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NBA
OAKLAND – Richard Jefferson is an NBA champion, and that’s how he said his career will end.
The Cleveland forward told Fox Sports Ohio after Game 7 of the NBA Finals that he is retiring. Jefferson turns 36 on Tuesday, and just completed his 15th NBA season.
Jefferson was the No. 13 pick in the 2001 NBA draft. He spent his first seven seasons with New Jersey, and also played for San Antonio, Milwaukee, Utah, Golden State and Dallas before coming to Cleveland.
NEW YORK – Game 7 between the Cavaliers and Warriors drew the highest television rating for the NBA Finals since Michael Jordan’s last championship.
Cleveland’s tense 93-89 win Sunday night to capture the city’s first title in more than a half-century averaged a 15.7 rating and nearly 30.8 million viewers on ABC. Both numbers are the best since Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, when Jordan’s Bulls clinched their sixth ring, ESPN said Monday. That game set an NBA record with a 22.3 rating on NBC.
A string of lopsided scores through the first six games had lowered ratings from last year. But Game 7 was tight throughout, with LeBron James trying to lead the Cavs to a historic triumph.
NHL
NEW YORK – The New York Rangers have traded the rights to veteran defenseman Keith Yandle to Florida for the Panthers’ sixth-round pick in Friday’s NHL draft.
The Rangers said Monday they would also receive a fourth-round pick in the 2017 draft if Yandle signs with the Panthers. The 29-year-old Yandle’s contract expires on July 1. He made $5.25 million this season.
New York acquired Yandle in March 2015 from Arizona along with another defenseman, Chris Summers, and a fourth-round selection.
Yandle spent nearly nine seasons with the Coyotes before the trade to New York.
Olympics
CHEBOKSARY, Russia – A top Russian track and field official said banning the country’s athletes from the Olympics will inflict severe financial damage on the games.
All-Russia Athletics Federation general secretary Mikhail Butov said the absence of star Russians like pole vault world-record holder Yelena Isinbayeva and world 110-meter champion Sergei Shubenkov will hit the IOC in the pocket.
Butov said Russian stars are “a big part of world athletics and the competitions, the business, the incomes will all lose from their absence.”
Running
ALBUQUERQUE – A New Mexico marathon runner was less than 3 miles from the finish line of an organized mountain race when she climbed over a hilltop and saw a black bear charging at her.
The female black bear attacked after Karen Williams unknowingly startled it and at least one of its cubs, which ran up a tree in Valles Caldera National Preserve. The mother bear scratched Williams and bit at her neck and head Saturday before she curled up played dead.
The mauling, considered rare for New Mexico, left Williams with multiple punctures and cuts. She said a “mean left hook” by the bear also fractured her right eye socket and ripped her eyelid.
After the bear and its three cubs wandered off, Williams said she lay alone in the wilderness for 30 minutes. Other runners in the event came along and rushed to her aid unil crews arrived.
Williams was airlifted to an Albuquerque hospital, and she was released the next day.
Associated Press
