Fast Break
BASKETBALL
Bobcats trade Weaver to Oklahoma City
The Charlotte Bobcats have traded second-round pick Kyle Weaver to Oklahoma City for a second-round choice in next year’s draft.
The guard was the 38th overall pick in June after averaging 12.2 points as a senior at Washington State.
Weaver averaged 6.2 points in five games for Charlotte in the Las Vegas summer league, but faced stiff competition to make Charlotte’s regular-season roster.
Hockey
Canada begins tournament play
With training camp set to begin next week for the Spokane Chiefs, defenseman Jared Cowen is squeezing in one last trip.
His European excursion, however, will combine work and play.
Cowen and Team Canada open play today at the Memorial of Ivan Hlinka tournament against Switzerland at 6 a.m. (Pacific time) in Piestany, Slovakia. The tournament runs through Saturday.
Canada is in Pool B with Switzerland, Sweden and Slovakia. Pool A is made up of Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and USA.
Former Chiefs coach Bill Peters, who recently resigned after accepting a head coaching job with the American Hockey League’s Rockford IceHogs, is the head coach of Team Canada.
Rodeo
PRCA horse euthanized
One of the top PRCA bareback horses, Miss Amerititle, belonging to Big Bend and Flying Five rodeo companies, was humanely euthanized over the weekend after suffering a fractured left hind foot at the Omak Stampede.
Stock contractor Don Hutsell of Ritzville, told ProRodeo News that the 8-year-old mare slipped prior to being loaded into the chutes for Saturday’s performance and her leg went through a gate. The fracture then occurred when she attempted to free herself.
“It was just a freak accident, and it makes you sick,” Hutsell said. “There was no way to save her, and if there was a way, we would have done it.”
The horse, which weighed 1,250 pounds and measured 15.2 hands, finished third in PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year voting in 2007 after making her second straight appearance at the National Finals Rodeo.
“I’ve seen it happen before, but it always seems like it happens to the best ones,” said Hutsell, after burying his horse on the Ritzville ranch on Sunday. “You don’t get ones like her very often. All we can do is move on and hope we get another like her.”
Columnist
See ya later
Syndicated columnist Norman Chad is on vacation. His column is scheduled to return on Sept. 2.