Sports Briefs November 8, 2011

Boxing

Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion who handed Muhammad Ali his first defeat yet had to live forever in his shadow, died Monday night in Philadelphia after a brief final fight with liver cancer. He was 67.

He was once a heavyweight champion, and a great one at that. Ali would say as much after Frazier knocked him down in the 15th round en route to becoming the first man to beat Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971.

Basketball

NBA players are facing a Wednesday deadline to accept the league's latest proposal or face a worse one, and Commissioner David Stern said "the only rational thing to do is for us to make that deal."

During an interview on ESPN, Stern said Monday the league believes there is a "great offer on the table" but noted "it'll get worse from there" if the deadline he imposed Sunday passes without an agreement.

That proposal calls for players to receive anywhere between 49-51 percent of basketball-related income, though players argued it would be nearly impossible for them to get anywhere above 50.2. Stern said the next one will call for a 53-47 split in the owners' favor, along with essentially a hard salary cap.

• TOP 25

No. 16 Arizona 73, Valparaiso 64: At Tucson, Ariz., Kyle Fogg scored 16 points, Jesse Perry had a double-double and Arizona (1-0) pulled away in the second half to open the season with a victory over Valparaiso (0-1).

Golf

Tiger Woods said his former caddie Steve Williams is not racist and has apologized to him for a slur, and the two met and shook hands at The Lakes Golf Club ahead of the Australian Open.

Williams' disparaging comment came during a caddies' awards party Friday in Shanghai.

Woods said the comment "was hurtful ... the wrong thing to say, and something that he has acknowledged."

Woods said it was not up to him to call for sanctions against Williams. The PGA Tour and European Tour have said no action would be taken against Williams for the comment.

Hockey

Bruins 6, Islanders 2: Nathan Horton had two goals and an assist to lead host Boston over New York.

Sharks 4, Kings 2: Patrick Marleau scored once and assisted on the other two second-period goals and host San Jose beat Los Angeles.

Auto racing

NASCAR fined Kyle Busch $50,000 and placed him on probation through the end of the year for wrecking Ron Hornaday under caution at Texas.

NASCAR also warned Busch that he will be suspended indefinitely if he is involved in any other action "detrimental to stock car racing or to NASCAR, or is disruptive to the orderly conduct of an event."

Busch was scheduled to run only in the Sprint Cup Series race this weekend at Phoenix, it's not clear how many events he had planned to enter in next week's season finales at Homestead.

Busch and Hornaday were racing each other early in Friday night's Truck Series race at Texas when Busch deliberately wrecked Hornaday, a championship contender, under caution.

"I lost my cool, no doubt about it," Busch said after the wreck.

• NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick was released from the hospital, a week after he was injured when his private plane ran off the runway during a landing.

An evaluation in Charlotte last Tuesday showed Hendrick had four broken ribs and a broken shoulder.

- The Associated Press