Sports Briefs May 4, 2010
Basketball
The Chicago Bulls fired coach Vinny Del Negro on Monday in a long anticipated move that comes after a late-season altercation with executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson and another first-round playoff exit.
The Bulls went 41-41 and made the postseason in each of their two seasons under Del Negro, losing to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games after pushing Boston to seven games last year.
• Hofstra basketball coach Tim Welsh resigned, three days after he was charged with drunken driving and only a month after he was hired.
Welsh, a former coach at Iona and Providence, never worked a game at Hofstra after signing a five-year contract for $3 million to replace Tom Pecora, who left to coach Fordham in March.
• Miami Heat president Pat Riley wouldn't close the door on resuming his Hall of Fame coaching career, even after insisting when he retired two years ago that he was "definitely sure that I don't want to do this anymore."
It seems, at minimum, that's no longer a definite.
And the Heat offseason just got a bit more intriguing.
"I'll do whatever is in the best interest of building the team here. Period," Riley said. "Whatever it takes, OK? I'll let you fill in the blanks. ... If some free agent were to say 'I will come here but you must do this,' well, hell, if that happens that day, then I might have to give it some thought."
• New Orleans Hornets majority owner George Shinn has reached a deal to sell his shares of the team to minority owner Gary Chouest, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
The club is planning an announcement as early as Thursday afternoon. The initial plan was to introduce Chouest as the new owner on Wednesday, but that had to be pushed back because of scheduling matters unrelated to the sale.
Both people with knowledge of the sale spoke on condition of anonymity because no official announcement has been made by either party.
Football
Suspended Boise State safety Jason Robinson has reached a plea agreement on a charge of breaking a man's jaw during a bar fight.
Robinson agreed to plead guilty last week to a charge of misdemeanor battery in the Feb. 12 fight. Ada County court records say he is scheduled to enter the plea on May 25.
Under the agreement, he will spend 19 days working on the sheriff's labor detail and begin making restitution to the victim, The Idaho Statesman reported.
Robinson was arrested in March on a charge of felony aggravated battery. If he had been convicted of a felony, he would have lost his eligibility for an athletic scholarship at Boise State or any other state school.
• Unrestricted free agent guard Montrae Holland has signed a two-year contract to stay with the Dallas Cowboys after being inactive for all 16 regular-season games last season.
Holland started only two of the eight games he played in 2008 after the Cowboys acquired him from Denver just before that season started.
Lacrosse
A University of Virginia men's lacrosse player has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a women's lacrosse player at the school.
Charlottesville (Va.) police said in a news release that 22-year-old George Huguely of Chevy Chase, Md., is charged in the death of 22-year-old Yeardley Love of Cockeysville, Md. Both were fourth-year students.
Officials have not determined the cause of death but say there were signs of physical trauma.
- The Associated Press