SAN ANTONIO — Bruce Bowen won’t be pestering the NBA’s best anymore. The 38-year-old former San Antonio Spurs forward retired Thursday after 12 seasons and a reputation as one of the league’s most menacing defenders, hounding opponents with a tenacity that some players groused was more dirty than dogged.
He called it quits after being waived this summer by Milwaukee, where the Spurs had dealt him in a veteran dump-off for swingman Richard Jefferson — a decision Bowen said he understood.
“You need to do things to better the business, and the Spurs definitely got better in the players they received, so I’m looking forward to continuously supporting the Spurs, but from more of a distance now,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of people are happy.”
Bowen was named eight times to the NBA’s all-defensive team. He finished runner-up three times in defensive player of the year voting.
• Prison medical records show Dirk Nowitzki‘s former fiancee is not pregnant, the Dallas Mavericks forward’s attorney said.
Cristal Taylor, 38, is serving a four-year prison sentence in Missouri after her May 6 arrest at Nowitzki’s Dallas home on a probation violation. Taylor had said she was pregnant with Nowitzki’s child. But attorney Robert Hart said a pregnancy test sought through a July court order has come back negative.
Rawson’s 64 leads Canadian
PRIDDIS, Alberta — Anna Rawson shot a course-record 7-under- par 64 to take a one-stroke lead over Suzann Pettersen in the Canadian Women’s Open.
Rawson had nine birdies and two bogeys to break Dawn Coe-Jones‘ Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club course mark by a shot.
Top-ranked Lorena Ochoa was two strokes back along with Amanda Blumenherst, while Michelle Wie opened with a 76.
• Brett Rumford birdied the last four holes for a 28 on the back nine, finishing with a 9-under 62 for a one-stroke lead over Simon Dyson after the first round of the European Masters in Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland.
Footnotes.
Bobby Labonte, who was pulled from Yates Racing’s ride earlier in the week, is listed on the official entry list for Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto 500 in Atlanta as the driver for TRG Motorsports’ No. 71, allowing Labonte to continue his streak of 568 consecutive starts.
• Carl Edwards will drive in this weekend’s Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races at Atlanta Motor Speedway despite breaking his right foot playing Frisbee.
• Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella left Force India to join Ferrari for the rest of the Formula One season, replacing Luca Badoer.
• Germany’s Andrei Greipel won a second straight stage at the Spanish Vuelta to take the overall lead from Fabian Cancellara.
• Two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has withdrawn from the cycling world championships, citing a lack of fitness for the Sept. 27 road race in Mendrisio, Switzerland.
• Matee Ajavon scored 16 points in her first start of the WNBA season and the Washington Mystics beat the visiting Seattle Storm 78-67.
