Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Bucks’ Patrick Beverley suspended four games without pay
MILWAUKEE | Milwaukee Bucks guard Patrick Beverley was suspended by the NBA on Thursday for four games without pay to begin next season for his actions during and after the final game of an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series with the Indiana Pacers.
The league announced the suspension and said Beverley was getting punished for “forcefully throwing a basketball multiple times at spectators and an inappropriate interaction with a reporter during media availability.”
This suspension was handed down one day after Indianapolis police said they were investigating an “NBA player and citizen” altercation that happened during that May 2 game without mentioning anyone by name.
Beverley threw a ball at fans in the closing minutes of Milwaukee’s 120-98 Game 6 loss at Indiana that knocked the Bucks out of the playoffs. Cameras showed him sitting on the bench and tossing a ball into the stands, hitting a fan in the head with about 2 ½ minutes left. After a different fan threw the ball back to Beverley, who was holding his arm out for it, the Bucks guard fired it back at that spectator.
Beverley spoke about his behavior on an episode of “The Pat Bev Podcast” that was released Wednesday. He said he was called a word that he’d never been called before, but added that his actions were “still inexcusable.”
“I will be better,” he said. “I have to be better, and I will be better. That should have never happened. Regardless of what was said, that should have never happened. Simple as that.”
Beverley added the atmosphere in Indiana “was great” aside from “a handful of fans” who crossed the line.
“I ain’t bringing a basketball on the bench no more,” Beverley said. “That … threw my whole vibe off.”
After the game, Beverley wouldn’t allow ESPN journalist Malinda Adams to ask him a question in a group interview in the locker room. He said it was because she didn’t subscribe to his podcast. Beverley told her to get her microphone out of his face and then eventually asked her to leave the interview circle.
The next day, Adams said on X that she had received apologies from both the Bucks and from Beverley himself.
On his podcast, Beverley said he had asked that of reporters who interviewed him ever since he launched his podcast. Beverley said he told Adams that “it was never my intent to disrespect you.”
A day after the game, Bucks coach Doc Rivers said Beverley’s behavior was “not the Milwaukee way or the Bucks way.”
“We’re better than that,” Rivers said. “Pat feels awful about that. He also understands emotionally — this is an emotional game and things happen — unfortunately, you’re judged immediately and he let the emotions get the better of him.”
The Bucks acquired the 35-year-old Beverley from the Philadelphia 76ers at the trade deadline. Beverley was playing on a one-year deal, making him an unrestricted free agent heading into the offseason.
Karl-Anthony Towns receives the NBA’s
social justice award
NEW YORK | Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns was named the recipient of the NBA ‘s social justice award on Thursday.
Towns was one of five finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Trophy, which was created in 2021 to honor a player for pursuit of social justice while upholding the values of equality, respect and inclusion. The other finalists were Miami’s Bam Adebayo, New Orleans’ C.J. McCollum, Oklahoma City’s Lindy Waters III and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Russell Westbrook.
All 30 teams nominate one player for the award, which was chosen by a committee led by the Hall of Fame member Abdul-Jabbar, league executives and social justice leaders.
Towns has been an advocate for expanding voter rights in Minnesota to include formerly incarcerated individuals, among other causes.
The Timberwolves have had quite the award haul this month, with Rudy Gobert named Defensive Player of the Year, Naz Reid getting Sixth Man of the Year, and Mike Conley winning Teammate of the Year.
Nelly Korda shoots 69
to put herself in position for 6th straight win
CLIFTON, N.J. | Nelly Korda put herself in position for a record sixth straight win on the LPGA Tour, shooting a relatively mistake-free 3-under 69 in the first round of the Cognizant Founders Cup on Thursday.
The round of four birdies and a bogey on the Upper Montclair Country Club left the 25-year-old American four shots behind early leader Madelene Sagstrom, who had a 65 on a course she loves.
Teeing off just before 7 a.m. on the back nine with defending champion Jin Young Ko of South Korea and 2022 titlist Minjee Lee of Australia, Korda didn’t do much for the first eight holes and only seemed to get going when she rolled in a 10-foot birdie on her ninth hole to get to 1 under. She had short birdies on No. 2 and No. 9, both par-5s, to finish.
