HOCKEY Capitals fire GM, coach
General Manager George McPhee and Coach Adam Oates lost their jobs with the Washington Capitals on Saturday, about two weeks after the team failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2007. “We were left with the overall impression that the team wasn’t trending toward being able to compete for a Stanley Cup,” Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said in a news conference at the club’s arena. “That was just a clear signal and why it was time to make those changes.” McPhee’s contract was up and the team announced it will not give him a new one after his 17 years as the general manager, which included drafting Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom in the first round. Oates was fired with one season left on his three-year deal. A former star player for the Capitals, he was in his first job as an NHL head coach. Washington finished this season with the ninth-most points in the Eastern Conference, one spotout of a playoff berth.
Dallas Stars forward Ryan Garbutt was fined $1,474 - the maximum allowable under the collective bargaining agreement - by the NHL on Saturday for spearing Anaheim Ducks forward Corey Perry in the groin Friday night. Garbutt was given a major penalty for spearing and a game misconduct midway through the first period in the Stars’ 6-2 loss at Anaheim. “I was just coming back to the bench and got careless with my stick,” Garbutt said. “It was deliberate,” Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau countered. “It wasn’t an accident. It was pretty dirty.” The Ducks lead the first-round playoff series 3-2.
FOOTBALL
Former Auburn star dies
Former Auburn football player David Langner, who starred in one of the most memorable games in Iron Bowl history, has died. He was 62. Auburn teammate Mac Lorendo said Langner died early Saturday morning after battling cancer. Bill Newton blocked two punts in the final minutes of the 1972 game with previously unbeaten Alabama, and Langner returned both for touchdowns. The Tigers won 17-16 in what became known as the “Punt BamaPunt” game. Langner had retired from the car business in Tuscaloosa last November. He told The Associated Press in late 2013 that people still brought up the game daily and “it’s just been part of my life since that day.”
BASKETBALL
Former Grizzlies owner dies
Michael Heisley, the billionaire businessman who bought the Vancouver Grizzlies and moved the NBA team to Memphis, died Saturday. He was 77. The Grizzlies said Saturday night that a family member confirmed Heisley’s death. The Commercial Appeal reported that Heisley died in Illinois of complications from a massive stroke he suffered nearly 15 months ago. Heisley sold the team to Robert Pera before the start of the 2012-13 season. Heisley, chairman emeritus and co-founder of The Heico Companies, LLC, bought the team in April 2000. He moved the team from Vancouver to Memphis and hired NBA great Jerry West as president of basketball operations. The team held a moment of silence for Heisley before their playoff game Saturday night against Oklahoma City.
BOXING Klitschko KO’s Leapai
Wladimir Klitschko toyed with Alex Leapai and knocked him out in the fifth round to retain his four heavyweight belts Saturday in Oberhausen, Germany. Klitschko, taller with a longer reach, controlled the fight at will, scoring with left jabs and straight rights with hardly any opposition from the Samoan-born Australian. Leapai went down when he was hit with a left-right combination. He got up but Klitschko put him away for good with 58 seconds left in the fifth.
TENNIS Sharapova in final
Two-time defending champion Maria Sharapova cruised past Sara Errani 6-1, 6-2 on Saturday to reach her third consecutive Porsche Grand Prix final in Stuttgart, Germany. Sharapova dominated the 59-minute semifinal and will play Ana Ivanovic in the final. Ivanovic beat Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 7-5.
BASKETBALL NBA looks into alleged comments of owner
SAN FRANCISCO - Anger, frustration and calls for action echoed around the NBA on Saturday after an audio recording surfaced of a man identified as Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling telling his girlfriend not to bring black people to games.
Everybody except for Sterling seemed to have a response.
The league said it was investigating the recording posted on TMZ’s website, calling the comments “disturbing and offensive.” Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, a target of Sterling’s remarks, said he wouldn’t attend Clippers games as long as Sterling was the owner. Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said players discussed boycotting Game 4 of their first-round playoff series at Golden State today during a 45-minute team meeting but decided against it.
“I think the biggest statement we can make as men - not as black men, as men - is to stick together and show how strong we are as a group,” Rivers said.
Clippers President Andy Roeser said in a statement the team did not know if the tape is legitimate or has been altered. He said the woman on the tape, identified by TMZ as V. Stiviano, “is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by the Sterling family alleging that she embezzled more than $1.8 million, who told Mr. Sterling that she would ‘get even.’”
Roeser also said the recording does not reflect Sterling’s beliefs. He said Sterling is “upset and apologizes for sentiments attributed to him” about Johnson, whom he called Sterling’s friend.
In the recording posted on TMZ, the man questions his girlfriend’s association with minorities. TMZ reported Stiviano, who is of black and Mexican descent, posted a picture of herself with Johnson on Instagram, which has since been removed.
The man asked Stiviano not to broadcast her association with black people or bring black people to games. The man specifically mentioned Johnson on the recording, saying “don’t bring him to my games, OK?”
“I will never go to a Clippers game again as long as Donald Sterling is the owner,” Johnson responded on Twitter.
This isn’t the first brush with racial issues for Sterling, who is married to Rochelle Sterling.
In 2009, Sterling agreed to pay $2.73 million to settle allegations by the government that he refused to rent apartments to Latinos, blacks and families with children in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles.
Former Clippers General Manager Elgin Baylor also filed a lawsuit against Sterling that same year contending the owner embraced a “vision of a Southern plantation-type structure” for his organization, although his claim was eventually rejected by a jury.
Sports, Pages 26 on 04/27/2014