Tracy McGrady reportedly agrees to one-year deal with the Detroit Pistons

Tracy McGrady is getting a chance to rejuvenate his career with a team hoping for a rebound of its own.

McGrady and the Detroit Pistons have agreed to a $1.3-million, one-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told the Associated Press on Tuesday. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal hasn’t been announced.

McGrady, a seven-time All-Star and two-time scoring champion, has played just 65 games the last two seasons with Houston and New York because he had major surgery on his left knee in the middle of the 2008-09 season.

The 6- foot-8 wing drew some interest from teams this summer, including the Chicago Bulls, before choosing to play for Detroit.

Now, the Pistons might have a greater sense or urgency to trade Richard Hamilton or Tayshaun Prince to fix their logjam on the perimeter.

The 31-year-old McGrady averaged 8.2 points last season, his lowest-scoring season since 1997-98 when he was a rookie with the Toronto Raptors after skipping college. Two years ago, he averaged 21-plus points for the eighth time in his career.

If McGrady accepts his role, likely as a reserve, he could prove to be a bargain playing for the veteran’s minimum even if he doesn’t approach his career scoring average of 21.5 points.

“I’ve made a lot of money over my career and I could retire right now and I could be fine financially,” McGrady said in February after he was traded by the Rockets to the Knicks while making $23 million in the last year of his contract. “My kids can be fine when they get older. Money is not an issue for me.”

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Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger dislocated a finger on his right hand as the U.S. national team scrimmaged during the opening day of training camp in New York.

Granger was hurt when he banged his hand on the rim while playing defense. Team officials didn’t believe the injury was serious, but Granger planned to see a doctor after practice.

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The New York Knicks signed free-agent guard Roger Mason Jr., who averaged 6.3 points and 2.1 rebounds in 19 games with the San Antonio Spurs last season.

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The Boston Celtics signed forward Luke Harangody, their second-round draft pick, to a two-year deal.

TRACK AND FIELD

Former Olympian Antonio Pettigrew, a sprinter stripped of a gold medal after admitting to doping, was found dead in the backseat of his locked car early Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C. Authorities said they are unsure if his death was accidental or a suicide.

Chatham County Sheriff’s Maj. Gary Blankenship said Pettigrew’s car was found parked to the side of a bridge. Blankenship said there was evidence that the 42-year-old Pettigrew had taken sleeping pills and there was no sign of foul play.

Pettigrew’s death was confirmed by the University of North Carolina, where he was an assistant track coach.

Pettigrew was part of the 1,600-meter U.S. relay team that won the gold medal in the Sydney Olympics in 2000. But the International Olympic Committee stripped the team of the medals two years ago after Pettigrew admitted doping during a trial against former coach Trevor Graham, who was convicted of lying to federal investigators about his relationship to an admitted steroids dealer.

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Coming off a rare loss at 100 meters, Olympic and world champion Usain Bolt is cutting his season short, saying he won’t race again in 2010 because of tightness in his lower back.

The Jamaican’s manager, Ricky Simms, wrote in an e-mail that the world record-holder at 100 and 200 meters will have treatment to loosen his back and then rest, skipping IAAF Diamond League track and field meets in Zurich, Switzerland, on Aug. 19, and in Brussels on Aug. 27.

Bolt hadn’t lost an individual race in two years until Friday, when Tyson Gay of the United States beat him at the DN Galan meet in Stockholm. Gay ran 9.84 seconds, and Bolt finished in 9.97 — nearly 0.40 slower than his record for the 100.

ETC.

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Percy Harvin remains on leave from practice, coping with migraine headaches.

Coach Brad Childress confirmed that Harvin has had “some” migraines recently. Childress said Harvin is resting at his home in the Twin Cities area.

The second-year standout from Florida, who made the Pro Bowl as a rookie kickoff returner, left the Vikings nine days ago when his grandmother died and has not been back to camp.

Harvin has had migraines for most of his life. Last season, the condition kept him out of a December game and out of practice for most of the week before the NFC championship game.

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West Virginia is investigating whether some football players wore more than just helmets during the first two days of practice, which would be a violation of NCAA rules. Athletics spokesman Michael Fragale said the school was aware some players wore vests during the first two days of practice, when NCAA rules stipulate only helmets are allowed.

West Virginia began practice on Saturday, two days after the NCAA alleged the program committed five major violations and one secondary violation from 2005 to 2009.

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Lance Armstrong has pulled out of the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race in Colorado, a high-altitude race he won in record time last year. Armstrong spokesman Mark Higgins said that the cyclist is still feeling lingering effects of a hip injury suffered in a crash early in the Tour de France.

Saturday’s race starts 10,500 feet and climbs 2,000 more feet. Armstrong won last year in a record time of 6 hours, 28 minutes, 50 seconds.

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Andy Roddick withdrew from the Rogers Cup in Toronto because of an undisclosed illness. In second-round action, Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych ousted Sergiy Stakhovsky, 6-2, 6-4, in 90 minutes.

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Fifteenth-seeded Nadia Petrova became the third seeded player to be eliminated from the $2-million Cincinnati Women’s Open in Mason, Ohio, when mid-90 degree heat forced her to retire from her match while trailing against Christina McHale. McHale won the first set 7-6 (4) and was leading 5-3 in the second when the 21st-ranked Petrova retired because of heat illness.

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The New Jersey Devils are working on another deal to sign Ilya Kovalchuk. Less than 24 hours after an arbitrator ruled that the NHL acted correctly in voiding Kovalchuk’s landmark $102-million contract with New Jersey, team President and General Manager Lou Lamoriello said the Devils will continue working to re-sign the high scoring Russian.

Lamoriello refused on Tuesday to comment on the ruling by Richard Bloch. The arbiter ruled Monday that Kovalchuk’s 17-year contract, the longest deal in league history, violated the league’s salary cap.

“We want Ilya to be a Devil,” Lamoriello said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday. “We will do everything possible to achieve that.”

Lamoriello said the Devils renewed talks with Kovalchuk after Bloch’s decision was announced around 5:45 p.m. EDT on Monday. He would not get into specifics.

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Longtime Tampa Bay Lightning executive Sean Henry is leaving the NHL club to become president of the Nashville Predators.

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Matt Curtis, an assistant coach at Fresno State for the last 10 years, has been selected as the new baseball coach at Cal State Northridge. Curtis, who turns 36 on Friday, will try to turn around a Northridge baseball program that has struggled after the departure eight years ago of Mike Batesole, who Curtis worked under at Fresno State.

“We want to create and sustain a culture of winning, competing for the Big West Conference championship and the (NCAA) post-season,” Curtis said. “We want to enhance the tradition of the Cal State Northridge baseball program.”

Curtis has been the recruiting coordinator at Fresno State, which won the NCAA title in 2008. He also was the team’s pitching coach the last three years. He played at Fresno State for former Coach Bob Bennett.

— Eric Sondheimer