Sacramento Kings reinstate DeMarcus Cousins after one-game suspension

The Sacramento Kings reinstated center DeMarcus Cousins after a one-game suspension for “unprofessional behavior and conduct detrimental to the team.”

Cousins practiced with the Kings on Monday. Cousins and Kings Coach Keith Smart exchanged words in the locker room during halftime of Sacramento’s 97-85 loss to the Clippers on Friday night at Staples Center. Smart benched Cousins for the entire second half and ordered him to remain in the locker room.

The 22-year-old Cousins has been suspended two other times by the NBA this season because of his conduct.

He was not with Sacramento during the team’s 108-96 home win against Portland on Sunday night. Cousins is averaging a team-high 16.6 points and 9.5 rebounds.

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Less than a week before soccer’s winter transfer window opens and just three weeks before the Major League Soccer draft, Chivas USA has filled its most gaping front-office vacancy by naming Dutchman Dennis te Kloese sporting president for both the MLS club and its Mexican cousin, Chivas de Guadalajara.

By hiring Te Kloese to oversee soccer operations for both Chivas squads, owner Jorge Vergara is taking another step toward consolidating the two teams, which he said would share one philosophy and one style of play.

Te Kloese has worked for Vergara on both sides of the border, serving as a scout for the Mexican club in Guadalajara and as soccer director for Chivas USA. He has also directed the youth academy for Tigres UANL of the Mexican league and most recently served as general coordinator of the Mexican Soccer Federation’s national youth teams.

— Kevin Baxter

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Authorities say former NFL Pro Bowl linebacker Joey Porter was released from a California jail after paying $70,000 owed to the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas.

A spokeswoman with the Kern County jail in Bakersfield said Porter was released Monday.

Prosecutor Samuel Bateman in Las Vegas says Porter was arrested during the weekend on a theft and bad check complaint filed earlier this year.

Bateman said the 35-year-old Porter paid the amount and was released pending dismissal of the charge. A court date was not immediately set.

The prosecutor says Porter received several IOU markers from the Hard Rock in June.

Porter played 13 seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Miami Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals before retiring in July.

His arrest was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

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Three-time Olympic cross-country skiing champion Marit Bjoergen will miss the Tour de Ski after being hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat.

Bjoergen’s doctor, Hans Petter Stokke, told Norwegian newspaper VG that Bjoergen has been discharged from the hospital and will resume training but will remain under observation for three days.

She went to the hospital in Norway for checkups after experiencing an irregular heart rhythm after training Saturday. She left the hospital the next day.

Norway’s ski federation says Bjoergen would not compete in the Tour de Ski, a multi-stage cross-country competition, which starts Dec. 29 in Oberhof, Germany.