Group Agrees to Buy Grizzlies

An investment group that includes Christian Laettner and his former Duke teammate Brian Davis reached an agreement to buy 70% of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Laettner is also interested in returning to the NBA to play for the Grizzlies, Davis said at a news conference Monday in Memphis, Tenn.

Laettner, in the league for 13 years, left the NBA after the 2004-05 season with Miami.

Davis said an agreement was reached with Michael Heisley to buy his majority 70% interest in the team for about $360 million. Davis said he and Laettner are putting a total of $40 million of their money into the project. The rest will come from investors he did not identify, but Davis said he has lined up the money.

Members of the group will be made public, he said, after the team’s minority owners decide whether they will make an offer for the franchise.

Davis, who played in four Final Fours while at Duke from 1989-92, said he wants President Jerry West and Coach Mike Fratello to stay with the Grizzlies.

He added that he would like to sign West to a lifetime contract, though West said it was too early for him to decide on his long-range plans, “so we’ll see what happens.”

The sale will take several months to complete because the minority owners have the right of first refusal for 60 days from the date they are notified. The sale also must be approved by the NBA, and Heisley said he expects to remain with the team for several months.

Heisley bought the franchise in Vancouver in 2000 for $160 million and moved it to Memphis the next year.

Vin Baker, a 34-year-old former All-Star who has struggled with injuries and alcohol problems, signed a non-guaranteed contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves after playing last season with the Clippers.

Former Clippers forward Melvin Ely signed a one-year, $3-million qualifying offer with the Charlotte Bobcats after turning down offers from Golden State and Phoenix.

Former UCLA forward Matt Barnes signed with the Golden State Warriors. He has played for Sacramento, New York, Philadelphia and the Clippers in his three NBA seasons. Golden State also signed Dijon Thompson, Barnes’ former teammate at UCLA who played with Phoenix last season.

HOCKEY

Players File Suit

Against Their Union

A group of dissatisfied NHL players continued to fight against the union’s leadership, filing a lawsuit against executive director Ted Saskin.

The suit, filed by Detroit’s Chris Chelios and Edmonton’s Dwayne Roloson, asked the court to remove Saskin as director for alleged violations of the union’s constitution. Former Kings player Trent Klatt is also one of the plaintiffs.

Trevor Linden, president of the NHL Players’ Assn., current union employee Vincent Damphousse, and former union Executive Committee members Bob Boughner and Bill Guerin were named as defendants in the suit.

-- Chris Foster

The NHL suspended Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Pavel Kubina for the regular-season opener for a cross-check on Detroit’s Jiri Hudler in Sunday’s exhibition finale.

Vancouver Canucks center Marc Chouinard will sit out at least the first seven days of the regular season because of a slightly separated right shoulder, suffered in Saturday’s exhibition finale.

The Phoenix Coyotes waived veteran right wing Tyson Nash.

TENNIS

McEnroe Will Continue to Lead Davis Cup Team

U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe’s tenure was extended for two more years, the U.S. Tennis Assn. announced.

Under McEnroe, the team has reached the Davis Cup final once and the semifinals two other times, most recently this year.

Fourth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov won his first ATP Tour title, defeating third-seeded Tomas Berdych, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5), in the Mumbai Open in India.

Third-seeded Maria Kirilenko was ousted from the Japan Open, losing to Akiko Morigami, 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3), in Tokyo.

In the only other match featuring a seeded player, Marta Domachowska eliminated fifth-seeded Sofia Arvidsson, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1).

In men’s openers, 2002 winner Kenneth Carlsen beat Gouichi Motomura, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2, and 2004 champion Jiri Novak defeated Robin Vik, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Fifth-seeded Patty Schnyder beat Chanda Rubin, 6-2, 6-2, to reach the second round of the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany.

French player Antony Dupuis, who tested positive for the banned substance salbutamol in May, was given a 2 1/2 -month suspension by the International Tennis Federation. Dupuis said the drug was used to treat asthma but did not have the required valid-therapeutic-use exemption.

Eliot Teltscher, the USTA’s director of high performance for nearly four years, resigned.

Teltscher, also a USTA coach for three years, left the post after the U.S. Open last month, and a successor has not been named.

-- Lisa Dillman

MISCELLANY

NASCAR Approves

Race in Montreal

NASCAR approved an international race for its second-tier Busch Series to be run Aug. 4 on the road course at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2007, a spokeswoman said.

A seven-month investigation into illegal payments in English soccer was narrowed to 39 transfers involving eight teams.

In an interim report released to the Premier League, former London police chief John Stevens said he needed two more months to scrutinize the transfers that have shown possible criminal violations.

He said four of the 29 current or former Premier League clubs had been cleared: Watford, Sheffield United, Leeds and Reading.

U.S. fencer Rebecca Ward won the women’s sabre title, leading a 1-2-3 American finish at the world championships in Turin, Italy.

The 16-year-old beat 2004 Olympic gold medalist and teammate Mariel Zagunis, 15-11, to become the first U.S. woman to earn an individual world championship medal. Sada Jacobson, the 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, earned bronze.

PASSINGS

Cox, 93, Captain of

South Carolina Rivals

Alfred Cary Cox Sr., captain of South Carolina’s football team before serving in World War II and captain of Clemson’s after it, died Saturday at age 83 in Columbia, S.C.