Sports Briefs May 25, 2010
Basketball
Mike Brown, the most successful coach in the Cleveland Cavaliers' franchise history, was fired Monday after failing to win a championship with superstar - and soon-to-be free agent - LeBron James.
Brown's dismissal had been expected since the Cavs were eliminated by the Boston Celtics in the second round of the playoffs, a stunning exit for a team favored to win it all. The Cavaliers had a midnight deadline Sunday to fire Brown or the team would have had to compensate him for next season.
In five seasons, Brown, who had one year left on his contract, went 314-177.
• Phoenis Suns guard Steve Nash has a broken nose but says he doesn't expect it to be a problem for him in tonight's Game 4 of the Western Conference finals (6 p.m., TNT).
The Phoenix playmaker sustained the slight fracture in a fourth-quarter collision with Derek Fisher in the Suns' 118-109 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night.
• Washington State basketball coach Ken Bone announced that Dexter Kernich-Drew of Melbourne will join the men's team for the upcoming season.
Bone said the 6-foot-6 guard joins an incoming class that includes Patrick Simon of Ephrata, Andre Winston of Lakewood and junior college transfer Faisal Aden.
Football
The Seattle Seahawks are expecting top veteran wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh to be back from hernia surgery for the start of training camp in July.
They are hopeful Deion Branch can make it back from another knee surgery by then as well.
New coach Pete Carroll said that he saw enough from Branch in a minicamp last month to carve out a role for the oft-injured former Super Bowl MVP this season. Branch then had his third knee surgery in 26 months.
Carroll says Branch is perhaps unfortunately well-versed on how to rehabilitate the knee and that he should be able to get back to form for the season.
• As the NCAA gets ready to lift a moratorium on schools moving up to the Football Bowl Subdivision, University of Montana football fans are debating the pluses and minuses.
On Friday, Montana native and ABC and ESPN sports broadcaster Brent Musberger said such a move would be "economic suicide." Musberger was in Bozeman for a fundraiser for the Montana State women's golf team.
Musberger says moving Montana up to the FBS would be a horrendous mistake and that the state could not support a FBS team.
He says the Griz fill their stadium, people love the competition and they play at a great level. Musberger said Montana's Football Championship Subdivision semifinal game against Appalachian State last December was as good of a ball game as there was on TV all year long.
Baseball
Kaz Matsui, who was waived by the Houston Astros last week, has cleared waivers and is an unrestricted free agent.
The 34-year-old Matsui was batting .141 this season and hadn't had a hit in his last 20 at-bats. He was in the final season of a three-year contract worth $16.5 million.
Matsui struggled with injuries in his time with the Astros and was placed on the disabled list four times. His best season in Houston came in 2008 when he hit .293 with 33 RBIs.
• The Texas Rangers have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to spur completion of the stalled $575 million sale of the team - and maybe clear the decks for the new owners to make pennant-chasing decisions this summer.
The bankruptcy filing comes four months after Tom Hicks announced an agreement to sell the team to a group led by Hall of Fame pitcher and team president Nolan Ryan and Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg.
- The Associated Press