“There is still three more days,” said Korda, who used her short game to save par a couple of times. “You still have a lot of things that you — I know the weather is not supposed to be great and there is just different factors that go into the rest of the tournament. So it’s definitely nice to get a good round in. You know, still a long, long ways away from Sunday.”
Korda, who fulfilled a childhood dream by walking on the red carpet at the Met Gala on Monday, was followed during her round by about 100 fans, who politely cheered her birdies on the course roughly five miles from New York. Among the group were five women wearing black T-shirts with “Everyone Watches Nelly Korda” on the front.
Sagstrom, a Swede who shot an opening-round 63 and finished third two years ago, had six birdies, an eagle and a bogey playing in the first threesome off the back nine. She finished 10th here last year.
“This golf course first of all suits my eye really well,” Sagstrom said. “I’ve been playing around with the ball flight a little bit. My coach, Hans (Larsson), is in town. This is the third year he’s here, too. We love the golf course.”
Marina Alex, a native of nearby Wayne, New Jersey, was in a group at 68, along with Jin Hee Im of South Korea and Grace Kim of Australia.
Korda was tied at 69 with a large group that included Hannah Green of Australia, who won the Los Angles Open two weeks ago for her second victory on tour this year. There was no event last week so she is going for her second straight win.
“I’m still a little bit surprised I’ve had two wins this year, I’ll be honest,” Green said. “Wilshire, obviously I really love it there. Singapore was a great putt on the last. I just want to keep putting myself in contention and having those moments of trying to win the trophy on Sunday.”
Lee and Ruoning Yin of China, who won the Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol in New Jersey last year, were in a group at 2-under. Ko shot 72.
WR Allen Robinson
signs free-agent
contract with Giants
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. | The New York Giants have signed wide receiver Allen Robinson to a free-agent contract with the hope he can help boost the team’s struggling offense.
The Giants announced the signing Thursday, two months after Robinson was cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers in a cost-cutting move. The 30-year-old Robinson is a veteran presence in a receivers room adding first-round draft pick Malik Nabers, the all-time leading receiver at LSU.
Robinson started all 17 games for the Steelers last season and caught 34 balls for 280 yards, both career lows except for the 2017 season when an injury limited him to one game.
He has 562 career receptions for 7,028 yards and 43 touchdowns in 127 games, including 122 starts, for the Steelers and three other teams since Jacksonville drafted him in the second round in 2014.
Robinson made the Pro Bowl in 2015, when his 14 touchdown receptions tied for the NFL lead and he set the Jaguars’ single-season record. Robinson also posted a personal-best 1,400 receiving yards that year, the first of three 1,000-yard campaigns of his career.
Robinson caught at least one pass in 118 consecutive games to start his career, and he became the fifth Chicago Bears player to post back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons in 2019 and 2020.
The Giants will head into the season with Daniel Jones back as their starting quarterback. He’s coming off a torn ACL and has three years left on his $160 million contact.
The Giants were 6-11 last season and finished 31st in passing yards, 30th in scoring and 29th in total offense.
NCAA removes cap
on official recruiting visits in basketball
The NCAA has approved a waiver that will allow men’s and women’s basketball programs to pay for unlimited official recruiting visits to help teams deal with roster depletion caused by transfers, according to a memo obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
The Athletic first reported the approval of a blanket waiver by the men’s and women’s basketball oversight committees.
Currently, men’s basketball programs are allowed 28 official visits over a rolling two-year period. The number for women’s programs is 24.
The waiver will cover a two-year period, starting Aug. 1, 2023, and run through July 31, 2025. The NCAA Division I Council in June will consider proposed legislation that would lift the limit on official visits in men’s and women’s basketball permanently.
Last month, the NCAA changed its rules to allow all athletes to be immediately eligible to play no matter how many times they transfer — as long as they meet academic requirements. The move came after the association fast-tracked legislation to fall in line with a recent court order.
Several states, including West Virginia, sued the NCAA late last year, challenging rules requiring undergraduate athletes to sit out for a season if they transferred more than once.
With what amounts to unlimited and unrestricted transfers, player movement in basketball has increased and forced programs into a bind created by unusually high levels of roster turnover.
In some cases, coaches are replacing almost an entire team. The scholarship limit in Division I for men’s basketball is 13 and 15 for women’s teams.
—From AP reports
