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Summitt focuses on hoops while managing dementia

Summitt focuses on hoops while managing dementia

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP & Staff) — Pat Summitt has handled the talk about her dementia diagnosis the same way she manages Tennessee basketball and her life: with control and determination. The Hall of Fame coach dictated how news of her condition was revealed in August and has made it clear since that she wants the focus to be on the Lady Volunteers basketball program and not her. “That’s the reason for when I came out with dementia and Alzheimer’s,” Summitt said. “I knew I had to do it, and I did it. I’ve got a good game plan. I feel good about it, and I think it motivated this team.” She’s stuck to that plan, speaking reluctantly at practices about her diagnosis while steering conversations to Tennessee’s strengths, weaknesses and chances for a ninth national championship. On Thursday, she’ll face more questions about dementia and Alzheimer’s disease when she makes her first major public appearance for the annual Southeastern Conference media day in Birmingham, Ala. “I don’t want it to be all about me. I want to be able to help other people know you can live your life with dementia,” Summitt said. She’s got plenty of basketball to talk about, with the Lady Vols unanimously picked by the media this week to defend their SEC title and senior forward Shekinna Stricklen tabbed as the league’s preseason player of the year. Assistant coach Dean Lockwood doesn’t think Summitt or anyone on the team will be distracted by talk of Summitt’s condition. “Once you’ve accepted something, it becomes part of your daily existence. That’s part of us now,” Lockwood said. “They’ll answer questions, but after a while it’s going to become ‘ho hum.’ (The players are) very focused on doing well. I think maybe this has given them an incentive to do it even more for a coach they love and respect.” Summitt made it clear to the Lady Vols that nothing would change after she told them in August she’d been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. She was still their coach, and the plan to win a national championship this season hadn’t changed. What has changed for Summitt is her daily routine. While drinking her morning coffee she’ll play brain-bender games on her iPad or work on math skills to help keep her mind sharp. She adds coconut oil to her daily protein shakes. Son Tyler Summitt writes out her [...]

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NBA players, owners meeting with mediator

NBA players, owners meeting with mediator

NEW YORK (AP & staff) — NBA players and owners are meeting with a federal mediator, and Commissioner David Stern believes more games could be canceled if there isn’t movement toward a new labor deal. George Cohen tried to resolve the NFL’s labor dispute. Now he’s overseeing basketball’s negotiations for the first time. Stern wants immediate results, saying during interviews last week that proposals could get worse and more games could be lost without a deal Tuesday. “If there’s a breakthrough, it’s going to come on Tuesday,” he told NBA TV. “And if not, I think that the season is really going to potentially escape from us because we aren’t making any progress.” Tuesday was the 110th day of the lockout. In another interview, Stern told WFAN radio in New York that his “gut” was that there wouldn’t be NBA games on Christmas if it ended without a deal. But large gaps remain between the sides, with both seeking 53 percent of basketball revenues and players opposing owners’ attempts to significantly change the salary cap system. Cohen met with the sides individually at their offices Monday before both brought their full bargaining committees to a hotel Tuesday. The union said it wanted to have the whole week set aside for negotiations, but owners have two days of board meetings beginning Wednesday. Stern wants to be able to bring them a deal. If not, they may have to discuss further cancellations after the first two weeks of the season were already wiped out. Cohen was appointed director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service by President Barack Obama in 2009. He was present for talks between NFL owners and players for 16 days in February and March before that mediation broke off. He previously helped broker a deal between Major League Soccer and its players and was lead lawyer for the baseball players’ union when it won an injunction against its owners in 1995, ending the 7½-month strike.

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Negotiators meeting on deadline day in NBA talks

Negotiators meeting on deadline day in NBA talks

NEW YORK (AP & staff) — Facing a Monday deadline to reach a deal or have regular-season games canceled, NBA owners and players have resumed talks toward ending the lockout. Commissioner David Stern said last week he would cancel the first two weeks of the season Monday without an agreement on a new labor pact. Opening night is scheduled for Nov. 1. Top negotiators for both sides returned about 14 hours after ending talks Sunday night. They are still apart on the main issues of the division of revenues and the salary cap system, with many lesser items not even discussed. Owners locked out the players July 1 when they couldn’t reach a deal before the expiration of the old collective bargaining agreement. The revenue split has been such a headache that the sides didn’t even discuss it Sunday night. Players were guaranteed 57 percent of basketball-related income in the previous deal and have proposed going as low as 53 percent, a reduction they say would transfer more than $1 billion to owners over the course of six years. The league has asked for a 50-50 split, which the union rejected last Tuesday. After that meeting, Stern canceled the remainder of the preseason schedule and set the deadline for losing regular-season games. Stern, Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, owners Peter Holt of San Antonio, Glen Taylor of Minnesota and James Dolan of New York, and senior vice president and deputy general counsel Dan Rube met with union executive director Billy Hunter, president Derek Fisher of the Lakers and vice president Maurice Evans of the Wizards, and attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and Ron Klempner. The NBA hasn’t lost games to a work stoppage since the 1998-99 season was reduced to 50 games. The cost of cancellations would be staggering. Silver said the league would lose hundreds of millions of dollars, while Hunter estimated players’ losses at $350 million for each month they were locked out. The league and union would probably need close to a month between the time of an agreement and the moment games could be played, leaving time to draft the new labor document and vote on it, have a free agency period, then open training camps and schedule perhaps a couple of preseason game per team. Neither side would say if there was any progress Sunday, when they focused on cap issues. But the union postponed a regional meeting [...]

