Fast Break
BASKETBALL
Rose, Beasley square off today
Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley will be forever linked. That’s an inevitability for players who get chosen No. 1 and No. 2 in an NBA draft.
So on some level, it’s fitting their first pro game – one that won’t have fans, won’t count in standings and will likely be long forgotten in a few days – will pit them against one another. Rose’s Chicago Bulls face Beasley’s Miami Heat today, one of three games that will open the Orlando summer league’s weeklong schedule.
For a meaningless matchup, there’s an abundance of big-game hype.
And it almost seems like neither 19-year-old can truly understand why.
“I didn’t even know we’re playing Miami first,” Rose said. “I’m not going to be checking him.”
“If you want to make it a Mike Beasley and Derrick Rose show, go ahead,” Beasley (shown above) said. “But that’s not how it’s going to be.”
Fair enough.
Rose, the No. 1 selection in last month’s draft who led Memphis to the NCAA title game, will be running the Bulls offense from the point guard spot. Beasley, the No. 2 choice by Miami after averaging better than 26 points and 12 rebounds in his lone season at Kansas State, will be posting up against the likes of Chicago big men Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas.
OLYMPICS
Tokyo public cool to 2016 bid
While the Olympic buzz is all about Beijing, another Asian capital is trying to woo the games back in 2016.
But Tokyo, host of the 1964 Summer Olympics, faces a major obstacle: a lukewarm response from its citizens.
Only 59 percent of Tokyo residents support the bid, the lowest among the four finalists. Madrid topped the list with 90 percent public support, followed by Rio de Janeiro (77 percent) and Chicago (74 percent). Public support is one of several factors in selecting an Olympic city.
BASEBALL
A-Rod’s wife to file for divorce
Alex Rodriguez’s wife will file for divorce today, according to media reports.
Cynthia Rodriguez, who married the New York Yankees star in 2002, said the marriage is over because of the All-Star third baseman’s extramarital affairs, according to reports that appeared Sunday on the Web sites of Houston television station KTRK and The Miami Herald.
The reports come just days after Alex Rodriguez was linked to Madonna in various media outlets and Cynthia Rodriguez’s subsequent visit to the Paris home of rocker Lenny Kravitz, who said she came to France to escape the media frenzy in New York and denied that anything improper had happened.
Houston attorney Earle Lilly, who said he was hired by Cynthia Rodriguez last week to launch the divorce case, told KTRK the star’s “relationship with Madonna was the final straw for Mrs. Rodriguez.”