Portland’s Joel Przybilla out for the season

Portland Trail Blazers center Joel Przybilla had surgery Thursday to repair his ruptured right patella tendon.

Przybilla is expected to miss the rest of the season after hurting his leg during Portland’s 85-81 victory at Dallas on Tuesday night. He went up for a rebound and came down awkwardly with 3:12 left in the first quarter.

Przybilla averaged 4.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 30 games.

The Trail Blazers have been beset by so many injuries this season that the NBA granted the team an exemption to carry 16 players on its roster.

Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas stored unloaded firearms in a container in his locker, according to the team, and the NBA is looking into the situation.

The Wizards issued a statement saying there was no ammunition in the locked container, and Arenas and the team have notified authorities and the league.

Arenas told the Washington Times he took his guns to the Verizon Center after his daughter, Hamiley Penny, was born this month. About a week later, he said he handed them over to team security to give to police.

BOXING

Fighters consider turning to arbitrator

The promoters for Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. are discussing the possibility of letting an arbitrator decide how to conduct drug testing before the fighters’ tentatively scheduled March 13 mega-fight in Las Vegas, Mayweather’s promoter told The Times.

“We’re trying whatever we can to get this fight done,” Mayweather promoter Richard Schaefer said. “We want to stay focused and see what we can do to accomplish this.”

Pacquiao isn’t receptive to Team Mayweather’s suggestion of adopting U.S. Anti-Doping Agency guidelines that will subject him to repeated blood tests in the days leading up to the fight. Mayweather says he wants assurance the bout is fought on a level playing field. However, Pacquiao would prefer urine testing done by either the Nevada State Athletic Commission or testers who preside over NFL and Major League Baseball programs.

-- Lance Pugmire JURISPRUDENCE

Park sues former Dodgers teammate

Chan Ho Park has sued his former Dodgers battery mate Chad Kreuter, accusing him of failing to fully pay off a $460,000 loan.

Park filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming breach of promissory note and negligent misrepresentation.

The suit claims Park made a $460,000 loan to Kreuter, the USC baseball coach, in October 2005 to be repaid a year later with interest. Park alleges Kreuter paid back $290,000 in April 2007 and the unpaid balance has grown, with interest, to $281,869.73 as of Dec. 1.

ETC.

Olympic gymnast Johnson is training

Olympic gold medal gymnast Shawn Johnson is back in the gym as she considers returning to competition and making a run at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Her father, Doug Johnson, told the Des Moines Register she began training at her hometown gym, Chow’s Gymnastics in West Des Moines, Iowa, about a week ago.

Reliever Matt Capps reached a preliminary agreement on a $3.5-million, one-year contract with the Washington Nationals. . . . Speedy Peterson and Lacy Schnoor have made the Olympic freestyle skiing team, winning the aerials event at U.S. Olympic trials in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

PASSINGS

Rodney, Michael were media figures

Lester Rodney, the sports editor and a sports writer for the American Communist Party newspaper the Daily Worker who crusaded to end segregation in major league baseball in the 1930s and ‘40s, has died. He was 98. A34. . . . George Michael, a mainstay on the Washington, D.C., sports television scene for decades who reached a national audience with “The George Michael Sports Machine” highlights show, has died from complications from leukemia. He was 70. A35.