Sports Briefs June 28, 2011
Basketball
Former North Carolina State basketball star Lorenzo Charles, the muscular forward whose last-second dunk gave the underdog Wolfpack the 1983 national collegiate championship, was killed Monday when a bus he was driving crashed, a company official said Monday.
Elite Coach general manager Brad Jackson said Charles, 47, worked for the company and was driving one of its buses on Interstate 40 near Raleigh, N.C.
Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue said no passengers were aboard.
Charles secured his spot in N.C. State lore 28 years ago in the final moments of the Wolfpack's matchup with Houston in the national championship game.
He grabbed Dereck Whittenburg's 30-foot shot and dunked it at the buzzer to give N.C. State a 54-52 win and its second national title, sending coach Jim Valvano spilling onto the court, scrambling for someone to hug in what has become one of the lasting images of the NCAA tournament.
Boxing
A Nevada man claims boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. directed his bodyguards to attack him at a Las Vegas casino last year after the man tried to take a photograph of the undefeated champion and asked about a fight with another star boxer, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in state court in Las Vegas.
The lawsuit alleges Mayweather's bodyguards attacked Anthony Cliff near a valet parking stand at the Palms Casino Resort on March 27, 2010, after Mayweather accused Cliff of "disrespecting" him.
Mayweather's bodyguards allegedly struck Cliff in the face, slamming his head into the ground. They then kicked him repeatedly in his back and side, the lawsuit said.
Baseball
New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter, on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained right calf, took batting practice on the field for the first time and started a running program in Tampa, Fla.
Jeter took 30 swings in batting practice. He fielded seven grounders on the grass and did three light sprints and some agility-related drills.
There is no date yet for when Jeter, who turned 37 on Sunday, will rejoin the lineup. He's six hits shy of 3,000, a chase that's been on hold since getting hurt June 13.
• Christian Walker scored from first base on two throwing errors in the 11th inning and South Carolina beat Florida 2-1 in Game 1 of the College World Series final in Omaha, Neb.
Hockey
The Vancouver Canucks signed defenseman Kevin Bieksa to a five-year, $23 million contract extension , four days before he could have hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent.
Bieksa, who turned 30 on June 16, had six goals, 16 assists and was tied for second in the NHL with a plus-32 rating in 66 regular season games last season.
• The Tampa Bay Lightning signed restricted free agent defenseman Bruno Gervais to a one-year contract.
Gervais played in 53 games with the New York Islanders last season, finishing with six assists and averaging 15:40 in ice time.
• The Philadelphia Flyers signed right wing Andreas Nodl and left wing Tom Sestito to contract extensions, and acquired a draft choice from Minnesota in exchange for center Darroll Powe.
• The Chicago Blackhawks have sent wing Tomas Kopecky to Florida in exchange for a seventh-round draft pick.
The team said it will receive a 2012 pick, conditional to Nashville. If that pick is not available, Chicago gets Florida's seventh-round pick in 2013.
- The Associated Press