Off the wire

LITTLE ROCK — SOCCER Solo gets drug warning

U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper Hope Solo received a public warning Monday from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after she tested positive for the banned substance Canrenone in a urine test. Solo has accepted the warning and will still play for the United States in the Olympics. Solo, 30, tested positive for Canrenone in a test June 15. “I took a medication prescribed by my personal doctor for premenstrual purposes that I did not know contained a diuretic,” Solo said in a statement. “Once informed of this fact, I immediately cooperated with USADA and shared with them everything they needed to properly conclude that I made an honest mistake, and that the medication did not enhance my performance in any way.” Canrenone is classified as a specified substance, so its presence in an athlete’s sample can result in a reduced sanction. “As someone who believes in clean sport, I am glad to have worked with USADA to resolve this matter and I look forward to representing my country at the 2012 Olympic Games in London,” she said. Solo has been the regular U.S. keeper for nearly six years and helped the Americans to the 2008 gold medal in Beijing and a second-place finish in last year’s World Cup.

BASKETBALL

Camby headed to Knicks

Marcus Camby is returning to New York, while the Houston Rockets continue to reshape their roster. Camby, 38, agreed Monday to rejoin the Knicks in a deal that sends three players and two second-round draft picks to Houston, according to a person with direct knowledge of the move. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because neither team has announced the trade. Yahoo! Sports reported that Camby’s deal was for three years and $13.2 million. The Rockets will get guard Toney Douglas, centers Josh Harrelson and Jerome Jordan and second-round picks in 2014 and 2015. The 6-11 Camby, meanwhile, will be back in New York where he played from 1998-2002. Douglas played in 38 games last season, starting only nine, and averaged 6.2 points and 2.0 assists. The 6-10, 275-pound Harrelson appeared in 37 games and averaged 4.4 points and 3.9 rebounds. The 7-foot Jordan averaged five minutes in 21 games last season. Camby averaged 7.1 points and 9.3 rebounds in 19 games.

Steve Novak is returning to the New York Knicks with a four-year deal worth $15 million. The Knicks claimed Novak after he was waived by San Antonio and he went on to lead the NBA in three-point shooting at 47.2 percent. Novak had played sparingly for four other teams in his first five seasons before enjoying a career year in New York. Novak averaged 8.8 points in 54 games. The deal can’t be signed until Wednesday after next year’s salary cap is set.

FOOTBALL Eagles RB arrested

Philadelphia Eagles backup running back Dion Lewis was arrested in Albany, N.Y., over the weekend and charged with falsely reporting a fire and misdemeanor reckless endangerment. The incident occurred when Lewis and his older brother were locked out of the lobby of the hotel they were staying in and pulled a fire alarm. Lewis was released after his arraignment and his brother was being held in Albany County jail without bail. “I want to apologize to my family, the Albany community, the Eagles organization and fans, and to the NFL for my involvement in an incident this past weekend,” Lewis said in a statement. “It was never my intention to cause any public alarm or damage any property. I am sorry for any embarrassment and inconvenience that my actions have caused.” Lewis was a fifth-round pick of the Eagles in 2011. He was Philadelphia’s primary kickoff return specialist last season as the Eagles finished 8-8. Lewis scored his first touchdown and posted a career-high 58 rushing yards in the season finale against Washington, a 34-10 victory at home. For the season, he finished with 102 yards and that one touchdown. He played in 15 games.

HORSE RACING I’ll Have Another sold

The owner of I’ll Have Another says he sold his Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner to a farm in Japan for $10 million, a price that far exceeded any amount he was offered in the United States. J. Paul Reddam made his comments in a blog appearing on the bloodhorse.com website. He writes there were two offers from U.S. breeding operations, one valued at just under $5 million, the other at $3 million. “Certainly greed has something to do with it,” he wrote, adding that the “one offer was four times higher in cash than the best offer here,” and “I couldn’t rationalize not selling him overseas.” Reddam also said the rights of Derby and Preakness runner-up Bodemeister “recently purportedly sold for about 13 million in America.” I’ll Have Another was retired with a tendon injury the day before he was to run in the Belmont Stakes and attempt to become the first Triple Crown champion in 34 years. The colt made a farewell appearance at Betfair Hollywood Park on Saturday before heading to a career at stud at Shigeyuki Okada’s Big Red Farm on the island of Hokkaido.

Top jockey John Velazquez has been cleared to begin exercising horses next week, a month after breaking his collarbone in a spill at Churchill Downs. Velazquez said Monday that his doctor told him he was “healing very well” and has been given the go ahead to climb aboard horses next Monday at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The rider, who will be inducted in racing’s Hall of Fame next month, says he hopes it “won’t be too much longer before I can race again.” Velazquez won the Belmont Stakes aboard Union Rags on June 9, and is hoping to ride the colt in the Haskell Invitational on July 29. Velazquez was injured June 16 in Kentucky when the horse he was riding in the ninth race at Churchill broke down.

Trainer Doug O’Neill said Monday that he will abandon his legal fight against the California Horse Racing Board and begin serving a 40-day suspension Aug. 19. “There comes a time in a fight when it is no longer worth it to keep going,” O’Neill said. “I want to put this behind me, take a step back, do something positive during the downtime.”The suspension of O’Neill caused ripples in racing because of the prominence of the 44-year-old thoroughbred handler and the timing. When the CHRB announced May 24 that O’Neill would be suspended for 45 days, effective July 1, for violations involving excessive levels of carbon dioxide in a horse named Argenta that ran at Del Mar in 2010, O’Neill had already guided I’ll Have Another to victories in the first two legs of the Triple Crown. O’Neill has continued to train past the July 1 deadline, as his lawyers negotiated with the CHRB. The agreement cut O’Neill’s suspension by five days and allows O’Neill to begin training again in California on Sept. 27. The agreement did not include any admission of guilt from O’Neill.

ATHLETICS

Penn State donations up

Penn State received more than $208 million in donations for the fiscal year that just ended, the second-highest total in university history despite the upheaval after the arrest of Jerry Sandusky on child sex abuse charges. The school said Monday there was a slight uptick in the number of alumni who donated money or gifts in the fiscal year that ended June 30 to more than 75,500, reversing two years of slight declines. “We’re very grateful - humbled really - to have this kind of response from Penn Staters, who I think have rallied to the cause ... by the side of the institution through a very difficult time,” Rod Kirsch, senior vice president for development and alumni relations, said Monday in an interview. The number of donors overall - which would include corporations and nonalumni - also rose slightly to more than 191,000.Donations included gifts for scholarships; as well as increases in giving to the football booster club and the annual student-organized dance marathon to raise money for pediatric cancer patients and research. Only the 2010 fiscal year was more prolific for Penn State, when the school raised more than $274 million. Turmoil hit the campus after retired defensive coordinator Sandusky was arrested in November. Sandusky is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of 45 criminal counts last month.