Kwame Brown reunites with Michael Jordan by signing contract with Charlotte

Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan is bringing back what’s considered his worst move as a basketball executive: Kwame Brown.

The Bobcats on Monday agreed on a one-year deal with Brown for the veteran minimum of $1.3 million. Agent Mark Bartelstein says Brown will sign on Tuesday.

Jordan was running the Washington Wizards when he selected Brown straight out of high school with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 draft. The big man turned out to be a major disappointment.

Jordan was later fired by the Wizards. He joined the Bobcats as a part owner in 2006, and bought the team outright this spring.

Now Jordan hopes the 6-foot-11 Brown will add depth. He averaged 4.5 points and 3.5 rebounds with Detroit last season.

“A really interesting story,” Bartelstein said. “Instead of running away from the shadow of Michael Jordan, he kind of embraced it.”

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Diana Taurasi, the reigning most valuable player of the WNBA, signed a multiyear contract extension with the Phoenix Mercury, ending speculation that she would take next season off. Wearing down from playing nonstop for seven years, Taurasi had considered taking the 2011 WNBA season off and only playing overseas, where she makes about five times as much money.

TENNIS

Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark won the rain-delayed Rogers Cup in Montreal, beating Vera Zvonareva, 6-3, 6-2.

Wozniacki is ranked second in the world and, with No. 1 Serena Williams out with an injury, likely will be the top-seeded player when the U.S. Open starts Aug. 31. The 20-year-old is seeking her first Grand Slam title.

The Rogers Cup final was held a day late after a weekend of relentless rain.

Wozniacki took the $350,000 winner’s prize while Zvonareva got $175,000.

The semifinals were played in the morning. Wozniacki beat Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-2, 6-3, and Zvonareva advanced when her opponent, 10th-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, retired with a blister on her left foot. Zvonareva led, 7-6, 1-0.

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Nadia Petrova of Russia rallied to beat Varvara Lepchenko of the United States, 1-6, 7-5, 6-1, in the opening round of the Pilot Pen tournament in New Haven, Conn. Petrova was a late addition to the field after an ankle injury forced Ana Ivanovic to withdraw.

Elena Dementieva almost missed the start of her first-round match and had to be tracked down on the practice courts. She then went out and beat Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.

American Melanie Oudin was upset by lucky loser Dominka Cibulkova, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

In the men’s draw, two-time Pilot Pen champion James Blake beat Pere Riba of Spain, 6-0, 6-1, in 35 minutes.

ETC.

The Oak Tree Racing Assn. expects to ask for a special meeting by Friday from the California Horse Racing Board to approve an application to hold its fall meeting at Hollywood Park, according to Sherwood Chillingworth, executive vice president at Oak Tree. “We’re close to an agreement,” he said.

Chillingworth said he expects no problems in working out a contract with Hollywood Park after the CHRB rejected an application last week to run the Oak Tree meeting from Sept. 29 through Oct. 31 at Santa Anita. On Monday, accountants were reviewing whether Oak Tree may have to revise its purses allotment because of the move from the Arcadia track to the Inglewood track.

— Eric Sondheimer

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Former Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko is unlikely to skate at the 2014 Sochi Olympics after being punished by the International Skating Union for competing in exhibitions without permission from the Russian federation.

The Olympic gold and silver medalist failed to appeal a June decision by the ISU in the allotted 21 days, and the ISU said Monday its decision was final.

The Russian is now ineligible for “any ISU activity,” the international federation said, including the Olympics, world championships and Grand Prix series.