News
Email
Print
Sports Briefs: Jackson will return to coach Lakers in '10
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: July 4, 2009
Phil Jackson will return to coach the Los Angeles Lakers next season, getting a clean bill of health following a record championship season.
Jackson will turn 64 in September and said on the team's Web site yesterday he got the go-ahead for another season after consulting the team doctor.
Jackson led the Lakers to their 15th NBA championship and his 10th title in June, breaking the mark he shared with the late Celtics coach Red Auerbach.
"I feel confident that I can gainfully pursue an NBA season with another long playoff postseason," he said. "All things point to go."
He signed a two-year contract extension last season and holds the option on a second year.
Last season, Jackson missed two West Coast road games because of pain and swelling in his lower legs caused by plantar fasciitis, a problem he had checked out. He blamed late-night flights that aggravated the condition.
He has undergone two hip replacement operations since October 2006 -- using a cane at various times -- and walks with a noticeable hitch in his step. He underwent an angioplasty in 2003 to open a clogged artery in his heart.
More basketball
■ Seth Curry scored 12 points to lead the United States to a 71-55 victory against France, sending the Americans into the second round of the FIBA under-19 world junior championships yesterday in Auckland, New Zealand.
Gordon Hayward had 11 points and five rebounds as the U.S. stayed top of Group B with one pool game remaining against Egypt today.
The U.S. led 19-10 at the end of the first quarter and 35-20 at halftime. The physical defense of both sides resulted in the Americans shooting 40 percent from the field and 10 of 37 from 3-point range, while France shot 32 percent overall and was 5 of 18 from beyond the arc.
France, which already beat Egypt, will likely have to beat Iran on today to progress to the second round from Group B.
■ Candace Parker is returning to action for the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday when they are home to the Phoenix Mercury.
The team said yesterday that Parker will be in the lineup for the first time since giving birth to her daughter on May 13.
Parker was cleared by doctors to begin practicing Tuesday. She has not played at all this season.
Last season, Parker started all 33 games she played in, led the league in rebounding and led all rookies in scoring and rebounding.
■ Center Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles Lakers will play for Spain in September in the European Basketball Championship.
Gasol said yesterday that it was an easy decision after winning the NBA finals.
World champion Spain, upset by Russia in the European final at Madrid in 2007, is one of the favorites going to Poland after a silver-medal performance in Olympics.
■ Coach Mike Brey has promoted Martin Ingelsby to assistant coach, filling the vacancy created when nine-year associate head coach Sean Kearney was hired as head coach at Holy Cross.
Brey said yesterday that Ingelsby is considered a rising star in coaching and has gained the respect of other coaches around the country.
Holy Cross hired Kearney on Thursday.
Hockey
■ Free agent forward Mikael Samuelsson signed a $7.5 million, three-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks yesterday.
"Obviously (the money) was the key, I shouldn't lie," Samuelsson said in a conference call after signing the deal.
Samuelsson spent the past four seasons in Detroit, winning the Stanley Cup in 2008 and falling one game short this past season. He has 86 goals and 208 points in 466 career NHL games.
Samuelsson was also part of Sweden's gold medal-winning team at the 2006 Turin Olympics.
■ The Pittsburgh Penguins have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with forward Ruslan Fedotenko, who joined the team a year ago as a free agent.
Fedotenko had 16 goals and 23 assists in 65 regular-season games, before scoring seven goals in 24 playoff games during the Penguins' run to their third Stanley Cup championship.
■ The Phoenix Coyotes signed defenseman Shaun Heshka to a one-year contract yesterday.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
The 24-year-old Heshka was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for the Coyotes' seventh-round draft choice (187th overall) in last month's NHL draft.
Miscellaneous
■ Next week's first-leg match in the finals of the Copa Libertadores will go ahead in Argentina despite a swine flu outbreak that is blamed in the deaths of at least 44 people in the country.
CONMEBOL, the governing body of South American soccer, said yesterday the match between Argentine club Estudiantes and Brazilian club Cruzeiro would be played in La Plata on Wednesday.
It said the second-leg game would be played as scheduled on July 15 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to determine the winner of Latin America's most important club competition.
■ Michelle Kwan will skate before an audience for the first time in three years when she joins world champion Kim Yu-Na in Ice All-Stars 2009 in Seoul, South Korea, in August.
Kwanas been practicing and working out for most of this year. Her performance in Seoul could be an indication that competitive skating is still a possibility with the Vancouver Olympics looming.
Kwan, who recently graduated from the University of Denver and has been accepted into the master's program at Tufts, has not been in a competitive environment since a foot injury forced her withdrawal from the Turin Olympics in 2006.
■ The Dutch government is considering a bidding for the Olympics in 2028 -- exactly a century after Amsterdam last staged the games.
"It would be fantastic if we could experience the games in our own country again after 100 years," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said yesterday after his government's weekly Cabinet meeting.
Balkenende said the government would support a possible bid by the country's Olympic Committee, and also backed a plan by the committee to raise the overall standard of athletics in the country.
■ Former quarterback Timmy Chang of Hawaii, one of the most prolific passers in college football history, has been arrested on suspicion of robbery and released without charges pending further investigation.
Chang, 27, was arrested at his Mililani home Thursday after a woman said her camera was taken away from her while she was filming a brawl last month in the Pearlridge area.
A man, whom Honolulu police say was Chang, told the woman to stop filming the fight.
A struggle ensued and the suspect allegedly took the camera and threw it on the roof of a nearby building.
Email
Print
