COLLEGE BASKETBALL
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The NCAA is taking steps to try to clean up college basketball, carving out a limited role for agents to work with players and changing pivotal parts of its rules-enforcement system as part of numerous reforms in the wake of a corruption scandal.
The Indianapolis-based governing body for college sports announced Wednesday that its Board of Governors and Division I Board of Directors had adopted a “series of significant policy and legislative changes” as part of an effort to “fundamentally” change the NCAA’s structure. Some are immediate, while others first require action from other agencies - such as the NBA changing the age limit for draft-eligible players that has fueled the wave of “one and done” at the college level.
That follows late-April recommendations from the commission headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following a federal investigation into alleged bribes and kickbacks designed to influence recruits on choosing a school, agent or apparel company. Georgia Tech president and Board of Directors chairman Bud Peterson said the NCAA had pushed through changes in about 3 1/2 months that would “normally take us about two years through the governance process.”
PRO FOOTBALL
CLEVELAND (AP) - Browns rookie receiver Antonio Callaway had bullets and gun parts in his car when he was cited for marijuana possession.
Dash-camera video obtained by TMZ shows an officer asking Callaway to step out of his vehicle after the officer smells marijuana following a routine traffic stop. Callaway cooperates, and later one officer tells his partner that he became “real nervous” when he found the bullets and a strap for a Glock handgun in the vehicle.
The officer asks Callaway about the gun and the fourth-round pick says he has one but it’s in Florida.
There is no mention of the ammunition or gun parts in the report filed by Strongsville, Ohio police. The AP has requested the dash-cam video.
Callaway, who had several off-field issues in college, was given a ticket after a “small amount” of marijuana was found.
A Browns spokesman said Callaway is traveling with the team for Thursday’s exhibition against the New York Giants.
PRO BASKETBALL
NBA fans will get a smorgasbord of LeBron James in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform, the All-Star laden lineup of the defending champion Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets and the up-and-coming Boston Celtics as part of the league’s national television schedule.
The NBA released its TV schedule for the first week of the season, Christmas Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Wednesday, and all are prominently featured.
James Harden and the Rockets will appear three times on national television in the opening week of the season, while Lakers, Warriors and Celtics will be featured twice.
The highlight of the coveted Christmas Day games is James facing a familiar foe - Stephen Curry and the Warriors - for a fourth straight year, only this time James will be wearing Lakers’ gold and purple rather than the familiar wine and gold colors of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Warriors, who added center DeMarcus Cousins in the offseason, feature a lineup with five current NBA All-Stars.
The other Christmas Day games include Kyrie Irving and the Celtics hosting the young, but talented Philadelphia 76ers. The Rockets, who came within a game of knocking off the Warriors in the Western Conference finals last season, will host the Oklahoma City Thunder, while Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks visit the New York Knicks and the Portland Trail Blazers visit the Utah Jazz.
TRACK AND FIELD
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Nicholas Bett, a Kenyan runner who won the 2015 world championship title in the 400-meter hurdles, was killed in an early-morning car crash Wednesday in the country’s famed high-altitude training region, police and his coach said. He was 28.
Bett had only just returned home this week from the African championships in Nigeria.
Nandi county police commander Patrick Wambani said Bett was killed in the crash on the road between Eldoret and Kapsabet, two of Kenya’s best-known distance-running training towns in the Rift Valley region. He was born and lived in the region.
Bett was driving alone, Wambani said.
Bett’s SUV hit bumps in a road and rolled, landing on its roof in a ditch, his coach, Vincent Mumo, told The Associated Press. Mumo said the accident happened at about 6 a.m.
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