BOSTON — Shaquille O’Neal has transformed “The Big Three” of the Boston Celtics into a “Very Big Four.”
The 7-foot-1, 325-pound center signed a two-year contract worth about $3 million Wednesday to play alongside Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
O’Neal is the fifth-leading scorer in NBA history with 28,255 points and 14th in rebounds with 12,921. He averaged a career-low 12 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks with the Cleveland Cavaliers last season.
• The Detroit Pistons re-signed center Ben Wallace to a two-year contract worth $3.8 million. Wallace, 35, averaged 5.5 points, a team-high 8.7 rebounds and team-best 1.2 blocks last season.
• New Jersey Nets center Brook Lopez, struggling to recover from a bout with mono, withdrew from the U.S. national team and will be replaced by JaVale McGee of the Washington Wizards.
Jury deliberates in Pitino case
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A jury deliberated for nearly two hours but went home without reaching a decision in the case of a Kentucky woman accused of demanding millions from Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino to keep quiet about their sexual tryst.
Karen Cunagin Sypher, 50, has pleaded not guilty to extortion and other charges. She did not testify in her own defense, and her attorneys rested their case without calling any witnesses. In closing arguments, they claimed her ex-husband tried to extort the coach. If convicted, Sypher could face up to 26 years in prison.
Assistant U.S. attorney Marisa Ford told jurors that Sypher was “looking for a golden parachute, something for nothing” when she demanded $10 million, college tuition for her children and her house paid off in exchange for her silence about having sex with the coach, a married father of five, on July 31, 2003.
Brazilian soccer player charged with murder
RIO DE JANEIRO — Prosecutors charged Brazilian soccer player Bruno Souza with ordering the murder of an ex-lover who allegedly was trying to prove he was the father of her young son.
Bruno, a goalkeeper and captain of Flamengo, Brazil’s most popular soccer team, allegedly ordered the kidnapping and killing of 25-year- old Eliza Samudio, who has been missing since June.
Footnotes.
Michael Phelps won the 200-meter freestyle at the U.S. national championships in Irvine, Calif., then came back less than an hour later to win the 200 butterfly.
• University of Pittsburgh defensive end Jabaal Sheard has been reinstated to the football team after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct for a fight in which he threw a man through an art gallery’s glass door July 18.
• Iowa State defensive back David Sims, who was accused of charging $600 worth of goods on a debit card of a woman who had loaned it to her son before he visited Ames, has been suspended for the season opener against Northern Illinois.
• Golfer Robert Allenby said he tore ligaments in his right knee when he slipped on the deck of his boat during a fishing trip to the Bahamas, and he will be out for at least three weeks.
The Associated Press
