Maurice Cheeks received an outpouring of support from friends, fan, and some of his former players a day after he was fired as coach of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Natalie Gilbert was broken hearted. Gilbert is the young girl who forgot the words to the National Anthem as she sang in front of a packed arena during a playoff game two years ago. In a gesture that became national news, Cheeks stepped to Gilbert's side and helped her finish her song.
"I guess [the Trail Blazers] have their reasons, but I think it's a loss," Gilbert, 15, told the Oregonian yesterday.
The Trail Blazers named Kevin Pritchard, the club's director of player personnel, as interim coach and the club will soon begin looking for a permanent replacement, according to a statement on the team's Web site.
Speculation about Cheeks' job security began when the club failed to qualify for the playoffs last year. Portland (22-33) plunged in the standings this season and the coach's fate appeared to have been sealed following a verbal confrontation in January with Trail Blazers' swingman Darius Miles.
Miles cursed Cheeks, directed racial epithets at him and told his coach he hoped he would be fired. Portland suspended Miles for two games, a punishment considered by many around the league as a slap on the wrist.
When it leaked out that the club had considered returning the wages Miles lost as a result of his suspension, it appeared that the team's management no longer backed its coach.
When informed that Miles may get a refund Cheeks told the Oregonian: "I might as well pack my bags."
"I think Maurice was well-liked," Trail Blazers' forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim told the Oregonian. "I think guys are going to miss him. Even the guys who don't think they'll miss him will look back and miss him. A lot of his problems stemmed from things he couldn't control. He had to try to get guys to buy into roles that he felt he had to make them play."
Hired in June 2001, Cheeks led the Trail Blazers to two playoff appearances in three-plus seasons. The 37-year-old Pritchard played briefly with the Washington Wizards during 1995-96 season and is a former coach in the Continental Basketball Association.
Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant declined last night to discuss the settlement he reached yesterday with the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in June 2003.
The only comment from Bryant's camp on the issue came when he and the 20-year-old woman issued a joint press release, which said that the civil suit "has been resolved to the satisfaction of both parties."
There was no mention of whether Bryant paid any money to the former hotel worker, whom Bryant met in Eagle, Colo., while receiving treatment for a knee injury.
Legal experts told the Los Angeles Times that Bryant, 26, likely paid the woman a large sum of money for the damages she said she sustained during their sexual contact. The Times reported that the deal likely included a confidentiality clause which would prevent both parties from revealing terms of the settlement. Bryant has maintained that the sex was consensual.
Laker spokesman John Black told the Times: "We are pleased for Kobe and his family that this issue has been resolved."
TD Banknorth paid between $5 million and $6 million to rename the FleetCenter, the Boston Globe reported today.
From now on, the home of the Boston Celtics will be known as the TD BankNorth Garden.
For a month, money was raised by allowing people to bid on eBay for daily naming rights of the arena. The building has been officially gone by such names as the KurtCenter, the JoeyColinAbbyCenter and the Nocturnal Nannies Arena for 24-hour periods, according to the Globe. The auction raised more than $150,000 for charity.
Byron Scott, coach of the beleaguered New Orleans Hornets, lashed out yesterday against the NBA's practice of signing players to guaranteed contracts. Scott suggested that the contracts make it too easy for NBA players to underachieve.
"These guys have got guaranteed contracts, and they get a broken fingernail and say, 'I'm out for two weeks,'" Scott told the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
"Basketball should be just like the NFL, with no guarantee contracts. In the NFL, you see guys with broken arms trying to get in there because they know they can get cut tomorrow."
Scott only smiled when reporters asked if he was referring to the former Hornets' often-injured guard Baron Davis, who was traded to the Golden State Warriors last week.
"I never heard of a guy spraining an ankle, then missing two weeks,'' Scott said, in an apparent reference to Davis, who missed 17 games with a sprained ankle earlier this season. "You never heard about that in the '80s [when Scott played with the Los Angeles Lakers]. That's unbelievable.''
Gary Payton, who was traded by the Boston Celtics to the Atlanta Hawks last week, has told Celtics management that he will return to the team tomorrow once he clears waivers, according to the Boston Globe.
After being traded, Payton asked for and received a buyout from the Hawks, who waived him on Tuesday. Payton told Danny Ainge, Boston's director of basketball operations, yesterday that he planned on returning.
"It looks good," Ainge told the Globe last night after Boston's 104-101 win over the Lakers. "He can't actually sign the paperwork until [tomorrow], so it's not officially done, but we're expecting him back."
Payton will rejoin a surging Celtics team that has won its last three games and taken over first place in the Eastern Conference's Atlantic Division.
The Utah Jazz placed forward Carlos Boozer on the injured reserve list yesterday because of a strained right foot, which may mean that Boozer will avoid a return to Gund Arena, where the former Cleveland Cavaliers' forward would probably receive a nasty reception from fans.
Boozer, the Jazz's leading scorer, will miss a minimum of five games, including the Jazz's March 15 against the Cavaliers.
A member of the Cavaliers last season, Boozer was accused of reneging on a verbal committement to sign with the team. Boozer's agent, Rob Pelinka, allegedly resigned over Boozer's decision, and the national media blasted Boozer, who denied making any promises to Cleveland.
Pelinka, of SFX, has since gone back to representing Boozer.
The NBA fined Chicago Bulls forward-center Tyson Chandler $10,000 for making an obscene gesture at a referee during Tuesday's loss to the Houston Rockets.
With 3:24 left in the third quarter Tuesday night, Chandler was called for a blocking foul and immediately flashed the obscene gesture in the direction of referee Sean Corbin.
"It really had nothing to do with the ref," Chandler told reporters after the game. "It was more of frustration for me and my teammates. I'm sorry I took it out on the ref."
The Bulls were happy that the NBA did not suspend Chandler.
But the Bulls are expecting to lose rookie forward Luol Deng for perhaps as long as five more games. The Chicago Daily Herald reported that Deng is likely headed to the injured list with a severely sprained right ankle.