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Lynx beat Dream 73-67 for WNBA title sweep

Lynx beat Dream 73-67 for WNBA title sweep

ATLANTA (AP & staff) — Seimone Augustus and the Minnesota Lynx turned up the defensive pressure on Angel McCoughtry and the Atlanta Dream. The result was the final entry in a near-perfect postseason as the Lynx beat the Dream 73-67 on Friday night to complete a three-game sweep of the WNBA championship series. Augustus had 16 points and Maya Moore, returning to her Atlanta home, had 15 — including a key 3-pointer late in the game — to lead a balanced scoring attack as the Lynx won their first WNBA title. McCoughtry had a game-high 22 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. McCoughtry made only 9 of 25 shots as the Dream were held to 34.6 percent shooting from the field. “We felt we didn’t show them what a good team we were defensively in the first two games,” said Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, who was soaked by a bubbly spray before her postgame news conference. Augustus had the primary defensive assignment on McCoughtry, who set a WNBA finals record with 38 points in Game 2. “Tonight we just kind of smothered her and forced her into bad shots,” Augustus said. Minnesota closed the postseason with six straight wins, including sweeps of Phoenix in the Western Conference finals and Atlanta in the championship series. Most Minnesota players celebrated in a pile of hugs on the court. Taj McWilliams-Franklin, the 41-year-old starting center, headed to the bench to engulf Reeve in a hug. Erika de Souza, who had 11 points, was Atlanta’s only other scorer in double figures. “I’m just glad we were able to finish playing Lynx basketball by being a good defensive team,” Moore said. Minnesota had four scorers in double figures as Rebekkah Brunson had 13 points and nine rebounds and Candice Wiggins had 10 points. Atlanta was swept by Seattle in the 2010 WNBA finals. The Dream trailed by eight points in the final quarter before making a late charge. Two free throws by McCoughtry cut Minnesota’s lead to 64-40. Following a turnover, Iziane Castro Marques hit a 3-pointer from the corner to cut the lead to one with 1:17 remaining. Poor shooting from the field forced Atlanta to foul in the final minute. Two free throws by McWilliams-Franklin and another by Lindsay Whalen pushed the lead to 67-63. Following a miss by Castro Marques, McWilliams-Franklin added two more free throws with 35 seconds remaining. McCoughtry [...]

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Augustus leads Lynx to 101-95 Game 2 win vs. Dream

Augustus leads Lynx to 101-95 Game 2 win vs. Dream

MINNEAPOLIS (AP & Staff) — Seimone Augustus, her left knee sore and looking exhausted from an all-around effort, lifted the Minnesota Lynx to the brink of their first WNBA title. She’s not ready to relax just yet. There’s still some work to do. Augustus scored 36 points to lead Minnesota’s second-half surge, and the Lynx beat the Atlanta Dream 101-95 in Game 2 of the league championship series on Wednesday night. “The legacy isn’t complete until you’re holding the trophy,” Augustus said. Jessica Adair added 13 points in 18 minutes in a reserve role for the Lynx, who took a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five matchup by overcoming 38 points by the Dream’s Angel McCoughtry, who broke her own record for a WNBA finals game set last year. Game 3 is set for Friday night in Atlanta. McCoughtry had 24 points in the first half, but she shot just 2 for 13 after halftime and shook her head in disgust afterward at what the Dream complained was an unfair discrepancy — 33-23, Atlanta — in the foul calls by officials Sue Blauch, Lamont Simpson and Kurt Walker. “Let us battle out. Let us scratch and claw to the end. It’s entertainment. That’s what people want to see,” McCoughtry said, a scowl on her face. Coach Marynell Meadors was just as outspoken. “I just really don’t understand a lot of the things being called,” she said. With veteran center Taj McWilliams-Franklin on the bench with a sprained right knee suffered late in the third quarter, WNBA Rookie of the Year Maya Moore sitting for most of the game in foul trouble and fellow All-Star Rebekkah Brunson having a quiet game, Augustus took over. Hearing “MVP” chants as she swished her free throws down the stretch, the sixth-year forward — who has suffered through her share of losing and injuries — finished 11 for 14 from the floor and 13 for 16 at the line to help the Lynx fight back from a pair of 10-point holes in the second quarter. “As they say, ‘Mone was in the zone,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. The Lynx took a 77-76 lead early in the fourth, their first edge since 20-19, and used a 10-0 spurt to turn an 85-81 deficit with five minutes to go into a comfortable lead in the closing minutes. Augustus knocked down a floating baseline jumper with two [...]

