Former NBA player Renaldo Balkman who used to play for the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets has apologized for choking a teammate during a game with his new team in the Philippine Basketball Association.
Balkman, 28 at 6'8" playing for the Petron Blaze Boosters, argued with a referee and shoved the referee's arm then pushed away an assistant coach and a couple of other teammates. When Arwind Santos intervened they exchanged shoves before Balkman wrapped his hands around Santos' neck and choked him.
After the game Balkman sent out a series of apologies on Twitter:
"I wld like to apologize to the fans, Petron Blaze, my teammates, the PBA and especially @tubidronald71 and @Arwind029," he tweeted, adding, "I got caught up in the moment of a very intense game. I respect @Arwind029 as a person & player. I am proud to be part of @PetronBlaze fam."
The Miami Heat sign Juwan Howard 40, on Saturday to a 10-day contract. It will be his 19th NBA season.
Howard had been a respected leader on the Heat and was popular with teammates, coaches and management. He played sparingly in three Miami playoff victories on the way to his first championship ring in 2012.
Howard has averaged 13.4 points and 6.2 rebounds. Howard was drafted fifth overall by Washington in 1994 and was a member of Michigan's Fab 5 with Chris Webber and Jalen Rose.
Erin Andrews was in the crowded pit road at Daytona 500 when she chance upon 50 Cent. 50 Cent tried to kiss Erin Andrews but was denied. It was really awkward.
Earlier on it was reported that 50 tweeted after arriving at Daytona "Damn I don't see no black people lol." Speaking of Twitter, this has led to plenty of comments being made on the social media site regarding the attempted 50 Cent Erin Andrews kiss.
The Los Angeles Clippers have terminated talks with the Boston Celtics on a Kevin Garnett for Eric Bledsoe and DeAndre Jordan trade for now.
The Celtics have been eager to continue the conversation on the deal, but league sources said the talks will remain dormant unless Clippers star Chris Paul pushes the issue with management.
Several prominent executives and coaches with championship contenders told Yahoo! Sports they believe the Clippers would become more dangerous with Garnett.
Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro is a proponent of the deal, too, sources said.
The Celtics won't consider moving Garnett to the Clippers for any other combination of players, and won't revisit the talks unless Bledsoe and Jordan are in the package, sources said. Boston hasn't approached Garnett to waive his no-trade clause without an agreement in place, but there's strong belief he would ultimately agree to it. What's more, Boston could simply trade Paul Pierce and leave Garnett with even less desire to finish his career with a young, rebuilding roster.
Lakers owner Jerry Buss 80, died Monday. He had been at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in recent days with an undisclosed type of cancer. The news was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
HOUSTON — Boston Celtics center and Eastern Conference All-Star starter Kevin Garnett who said "No" to the question whether he'd consider waiving his no-trade clause to head to the Los Angeles Clippers in a rumored deal for Eric Bledsoe and DeAndre Jordan before the Feb. 21 trade deadline, make fun with Sager with Carmelo.
Craig Sager interviewed New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, who'll start alongside Garnett and the Miami Heat trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Sunday's midseason classic, and asked him about whether the dust has truly settled between Anthony and Garnett. As you no doubt remember, the two stars were involved in a Jan. 7 on-court dust-up that wound up heading off-court, as Anthony and Garnett barked at one another by the Celtics' team bus in Madison Square Garden costing Anthony a one-game suspension, but in the aftermath, both Anthony and Garnett insisted there would be no bad blood between them going forward.
Still, with a captive NBA TV audience watching on Saturday, Sager had to ask.
"In the heat of the regular season, obviously, tempers fly and there's a lot of heated arguments," Sager said. "One time during the year, you and Kevin Garnett got into it. As his teammate right now, have you been sharing lockers, sharing stories, getting along with one another?"
Melo immediately turned to call Garnett over.
"I just want to make sure everything's cool with you guys," Sager told Garnett.
"C'mon, man. C'mon, man. C'mon, man," Garnett replied, taking a long hard look at Sager's predictably garish and colorful outfit. "You gonna come in here with that outfit on and ask that type of question?"
As Anthony laughed and Garnett tried to walk away, Sager responded in kind.
"Speaking of outfits, why are you tucking in your pants [into your socks]?" he asked.
"Man, me tucking in socks is nothing compared to this right here," Garnett answered.
"What is this, aqua?" Anthony asked, touching Sager's jacket.
"Yeah, or turquoise," Sager responded.
"What was the influence today? What was your motivation for wearing this today?" Garnett asked.
"To wake up," Sager said, eliciting loud laughter from both Melo and KG.
There are reports that the Boston Celtics discussed a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers centered around Lakers center Dwight Howard and Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo.
But any deal remains unlikely, according to two separate reports.
Ken Berger of CBS Sports reported late Friday night that the Celtics and Lakers "engaged in preliminary trade discussions" of a swap highlighted by the two All-Stars. But before you start wondering how Howard and Kevin Garnett would coexist as teammates with seemingly diametrically opposed personalities, two later reports labeled the deal unlikely.
Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald reported that while the two teams did indeed talk Rondo-for-Howard "at least two weeks ago," it was before Rondo's partially torn ACL ended his season. According to Murphy, the point guard's surgery "seemingly ended any real chance of trade discussions moving beyond the preliminary phase."
A Rondo-for-Howard deal wouldn't work straight up for salary reasons.
It's unlikely Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak would admit having discussions with the Celtics, but, for what it's worth, he denied doing so to ESPN's Chris Broussard.
It's fun to wonder whether Howard and Garnett would form the league's greatest defensive frontcourt or one of its most dysfunctional duos, but the odds of such a fascinating experiment happening seem slim.
CSNNE.com's A. Sherrod Blakely reported that while the Lakers and Celtics have held trade discussions, "at no point did the conversation involve a Rondo-for-Howard swap."
