The WNBA punished so many players for their roles in Tuesday’s skirmish between the Detroit Shock and Los Angeles Sparks that the league is staggering the suspensions by alphabetical order. The league suspended Detroit assistant coach Rick Mahorn and 10 players.
Shock forward Plenette Pierson was suspended for four games, the harshest penalty, for initiating and escalating the altercation. Mahorn was suspended for two games, as were Shannon Bobbitt and Murriel Page of the Sparks.
“As a team, we’re incensed that Rick Mahorn was suspended,” Shock coach Bill Laimbeer said. “He was trying to be a peacemaker and now he’s being thrown under the bus.”
Renee Brown, the WNBA’s chief of basketball operations and player relations, said Mahorn only started off as a peacemaker before he shoved Sparks star Lisa Leslie.
Players suspended for one game included Detroit’s Kara Braxton, Tasha Humphrey, Elaine Powell and Sheri Sam, along with Los Angeles’ Leslie, Candace Parker and DeLisha Milton-Jones.
Meanwhile, the Shock signed 50-year-old former coach and general manager Nancy Lieberman to a seven-day contract. She had two assists and missed her only shot, a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, in the Shock’s 79-61 loss to the Houston Comets.
In other games: Lindsay Whalen scored 13 of her 22 points in the third quarter and the Connecticut Sun beat the Sparks 87-61; the San Antonio Silver Stars defeated the Chicago Sky 78-67; Seimone Augustus scored 25 points to lead the Minnesota Lynx to an 84-80 overtime victory over the Indiana Fever; and the Sacramento Monarchs beat the Phoenix Mercury 83-74.
Two sentenced to prison in NBA betting scandal
NEW YORK — Two former high school classmates of disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy were sentenced to more than a year in prison for their roles in a betting scandal that embarrassed the league. A federal judge gave James Battista, a professional gambler and admitted drug addict, 15 months in prison for making bets based on inside tips. Thomas Martino, the scheme’s middleman, was sentenced to a year and one day for paying the referee thousands of dollars for the tips.
• Kelenna Azubuike will return to the Golden State Warriors after the club matched the Los Angeles Clippers’ three-year, $9 million contract offer for the shooting guard.
The Warriors also re-signed guard Monta Ellis, agreeing to a six- year deal worth about $66 million.
Footnotes.
Former Penn State football player Chris Bell has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of making terroristic threats. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 29.
• Georgia Tech center Ra’Sean Dickey has given up his senior season to play professionally in Ukraine.
• Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is suing Duke University, claiming his golf coach manufactured accusations against him to justify kicking him off the team to whittle the squad.
• Former Oklahoma State University baseball player James “Jamie” Cook died Wednesday in a motorcycle accident. He was 36.
The Associated Press
