Sports Briefs May 24, 2011
Basketball
Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah was fined $50,000 on Monday for directing an anti-gay slur at a fan during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals in Miami, and vowed to learn from the incident.
The NBA released its decision hours after speaking with Noah, saying the fine was "for using a derogatory and offensive term from the bench."
The fine is only half of what Los Angeles Lakers' star Kobe Bryant was assessed for shouting the same slur toward a referee last month, and the league said the discrepancy was because the sanction against Bryant was based on both what he said - and who he said it to.
• The Portland Trail Blazers dismissed general manager Rich Cho after less than a year on the job.
Chad Buchanan, the team's director of college scouting, will serve as acting general manager. Cho was hired by the Blazers last July to replace Kevin Pritchard, who was dismissed by the team on draft night.
Football
A federal magistrate has rejected the NFL's request for more time to file a response in the pending antitrust lawsuit filed by its locked-out players.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeanne Graham ruled in Minneapolis that the NFL must answer by June 6. The league had asked for a July 6 deadline to answer a lawsuit filed by current players but since amended to included complaints from retirees led by former Hall of Famer Carl Eller.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments June 3 on the legality of the ongoing lockout.
Cycling
In the wake of fresh doping allegations against Lance Armstrong, cycling's world governing body and one of his former teammates have come to the defense of the seven-time Tour de France champion.
Tyler Hamilton, another ex-teammate of Armstrong, alleges the American was involved in a systematic doping program with the U.S. Postal team to win the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Tours.
However, team rider Viatcheslav Ekimov says he never saw Armstrong do any of the things Hamilton described.
Also, the International Cycling Union denied claims it helped cover up a positive sample submitted by Armstrong at the Tour de Suisse in 2001.
The UCI was responding to accusations made by Hamilton that it helped Armstrong to make the incident "go away."
• A crash during a Central California bicycle race over the weekend left a woman on life support.
Crystel Stanford, 29, crashed while riding downhill in the 100-mile Fresno Classic Century on Saturday.
Stanford's family said the woman remains on life support at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno even though she is brain-dead.
Baseball
Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg has thrown off a bullpen mound as part of his recovery from Tommy John surgery.
Washington manager Jim Riggleman said Strasburg was expected to throw at about 50 percent Monday in Viera, Fla. Strasburg had been throwing off flat ground.
Auto racing
Former NASCAR champion Ned Jarrett was part of the five-member second Hall of Fame class that was inducted in Charlotte, N.C.
The class also includes 105-race winner David Pearson and 84-race winner Bobby Allison. Also in the class is Petty Enterprises patriarch and three-time Cup champion Lee Petty, as well as Bud Moore, a decorated World War II veteran and two-time Cup championship team owner.
- The Associated Press