James takes home SI honor
Rivers’ antics cost him $15K fine
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — LeBron James delivered on a promise and ended decades of Cleveland sports misery in 2016.
For leading the Cavaliers to an NBA title and ending the city’s 52-year title drought, James was chosen Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year on Thursday, joining Tiger Woods as the award’s only two-time winners since its inception in 1954.
“I’m honored,” James said following shootaround before the Cavs hosted the Los Angeles Clippers. “I’m more happy for my family, my kids, for my wife, my mom, and for my foundation, for the kids that I represent and the kids that use me as a role model and an inspiration.”
Appearing in his sixth straight NBA Finals in June, James rallied the Cavs from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the favored Golden State Warriors, who won 73 games during the regular season but couldn’t put Cleveland away. James scored 41 points in Games 5 and 6 and made a key block in the final minutes of an epic Game 7, making the Cavs the first Cleveland major sports franchise to win a title since the Browns in 1964.
CLIPPERS: Coach Doc Rivers was fined $15,000 by the NBA on Thursday for verbally abusing a game official and failing to leaving the court in a timely manner after his ejection.
The incident happened with 18.6 remaining in the first overtime of the Clippers’ 127122 double-overtime loss at Brooklyn on Tuesday night.
Rivers was given a technical foul for crossing over midcourt, then another and ejected.
HAWKS: Atlanta lost a 109-107 game at Phoenix on Wednesday. Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer is from Holbrook, Ariz., a town of around 5,000 about 185 miles northeast of Phoenix. He wasn’t expecting a big turnout of townsfolk Wednesday night, citing a midweek game after a holiday and no bus service.
PISTONS: Detroit center Andre Drummond was fined $15,000 by the NBA on Thursday for striking Charlotte Hornets center Roy Hibbert in the back of the head with an elbow.
Drummond was assessed a Flagrant Foul 2 and ejected with in the second quarter of the Pistons’ 112-89 victory on Tuesday night.