Knicks’ Thomas Meets With Unemployed Brown

Speeding his courtship of Larry Brown, New York Knick President Isiah Thomas met Thursday night with the 64-year-old unemployed coach.

The meeting began in the evening near Brown’s summer home in East Hampton, N.Y., and a Knick spokesman said the only two participants were Thomas and Brown.

It was unclear whether the Knicks were prepared to offer a contract to Brown, who reached a severance agreement Tuesday with the Detroit Pistons.

Thomas has made no secret of his desire to hire Brown, who would be coaching his eighth NBA team if he accepts the job. Brown has expressed reservations in recent days about possibly nudging New York interim Coach Herb Williams out of a job, and one of the challenges for Thomas will be to address Brown’s concerns on that matter.

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Flip Saunders, who was fired as coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves midway through last season, was introduced as coach of the Pistons, taking over for Brown.

“I was really fortunate in the past five months to wait and evaluate situations,” Saunders said. “I was going to wait and get into the right situation to walk into and have an opportunity to win and to win big, and that’s what we have here.”

Saunders compiled a record of 411-326 in 9 1/2 seasons with Minnesota.

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WNBA

Alana Beard scored 16 points and DeLisha Milton-Jones added 15 to lead the Washington Mystics to a 70-65 victory over the host Houston Comets.

Jurgita Streimikyte scored 14 points and the Indiana Fever recovered from its worst loss of the season with its largest victory margin, beating the San Antonio Silver Stars, 66-53, at Indianapolis.

Becky Hammon had 21 points and five assists, Elena Baranova had 16 points and seven rebounds and the New York Liberty beat the Mercury, 80-70, at Phoenix, ending the Mercury’s four-game winning streak.

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Tennis

French Open champion Rafael Nadal extended his winning streak on clay to 31 matches, defeating doubles partner Fernando Verdasco, 6-3, 6-2, in the third round of the Mercedes Cup at Stuttgart, Germany.

Nadal tied three players -- including Bjorn Borg -- for the sixth-longest winning streak on the surface. The longest was 53 in a row by Guillermo Vilas in 1977.

Two-time defending champion Andy Roddick recorded his 12th consecutive victory at the RCA Championships, advancing into the quarterfinals along with three other Americans at Indianapolis. Roddick beat Noam Okun, 6-3, 6-3.

Roddick joined Taylor Dent, Robby Ginepri and Paul Goldstein in advancing to the next round. Dent defeated Bjorn Phau, 6-2, 6-2. Ginepri upset Paradorn Srichaphan, 6-0, 6-4, in 46 minutes, and Goldstein beat Giovanni Lapentti, 6-3, 6-2.

Mariano Puerta and Fernando Gonzalez advanced to the Priority Telecom Open quarterfinals at Amersfoort, Netherlands, with 6-2, 6-2 victories.

Sania Mirza defeated Puerto Rico’s Kristina Brandi, 7-6 (5), 7-5, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Women’s Open at Mason, Ohio.

Two-time U.S. Open winner Andre Agassi is among five past men’s champions on the entry list for next month’s U.S. Open.

Agassi, 35, hasn’t played since losing in the first round of the French Open in May because of a lower back injury. Defending champion Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt and Marat Safin are the other U.S. Open winners in the field.

The wild-card spots into qualifying for the upcoming Acura Classic are Alexandra Stevenson, who went to high school in La Jolla, 18-year-old Amanda Fink of Calabasas and Lindsey Nelson of Orange, who just completed her freshman year at USC.

The tournament’s main draw begins Aug. 1 at the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad.

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Soccer

Real Madrid signed Brazil’s Robinho, buying the skillful forward out of his contract with Santos.

“Real Madrid has paid the 60% of the buyout clause belonging to Santos to sign Robinho,” the club said on its website.

Madrid’s media chief Antonio Garcia Ferreras earlier told Associated Press the sum was $29.3 million and it would be initially paid to the Brazilian Soccer Confederation and not to Santos.

A team of Major League Soccer stars will travel to Spain to face Real Madrid on Aug. 23, five days before the nine-time European champion opens its Spanish first-division schedule.

The Santiago Bernabeu Trophy, the last match before Madrid opens its league season, will be the second time MLS has announced it will face the 29-time Spanish champion. Madrid agreed to play the MLS all-stars in the U.S. league’s annual midseason exhibition last year, but later withdrew only to replace it with a friendly against a team of MLS players in September.

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Boxing

Super-featherweights Erik Morales and Manny Pacquiao, two former champions who fought each other in March, will return to the ring Sept. 10, but in separate bouts at Staples Center. Morales (48-2, 34 knockouts) will face Zahir Raheem (26-1, 16). Pacquiao (39-3-2, 31) will be opposed by Hector Velazquez (42-10-2, 31). Morales beat Pacquiao in a unanimous decision in Las Vegas.

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Miscellany

Beijing, host of the 2008 Summer Olympics, has signed agreements with four other Chinese cities where soccer preliminaries will take place during the Games.

The cities are Tianjin and Qinghuangdao, both on the coast east of Beijing; Shanghai, the country’s commercial center and largest city; and Shenyang, the industrial center of the northeast.

Georgia fullback Des Williams will miss the season after rupturing his right chest muscle while lifting weights this week. The 6-foot-1 junior played in 12 games with two starts in 2004.

A charge of public indecency against Tennessee Titan receiver Tyrone Calico was thrown out by a judge in Nashville.

Maurice Greene, former Olympic and three-time world 100-meter champion, pulled out of today’s Crystal Palace Grand Prix meet in London because of a nagging hamstring injury.