USA Basketball roster trimmed to 15 players

Basketball: The United States is down to just two centers, and one of them better pick it up if he wants to make it to Turkey.

USA Basketball trimmed its roster of candidates for the world championships Wednesday to 15, a guard-heavy group that features Brook Lopez and Tyson Chandler as its only centers.

NBA rookie of the year Tyreke Evans, O.J. Mayo and Gerald Wallace were cut – and Lopez might have joined them if not for his 7-foot frame on a team that badly needs height.

The New Jersey Nets center struggled last week during training in Las Vegas as he recovers from mono, an illness that team leadership wasn’t aware of before camp.

Kevin Durant leads three Oklahoma City players on the list that included the Clippers’ Eric Gordon, who was thought to be on the bubble, plus talented point guards such as Chauncey Billups, Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo and Russell Westbrook.

Jeff Green will join his Thunder teammates Durant and Westbrook in New York when the team reconvenes Aug. 9. The roster has to be reduced to 12 before the world championships begin on Aug. 28 in Turkey.

The other finalists are Lamar Odom, Stephen Curry, Andre Iguodala, Rudy Gay, Danny Granger and Kevin Love.

• Huggins released from hospital: West Virginia University says men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins has been released from a Las Vegas hospital.

Huggins had been hospitalized since breaking seven ribs in a fall in his hotel room on Friday while in Nevada on a recruiting trip.

Caps acquire enforcer

NHL: The Washington Capitals have acquired enforcer D.J. King from the St. Louis Blues for prospect Stefan Della Rovere.

King, a left winger, has spent four seasons with the Blues but has played in only 13 games over the last two seasons because of injuries.

• Ducks sign first-rounder: The Anaheim Ducks have signed defenseman Cam Fowler to a three-year contract, likely putting the first-round draft pick on a fast track to the NHL.

Miscellany: Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone admitted in a Daily Telegraph interview that some Formula One teams might not have the financial resources necessary to continue racing until the end of the 2010 season.

“I would not be surprised if one or two of them did not make the end of the season. I think there are a couple of teams in Formula One who really shouldn’t be there,” he told the newspaper.

• Trainer accused of doping horses: A Grantville, Pa., horse trainer was charged with trying to rig races at Penn National Race Course by injecting horses with performance-enhancing drugs.

State police charged Darryl Delahoussaye, 47, of Harrisburg, with rigging a publicly exhibited contest, administering drugs to race horses, tampering with evidence and theft.

• Former football player dies: Bob Fenimore, a two-time All-American who became the top pick in the 1947 NFL draft, died in Stillwater, Okla., after a fight with cancer. He was 84.

Fenimore was a star on offense and defense for Oklahoma A&M in the 1940s, highlighted by his 1945 season when he led the nation in total offense and rushing, finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting and led the Aggies to a 9-0 season.