Fast Break

Basketball

Amputation ends career

The career of one of the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s most popular and productive players has likely come to a sad end.

Kenny George, a 7-foot-9, 375-pound center who received national attention for his size and play last season, has undergone a partial amputation of his right foot.

The senior from Chicago, the nation’s tallest player, has had at least two surgeries and other procedures after his right foot became infected at a summer camp for big men in Las Vegas.

“This is a really terrible setback for Kenny,” UNCA coach Eddie Biedenbach said. “He worked so hard to get into the situation where he could play last year and was working hard to be ready for this season.

“To have basketball taken away from him seemingly isn’t fair.”

Crime

Ticket to game a ticket to jail

Police tracking a credit card stolen from a parked car didn’t have to look far to find their suspect.

The 15-year-old was sitting in his assigned seat at the Superdome after using the purloined card to purchase a ticket to a Saints game.

“You would think if you are going to buy a ticket to get in the stadium (on a stolen credit card), you would go sit somewhere else,” said Maj. Greg Elder, commander of the New Orleans Police Department’s 3rd District.

The credit card was stolen Oct. 6 when someone snatched a purse left in the unlocked car. The owner of the car reported the theft and told Detectives Tony Mayfield and Chris Harris that her credit card company reported the card had been used to buy a ticket to that night’s NFL Saints game against the Minnesota Vikings.

The detectives arrived just before halftime, and recognized the young man in the seat as somebody who had previously been arrested for auto burglary, Elder said.

When they asked to see his ticket, he handed over a white envelope containing the ticket, the stolen credit card and the woman’s driver’s license, according to the initial police report filed by the detectives.