Sports

Kobe Bryant memorial: How to watch and what to know about the service

A legion of 20,000 mourners – from devoted fans to the greatest living legends of the NBA – will celebrate the lives of Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna at a public memorial Monday at the Staples Center, the arena revered as “the house that Kobe built,” in downtown Los Angeles.

The public service comes nearly a month after a helicopter crashed into a foggy hillside in Calabasas, Calif., killing Bryant, Gianna and seven others on board.

KOBE BRYANT HONORED AT NBA ALL-STAR GAME BY MAGIC JOHNSON, JENNIFER HUDSON, COMMON

In the days after the crash, an estimated 250,000 mourners paid tribute to the Los Angeles Lakers legend outside the arena with makeshift memorials, the Los Angeles Times reported. But Monday’s event is being handled differently, with police urging fans to stay away from the area unless they have a ticket.

Fans gathered at a memorial for Kobe Bryant in front of Staples Center in Los Angeles following his death. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Here’s what you need to know about the memorial.

When is the memorial?

The doors of the Staples Center will open at 8 a.m. PT on Monday, Feb. 24.

The service is set to start at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET).

Los Angeles police said several roads in the area will be closed to manage both vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Officers will also manage checkpoints to ensure only those with tickets are allowed to enter the area.

Hours after the memorial, the Los Angles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies will tip-off in a scheduled game at the Staples Center.

How to watch

Members of the public must have purchased a ticket to attend the service, which is now sold out. All the proceeds will go to Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, the Lakers have said.

With only 20,000 seats available in the arena and more than 90,000 people registering to buy tickets, many have been put on a waitlist, according to FOX11 Los Angeles.

There will be no overflow area for fans to watch from outside the Staples Center or the nearby LA Live complex, police said. The exterior screens at both locations will not televise the event to prevent massive crowds.

Those unable to attend the memorial service in person can watch it live on NBA TV beginning at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET), according to a programming schedule on its website.

Livestreams will also be available on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and elsewhere, according to the Los Angeles Lakers’ website.

What to know

The date, 2/24/20, is symbolic of the No. 2 worn by Gianna on her youth basketball team and the No. 24 worn by Bryant over his final ten NBA seasons. The 20 represents Kobe’s tenure as a Laker and how long he and his wife, Vanessa, were married, she wrote on Instagram.

Tickets ranged in price from $24.02 to $224 – numbers that also represent the jersey numbers worn by Bryant and Gianna.

Who’s going?

While it is still unclear who will speak at the service, Bryant’s former Lakers teammate Shaquille O’Neal and former coach Del Harris are expected to be just some of the NBA greats who will fill up the arena, according to the New York Times.

An array of celebrities, athletes and NBA players, both current and former, have honored Bryant in the weeks following his death, including Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Dwayne Wade, Queen Latifah and Common.

Tyson Fury beats Deontay Wilder in rematch for WBC heavyweight title

Britain’s Tyson Fury defeated American boxer Deontay Wilder of Alabama on Saturday night in Las Vegas to capture the WBC heavyweight title.

Fury, whose previous fight with Wilder, in Los Angeles in 2018, ended in a draw, knocked down Wilder in the third and fifth rounds — and dominated the bout until Wilder’s team threw in the towel during the seventh round, according to the Associated Press.

Tyson Fury, of Britain, lands a right to Deontay Wilder during a WBC heavyweight championship boxing match Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020, in Las Vegas. (Asssociated Press)

Video posted on social media appeared to show Fury trying to lick blood off Wilder’s neck during the fight.

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The loss — in Wilder’s 11th defense of the championship he won in 2015 — was his first in 44 fights, the AP reported.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes win with help from Zamboni driver after 2 goalies get hurt

TORONTO — Emergency backup goalie Dave Ayres made eight saves in relief of Carolina’s two injured netminders in the Hurricanes‘ 6-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

Ayres, who works as a Zamboni driver for the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, was forced into action midway through the second period after Carolina’s James Reimer and Petr Mrazek were injured. The Hurricanes were leading 3-1 when the 42-year-old Ayres took over.

LA KINGS TRADE CUP-WINNING GOAL SCORER MARTINEZ TO VEGAS

Warren Foegele scored twice, Martin Necas had a goal and an assist, and Lucas Wallmark, Nino Niederreiter and Sebastian Aho also scored for Carolina.

Alexander Kerfoot, Pierre Engvall and John Tavares scored for Toronto, which beat the Hurricanes 8-6 at home on Dec. 23. Kasperi Kapanen and Tyson Barrie each had two assists. Frederik Andersen made 43 saves.

Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Pierre Engvall (47) scores his team’s third goal of the game against Carolina Hurricanes emergency goalie David Ayres (90) during second-period NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. (Associated Press)

Reimer started against his former team, but left just 6:10 into the first period with a lower-body injury after Toronto’s Zach Hyman shoved a Hurricanes defenseman on top of him in the crease.

Mrazek came in, but also had to leave after a thunderous collision with Leafs forward Kyle Clifford while attempting to play the puck near the face-off dot in Carolina’s zone in the second.

That forced Ayres, who was available to both teams, into action.

After a bizarre second period that saw Carolina score four times, give up two goals, lose Mrazek, and have Ayres enter the game, the Hurricanes made it 5-3 just 53 seconds into the third, jumping on a turnover and beating Andersen in tight.

Necas then made it 6-3 at 3:44 when he picked up a loose puck to finish off a chaotic sequence as boos rained down.

Carolina trailed 1-0 after the first, but tied it at 5:46 of the second when Wallmark scored off a scramble in front of Andersen. Niederrieter then blasted a one-timer on a power play at 9:43 before Foegele made it 3-1 at 10:49.

Mrazek made 14 saves in relief of Reimer, but left the game 30 seconds after Foegele’s first goal. The Czech netminder lay on the ice for a few minutes before leaving.

And after a delay, Ayres emerged from the Hurricanes locker room sporting No. 90. He got a some warmup shots from his new teammates before getting thrown into the fray.

Aho made it 4-1 with Clifford in the penalty box for charging at 13:17, but Tavares scored on the first shot against Ayres through the pads 19 seconds later.

Engvall scored off a loose puck on Toronto’s next shot against Ayres at 15:10.

The Leafs got a power play after that — fans at Scotiabank Arena screamed “Shoot!” almost every time a Toronto player had the puck anywhere near the Carolina goal — but the Hurricanes didn’t allow anything through.

Ayres made his first save late in the second on Auston Matthews as Carolina led 4-3 through a wild 40 minutes.

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Kerfoot capped a frantic first period with 35.1 seconds left when he scored his ninth of the season after Mrazek couldn’t control a shot by Jake Muzzin.

In the first period, Zach Hyman shoved Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin into Reimer, earning an interference penalty. The Carolina goalie, who played for Toronto from 2010 to 2016, stayed in the crease after being looked at by a trainer, but left shortly thereafter.

Pilot in Kobe Bryant crash once violated FAA rules on low-visibility flying: report

The pilot flying the helicopter that crashed into a Los Angeles County hillside late last month, killing retired NBA star Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi, the pilot and six others, had once violated federal flight rules by flying over airspace near the Los Angeles International Airport against the orders of air traffic control, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

Ara Zobayan in 2015 was denied clearance to fly an AS350 into the airspace because of reduced visibility and weather conditions, The Los Angeles Times reported.

KOBE BRYANT, DAUGHTER GIANNA LAID TO REST IN PRIVATE CALIFORNIA FUNERAL, REPORTS SAY

“Had Mr. Zobayan properly planned and reviewed current weather at LAX, he would have been able to anticipate the required action to transit … resulting in proper coordination,” the 2015 report said, adding “There are no indications that this is a repeated incident and there are no signs that this incident is a trend with Mr. Zobayan.”

Pilot Ara Zobayan was at the controls of the helicopter that crashed in Southern California on Jan. 26, 2020, killing all nine people aboard including former Lakers star Kobe Bryant. (Group 3 Aviation via AP)

Zobayan took responsibility for his mistake and was counseled by an FAA investigator afterward, the FAA said in the report.

Helicopter pilot Shawn Coyle told The Times the violation was considered minor and he doesn’t know a pilot who hasn’t violated a rule.

“If that’s the only violation he’s ever had then I would say he’s pretty safe,” he said.

Zobayan was attempting to climb out of a cloud layer on Jan. 26 when the chartered helicopter dropped 1,200 feet into a hillside in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas, killing everyone on board.

Zobayan was the chief pilot for Island Express Helicopters Inc. at the time of the crash, the same company he flew for in 2015.

Kurt Deetz, a former pilot for Island Express Helicopters, told the newspaper, “You can’t request special VFR and then they deny you and you say, ‘Oh wait a minute, actually I’m VFR’,” he said. “That’s not how it works. It shows that perhaps his understanding of special VFR, as opposed to VFR, was cloudy.”

Island Express reported that it conducted additional ground and flight training with him after the 2015 incident.

