NEW YORK — Tamika Catchings, DeLisha Milton-Jones and Kara Lawson are going to play ball in Beijing.
The WNBA stars earned the final three spots on the U.S. women’s basketball team going to the Olympics.
Catchings would have been among the original nine picks in May had she not been slow to recover after tearing her right Achilles tendon in September. She started all eight games in Athens on the gold medal-winning 2004 Olympic team, averaging 6.9 points and 5.4 rebounds. She also had 22 steals.
“She’s definitely a no-brainer,” U.S. coach Anne Donovan said when the initial choices were announced May 31. “We just have to see if she was healthy.”
Catchings returned from her injury June 15 and has averaged 10 points for the Indiana Fever.
Milton-Jones was on the 2000 Olympic team that won gold in Sydney, and would have been on the Athens roster had she not been injured right before those Games. She is averaging 13.8 points and 6.6 rebounds for the Los Angeles Sparks. Lawson, who averages 10.5 points for Sacramento, will be making her first Olympic appearance.
The U.S. opens its Olympic play Aug. 9 against the Czech Republic.
• Kara Lynn Joyce, a 22-year-old swimmer from Georgia, was added as an alternate to the 400-meter freestyle relay after Dara Torres withdrew from the 100 free.
• Olympic floor exercise champion Kyle Shewfelt was selected for the Canadian gymnastics team for the Beijing Games 10 months after breaking the tibias in both of his legs.
• A toe injury and related problems knocked 400-meter hurdles world champion Jana Rawlinson out of the Beijing Olympics on the day she was selected as part of her third Australian Summer Games team.
Rodriguez, Michigan to pay West Virginia
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Former West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez and the University of Michigan have agreed to pay a $4 million buyout and settle a lawsuit WVU filed after he broke his contract in December.
Rodriguez will pay $1.5 million in three annual payments beginning January 2010. The Wolverines athletic department, his new employer, will pay $2.5 million by the end of July and cover Rodriguez’s legal fees, the University of Michigan said in a statement.
Footnotes.
Arizona signee Brandon Jennings, rated one of the top point guard recruits in the country, will pursue a professional basketball career in Europe, backing out on his commitment to the Wildcats.
• Real Salt Lake will host Major League Soccer’s All-Star Game in 2009.
• Betty Lennox scored 17 of her 24 points in the second half and the Atlanta Dream won its second straight game, beating the Minnesota Lynx 73-67.
• Television commercials featuring former tennis pro Justin Gimelstob promoting the U.S. Open Series are being scrapped by the U.S. Tennis Association because of derogatory comments he made about Anna Kournikova and other women on a radio show last month.
The Associated Press
