Nets’ effort to trade for Carmelo Anthony falls apart

A possible four-team trade that could have sent Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony to the New Jersey Nets has fallen apart, according to multiple media reports Tuesday.

The Utah Jazz and Charlotte Bobcats reportedly were in talks about a deal that would have sent Nets rookie Derrick Favors and future draft choices to the Nuggets.

With the discussion swirling, Anthony began training camp Tuesday with his Denver teammates.

The three-time All-Star said he was happy to get back on the court. “It’s just basketball now. I felt great. The first day of practice, I think it was a lot of teaching and going over Xs and Os, strategy. I feel good, though,” Anthony told the Denver Post.

Anthony, 26, turned down a three-year, $65 million extension from the Nuggets during the offseason.

LeBron James went through his first training camp practice with the Miami Heat, and said,” It’s not normal just yet.” The Heat opened training camp Tuesday at Hurlburt Field, an Air Force location in the Florida Panhandle.

“It’s a new beginning for me,” James said. “I don’t feel like a rookie but I feel like it’s a new start. … But as the year goes on, with the team getting to know each other, I continue to get to know you … you get more comfortable with one another.”

Heat teammate Dwyane Wade said the overall intensity at practice was not a surprise: “You’ve got guys who are very anxious to be on the basketball court…LeBron’s very intense in there, defensively, especially.”

The Orlando Magic intends to offer Dwight Howard a contract extension next summer, when he will have one year remaining on his current deal. Howard, who can become a free agent after the 2011-12 season, has two years left on his five-year $80-million contract before he can opt out.

General Manager Otis Smith said, “We want Dwight to be in a Magic uniform for as long as he plays basketball.

Howard, 25, said that he doesn’t want to leave Orlando, but wouldn’t commit to signing an extension next summer. “I can’t answer that,” Howard said. “I mean, I love Orlando. I don’t want to leave.”

Smith said the team is focused on the upcoming season, but that Howard’s contract isn’t “anything we haven’t thought about, but we’ll get there when we get there.

The Boston Celtics opened their training camp Tuesday in Newport, R.I., and after a three-hour practice coach Doc Rivers said his team needed more conditioning.

“They didn’t hold up very well, honestly, and it was a long practice,” Rivers told the Boston Globe. “I thought the last hour of practice you could see that they hadn’t run for three hours in a long time. So we have to get better.”

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love was sent Tuesday for an MRI exam on his swollen right knee. He left the team’s training camp in Mankata, Minn., to undergo the test in the Twin Cities.

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Nick Collison is sidelined indefinitely due to a bone bruise in his left knee. Collison underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in May, but said Monday that his right knee was fully healed.

Horse racing: Rachel Alexandra to retire

Filly Rachel Alexandra, the 2009 Horse of the Year who knocked off the Kentucky Derby winner in the Preakness and finished that year 8-0, has retired, majority owner Jess Jackson announced Tuesday.

“Rachel Alexandra did not return to her 2009 form. I believe it’s time to retire our champion and reward her with a less stressful life. We are delighted that she will retire healthy and happy to our beautiful farm in Kentucky,” Jackson said. “As a 3-year-old, she set standards and records that no filly before her ever achieved.”

After winning the Kentucky Oaks by 20 lengths the day before the 2009 Kentucky Derby, Rachel Alexandra came to Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course ready to take on the colts. She stumbled at the start but the heralded filly was still good enough to beat surging Mine That Bird, the Derby winner, to the wire in the 134th Preakness Stakes.

It was the first Preakness victory by a filly since 1924. Rachel Alexandra will be bred to another Horse of the Year, Curlin, Jackson said.

Co-owned by Jackson and Hal McCormick, Rachel earned more than $3.5 million in her 19-race career, with 13 victories. This year she won just two of five starts.

Real Quiet, the 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner that came within a nose of winning the Triple Crown, died Monday after falling in his paddock at Penn Ridge Farms in Harrisburg, Pa.

The 15-year-old horse suffered a severe fracture to several vertebrae near the base of his neck after falling on his shoulder, said Mike Jester, owner of Penn Ridge Farms.

NHL: Flyers’ Michael Leighton to miss a month

Philadelphia Flyers goaltender goaltender Michael Leighton will miss one month of action with a bulging disc in his back.

Leighton was pulled out of Saturday’s 4-3 preseason victory over the Maple Leafs with the injury and underwent several tests before General Manager Paul Holmgren the announcement Tuesday.

Acquired off waivers from Carolina last December, Leighton ended up being an important part of a Flyers team that advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals before falling in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks.

In 27 regular season games for Philadelphia last season, Leighton went 16-5-2 with a 2.48 goals-against average. He was 8-3 in 14 playoff games.

Additionally, Holmgren announced that checking line specialist Ian Laperriere will be out indefinitely with post-concussion symptoms related to last season. He was injured in the conference quarterfinals against New Jersey, taking a slap shot to the face. He returned in the Eastern Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals.

David Frost, a former youth hockey coach and agent who has been banned from several minor and junior hockey organizations in his native Canada, has been working intermittently at the Laguna Niguel Hockey Academy for several months, but he contradicted reports on the websites of the Toronto Sun and Truehockey.com that said he has been teaching hockey to kids.

Frost was acquitted two years ago of four charges of sexual exploitation involving former players and their girlfriends while he coached a junior team in 1996 and 1997. He also was the target of an alleged murder-for-hire plot initiated by one of his players, Mike Danton.

— Helene Elliott

Tennis: Wozniacki advances in Tokyo tourney

Top-seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki and two- time 2010 Grand Slam finalist Vera Zvonareva of Russia were among Tuesday’s second-round winners at the $2 million Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

The former U.S. Open runner-up Wozniacki waltzed past Hungarian qualifier Greta Arn 6-1, 6-3, while the second-seeded Zvonareva zipped past Italian Sara Errani 6-3, 6-3 on the hardcourts at Ariake Colosseum. Zvonareva was this year’s runner-up at the U.S. Open and Wimbledon.

Basketball: U.S. women rout Belarus in FIBA play

Sylvia Fowles scored a game-high 15 points and grabbed six rebounds, as the United States advanced Tuesday to the quarterfinals of the 2010 FIBA Women’s World Championship with a 107-61 rout of Belarus in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Diana Taurasi added 14 points for the Americans, who have yet to lose in eight games in the competition. They will finish the second round of the tournament with a round-robin matchup against Australia, the other unbeaten team in Group E.

Passing: Former USC and NFL player Don Doll dies

Former USC and NFL player Don Doll has died at 84.

Doll led the Trojans in rushing for three seasons and then became an NFL Pro Bowler, died on Sept. 22 in San Juan Capistrano.

Doll was a member of two Rose Bowl teams. He played in the NFL for six seasons with the Detroit Lions, Washington Redskins and Los Angeles Rams.

He set an NFL rookie record with 11 interceptions in 1949, and had 12 picks in 1950 — which is still tied for the Lions’ record. Doll then helped the Lions win the 1952 NFL Championship.

A four-time Pro Bowl selection, Doll coached in college and the NFL for 34 years. He had two coaching stints with Detroit — 1963-64 and 1978-88. In 2008, Doll was named to the Lions’ all-time team commemorating the club’s 75th season.