NUGGETS HIRE BOONE TO BE ASSISTANT GM
The Nuggets have hired former NBA journeyman Calvin Booth as their new assistant general manager, the Associated Press reported.
Booth joins the Nuggets from Minnesota, where he served as the director of player personnel for the Timberwolves last season. He worked in various front-office roles for a total of four seasons in Minnesota.
Booth is moving into a position that was vacated in Denver when former assistant GM Arturas Karnisovas was promoted to GM and former GM Tim Connelly was promoted to president of basketball operations.
The 6-foot-11 Booth averaged 3.3 points and 2.8 rebounds per game during a career in which he played for eight teams in 10 seasons. He ended his playing career in 2009.
FRR’s Jones team fined, penalized.
FLA.» NASCAR suspended DAYTONA BEACH, the crew chief for Erik Jones for a rules violation at Pocono Raceway. The No. 77 Furniture Row Racing team was penalized because of a rear suspension violation. Crew chief Chris Gayle was fined $50,000 and suspended for two Cup races. The team also lost 25 owner points and 25 driver points.
FRR will not appeal and named James Small interim crew chief.
Neymar set to move on in record buyout.
SPAIN» Neymar is BARCELONA, ready to leave Barcelona, and Paris Saint-Germain is ready to put up a record $262 million to make it happen.
The 25-year-old Brazil striker, widely considered to be among the best soccer players in the world alongside Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, broke weeks of silence Wednesday when he told his Barcelona teammates he wants to move on after four trophy-laden seasons.
The player’s buyout clause is 222 million euros ($262 million), an astonishing price that Neymar’s representative said PSG is willing to pay.
The payment of the buyout clause would dwarf the previous world record transfer of 105 million euros (then $116 million) that Manchester United paid for France midfielder Paul Pogba last year.
Former QB Reaves dies. TAMPA,
FLA.» Former Florida and NFL quarterback John Reaves, who finished his college career as the NCAA’s all-time leading passer and later struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, has died. He was 67.
Reaves was found dead at his home Tuesday, according to the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office. The cause of death is being investigated, the office said.
Reaves dealt with dependency for most of his 11-year career as an NFL journeyman, a run that began as a first-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1972. He also played for Cincinnati (1975-78), Minnesota (1979-80), Houston (1981) and Tampa Bay during the NFL strike in 1987. The Vikings put him in the Hazelden Clinic in 1980, and for the next two decades Reaves lived a life of sobriety while becoming the No. 2 all-time passing leader in the USFL and then coaching at Florida (1990-94) and South Carolina (1995-97).
His college career was much more acclaimed, leaving school as the NCAA’s all-time leading passer, throwing for 7,581 yards and an SECrecord 54 touchdowns.
• Mississippi football players Ken Webster and Detric Bing-Dukes, defensive players expected to be big contributors, were arrested and charged with shoplifting in Oxford, Miss.
Footnotes.
Maria Sharapova withdrew from the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, Calif. with soreness in her left arm and underwent testing. … Andre De Grasse won’t get a chance to spoil Usain Bolt’s international finale at the track and field world championships in London, with a hamstring injury forcing the 22-year-old Canadian to pull out of the meet. … Major League Soccer and Adidas announced a six-year extension to their sponsorship, supplying the league through 2024.