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(02/09/06 7:14am)
KAPOLEI, Hawaii -- Peyton Manning is still answering questions about his perceived inability to win the big one.\nEdgerrin James is talking about the possibility of playing elsewhere.\nAnd several of their teammates in Hawaii for Sunday's Pro Bowl say they can't wait until next year, an often-used refrain with this bunch.\nThe Colts were the NFL's glamour team for most of the 2005 season. That is, until their first playoff game, that is -- a 21-18 loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Steelers.\n"I am over it, but it still bothers me," Colts center Jeff Saturday admitted Wednesday. "You've got to let it go, give Pittsburgh a lot of credit for what they did. We hope to do it next year."\nSpeaking of next year, the Colts have already been installed as 4-1 favorites to win the Super Bowl by one oddsmaker.\n"Really, no thoughts," said offensive tackle Tarik Glenn after an audible groan. "I'm here to enjoy this game. Thank God I was able to play in the Pro Bowl and let some of that anger out."\nThe Colts won their first 13 games of the season, sending shivers through the 1972 Miami Dolphins -- the only unbeaten team in NFL history.\nThen came a 26-17 loss to San Diego on Dec. 18, ending the Colts' quest for a perfect season but allowing them to begin postseason preparations four weeks before their first playoff game since they already had home-field advantage.\nMany thought that would make the difference, since the speedy Colts got to play at home and indoors after losing playoff games in cold environments like New England in recent years.\nBut then came tragedy. Four days after the loss to San Diego, Colts coach Tony Dungy's 18-year-old son, James, was found dead of an apparent suicide.\n"There's nothing to prepare you for what he and his family went through," Manning said. "That's where you separate football and life."\nThere's no way to know if that had any impact on the team, which rested most of its regulars in the last two regular-season games and then had a week off before falling behind quickly and being eliminated from the Super Bowl chase by the underdog Steelers.\nA lot of attention was focused on one comment Manning made after the playoff loss -- that there were protection problems on the line.\nHe was sacked five times by the Steelers.
(02/02/05 5:08am)
LOS ANGELES -- Rudy Tomjanovich is considering resigning as Los Angeles Lakers coach because of health reasons, a team spokesman said Tuesday.\nESPN.com reported that Tomjanovich would step down following Tuesday night's game against Portland. Spokesman John Black said that would not be the case.\n"He's considering several options and resigning is one of them. That decision has not been made," Black said. "There won't be an announcement tonight. He won't coach tonight because he's not feeling well. This has nothing to do with cancer."\nTomjanovich, who won a pair of NBA championships with the Houston Rockets, missed Los Angeles' win over Charlotte on Sunday night because of a stomach virus. He returned to the coaching ranks this season after recovering from bladder cancer.\nAssistant coach Frank Hamblen, the only holdover from former coach Phil Jackson's staff, guided the team against the Bobcats and will coach them against the Trail Blazers.\nBlack said Tomjanovich has had a sinus infection as well as the stomach virus.\n"It's health-related," Black said about Tomjanovich's absence. "He loves the team and the team loves him."\nAfter cutting ties with Jackson and trading Shaquille O'Neal during the offseason, the Lakers have been a mediocre team this season. They were 23-19 going into Tuesday's game against the Trail Blazers.\nBlack said he had no idea when Tomjanovich will be back on the bench -- if indeed he stays on the job.\nTomjanovich signed a five-year, $30 million contract last summer.\n"He has discussed this with the appropriate people in the organization," Black said. "When he does make a decision, it will be announced at the appropriate time."\nTomjanovich succeeded Jackson when the Lakers did not renew his contract. Jackson led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships as well as a berth in the finals last June, when they were upset by Detroit.\nThe Lakers traded O'Neal to Miami and kept Kobe Bryant after the season, re-signing the guard to a 7-year, $136.4 million contract.\nBryant sprained his right ankle Jan. 13 and hasn't played since.\nTomjanovich guided Houston to NBA titles in 1994 and 1995. He spent his entire playing career in the Rockets' organization.
