Hawks coach fined for contact
Atlanta Hawks Coach Mike Budenholzer was fined $25,000 on Monday for making contact with an official, a punishment that was strongly criticized by the referees’ union as too lenient.
The fine, announced by Kiki VanDeWeghe, the NBA’s vice president for basketball operations, followed Budenholzer’s technical foul and ejection from Saturday’s 109-97 loss to the Cavaliers in Cleveland.
Budenholzer was given a technical for arguing a call. He bumped referee Ben Taylor after stepping on the court and was quickly tossed.
Budenholzer said after the game any contact “was 100% unintentional.” The league agreed, calling the contact incidental.
But the National Basketball Referees Assn. quickly issued a statement saying Budenholzer deserved a suspension.
“Recent league precedent dictated that a coach who aggressively charged onto the floor during live action and physically interfered with a referee would be suspended,” said Lee Seham, the NBRA’s general counsel. “We are now operating at a lower level with less transparency, degraded safety, and diminished respect for the game. Coaches should compete by creating better teams, not by physically intimidating officials.” said in a news report late Sunday that the 79-year-old Blatter was treated in intensive care for several days.
Blatter acknowledged he had been under “enormous pressure,” with personal legal problems arising from a $2-million payment of FIFA money he authorized to Michel Platini in 2011 as backdated salary.
Swiss federal prosecutors opened criminal proceedings against Blatter in September for alleged criminal mismanagement over the Platini deal and an undervalued sale of Caribbean TV rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.
The U.S. and Mexican women’s soccer teams have been drawn into the same group for February’s CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament, which is to be played in Houston and suburban Dallas.
The World Cup champion Americans, winners of the last three Olympic gold medals, will also meet Puerto Rico and Costa Rica in group play in Frisco, Texas. The other four-team group — Canada, Guatemala, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago — will play in Houston.
The top two teams in each group will advance to the tournament semifinals in Houston, with the winners of those games qualifying for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
— Kevin Baxter
The U.S. men’s soccer team will play its March 29 World Cup qualifier against Guatemala at Columbus, Ohio. The Americans are 7-0-3 at the venue, including 6-0-2 in qualifiers.
The Americans opened qualifying for the 2018 tournament with a 6-1 win over St. Vincent and the Grenadines at St. Louis, then tied 0-0 last week at Trinidad and Tobago. Qualifying resumes March 25 with a game against Guatemala in Guatemala City.
Catcher Chris Iannetta, who played the last four seasons with the Angels, signed a one-year contract with the Seattle Mariners. Iannetta batted only .188 with 10 home runs and 34 runs batted in last season. The batting average was the lowest of Iannetta’s career.
The Davis Cup final between Britain and Belgium is set to go ahead as planned in Ghent this weekend with increased security measures because of the ongoing terror alert in Belgium, the International Tennis Federation said.