Sports Briefs June 7, 2011
Basketball
Mark Jackson's leadership skills as a player more than outweighed his lack of coaching experience when it came time for the Golden State Warriors to hire their coach.
The Warriors hired Jackson to replace Keith Smart on Monday, giving the former point guard and television analyst his first chance to be a head coach on the game's biggest stage.
Jackson played 17 years as a point guard in the NBA, for New York, the Clippers, Indiana, Denver, Toronto, Utah and Houston.
But he has never coached, spending the past few seasons as the lead analyst for ESPN and ABC for their NBA coverage. He won't start his new job until after he's finished calling the NBA finals.
Auto racing
Richard Childress was fined $150,000 for assaulting Kyle Busch, the latest incident in an ongoing feud between NASCAR's most polarizing driver and Childress' race teams.
NASCAR also placed Childress on probation through the end of the year, finding the team owner solely at fault for Saturday's incident at Kansas Speedway. The 65-year-old grandfather apparently approached Busch after the Trucks race, placed him in a headlock, and punched him several times.
"We feel this action is appropriate and are confident all parties involved understand our position on this matter and will move forward appropriately," NASCAR said in a statement.
Childress, who dodged a suspension from NASCAR, was upset that Busch had bumped into Joey Coulter on the cool-down lap after the race.
Baseball
Former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies star Lenny Dykstra was charged with grand theft auto and drug possession by prosecutors who claim he used phony information to lease a car from a Southern California dealership.
Dykstra, 48, was charged with 25 misdemeanor and felony counts of grand theft auto, attempted grand theft auto, identity theft and other crimes, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. He faces up to 12 years in state prison if convicted.
Football
NFL owners asked a federal court in Minneapolis to dismiss the players' antitrust lawsuit against the league.
The filing was largely a procedural matter, coming on the same day the league's response to the players' amended complaint was due.
U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson has scheduled a hearing on the motion for Sept. 12, which is four days after the scheduled start of the NFL regular season, a factor that could put more pressure on the owners and players to get a deal done outside of the courtroom.
Softball
Krista Donnenwirth hit two of Arizona State's four homers and drove in four runs and the Sun Devils routed Florida 14-4 in the opening game of the Women's College World Series finals in Oklahoma City.
Vijay Singh failed to show up for his tee time in a U.S. Open qualifier in Columbus, Ohio. It's likely his streak of playing in every major championship for the last 17 years is about to end.
Singh shot a 7-under 65 in the final round of the Memorial on Sunday, then told reporters he would not try to qualify Monday. His only other chance would be to win or finish second in the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn., this week, although it was not certain that the three-time major champion would even play that tournament.
- The Associated Press