Grateful Garnett leaves NBA after 21 years
MINNEAPOLIS — Kevin Garnett has decided to retire after 21 seasons in the NBA, leaving a legacy as one of the best defensive players in league history and one of the game’s most influential and intense competitors.
Garnett posted a video on his Instagram account on Friday, saying “farewell” and “thank you for the journey.” He narrates the short, black-and-white video that shows him walking alone through Target Center with sunglasses on.
“I’m just thankful. I can’t even put that into words,” Garnett says. “I’m just thankful. I’m just thankful for everybody and the love. I never would have thought that people love me like this. But, for it to be reality is just something else, man. Man.”
Garnett informed the Timberwolves of his decision to retire on Friday. The team will waive the franchise icon, which will allow him to collect his entire $8-million salary for next season. That is the same approach the San Antonio Spurs took with Tim Duncan.
“I’m proud of our association with Kevin, just seeing him grow over the years,” team owner Glen Taylor told The Associated Press. “I wish him the very best in the future and want to thank him, along with our fans, for the great memories that he has given us.”
The 40-year-old Garnett put the Timberwolves on the map by turning one of the most hapless franchises in professional sports into a perennial playoff team. He later helped return the Boston Celtics to glory.
He came into the league straight from high school in 1995, the first player to do so in two decades. The decision was considered a risk at the time, but Garnett’s success paved the way for Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Tracy McGrady to follow him. Garnett also made more than $330 million in his career, the most by any player in league history.
Bosh fails physical, NBA future in doubt
MIAMI — Chris Bosh’s plan to resume playing is now in jeopardy, after medical examinations performed in recent days convinced the Miami Heat that he is not healthy enough to return to the court.
And Bosh may have provided a clue why.
The Heat announced Friday that they still cannot clear Bosh for a resumption of basketball activities, based on the result of his preseason physical — a series of tests conducted over the past few days. Their announcement came two days after Bosh revealed in the first chapter of a documentary series about his saga that he had multiple clots in February.
“The Miami Heat regret that it remains unable to clear Chris to return to basketball activities, and there is no timetable for his return,” the team said Friday.
Bosh did not immediately comment, though the video that he released through LeBron James’ digital platform called Uninterrupted earlier this week offered a hint at the problem. He said a small clot was found in his leg this past February when he was in Toronto for the All-Star break, and that a CT scan later found the existence of at least one other clot.
Ex-UA golfer Ridings shares Web.com lead
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tag Ridings (University of Arkansas) shot a 6-under 65 on Friday for a share of the second-round lead with Martin Flores in the Web. com Tour Finals’ Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship.
The 42-year-old Ridings was 52nd on the Web.com Tour regular-season money list and entered the third of four series events 36th in the race for 25 PGA Tour cards with $9,493. Starting on No. 10, he had five birdies and a bogey on his first seven holes and added birdies on the two front-nine par 5s.
Flores bogeyed the final hole for a 66 to match Ridings at 8-under 134 on Ohio State’s Scarlet Course. Already guaranteed a PGA Tour card with a fifth-place finish on the Web.com money list, the 34-year-old Flores birdied five of the first six holes on the back nine, making four in a row on Nos. 12-15. He won the Lincoln Land Charity Championship in July for his first Web.com Tour title.
The series features the top 75 players from the Web.com regular-season money list, Nos. 126200 in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings and non-members with enough PGA Tour money to have placed in the top 200 in the FedEx Cup had they been eligible.
Flores and the other top-25 finishers on the Web.com money list earned PGA Tour cards. They are competing against each other for tour priority, with regular-season earnings counting in their totals .
The other players are fighting for 25 cards based on series earnings. The last PGA Tour card went at $33,650 in 2013, $36,312 in 2014 and $32,206 last year.
Heavyweight title rematch called off for second time
LONDON — The rematch between Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko for the world heavyweight title has been called off for a second time.
Fury’s management company, Hennessy Sports, said Friday that the British boxer has “been declared medically unfit to fight” and the Oct. 29 bout in Manchester “will not be going ahead.”
A statement read “medical specialists have advised that the condition is too severe to allow him to participate in the rematch and that he will require treatment before going back into the ring. Tyson will now immediately undergo the treatment he needs to make a full recovery.”
No further details were immediately given in the statement as to Fury’s medical condition.
Fury beat Klitschko in Germany in November to claim the WBA, WBO and IBF titles. A rematch was originally scheduled for July 9 but was postponed after Fury said he sustained an ankle injury.
In August, it was disclosed that on the same day Fury announced the injury, he had been charged by the U.K. Anti-Doping agency and suspended from the sport after testing positive for a banned substance.