(10/11/04 5:20am)
LOS ANGELES -- Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals sure looked like the best team in baseball.\nSt. Louis advanced to the NL championship series for the third time in five years, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 Sunday night to win their first-round playoff 3-1.\nJeff Suppan settled down after a shaky start, Pujols hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer off loser Wilson Alvarez in the fourth inning and the Cardinals kept the Dodgers searching for their first postseason series victory since winning the 1988 World Series.\nAfter Jason Isringhausen struck out Alex Cora to end the game, members of both teams met in the middle of the field and shook hands, and the fans stood and applauded. While common at the end of playoff series in the NHL, it's a rarity in baseball -- it happened after Minnesota's 10-inning win over Atlanta in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.\nSt. Louis, a major league-best 105-57 during the regular season, starts the NLCS at home Wednesday against the winner of Monday night's fifth game between Atlanta and Houston. The Cardinals are trying to become the first team with the top regular-season record to win the World Series since the 1998 New York Yankees.\nAs Pujols' towering fly ball sailed just over left fielder Jayson Werth into the lower left-field stands, the raucous crowd of 56,268 -- the largest in Dodger Stadium history -- went silent. Pujols, one of baseball's best hitters, delivered on a 3-1 pitch for his second homer of the series.\nScott Rolen, the on-deck hitter, went 0-for-12 in the series, grounding out following the homer.\nSuppan, who went 10-1 with a 3.55 ERA in 14 road starts this season, allowed two hits in seven innings and also gave himself some unexpected support at the plate -- he singled twice in three at-bats after going 4-of-57 during the season.\nWerth, the second batter Suppan faced, homered to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead. The Cardinals tied it in the second off Odalis Perez on a homer by Reggie Sanders one pitch after Jim Edmonds was thrown out stealing.\nSt. Louis got another run in the third, when Perez was chased after two walks a one-out, RBI single by Edgar Renteria. Alvarez relieved and struck out Edmonds and Sanders.\nAdrian Beltre's sacrifice fly tied it 2-all in the fourth, but the Dodgers had only two more runners -- Cesar Izturis got a one-out infield single in the eighth, and Milton Bradley drew a two-out walk in the ninth.\nPerez gave up three hits and five walks in 2 1-3 innings, but only two runs as the Cardinals stranded five and had a runner thrown out stealing.\nPujols added a run for the Cardinals with an RBI single in the seventh.
(08/27/04 5:09am)
LOS ANGELES -- All-American Mike Williams was denied his request to play for the University of Southern California by the NCAA Thursday, leaving the star receiver unable to rejoin the top-ranked Trojans after being shut out of the NFL draft by the courts.\n"I'm glad it's over. Now the team can move forward and I can move forward," Williams said in a telephone interview. "I'm disappointed. I did everything asked of me. I don't know yet what I'm going to do. I'll just relax for the weekend and watch the game and root for my team."\nThe ruling came down shortly before the Trojans boarded an airplane for Baltimore. They open their season Saturday night against Virginia Tech at FedEx Field in Landover, Md.\nUSC coach Pete Carroll was angry with the ruling and its timing.\n"It's very cold and insensitive for them to deny him this opportunity," he said. "As a football team, we've been prepared for this for a while. I'm not surprised by it, but I'm disappointed for Mike and his family. You'll have to go and ask the NCAA for answers, how they can turn someone down who is academically eligible."\nThe school had applied to the NCAA for a progress-toward-degree waiver and reinstatement of Williams' eligibility.\nUSC officials were unsure if there were any appeals still available for Williams, but he said he didn't plan to pursue them anyway.\n"I'm kind of done with it right now," he said.\nWilliams caught 95 passes for 1,314 yards and a school-record 16 touchdowns last season to help the Trojans (12-1) win the national championship.\nThe 20-year-old Williams, a sure-handed 6-foot-5, 230-pounder, finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy balloting as a sophomore last year.\nAfter a court ruled that Ohio State's Maurice Clarett was eligible to play in the NFL, Williams left USC in the spring, hired an agent and said he was turning pro. That made him ineligible to play for the Trojans.\nHe was projected as a high draft pick, but on May 24, an appeals court overturned the earlier ruling and upheld the NFL's right to bar players who had been out of high school for less than three years.\nWilliams has been out of high school less than three years, as has Clarett, who was suspended last season after starring at Ohio State as a freshman.\nAfter the appeals court ruling, Williams severed ties with his agent and began the process of applying to the NCAA for reinstatement.\nHe returned to USC and took summer classes, seeking to have his academic eligibility also restored.