In 2015, he requested to continue flying using special visual flight rules (VFR), which would allow him to fly in suboptimal visibility conditions but was denied, unlike last month when he was granted the request.

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Bryant and Gigi will be honored at a sold-out memorial Monday at Staples Center in Los Angeles, where the basketball legend spent his career as a Laker.

Mountain West Conference women’s basketball championship history

The Mountain West Conference holds an annual women’s basketball tournament with the winner getting an automatic bid to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.

The conference features 11 teams: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State and Wyoming.

The Mountain West women’s basketball tournament begins March 1 and runs through March 4.

It began in 2000.

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Read below for a list of past champions.

2019: BOISE STATE

Boise State won three straight titles from 2017 to 2019. (Photo by Douglas Stringer/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Boise State won a third straight title in 2019. The Broncos defeated Wyoming, 68-51. Braydey Hodgins was named tournament MVP.

2018: BOISE STATE

Boise State defeated Nevada, 62-60, in 2018. Riley Lupfer was named tournament MVP.

2017: BOISE STATE

In 2017, Boise State won the Mountain West with a 66-53 victory over Fresno State. Brooke Pahukoa won a second MVP.

2016: COLORADO STATE

Colorado State narrowly defeated Fresno State, 55-54, in 2016. Elin Gustavsson was named tournament MVP.

2015: BOISE STATE

Boise State defeated New Mexico, 66-60, in 2015. The Broncos’ Brooke Pahukoa was named MVP.

2014: FRESNO STATE

In 2014, Fresno State defeated Colorado 77-68. Taylor Thompson was MVP of the tournament.

2013: FRESNO STATE

Fresno State won its first Mountain West crown in 2013. It defeated San Diego State, 76-70. Ki-Ki Moore was named MVP.

2012: SAN DIEGO STATE

San Diego State won a second title in three years in 2012. The Aztecs defeated New Mexico, 57-43. Chelsea Hopkins was named tournament MVP.

2011: UTAH

In 2011, Utah needed overtime to beat TCU. It won 52-47. Janita Badon was named tournament MVP

2010: SAN DIEGO STATE

San Diego State needed overtime to knock off Utah in 2010. It won 70-60. Quenese Davis was named MVP.

2009: UTAH

Utah finally won the Mountain West again in 2009, defeating San Diego State 63-58. Morgan Warburton was named MVP.

2008: NEW MEXICO

New Mexico won a fifth Mountain West title in 2008. It defeated San Diego State, 62-59. Dionne Marsh won a third MVP in 2008.

2007: NEW MEXICO

New Mexico won another title in 2007, defeating BYU 63-49. Dionne Marsh became the first player to win multiple MVPs in 2007.

2006: UTAH

Utah defeated BYU, 84-60, in 2006. Shona Thorburn was named tournament MVP.

2005: NEW MEXICO

In 2005, New Mexico three-peated as champion. It knocked off Utah 47-37. Dionne Marsh was named MVP.

2004: NEW MEXICO

New Mexico became the first repeat winner in 2004, defeating Utah, 71-50. Lindsey Ardnt was named MVP.

2003: NEW MEXICO

New Mexico won the title in 2003. It defeated BYU, 52-46. Jordan Adams won the MVP award.

2002: BYU

BYU won its second Mountain West title in 2002. It defeated UNLV, 61-46. Erin Thorn was named MVP.

2001: COLORADO STATE

Colorado State edged BYU, 59-56, in 2001 to win the conference title. Heather Haanen was named tournament MVP.

2000: UTAH

Utah defeated BYU, 61-47, in the first-ever Mountain West title game in 2000. Tiana Fuertes was named tournament MVP.

BYU Cougars pole vaulter needs stitches after horrific mishap

A BYU pole vaulter suffered a horrific injury during a practice run and shared video of the accident on social media.

Zach McWhorter, 21, was attempting to go over the bar when he suffered the eye-watering mishap and the pole pierced his scrotum. He posted the original video on TikTok and it was shared across social media.

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“I could see right into my scrotum,” he told BuzzFeed on Thursday

McWhorter said he needed more than a dozen stitches to repair the damage.

“Immediately after the incident, we got in his car and drove to the hospital and he sewed me up. It required 18 stitches!” he said. “Fortunately, as far as I know, there is nothing wrong with my testicles — just a scar. One day, we’ll find out if they function or not.”

WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO

As for advice to share with his fellow pole vaulters, he said they should always wear spandex with their shorts and make sure to put a cap on their pole vaulting pole.

