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.
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.
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.
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.
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
It’s back to the books for retired Chinese basketball star Yao Ming.
The former Houston Rockets center and No. 1 draft pick in the 2002 NBA draft started classes this week at Jiaotong University, one of the top schools in the country, China Daily and other newspapers reported Tuesday.
“The teacher showed me some mercy and did not leave me any homework,” Yao joked to reporters after his first day of courses at the university’s Antai College of Economics and Management.
Yao said the first order of business was assessing “how weak my foundation is” and working with instructors on a tailored course of study.
Yao, who retired four months ago because of chronic injuries to his left foot, is taking classes in mathematics, English and modern Chinese history—a subject he enjoyed in high school.
O’Neal speaks of Kupchak in only six pages of the 281-page “Shaq Uncut: My Story,” co-written by Jackie MacMullan, slated for a Nov. 15 release. But that’s enough prose to label Kupchak as the main culprit behind Shaq’s hasty departure from the Lakers.
According to the book, Kupchak promised to grant Shaq a contract extension following the 2003-04 season and not to discuss their contract negotiations publicly. Once the 2003-04 season ended, however, O’Neal was disturbed by an apparent interview in which Kupchak revealed the Lakers’ plan to hold onto Bryant while keeping their options open with O’Neal.
“That was it. That was the end of me in a Lakers uniform. Mitch broke our agreement. How could I trust him again?” Shaq writes in the book. “For months, I kept waiting for Mitch to come to me and say, ‘Shaq, you’re getting older, we need some new players. Mr. Buss doesn’t want to pay you and Kobe doesn’t want you here.’ But that conversation never happened. So that was when I demanded a trade. I couldn’t trust Mitch anymore and it was clear Kobe was now the one with all the power.”
Kim Kardashian, Kris Humphries and the pastor who officiated at the couple’s August wedding met for two hours Sunday at Humphries’ Minnesota home, RadarOnline.com has confirmed.
Pastor Joel Johnson, who is Kris’ hometown minister, spent two hours with the estranged pair at Humphries’ lavish lakefront home.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Kim flew overnight from Los Angeles for the gathering. She arrived in Minneapolis at 5:30 am.
Kim was seen making several emotional phone calls from the home’s porch, and Pastor Johnson declined to answer reporters questions about how the couple is doing.
Trail Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge put on a sold-out charity basketball game Sunday night with the NBA’s tense labor situation as a backdrop.
A fan held a sign that said “Thanks LaMarcus” during the game that included Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Josh Howard of the Washington Wizards, Atlanta’s Jamal Crawford and several other players…
Aldridge’s main goal on Sunday night was to have fun and raise money for charity.
His “Home” team beat the “Guest” team, 164-157. Aldridge had 42 points and 13 rebounds while Durant led the guests with 47 points.
One of the highlights of the game came when Nate Robinson, also of the Thunder, did “the Dougie” with a kid who was a performer during a break.
Absent was Blazers guard Brandon Roy, who Aldridge said had to attend to a family matter.
— Reported by Anne M. Peterson of the Associated Press
The house DJ towered above it all on Sunday from a balcony at the Chiles Center, lights down, sipping a cold beverage in a giant plastic cup through a straw, while bopping his head to the thumping music. Maybe a hundred feet below on the court, Kevin Durant, was dancing and warming up. Mostly dancing, while he bounced the ball. And it was right then that former Trail Blazers Darnell Valentine, elected coach of the “AWAY” team, walked in the place.
“It’s like they took a basketball court and dropped it into the middle of a night club,” Valentine said.
There was a dance team in slick black outfits. And a spotlight that scanned the building. Also, running commentary from a couple of guys seated courtside who cracked jokes and yelled things such as “Whaaaaat?!?!?” at random moments. I expected a woman with a bare mid-drift and a sequin skirt would appear at some point with a tray of Jell-O shots, or yo-yo’s and cigarettes. But alas, this thing ultimately turned into a basketball game.
Authorities say they are investigating the death of an athletic trainer for the Harlem Globetrotters after he was found shot in his Colorado home.
Weld County sheriff spokeswoman Margie Martinez said Saturday that the girlfriend of 42-year-old Thomas Bashline’s called deputies around 4:30 p.m. Friday, saying she had found him unresponsive in a bedroom. Bashline’s home is 11 miles west of Frederick in northern Colorado.
Investigators responding to the scene determined he had died.
