Legalized gambling gets support of NBA
In a first for a major American professional sports league, the NBA on Wednesday formally asked for new laws that would legalize sports gambling nationwide.
“Our conclusion is that the time has come for a different approach,” Dan Spillane, associate counsel for the league, said in prepared remarks to a New York state Senate committee on gambling.
Spillane urged the state to pass a “comprehensive sports betting bill that would serve as a model for a 50-state solution.” Currently, sports betting is legal in only four states — most prominently in Nevada — because of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, or PASPA, passed in 1992 with the NBA’s support.
Spillane said the pro leagues should receive 1 percent of the total amount bet on their games if betting is allowed to expand.
The NBA is currently a defendant in New Jersey’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of PASPA. The Supreme Court heard that case last month, and the justices sounded skeptical of the ban.
With New York and other states considering legislation to legalize sports betting in the event that PASPA is overturned, the NBA “cannot sit on the sidelines,” Spillane said.
U.S. fills out rest of Alpine team
Past Olympic medalists Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin, Ted Ligety and Andrew Weibrecht are among the 22 ski racers who will be a part of the U.S. Alpine team heading to the Pyeongchang Games.
Vonn won a downhill gold medal and super-G bronze at the 2010 Vancouver Games, then sat out the Sochi Olympics four years later because of a knee injury. Shiffrin won a slalom gold in 2014, while Ligety owns two golds and Weibrecht has one silver and one bronze.
The seven discretionary picks for the team include Stacey Cook, Mark Engel, Tim Jitloff, Breezy Johnson, Wiley Maple, Alice
McKennis and Steven Nyman. The other 15 skiers had previously qualified based on their results on the World Cup circuit so far this season.
Besides Vonn, Shiffrin, Ligety and Weibrecht, the previous qualifiers include Bryce Bennett, Tommy Biesemeyer, David Chodounsky, Ryan Cochran-Siegle, Tommy Ford, Jared Goldberg, Nolan Kasper, Megan McJames, Laurenne Ross, Resi Stiegler and Jackie Wiles.
Sharks’ Thornton injures knee
San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton will likely miss several weeks with an injury to his right knee.
Thornton was hurt late in San Jose’s overtime loss to Winnipeg on Tuesday. General manager Doug Wilson said Wednesday that Thornton will need an MRI to determine whether he will undergo surgery to repair his MCL but will miss several weeks either way.
Thornton tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee late last season. He returned for four playoff games before undergoing offseason surgery.
The 38-year-old Thornton has played all 47 games this season and has 13 goals and 23 assists to rank second on the team in scoring.
Fast penalty shot lifts Leafs in OT
William Nylander scored on a penalty shot 6 seconds into overtime to lift the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs to a 3-2 win over the sagging Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.
Nylander was awarded the attempt after he broke in alone on Jeff Glass from the opening faceoff in the extra period but was hooked from behind by Chicago’s Duncan Keith. Nylander scored the game-winner and his 10th goal by faking Glass and then burying a high backhander to send the Blackhawks to their fourth straight defeat. In other news: • The NHL has suspended Boston forward Brad Marchand five games without pay for elbowing New Jersey’s Marcus Johansson in the head during the Bruins’ win over the Devils on Tuesday night.
The hit occurred with 1:59 left in the third period of Boston’s 3-2 win and knocked Johansson out of the game. There was no penalty called on the play.
MLS reportedly coming to Miami
David Beckham’s plan to bring Major League Soccer back to South Florida is on the cusp of becoming reality.
Beckham and his partners are planning a Monday event to formally announce Miami’s new MLS team, as well as its name and logo, a person with direct knowledge of the situation told the Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because neither Beckham’s group nor MLS officials had announced the plans publicly.
His group has said it wants the new team to begin play in the 2020 season.
Serena schedules first tournament
Serena Williams is returning to tournament play for the first time since the birth of her first child in March in California.
Williams was among the entries released for the BNP Paribas Open, which runs March 5-18 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. She will return to competitive tennis in a Federation Cup match in February in North Carolina. In other news: • Michael Stich and Helena Sukova have been elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I.
Stich won the 1991 Wimbledon singles championship. Sukova won a career Grand Slam in women’s doubles, with four titles at Wimbledon, two at the U.S. Open and one apiece at the French Open and Australian Open.