NBA
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (AP) - John Beilein didn’t make it through one NBA season.
Wildly successful at Michigan and other stops in his coaching career, Beilein resigned Wednesday after just 54 games with the rebuilding Cavaliers, who can’t seem to find the right person to lead their team.
The 67-year-old Beilein never got comfortable during his short stint in the pro game. The demands of travel, lack of practice time and a group of players who didn’t respect him or respond to his coaching style proved to be too much, so he decided to move on before the team returned from the All-Star break.
The Cavs went just 14-40 under Beilein, who the Cavaliers signed to a five-year contract last May. The team said he will be reassigned to a different role within the organization. At this point, Beilein’s next role is still being discussed but his college connections would make him invaluable in draft preparation.
Associate head coach J.B. Bickerstaff will take over for Beilein.
NASCAR
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Ryan Newman was released from a Florida hospital on Wednesday, about 42 hours after his frightening crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500.
Roush Fenway Racing released a photo of Newman leaving a Daytona Beach hospital holding the hands of his two young daughters. The announcement came just a few hours after the team said he was fully alert and walking around the hospital.
The 42-year-old Indiana native was taken by ambulance directly from the track in serious condition following the crash Monday night. Doctors said two hours after the accident that Newman’s injuries were not life-threatening, but no details have been released.
His release from the hospital was rapid. Roush Fenway said earlier Wednesday that Newman “continues to show great improvement.”
MLB
NEW YORK (AP) -
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ Pablo Reyes was suspended 80 games on Wednesday under the major league drug program following a positive test for the performance-enhancing drug Boldenone.
He became the second player in three days suspended for Boldenone, which is sold under the brand name Equipose and is used commonly on horses. Houston pitcher Francis Martes was suspended for the 2020 season on Monday following a positive test for Boldenone, his second violation of the major league drug program.
Reyes, a 26-year-old outfielder and infielder, made his major league debut in September 2018 and hit .293 with three homers and seven RBIs in 63 plate appearances.
He hit .203 with two homers and 19 RBIs in 157 plate appearances for the Pirates last year and batted .286 with 10 homers and 30 RBIs in 191 plate appearances at Triple-A Indianapolis.
GOLF
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Rory McIlroy became the first top player to publicly reject the idea of a proposed new tour, saying he values his choice of where to play over whatever money the Premier Golf League is promising.
“I would like to be on the right side of history on this one,” McIlroy said Wednesday at the Mexico Championship.
McIlroy said the only thing that could change his mind were if all the top players decided to join, and he doesn’t see that happening.
“I think it’s very split at the moment,” he said.
Talk of a Premier Golf League has been around for about six years and picked up momentum - along with serious funding, primarily from Saudi Arabia - in recent months. Organizers have been talking to players and agents the last few months in the Bahamas, Australia and last week in Los Angeles.
SOCCER
NEW YORK (AP) - Newly hired American men’s soccer coach Gregg Berhalter earned nearly as much from the U.S. Soccer Federation in the fiscal year ending last March 31 as women’s counterpart Jill Ellis.
Berhalter, hired on Dec. 2, 2018, had compensation of $304,113 from the USSF in the year ending March 31, according to the tax return released by the federation on Wednesday. That figure included a $200,000 signing bonus.
Ellis, who took over as women’s coach in May 2014, had compensation of $390,409 in the fiscal year. She went on to lead the Americans to their second straight World Cup title, was voted FIFA Women’s Coach of the Year, then left in October. Any bonus she earned as a result of the title likely will be listed on the next year’s tax return.
OLYMPICS
TOKYO (AP) - A respected Japanese virologist on Wednesday said if the Tokyo Olympics were tomorrow, the games probably couldn’t be held because of the fast-spreading virus from Wuhan, China.
“We need to find the best way to have a safe Olympics,” Dr. Hitoshi Oshitani said, speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. “Right now we don’t have an effective strategy, and I think it may be difficult to have the Olympics (now). But by the end of July we may be in a different situation.”
The local Tokyo Olympic organizing committee and the International Olympic Committee have repeatedly said over the last few weeks that they are following the advice of the World Health Organization and that the games will go on.
But with every passing day, the impact of the virus seems to spread, and so does the fallout: Olympic qualifying events are canceled or postponed, travel gets difficult, and athletes and families are left wondering. Not to mention sponsors and broadcasting networks that have invested billions of dollars in the Olympics.
The modern Olympics dating from 1896 have only been canceled during wartime, and in 1980 and 1984 they went on with boycotts.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge has dismissed Charles Oakley’s lawsuit against executive chairman James Dolan and Madison Square Garden, stemming from the former New York Knicks forward’s ejection from a game and ensuing arrest three years ago.
Judge Richard J. Sullivan ruled Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that the case “had the feel of a public relations campaign” and Oakley hadn’t alleged a plausible legal claim under federal pleading standards.
Oakley had alleged assault, battery and false imprisonment, along with defamation after Dolan and the Knicks implied he had a problem with alcohol.
The Knicks responded to the ruling by saying they hoped for a better relationship with Oakley, a popular player who spent a decade with the franchise but has been critical of the team under Dolan.
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