuries. The end of my career was something I prepared for. “Obviously I still wanted to play but I knew I had to let it go. You know that it’s going to end.”
Yao, who could still make the Hall of Fame as a contributor, believes there are several players in China that could have a shot at an NBA career. “There are a few young athletes that are pretty talented,” he said. “I think they have the potential to play in the NBA in the future. It all depends on how they develop.” Yao, who averaged 25 points a game during the 2006-07 season, said he plays basketball “just a little bit” these days. “Nothing more than HORSE,” a smiling Yao said of the non-contact game, played mostly by children, that involves just shooting. —Reuters