NBA
CLEVELAND (AP) - LeBron James believes Alabama’s football program is offside.
James contends the Crimson Tide has lifted “ideas, concepts and format” from a program on “Uninterrupted,” the digital media platform the three-time NBA champion co-founded with business partner Maverick Carter.
Last year, “Uninterrupted” aired “The Shop” a forum where James, Golden State forward Draymond Green, retired player Charles Oakley and others have conversations while getting their hair cut in a barber shop.
Alabama recently released a trailer on Twitter for “Shop Talk” that shows Tide coach Nick Saban and former Alabama star wide receiver Julio Jones in a barber-shop setting. The video says the first episode is “coming soon.”
On Monday, “Uninterrupted” sent a letter to Alabama, citing “exploitation” and concerns over copyright infringement and intellectual property.
In the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, Josh Tarnow, the head of business and legal affairs for “Uninterrupted”, tells Alabama he would prefer not getting into a “battle of legal letters” with the school and asks for a copy of the first “Shop Talk” episode to be sent for a review. Tarnow hopes the sides can “address Uninterrupted’s concerns amicably.”
A school spokeswoman told the AP that Alabama is “in the midst of reviewing this matter, which just came to our attention this morning.”
Although James is a huge Ohio State fan, he has attended Alabama games in the past. And every year Alabama has won the national championship since 2010, James has captured an NBA title. It happened in 2012 and 2013 when James played in Miami, and again in 2016 when he guided the Cavaliers to a title, the first for any Cleveland major sports team since 1964.
Alabama won its fifth title under Saban in January.
LPGA
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) - Pernilla Lindberg plunged into Poppie’s Pond with her parents and fiance-caddie Daniel Taylor, celebrating her first professional victory in about the biggest way possible in women’s golf.
“I can’t believe that I can call myself a major champion,” Lindberg said.
It wasn’t easy.
The 31-year-old Swede needed a major-record eight sudden-death holes over two days to finish off Inbee Park in the ANA Inspiration, ending it Monday morning with a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-4 10th.
“I just know I’m a grinder, and I just felt: ’This is mine. I’m going to do this,’” Lindberg said. “I just knew I could, and I just kept fighting away. I couldn’t believe when that last putt went in.”
Park’s 20-footer to match missed to the left.
“The putt Pernilla made on the last was a champion’s putt,” Park said. “I’m really happy for her. This one was not an easy major win for her, as well. I mean, eight-hole playoff, I’ve never done something like that before, either.”
They played four holes Monday after going until it was too dark to see - and then played some more - Sunday night.
Lindberg won in her 250th start on the LPGA, Ladies European and Symetra tours, sharing the moment with father Jan and mother Gunilla. They introduced her to golf at Bollnas Golf Club about 150 miles north of Stockholm.
NFL
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) - Su’a Cravens has found happiness, harmony and himself just in time for his do-over in Denver.
Elated over John Elway’s call and Von Miller’s text, the former standout safety from Southern California celebrated his trade from the Redskins to the Broncos by posting “A Whole New World” from the Disney movie “Aladdin” on his Twitter account.
“I felt like it was perfect,” said Cravens, who missed all of last season and even mulled retirement while dealing with the lingering effects of a head injury.
Selected in the second round of the 2016 NFL draft, Cravens played in 11 games his rookie season but he sustained a concussion in Week 4 and later suffered an elbow injury. He said he felt off-kilter heading into training camp last year, and things only got worse after he underwent knee surgery in August to repair a torn meniscus.
Cravens had to be talked out of retiring in early September during a meeting with team President Bruce Allen, and the Redskins placed him on their exempt list, forcing him to miss the entire season. They sent him to see sports concussion expert Micky Collins in Pittsburgh, who had an answer for all of his mood swings, personality changes and feelings that something just wasn’t quite right: post-concussion syndrome.
“I didn’t really know what was going on until I went to see Dr. Collins and he made me fully aware of the situation,” Cravens said. “At first I just thought that something was wrong with me, something’s not right and I didn’t feel the same. Once he explained, ’This is why you feel this way,’ he’d ask me questions, I’d tell him, ’Yes,’ and he’d say, ’Well that’s a correlation to this.’ Everything started making sense and once we started working on it progressively I got better and better.”
HOCKEY
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter has a broken right ankle that will require surgery and end his season, right before the start of the playoffs.
The Wild announced the diagnosis before their 3-0 victory over Edmonton, when Suter’s streak of 242 consecutive regular-season games ended. That’s the third-longest in franchise history.
“Sure it is a blow, but it’s a chance for other people to step up and for leaders to take the team on their back and show you can play through adversity,” coach Bruce Boudreau said. “The greatest feeling of success is when people say you can’t do something and you do it. So that’s where we’re at.”
Suter was hurt on Saturday at Dallas when he crashed leg-first into the end wall and needed help off the ice, and according to his teammates he was downcast on the bus afterward. An MRI on Monday confirmed the fear that an operation would be needed to fix the fracture.
Suter already set a career high this season with 45 assists, which also beat his own franchise record for defensemen. Almost half of those assists came on a power play. Suter is also second in the NHL with an average ice time per game of 26:46.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.