Sonics coach Carlesimo to prepare Team USA
New Seattle SuperSonics coach P.J. Carlesimo will lead a team of young NBA players who will be preparing the United States national team for the FIBA Americas championship later this month.
Carlesimo will be getting an early chance to coach Jeff Green, the Sonics’ fifth overall pick from June’s draft. Green is one 10 players USA Basketball chose Monday for its Select Team.
The 12-man roster will be picked while it scrimmages against the Select Team during a final training camp Aug. 15-21. The 10-nation FIBA Americas tournament runs from Aug. 22-Sept. 2 in Las Vegas and is one of five qualifying zone tournaments for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
•The Seattle Storm will be without leading scorer Lauren Jackson, who has returned to Australia to be with an ill family member, and center Janell Burse for a two-game road trip this week to Minnesota and Detroit.
•Forward Matt Barnes re-signed with the Golden State Warriors, agreeing to a one-year deal expected to be worth slightly more than $3 million.
•Ricky Stokes is out as coach at East Carolina after two seasons and associate head coach Mack McCarthy will take over. Stokes will become the associate athletic director for basketball, the university said.
•Rockets guard Rafer Alston was arrested early Sunday morning in downtown Houston on charges of assault and public intoxication, police said. Both charges are misdemeanors.
•The NCAA has asked Ball State officials to investigate new accusations of rules violations surrounding the men’s basketball program.
Auto racing
Evernham sells team
Ray Evernham completed the sale of his NASCAR team to Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett Jr., ending nearly six months of negotiations to bring on a partner.
Gillett becomes the majority owner of the team, which will now be called Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Evernham, who won three championships as a crew chief, still has an ownership stake of the team he launched in 2001. But he will concentrate on competition issues going forward and allow Gillett to handle the business-side of racing.
“Racing is in my blood,” Gillett said. “It’s not often you get to partner with a leader with Ray’s reputation, talent and championship legacy.”
Hockey
Craig gets $850,000
Tampa Bay Lightning center Ryan Craig will make $850,000 next season under a one-year contract awarded by an arbitrator.
Craig, the only Tampa Bay player to file for arbitration this summer, sought a one-year, $1.2 million deal. Tampa Bay offered $650,000 for one year at a hearing last Friday in Toronto.
•Anaheim Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere had surgery to repair a sports hernia injury, and the Stanley Cup champions expect him to recover in time for training camp.
Miscellany
Green sidelined
Nevada center Dominic Green is expected to miss seven weeks with a broken foot.
Wolf Pack coach Chris Ault said that Green, a second-team all-Western Athletic Conference pick at tackle last year, would definitely miss Nevada’s first two games, at Nebraska on Sept. 1 and at Northwestern on Sept. 8.
•Bulgaria’s world ice dancing champion Maxim Staviski faces possible criminal charges following a car accident that left one person dead and another seriously hurt.