NBA changes playoff seeding
The NBA will now seed playoff teams solely by their record, throwing out the top-four protection for teams that win their divisions.
The expected change was unanimously approved Tuesday by the league’s Board of Governors. Teams in each conference will be seeded from 1 to 8 by their won-loss record.
Previously, division winners were guaranteed no worse than the No. 4 seed, a rule that became heavily criticized last season when Portland ended up No. 4 in the powerful Western Conference despite the sixth-best record in the conference.
The league also changed the tiebreaker procedures, making head-tohead results the first tiebreaker for seeding and home-court advantage.
Phoenix Suns forward Markieff Morris was been fined $10,000 for making “a public statement detrimental to the NBA.” The fine did not specify the statement but said it concerned Morris’ desire to be traded. Morris said in a tweet last week that “my future will not be in Phoenix.” running backs coach Todd McNair’s defamation lawsuit against the NCAA.
The ruling by a three-justice panel in 2nd District Court of Appeal was not made public, but Justice Lee Smalley Edmon said in court before hearing arguments that it gave attorneys an idea of the panel’s current thinking.
The judges gave no indication when a final ruling would be made.
Justice Patti S. Kitching cited emails included in the full record of the NCAA’s investigation and deliberative process in its case against McNair, which stemmed from the Reggie Bush extra benefits scandal.
— Gary Klein
The Erie County (N.Y.) district attorney postponed grand jury proceedings into a sexual assault allegation against Chicago Blackhawks star forward Patrick Kane, a person familiar with the investigation confirmed to the Associated Press. Evidence was scheduled to be presented to jurors on Tuesday but the hearings were postponed for about two weeks, the person said.
Two Texas football players accused of intentionally ramming into a referee during a high school game allege the referee directed racial slurs at them, school district officials said.
The district, which previously suspended the two players, has placed an assistant coach on paid leave while it investigates allegations that he suggested there should be retaliation against the referee for missed calls, Northside Independent School District Superintendent Brian T. Woods said at a news conference.
Kerri Walsh Jennings, a threetime Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball, will have surgery Thursday to repair a torn labrum and torn capsule in her right shoulder.
Walsh Jennings will miss the remainder of tour events both domestically and abroad in 2015, and is aiming to make it back to competition in mid-March.
— Alex Schultz
Joaquin Andujar, a star pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1980s who called himself “one tough Dominican,” died in his native Dominican Republic of diabetes complications. He was 62.