The freshman was a 2016 U.S. Track and Field national champion and four-time Arkansas state pole vaulting champion before going to BYU.

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The team finished the Texas Tech Shootout last week, where McWhorter finished 12th in men’s pole vaulting, and will participate in the JDL DMR Invitational in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Friday and Saturday.

JJ Watt leads displeasure with CBA proposal after NFL owners’ approval

NFL stars J.J. Watt, Leonard Fournette and Richard Sherman are among those who came out against the collective bargaining agreement, which was approved by owners Thursday.

Part of the agreement moves the NFL to a 17-game schedule beginning in 2021 with players getting an increase in compensation. The playoffs also would increase from 12 teams to 14.

NFL OWNERS APPROVE TERMS OF NEW COLLECTIVE-BARGAINING AGREEMENT

“Following more than ten months of intensive and thorough negotiations, the NFL Players and clubs have jointly developed a comprehensive set of new and revised terms that will transform the future of the game, provide for players – past, present, and future – both on and off the field, and ensure that the NFL’s second century is even better and more exciting for the fans,” the NFL said in a statement.

“The membership voted today to accept the negotiated terms on the principal elements of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Players Association would also need to vote to approve the same terms for there to be a new agreement.”

NFL PLAYERS EXPRESS SKEPTICISM AS LEAGUE APPEARS CLOSE TO ADDING 17TH GAME TO SCHEDULE

While NFL players expressed skepticism before the owners approved the CBA, Watt, Fournette and Sherman came out Thursday against the agreement.

“Hard no on that proposed CBA,” Watt tweeted.

Sherman responded to Watt, saying “Leadership! I am with you! Please communicate with your team rep.”

Fournette tweeted he was against going 17 games during the regular season.

Others sought a 50/50 split in revenue if the league was going to 17 games. The NFL only agreed to increase the sharing to about 48 percent for players.

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The NFLPA is reportedly set to meet Friday to discuss the proposal.

Gut-Behrami ends 2-year wait for win in a World Cup downhill

In ski-crazy Switzerland, Lara Gut-Behrami’s first World Cup victory in more than two years was quickly labeled “a resurrection” by broadcasters.

The former teenage prodigy, an overall World Cup champion in 2016, led a 1-2 Swiss finish in a downhill race Friday on the Mont Lachaux course, beating discipline leader Corinne Suter by 0.80 seconds. Stephanie Venier of Austria was third, 0.92 behind.

It was the biggest winning margin in a women’s downhill this season.

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“Finally, I was able to ski the way I wanted,” Gut-Behrami said. “I wasn’t thinking. When I’m thinking I know that I’m slower, and this has been happening almost the entire season.”

An elite speed racer with an Olympic medal and seven career World Cup winsin the marquee discipline, Gut-Behrami had a best result of 10th place in the six previous downhills.

While Gut-Behrami’s form had slipped, Suter has built on her world championship silver medal from last year to be the top-ranked Swiss downhiller. Suter can clinch the season-long discipline title on Saturday, taking advantage of closest challenger Mikaela Shiffrin’s extended break from racing after the death of her father.

“I don’t watch these standings,” said Suter, whose nearest rival is now Ester Ledecka, the 2018 Olympic gold medalist in skiing and snowboarding who finished 11th on Friday.

Shiffrin still leads the overall standings but two racers moved closer to the three-time defending champion. Petra Vlhova was fourth on Friday, 1.08 behind, to score an unexpected 50 World Cup points for a career-best result in downhill. The Slovakian slalom specialist only ever started one World Cup downhill until last month.

Federica Brignone tied for seventh to earn 36 points and cut Shiffrin’s lead to only 77. The Italian racer is favored to score 100 points in Sunday’s combined event, a race she won in the past three seasons at Crans-Montana.

Shiffrin’s era of World Cup domination began after the then-Lara Gut won the overall title four years ago.

Friday’s win was the 25th of Gut-Behrami’s World Cup career and the first since she married Switzerland international soccer player Valon Behrami.

Suter looked to be the likely winner until Gut-Behrami, starting 18th, began a consistently fast run on the 2.45-kilometer (1 1/2-mile) course. Gut-Behrami had a half-second lead midway down and clocked the second-fastest speed check at 105 kph (65 mph).

The sun-bathed, south-facing slope hosted an extra downhill this weekend to replace the Feb. 1 race canceled by bad weather on the 2014 Olympic course in Russia.

Vlhova was among several skiers launched off a mid-race jump, and she needed to twist in mid-air to maintain balance and stay on the racing line.

