SECAUCUS, N.J. — With a lucky charm from the franchise’s best days, the Washington Wizards won the NBA’s draft lottery Tuesday night. Washington moved up from the No. 5 spot to earn the top pick in next month’s draft, when it will likely choose Kentucky freshman John Wall or national player of the year Evan Turner of Ohio State.
The Wizards were represented by Irene Pollin, who wore the 1978 Bullets championship ring of her late husband, longtime owner Abe Pollin.
“My husband wanted another (championship) so badly,” she said. “He really did. So maybe this will be the beginning of another one.”
The Philadelphia 76ers moved up to grab the No. 2 pick. The New Jersey Nets continued a six-year run of failure by teams with the best chance of winning, falling to the third. The Minnesota Timberwolves fell from second to fourth, while the Sacramento Kings will pick fifth and the Golden State Warriors sixth in the June 24 draft.
• Former NBA center Manute Bol is hospitalized in Washington with severe kidney trouble and a painful skin condition after falling critically ill while returning home from helping fight election corruption in his native Sudan.
“I believe he is going to survive this, but he’s had a total kidney failure,” Tom Prichard, director of Sudan Sunrise, a group that promotes reconciliation in Sudan, said. “If he’d stayed two more days in Sudan, I don’t think he’d be alive right now.”
Dockett apologizes for video
TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett apologized for posting an online streaming video of him taking a shower to win a $1,000 bet.
“I apologize to all the kids, everybody in the community that looks up to me,” Dockett said.
The lineman said no one will ever see him in such a situation again, unless it’s video of, as he put it, “me trying to take somebody’s head off” in a game.
• The New England Patriots released cornerback Shawn Springs, who played sparingly after signing a three-year, $10.5 million contract with the team before last season.
Footnotes.
A federal judge dismissed Jeremy Mayfield‘s lawsuit against NASCAR, a ruling that presumably ends the yearlong saga surrounding the first Sprint Cup driver suspended for failing a random drug test.
• NASCAR driver Brian Vickers is responding positively to treatment for blood clots in his legs and near his lungs, though his return to racing is uncertain.
• David Zabriskie of Boulder- based Garmin-Transitions won the third stage of the Tour of California by inches over Michael Rogers and took over the race lead.
• Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Transitions won the 10th stage of the Giro d’Italia, while Alexandre Vinokourov remained the overall leader.
• The U.S. earned a chance to play for a medal at the 2011 ice hockey world championship after TJ Oshie scored three times in the penalty shootout for a 3-2 win over Italy in Cologne, Germany.
• Jamine “Greedy” Peterson, who led Providence in scoring last season by averaging nearly 20 points a game, was dismissed from the basketball team for violating undisclosed rules.
The Associated Press