(07/17/03 12:49am)
LOS ANGELES -- True to their word, future Hall of Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton signed contracts with the Los Angeles Lakers. And they did so at just about the earliest possible moment.\nTeam spokesman John Black said Malone and Payton, who verbally committed to join the Lakers at discount prices last week, signed shortly after midnight EDT on Wednesday.\nA moratorium on free agent signings expired Tuesday night. Beginning at 12:01 a.m., free agents were allowed to sign contracts.\nMalone, the second-leading scorer in NBA history who is considered perhaps the greatest power forward ever, signed a two-year contract worth just over $3 million, Black said.\nMalone, who earned $19 million last season in his 18th and final season with the Utah Jazz, will earn the veteran's exception of $1.5 million next season.\nHe turns 40 later this month.\nPayton, five years younger, also signed a multiyear contract. He established himself as one of the NBA's finest point guards in Seattle, where he played for nearly 12 seasons before being traded to Milwaukee this past season.\nThe players will be introduced Thursday morning at a news conference at Staples Center.\nPayton, who earned $12 million last season, will make $4.9 million in his first year with the Lakers.\nBlack and Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak had dinner at a West Los Angeles restaurant Tuesday night with Payton and his agent, Aaron Goodwin, and Malone's agent, Dwight Manley.\nLakers front office employees Ronnie Lester and Bill Bertka were also present.\nMalone faxed in his contract from Arkansas shortly after it was allowed to be signed.\n"We drank a toast and Mitch went home to get some sleep for probably the first time in at least a week," Black said.\nMalone and Payton will join Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant in a star-studded Lakers lineup.\nOther Los Angeles returnees next season are Derek Fisher, Devean George, Rick Fox, Slava Medvedenko, Kareem Rush and Jannero Pargo.\nThe Lakers won three straight NBA championships before being eliminated in six games in the Western Conference semifinals by the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs two months ago.\nKupchak made it clear in the aftermath that major changes were in store.\nNeither Malone nor Payton have played on a championship team. Payton and the Sonics played in the NBA Finals once and the Jazz reached the Finals twice during Malone's time there -- all during the 1990s.\nIn all three cases, the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls won titles.\n"When Karl said what he was going to do, I figured I couldn't miss that chance, playing with the Lakers," Payton said over the weekend in Miami. "With four great players like us playing with each other, we're going to have a great chance to win a championship"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
LOS ANGELES -- Lucious Harris considered the possibility, and his eyes lit up. \nThe New Jersey Nets as NBA champions? What once seemed a galaxy away is now a mere four wins from reality. \n"We came this far, we're not going to lay down," the Nets' guard said. "We have confidence we can win this series. We've been underdogs all season. We're confident, every player." \nThe Nets' confidence will be tested beginning Wednesday night when they meet the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals at Staples Center. \nGame 2 is Friday night in Los Angeles before the best-of-seven series shifts to New Jersey. \nLike the Sacramento Kings, the Nets have been one of the league's bottom-feeders through the years. \nBut times sure have changed. \nThe Kings, 27-55 four years ago, extended the mighty Lakers to overtime in the deciding game of the Western Conference finals. \nWhile Sacramento's rise has been steady, New Jersey got there in a hurry. In the playoffs for the first time since 1998, the Nets were 26-56 last season. \nThe turnaround began with the acquisition of Jason Kidd from Phoenix last summer. \n"What in the world is Phoenix doing?" Lakers star Kobe Bryant said with a laugh Tuesday. \nWhat the Suns did was help make a winner of the Nets. \n"We had players here that had it in them," said Harris, who grew up in Los Angeles but cheered for the Celtics as a kid. "Jason brought it out." \nGoing for the 14th championship in franchise history, the Lakers have reached the NBA Finals 26 times. \nThe Nets, winners of only 19 playoff games since joining the NBA in 1976, including 10 this spring, have advanced past the second round for just the first time. \nOddsmakers established the Lakers as 9-1 favorites. \n"It would probably be one of the biggest upsets in history, I'll say," Harris said. "We've got to play a perfect game, period. We can't have scoring lapses. That's a true champion." \nIn Shaquille O'Neal and Bryant, the Lakers have the best at their positions -- inside and outside. If defending Kidd is a challenge, consider what the Nets face. \n"The one thing that I feel is we're a much better defensive team than Sacramento and they took the Lakers to seven games," Nets coach Byron Scott said. "We've played extremely well on the defensive end throughout the playoffs and we're going to continue to do that." \nScott plans to alternate Todd MacCulloch, Aaron Williams and Jason Collins against O'Neal and will start Kerry Kittles on Bryant, who Scott called the best all-around player in the NBA. \n"I think they like that underdog role, I think they're excited about it," Scott said. "I know we are the biggest underdogs in the history of the NBA Finals, and once our guys heard that, they just started smiling about it." \nScott was a member of three championship teams during his 11 years as a player with the Lakers, where he often played alongside Magic Johnson. \nIn Kidd, the Nets have a Magiclike player without the Showtime touch. Kidd became the first player in 35 years to get three triple-doubles in a playoff series in the six-game Eastern Conference finals against Boston. \n"Jason Kidd, in my mind, was this year's MVP," said O'Neal, who finished third behind San Antonio's Tim Duncan and Kidd in the voting. "It's not going to be easy for us. We've only played this team twice, so we don't know what all their secrets are. We just have to go out and continue what we've been doing." \nThe teams split their two regular-season meetings. But O'Neal didn't play in one, Bryant didn't play in the other and the Nets weren't at full strength, either. \nBryant thinks the Lakers will be just fine despite their wrenching series against the Kings -- a series that ended less than 72 hours before the NBA Finals begin. \nHe said the Lakers won't underestimate the Nets. \n"We saw what they did in Boston, jumping out to early leads and the type of intensity they play with," Bryant said. \nThe Lakers can become the fifth team in NBA history to win three or more consecutive championships, joining the Minneapolis Lakers (1952-54), the Celtics (1959-66) and the Chicago Bulls (1991-93 and 1996-98.