A slick racing surface saw some racers go too fast through corners and miss a gate. Elisabeth Reisinger of Austria was airlifted from the mountain after crashing and sliding into a safety fence.

Last year, there was a finish-line timing problem at the race in Crans-Montana downhill. The podium places were amended three days later and Gut-Behrami dropped from third to sixth.

US, others pull out of Luge World Cup, citing safety

The U.S. has pulled its entire team out of this weekend’s series of World Cup luge races in Winterberg, Germany, while athletes from many nations are protesting what they are calling unsafe ice conditions.

Austria has also withdrawn its entire team from the weekend events and even several sliders from Germany — on home ice, no less — have said they are not willing to race this weekend. The International Luge Federation offered a compromise of sorts Friday by saying it would shorten the race distance, but even that did not solve the intense disagreement between sliders and officials over the safety issue.

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“Based on the feedback from our athletes and coaches, we will not participate in the Winterberg World Cup,” USA Luge said in a statement Friday. “We respect their opinions that conditions are not safe. The entire Austrian team has walked away, as well as some Germans and Russians, including Olympic medalists and World Cup leaders, who are also not racing.”

Sliders from many nations have said there is too much ice buildup on certain curves, which significantly increases the chance of crashing.

Training this weekend in Winterberg has been marred by several crashes and even some injuries to top sliders. The German doubles team of Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt — one of the best and most accomplished teams in the history of the sport — wrote on their shared Facebook page that the risk of crashing was “extremely high and therefore incalculable.”

“Not only are track conditions less than ideal but this was brought to the attention of the FIL and yet again we were told that everything is OK,” said USA Luge veteran Chris Mazdzer, the 2018 Olympic men’s silver medalist. “It is always OK. For the last 15 years everything has been OK. … Everything is not OK.”

All three of the top German doubles sleds have said they will not compete this weekend. The entire Austrian luge team, including Olympic men’s champion David Gleirscher, said Thursday that it was going home. Top Russian men’s slider Roman Repilov also was considering skipping this weekend.

Gleirscher crashed during a training run, and his mind was made up right there.

“I was lucky in my training crash and don’t want to take the risk a second time,” Gleirscher said.

Mazdzer was planning to skip at least one of his two races this weekend before the American federation decided to pull out en masse.

“We are racing drivers, want to compete with others at the highest level and love this thrill,” German doubles team Robin Johannes Geueke and David Gamm wrote on their Instagram page, explaining why they pulled out of a World Cup on their home track. “But as much as we were looking forward to it here, we have to decide just as sensibly that health is not only in the foreground and not only of us but of all other athletes.”

The de facto boycott by some athletes will impact who winds up winning the season World Cup men’s, women’s and doubles championships. Winterberg is the next-to-last race on the World Cup schedule, followed by the finale next weekend in Konigssee, Germany.

Repilov leads the men’s standings by 61 points over Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller. Tatiana Ivanova of Russia leads Germany’s Julia Taubitz by 12 points in the women’s race. Germany’s Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken lead Wendl and Arlt by 10 points in the race for the doubles title.

With 100 points awarded for a win, the standings could have shifted wildly this weekend.

“In our eyes, the track is not suitable,” Austria coach Rene Friedl said.

Nation’s Cup races, which are qualifying races for the World Cup, were held Friday. Only five doubles sleds competed, compared to 15 that were in the Nation’s Cup doubles race at the most recent World Cup earlier this month.

Tua Tagovailoa reveals which team he would want to play for if it was up to him

Tua Tagovailoa is seeing stars.

The Alabama quarterback could have been the top pick in the NFL Draft in April if it wasn’t for the hip injury he suffered during the 2019 season. He talked to the NFL Network on Friday and was asked where he would play if he had the choice.

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“If you’re saying to me if I could choose what team I want to play on growing up, then I’d probably tell you the Cowboys. But they’re so far down [in the draft],” he replied.

When told about the Cowboys still trying to negotiate a contract with Dak Prescott, Tagovailoa didn’t appear fazed.

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“I’ll learn under him.”

It’s unlikely Tagovailoa falls beyond the seventh pick in the draft.

The Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins, Los Angeles Chargers and Carolina Panthers are all interested in a quarterback and could land Tagovailoa.

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Some mock drafts have him playing for the Lions or the Dolphins. LSU quarterback Joe Burrow is the consensus No. 1 overall pick after leading the Tigers to a national championship, winning the Heisman Trophy and having one of the best seasons of any quarterback ever in college football.

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