Riley will return to Heat

MIAMI – Pat Riley will be coaching the Miami Heat when their NBA championship banner is raised.

Riley said Wednesday he’ll return as coach for the 2006-07 season, ending speculation he might retire at age 61. He led the Heat to their first league title – and his seventh as a coach or player – in June.

“After winning the championship, I realized there’s always something meaningful that happens in your life that becomes the primary point of your destiny,” Riley said in a statement. “Winning the championship showed me that I am definitely in the right place, at the right time, with the right people. I can’t wait to get started.”

Riley is second to Lenny Wilkens with 1,322 coaching victories, including 171 in the postseason. Riley, who is also Heat president, returned to the sideline Dec. 12 when Stan Van Gundy resigned.

Baxter sentenced

Former NBA player Lonny Baxter was sentenced in Washington to two months in jail after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of carrying a gun a few blocks from the White House.

Baxter, who played with the Charlotte Bobcats last season, has been in jail since his arrest Aug. 16, when uniformed Secret Service officers responded to reports of shots being fired from a white sport utility vehicle.

Officers found a gun and spent shell casings in the SUV that Baxter, 27, was driving. Baxter and his passenger, Francis I. Martin, 35, were charged with carrying a handgun without a license and other firearms charges. Prosecutors dropped the case against Martin.