Sports Briefs: Eight to be inducted into WSSU Hall

A former coach and seven former athletes at Winston-Salem State have been selected for induction into the university's Big House Gaines Athletics Hall of Fame.

Tim Grant, a former Rams' basketball player and assistant to Gaines, is the only coach in the induction class.

The former athletes selected by the 14-member Hall of Fame committee are: Leonardo Horne, Winfred Robert Mack, Tory Woodbury, James Winbush and Jack Cameron (football); Laurie Underwood (softball); and Danny Boden (wrestling).

The class of 2008 will be enshrined Sept. 12 during ceremonies at WSSU's Anderson Center. Tickets for the banquet are available through the schools athletics department (336-750-2143) at a cost of $75 each. That cost of a banquet ticket also includes a ticket to WSSU's football game against Savannah State on Sept. 13.

Basketball

■ Del Harris and Bernie Bickerstaff, former NBA head coaches, will return to the sidelines as assistants to Vinny Del Negro, the new head coach of the Chicago Bulls. They'll be joined by Bob Ociepka, an assistant with Minnesota the past two seasons, and holdover Pete Myers, the Bulls said yesterday.

Bickerstaff was the head coach and general manager of the Charlotte Bobcats their first three seasons before becoming executive vice president of basketball operations last season. He has a 415-517 record in 13-plus seasons as a head coach with Seattle, Denver, Washington and Charlotte.

Harris was a consultant with the Mavericks last year after spending seven years as an assistant under Don Nelson and Avery Johnson.

Myers is returning for his eighth season as a Bulls assistant, and Ociepka has spent 19 seasons as an NBA assistant.

■ North Carolina recruits David and Travis Wear and Duke recruit Mason Plumlee are among 14 finalists for spots on the U-18 U.S. National basketball team. The Wears are 6-9 twin forwards from Santa Ana, Calif., and Plumlee is a 6-10 center from Christ School in Arden. All three are in the recruiting class of 2009. Ryan Kelly, a 6-9 forward from Raleigh Ravenscroft, also made the cut after trials sessions in Washington, D.C.

The final 12-player team will be named Tuesday, then will train in Washington in preparation for the FIBA Americas U-18 Championship, scheduled July 14-19 in Formosa, Argentina. Davidson's Bob McKillop is the coach of the U-18 team.

■ Gerald Green, 6-8 swingman and former NBA slam-dunk champion, signed a one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Dallas Mavericks yesterday.

Green, known mostly for his exploits in the last two dunk contests (a win in 2007 and a runner-up finish this year), Green has career averages of 8.1 points and 2.2 rebounds.

■ Edward Davis, Boston's police commissioner, is asking for an independent review into the death of David Woodman, who stopped breathing while being arrested on the night the Boston Celtics won the NBA championship.

Woodman, 22, died Sunday, 11 days after police say they spotted him drinking from an open container of what they believed was alcohol. Police say that Woodman fled when officers approached him and struggled as they tried to handcuff him. His parents have questioned the way police handled their son.

Hockey

■ The rival Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs made a rare trade yesterday, with Montreal giving up forward Mikhail Grabovski in exchange for prospect Greg Pateryn and a second-round draft pick in 2010.

Grabovski had three goals and six assists in 27 games for the Canadiens the past two seasons. Pateryn, a fifth-round pick by Toronto in last month's draft, played in the U.S. Hockey League last season and led Ohio Junior Blue Jackets defensemen with 27 points (3-24) in 60 games.

■ The Pittsburgh Penguins signed goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to a seven-year, $35-million dollar contract, the third long-term deal with one of their younger players in two days.

Fleury was eligible for arbitration and a hearing was scheduled for later in the month, but the Penguins made no secret they considered that a formality.

■ The Carolina Hurricanes have signed minor-league forward Dwight Helminen to a one-year contract. The deal will pay Helminen $475,000 at the NHL level or $100,000 if he is sent to the minors. Helminen played in Finland last season.

Track & field

■ Former track star Tim Montgomery pleaded guilty yesterday to a federal charge of distributing heroin, averting a trial that was scheduled to start next week in Norfolk, Va.

He faces a minimum of five years in prison.

He appeared briefly in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, answering "Yes, sir," as District Judge Jerome B. Friedman asked if he understood his plea to federal charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribution of more than 100 grams of heroin. Montgomery, 33, was sentenced in May to nearly four years in prison for his role in a New York-based check-kiting conspiracy.

Montgomery, an Olympics gold medalist in the 4x100 and a former world record-holder in the 100 meters, was arrested in April and accused of dealing more than 100 grams of heroin. He retired in 2005 after he was banned for doping, and all of his performances after March 31, 2001, have been wiped from the record books.

-n North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough and Rachel Dawson are finalists for ESPY awards in the respective categories of best male and best female college athlete. Hansbrough was the national basketball player of the year after leading UNC to a school record 36 wins, the ACC title and the NCAA Final Four. Dawson led the UNC field-hockey team to an undefeated season and the NCAA championship and was the 2007 national player of the year.

The other finalists are Tim Tebow of Florida (football) and Michael Beasley of Kansas State (basketball) for best male athlete and Candace Parker of Tennessee (basketball) and Angela Tincher of Virginia Tech (softball) for best female athlete. Winners will be determined by fan voting and announced on ESPN on July 20.

■ The first U.S. network telecast of a European Championship soccer final was seen by 3.76 million viewers on ABC. Spain's 1-0 victory over Germany on Sunday drew a 2.3 national rating, the network said yesterday, and was seen in 2.55 million homes. ABC's broadcast of the 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France got a 7.0 rating in the United States.

■ Raymond Domenech will remain as coach of France's national soccer team even though it finished at the bottom of its group at last month's European Championship.

Members of the French team that won the 1998 World Cup had called for Domenech's departure, but current players and former internationals, such as UEFA President Michel Platini, said he should stay. Polls have shown that most French people wanted him out as coach. Domenech's contract runs through 2010.

■ Scottish driver David Coulthard has announced that he will retire from Formula One at the end of the season. Coulthard, who has has driven for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull since 1994, has won 13 F1 races but none since the 2003 Australian Grand Prix. His best finish this season was sixth at the Canadian GP on June 9.