NEW YORK — Months after returning to the radio with a pledge to mend the wounds caused by his comments about Rutgers University’s women’s basketball team, Don Imus is once again defending on-air remarks regarding race.
During an on-air conversation Monday about the arrests of suspended Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam Jones, Imus asked: “What color is he?” Told by sports announcer Warner Wolf that Jones is “African- American,” Imus responded: “There you go. Now we know.”
In the face of criticism that ensued, Imus said Monday that he had been misunderstood.
“I meant that he was being picked on because he’s black,” Imus said.
Civil rights leader Al Sharpton criticized the remark, saying his National Action Network would look into it.
Attorney: NBA wants to “destroy” Donaghy
NEW YORK — The NBA wants to financially “destroy” disgraced referee Tim Donaghy for embarrassing the league during the playoffs with allegations that outcomes of previous games were purposely manipulated by bad calls, his lawyer charged.
The attorney, John Lauro, asked a federal judge to force the league to produce more evidence supporting its demand Donaghy pay the NBA nearly $1.4 million in restitution as part of the sentence in his gambling case. The amount covers everything from hefty legal bills to the cost of Donaghy’s basketball shoes.
“The message from the NBA is quite clear: If you cooperate in a federal investigation against the organization, we will take you out,” Lauro wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Carol Amon.
• New Orleans Hornets guard Rasual Butler has been charged with flashing a loaded gun near a South Florida nightclub.
Big Brown owner says stable will be drug free
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Big Brown owner Michael Iavarone, a co-owner of IEAH Stables, said the 50-plus horses owned by the syndicate will be drug free by the end of the year. That includes steroids and all other legal racing medications except for Lasix.
• Santa Anita will overhaul its troubled synthetic surface in July, four months before the track hosts the Breeders’ Cup.
• Rocco Mediate said he’s not bothered by NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller saying the 45-year- old golfer “looks like the guy who cleans Tiger’s swimming pool,” and “Guys with the name ‘Rocco’ don’t get on the trophy” during the U.S. Open. “It doesn’t bother me at all,” Mediate said. “He definitely didn’t do it on purpose.”
• The primary investors in a group buying the Tampa Bay Lightning said they have no intentions of moving the team, will be “shockingly aggressive” in free agency this summer and are on the verge of naming a coach — long rumored to be television analyst and former Los Angeles Kings coach Barry Melrose.
• Clemson safety DeAndre McDaniel has been arrested on charges he covered his girlfriend’s head with a comforter and began choking her Saturday. An incident report says a woman identified as McDaniel’s girlfriend said the sophomore also punched her in the head, face and chest, and pushed her down a flight of stairs.
The Associated Press