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Gasols to practice with Barcelona during lockout

Gasols to practice with Barcelona during lockout

BARCELONA, Spain (AP & Staff) — Barcelona says Pau and Marc Gasol will practice with the Spanish basketball club during the NBA lockout. Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol will start practice on Tuesday, with his older brother Pau set to join on Thursday. Barcelona says the Gasols can practice with their former club “while the NBA lockout lasts.” The Los Angeles Lakers’ Pau Gasol told Catalan radio RAC1 that “Barca would be my first option to consider” playing for if the NBA season is canceled. Dallas Mavericks forward Rudy Fernandez signed a contract last month with Real Madrid to play basketball until the end of the lockout.

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Lynx blow open Game 1 in 4th quarter

Lynx blow open Game 1 in 4th quarter

MINNEAPOLIS (AP & Staff) — More than 15,000 fans walked into Target Center on Sunday night, hoping that the Minnesota Lynx could give them a little relief from the sports abyss the Twin Cities sit in at the moment. They waved white pom-poms and hollered at the top of their lungs, and Rebekkah Brunson and Co. made sure they didn’t go home disappointed. Brunson had 26 points and 11 rebounds and Seimone Augustus added 22 points to lead the Lynx to an 88-74 victory over the Atlanta Dream in Game 1 of the WNBA finals. “It was amazing,” Brunson said of the charged-up atmosphere. “The city’s been excited about this team from the beginning of the season and everybody keeps jumping on and jumping on and we love it. We love the fact we can come in here and play in front of a crowd like this.” Lindsay Whalen added 15 points and six assists and the Lynx turned a close game into a runaway with a 13-0 run to open the fourth quarter. Taj McWilliams-Franklin added eight points and 10 boards while battling an illness. Angel McCoughtry scored 19 of her 33 points in the third quarter and Lindsey Harding scored 20 points for the Dream. Atlanta led by 12 points midway through the second quarter, but the Lynx kept them off the board for the first 4:34 of the fourth quarter to take control. With starting center Erika de Souza missing the game while playing for Brazil in an Olympic qualifying tournament, the Dream were outrebounded 40-28 and outscored in the paint 52-30. “Look at the rebounds,” Harding said. “We needed her.” De Souza will be back for Game 2 of the best-of-five series, which is Wednesday night in Minneapolis. For those who say the women’s game lacks everything that makes the sport great — athleticism, shot-making and competitive fire — Game 1 will not help them make their case. Maya Moore’s sensational reverse layup, a scoop shot that started from clear on the other side of the rim, got the Lynx started on a third-quarter surge that got them back into the game. Brunson finished a three-point play and Augustus’s no-look pass was finished by Whalen’s reverse layup to cap a 9-0 run that gave them a 51-49 lead. “We’ve got some athletes up in here!” Brunson boasted. On the other end, McCoughtry was simply unstoppable, hitting [...]

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While Atlanta mopes, Dream provides ray of hope

While Atlanta mopes, Dream provides ray of hope

ATLANTA (AP & Staff) — The Braves blew it. The Falcons are struggling. The Thrashers are gone. The Hawks? Who knows when they’ll play another game. Well, cheer up Atlanta. There’s still the Dream. The beleaguered city’s WNBA team has made it to the finals for the second year in a row, providing a glimmer of hope in an otherwise dismal time for Atlanta’s pro sports scene. The Dream will face the Minnesota Lynx in the best-of-five series, which begins Sunday in Minneapolis. Dream star Angel McCoughtry called on fans to pack Philips Arena when the series returns to Atlanta for Game 3 next week. “We’re fighting hard for this city,” she said after practice Friday. “Support us. Show your love for us. We’re trying to give this city something, so we want them to show that they love us. Our house next Friday, there shouldn’t be a seat available.” That would be quite a feat, considering the Dream ranked 10th out of 12 teams with an average of 6,487 per game at Philips Arena. Still, it might be a good time for Atlanta to jump on the bandwagon. The Braves squandered a seemingly comfortable lead for a baseball wild card and were eliminated from the playoffs on the final day. The Falcons, expected to be a Super Bowl contender, are off to a sluggish 1-2 start. The Hawks are sidelined by the NBA lockout, which shows no signs of ending before at least some games are lost. The Thrashers moved to Winnipeg after last season, costing the city its second NHL team. “It is tough,” coach Marynell Meadors said. “We all have feelings about what’s happened to the Braves and the Falcons right now, and the Thrashers not being here. We’ve all been in those situations throughout our careers. I think the key for us is the excitement of possibly bringing a championship back here.” Rookie star Maya Moore, who grew up in Atlanta, can relate to what’s going on back home, though she doesn’t plan to show any sympathy when she’s out on the court. “That’s similar to what we have going on here in Minnesota,” Moore said Friday in a conference call. “We’ve had some struggling teams this season and people are really embracing us in the Twin Cities area.” The Dream bounced back from a dismal 2-7 start, going 11-3 down the stretch to claim third [...]

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