(04/03/02 5:19am)
LOS ANGELES -- After getting off to a great beginning, Barry Bonds said he's more concerned about the ending.\nHe was speaking of his team, not himself.\nComing off one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history but still without a World Series appearance, Bonds homered twice and drove in five runs Tuesday to lead the San Francisco Giants to a season-opening 9-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.\n"It's not how you start, it's how you finish," said the 37-year-old San Francisco slugger, who hit 73 homers last year to break the record set by Mark McGwire in 1998. "We want to be in the race until it's over. It's early; one game doesn't make a season."\nBonds hit a two-out, three-run homer off Kevin Brown on his second swing of the season, a drive that capped a five-run second inning.\nBonds had an RBI single off Brown in the fourth, then sent a 1-1 pitch from Omar Daal just inside the right-field foul pole in the seventh, becoming the 10th player to reach the loge level at Dodger Stadium.\nThe home runs gave Bonds five on opening day and 569 overall, moving him four behind Harmon Killebrew, who ranks sixth on baseball's career list.\nBonds has 57 multihomer games, including 10 last season, and is fifth in the category. He became the 25th player to homer twice on opening day.\n"This guy's in another league," teammate J.T. Snow said. "It doesn't surprise you. You almost come to expect it. I think the rest of us feel like we're Little Leaguers. We're fighting and scratching; he's up there as relaxed as can be. He just does things others can't do."\nBonds smiled when asked what he expected from himself this season, saying: "The only expectation I have is to stay healthy."\nBonds, who popped to second on Brown's first pitch in the opening inning, took a called strike before hitting an 0-1 pitch into the left-field stands in the second.\n"I haven't done well against this team at all," said Bonds, who has homered twice in 34 at-bats against Brown. "Kevin's been tough against us. He's a great pitcher, he's a good man, he's a workhorse. Some of hiss pitches stayed up."\nBonds, who came out of the game after hitting his second homer, ended last season by hitting his final three against the Dodgers at Pacific Bell Park, including No. 73 off knuckleballer Dennis Springer in the final game.\n"The man in left field did his fair share of damage today," Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said, referring to Bonds. "The more you watch him, the more you reflect back on what he's done throughout the course of his career. He's beginning to make a case for himself as arguably being maybe the greatest player to ever play the game."\nLivan Hernandez, making his third straight opening-day start for the Giants, won by allowing both Los Angeles runs and four hits in eight innings.\nHernandez, who retired 14 straight batters before Mark Grudzielanek singled to start the eighth, also had two hits, scored twice and drove in a run.\n"We outscored them, but Livan won that game for us," Bonds said.\nBrown, making his first start since surgery on his right elbow Sept. 27, was battered for seven runs and nine hits in four innings. Brown, 3-3 in seven opening-day starts, had been 8-1 with a 1.86 ERA against the Giants.\n"I made some bad pitches today, and they took advantage of them," he said. "That's what it all boils down to. My job is to give the team a chance to win and I pretty much buried us. I didn't pull my weight today."\nHernandez and Rich Aurilia had RBI singles in the second before Bonds hit his first homer, and Benito Santiago had a run-scoring single in the seventh after Bonds' second homer.