Bucks finally able to sign Yi

Yi Jianlian is finally going to play for the Milwaukee Bucks.

Yi, the sixth overall selection in June’s NBA draft, signed a standard rookie scale contract with the Bucks in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

A contingent of Bucks officials that included owner and Sen. Herb Kohl met with Yi’s family and Chen Haitao, owner of Yi’s Chinese professional team, over the last day to complete the deal.

“We had a very successful trip here,” Kohl said from Hong Kong. “We came with the hope, but not the certainty that we would, in fact, be able to sign a contract with Yi.”

On draft night, Yi said he was surprised he was picked by the Bucks, but thought he’d play for them. After the interview, he said nothing more -- and still hasn’t -- refusing to talk about his situation and leading to speculation that he would never show up.

His agent, Dan Fegan, had pushed for Yi to be drafted or traded to a city with a large Asian influence.

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Forsaking free agency after this season, guard Kevin Martin signed a reported five-year, $55-million contract extension with the Sacramento Kings.

Martin, set to earn $1.8 million in his fourth NBA season before the extension kicks in, was the Kings’ leading scorer last season at 20.2 points a game.

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With a gaping hole in their front court caused by the injury to power forward Elton Brand, the Clippers made a stop-gap move by signing free-agent forward Ruben Patterson.

Last season, his ninth in the NBA, the 32-year-old Patterson had a career year with the Bucks, his fifth team. He played in 81 games, averaged a career-high 14.7 points, and equaled his career high with 5.4 rebounds. He shot a career-high 55% from the floor.

Brand ruptured his left Achilles’ tendon earlier this month and is expected to miss at least the first few months of the season.

“I am really excited by our signing of Ruben Patterson,” Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “He is a great competitor. I have always admired the intensity he brings from game to game.”

-- Steve Springer

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The Charlotte Bobcats re-signed backup point guard Jeff McInnis, 32, to a one-year, $1.2-million contract.

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Mayor Mick Cornett said the suggestion that Oklahoma City officials have spoken with members of the Seattle SuperSonics’ ownership group about a possible move is “preposterous.”

The Tacoma News Tribune, citing a SuperSonics employee, reported that Clay Bennett, an Oklahoma City businessman and the leader of the team’s ownership group, offered details of what the city would do if the team tried to relocate, including paying the team’s expenses and relocation fees assessed by the NBA. Bennett said that his comments were only hypothetical.

CYCLING

Tougher measures agreed to by 12 teams

Twelve teams agreed to tougher doping measures in Brussels in an effort to clean up cycling’s battered image.

The teams, including T-Mobile and Team CSC, agreed to submit each of their riders to at least 15 blood tests and 15 urine tests next season. The new doping rules will start in January, with 80% of the new testing out of competition and carried out by an “independent body in close conjunction with the International Cycling Union” within the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency and the UCI.

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Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde was banned from next month’s road world championships after cycling’s world governing body concluded he may have violated doping rules as part of Operation Puerto, a Spanish doping investigation that has implicated more than 50 riders. Valverde finished sixth at the Tour de France.

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The German cycling union selected drug-tainted Erik Zabel for the world championships. Zabel has admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs in the 1990s.

SOCCER

Zambian soccer player collapses, dies in Israel

Chaswe Nsofwa, a forward who played for Zambia at the 2002 African Cup of Nations, collapsed during practice in the Israeli city of Beersheva and died minutes later at a hospital, the Israeli rescue service said.

Nsofwa, 26, was with Hapoel Beersheva, which plays in Israel’s second division. It was unclear why Nsofwa collapsed, but temperatures on the field approached 100 degrees.

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Chivas USA defender Alex Zotinca was suspended by the MLS for three games and fined $1,250 for headbutting Galaxy midfielder Kevin Harmse last week. Harmse was fined $250, but not suspended, for throwing a punch at Zotinca.

Zotinca and Harmse were issued red cards in the first half of the game. A red card carries an automatic one-game suspension and $250 fine. Harmse and Zotinca served their one-game suspensions by sitting out MLS games last Sunday.

But the MLS Disciplinary Committee decided after reviewing the incident to add further sanctions. Zotinca will not be available for home games on Sept. 6 against D.C. United, against the New York Red Bulls on Sept. 9 and against the Galaxy on Sept. 13.

-- Jaime Cárdenas

MISCELLANY

Fearing more defections, Cuba boxers held out

Cuba won’t send a boxing team to the world championships in Chicago in October, heeding Fidel Castro’s fears about future defections after two fighters abandoned their teammates last month during the Pan American Games in Brazil.

Guillermo Rigondeaux, Cuba’s top boxer and a two-time Olympic bantamweight champion, and Erislandy Lara, an amateur welterweight world champion, vanished for about two weeks last month in Brazil, only to be arrested and deported.

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Four Duke men’s lacrosse players, including national player of the year Matt Danowski, will return for a fifth season granted by the NCAA to restore a year lost amid rape allegations that led to false charges against three former teammates.

Goaltender Dan Loftus and defensemen Tony McDevitt and Nick O’Hara will join Danowski.