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Kim Kardashian is not reconciling with Kris Humphries, and the divorce is full steam ahead … this according to sources with first-hand knowledge of the situation.
We’re told even though Kim is somewhat conflicted, she knows divorce is the right thing to do, and the purpose of the trip to Minnesota last weekend was to create face-to-face closure.
— Reported by TMZ
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Asseco Prokom announced Wednesday that it released forward Alonzo Gee from the club effective immediately. According to a press release from the club, Gee was dropped “as a consequence of breach of obligations specified in contract.”
In three Turkish Airlines Euroleague games with the Polish champs, Gee averaged 11 points and 6.3 rebounds.
— Reported by Euroleague.net
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The 2011 Goon Squad Classic will take place Nov. 20 at the Pavilion on the UC Davis campus. Tickets go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m.
The Goon Squad is the nickname Kings reserves gave themselves last season…
Greene has commitments from teammates Tyreke Evans, DeMarcus Cousins, Jason Thompson and Hassan Whiteside, along with draft picks Jimmer Fredette and Isaiah Thomas.
Washington Wizards guard John Wall is expected to play, along with New Orleans forward Quincy Pondexter and former Kings center Spencer Hawes.
Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, who would be the biggest star in the game, is scheduled to play barring changes in his schedule, Greene said.
— Reported by Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee
Ed Macauley, one of the NBA’s first big stars who won a championship with the St. Louis Hawks and was traded by the Boston Celtics for Bill Russell, has died. He was 83.
Saint Louis University announced Macauley’s death on Tuesday. The school had no other details. “Easy Ed” was a standout player with the Billikens, leading them to the 1948 NIT title.
Macauley was elected to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1960. A native of St. Louis, he was a territorial pick of that city’s Basketball Association of America franchise, the Bombers. He played there for one season and then was selected by the Celtics in a 1950 dispersal draft.
Macauley played for the Celtics from the 1950-51 season until 1955-56. He and the draft rights to future Hall of Famer Cliff Hagan were traded by Boston to the St. Louis Hawks on April 29, 1956, for the rights to Russell, a move that changed the power structure of the NBA.
— Reported by the Associated Press
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With no basketball to coach, George Karl is tending to his other passion in life: fighting cancer, a disease he has beaten twice.
The Nuggets coach lent his voice Tuesday to the American Cancer Society and Quest Diagnostics, which are teaming up on a nationwide cancer prevention study. It aims to follow 300,000 people for 20 to 30 years to see how genetics, lifestyle and the environment affect cancer risk.
“There are a lot of people who want to get into this fight who don’t have cancer, and this is one way,” Karl said.
Karl is 21 months removed from a brutal battle with neck cancer, which came a few years after he beat prostate cancer. His son Coby is a survivor of lymph-node cancer.
— Reported by the Associated Press
Mike Sergo has been named as the Milwaukee Bucks Equipment Manager, the organization announced today. Sergo will be responsible for purchasing and maintaining all non-medical equipment for the basketball facilities at the Bradley Center and the Bucks Training Center, and traveling full-time with the club, where he is responsible for the team equipment on the road.
Sergo enters his 10th season as a full-time member of the Bucks basketball staff, having worked as the assistant video coordinator the previous nine seasons. He began working part-time in the video scouting department during the 1995-96 season.
A Milwaukee native, Sergo graduated from Wautoma High School and attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
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Bankrupt former NBA All-Star Antoine Walker is due before a state court judge in Nevada after pleading guilty in June to failing to repay some $750,000 in gambling debts to three Las Vegas casinos.
A prosecutor said the 35-year-old Walker is expected to be sentenced Thursday to probation and promise to repay the debts incurred in 2008 at the Planet Hollywood and Red Rock Casino Resort, and in January 2009 at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.
— Reported by the Associated Press
The Philadelphia 76ers new owner Josh Harris has entered and will run the 26.2 mile Philadelphia Marathon on November 20, 2011. Additionally, the Sixers – one of the event sponsors – will give away a complimentary ticket to an upcoming Sixers home game to every marathon participant.
“I am truly looking forward to running the Philadelphia Marathon and have been for quite some time,” Harris said. “To join the participants – particularly those from the city of Philadelphia and its surrounding areas – as a representative of the Sixers is something that I’m proud to do.”
More than 27,000 registered participants comprising the Philadelphia Marathon’s three races (the 8K, half marathon and full marathon) will receive a voucher good for one free ticket to an upcoming Sixers game at the Wells Fargo Center during either the 2011-12 or 2012-13 season.
A group of disgruntled NBA owners held a conference call Monday to express their displeasure with the 50/50 revenue offer commissioner David Stern has presented to the players’ association, according to sources with knowledge of the call.
The deal, which the union sees as an “ultimatum” offer, calls for players to receive anywhere between 49 and 51 percent of basketball-related income, but the group of displeased owners, the sources said, are hoping the players reject it.
Stern has issued a Wednesday afternoon deadline for the deal, which players argue would make it nearly impossible for them to get anywhere above 50.2 percent of revenue. If the players do not accept this deal, Stern said the next one will call for a 53-47 split in the owners’ favor, along with essentially a hard salary cap.
Sources have told ESPN.com that the union’s executive committee is scheduled to meet with the 30 player representatives in New York on Tuesday and a source said earlier that the union appears split on the deal. The executive committee, the source said, is staunchly against voting to approve the deal, while the player reps may also be divided.
However, a source said later Monday that the owners on the call fear that the player reps will push to approve the deal with the clock ticking.
— Reported by Chris Broussard of ESPN the Magazine
If Magic Johnson had known just how well he could live with HIV, he wouldn’t have retired from the Lakers on Nov. 7, 1991.
Johnson would never change what he did for the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic when he publicly revealed his diagnosis to a stunned world. His courage that day, along with two subsequent decades of vibrant living, forever altered attitudes about the virus and its effects.
Magic is simply glad the world knows such happy endings are possible with access to treatment and vigilance.
“At that time, it was the right decision,” Johnson said Monday on the 20th anniversary of his stunning retirement. “If I knew what I knew today, that I could still play basketball and do my thing, I probably wouldn’t have retired. But I’m a guy that doesn’t have regrets. I don’t look back. I’m happy, because I wanted to be here a long time. We made the right call at that time.”
Johnson recognized the occasion at Staples Center on Monday with an upbeat celebration and a message of steadfastness. Dozens of politicians, celebrities and Lakers greats from Jerry West and Pat Riley to James Worthy and Michael Cooper joined Johnson and AIDS researcher David Ho for a luncheon, and the Magic Johnson Foundation announced a $1 million gift to continue its mission for worldwide HIV awareness and testing.
Two decades after his shocking admission and quick retirement at 32, Johnson’s doctors say he’s a 52-year-old specimen of health, comfortably managing HIV with a daily regimen of drugs and exercise.
— Reported by Greg Beacham of the Associated Press