Tuesday Sports in Brief

NBA

Billy Donovan won’t return as coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder after five seasons, the team announced Tuesday night, ending a largely successful run that ought to make him an attractive candidate for jobs around the league.

Donovan, who was at the end of his contract, took the Thunder to the playoffs every year and was a finalist for NBA Coach of the Year this season after his squad outperformed expectations and pushed the Houston Rockets to seven games in the first round of the playoffs.

Donovan went 243-157 with Oklahoma City.

The Thunder and Donovan described his departure as a mutual decision. Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti said he couldn’t give Donovan the assurances he wanted about the future.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) - Giannis Antetokounmpo wanted to play.

The Milwaukee Bucks saved the reigning NBA MVP from himself.

Antetokounmpo was held out of Game 5 of Milwaukee’s Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Miami Heat Tuesday night because of a sprained right ankle - and the Bucks’ season came to an end, falling 103-94.

Miami won the series 4-1.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) - Giannis Antetokounmpo was the Defensive Player of the Year, so it should be no surprise that he was also the leading vote-getter for the league’s All-Defensive team.

The Milwaukee Bucks forward - and favorite to win his second consecutive MVP award - appeared on 97 of the first-team ballots out of 100 cast by a global panel of sports writers and broadcasters who cover the league.

Antetokounmpo was one of three Bucks on the 10-person squad, announced by the league Tuesday.

Also on the first team: Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis, Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert and Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart.

The second team selections were Los Angeles Clippers teammates Kawhi Leonard at forward and Patrick Beverley at guard, Bucks teammates Brook Lopez at center and Eric Bledsoe at guard, and Miami forward Bam Adebayo.

BOSTON (AP) - The Boston Celtics and their charitable arm, the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation, are committing $25 million over the next 10 years for initiatives to address racial injustice and social inequities in the greater Boston area.

The commitment will include $20 million in cash and $5 million in media assets to support the NBA’s efforts, as well as local programs focused on six specific areas that were identified in discussions with community leaders and Celtics players. The collective effort will be called Boston Celtics United for Social Change.

The six areas the efforts will focus on are equity in education, economic opportunity, equity in health care, criminal and law enforcement, breaking down barriers and building bridges between communities, and voting and civic engagement.

NFL

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) - A person with knowledge of the situation tells The Associated Press the Denver Broncos fear star linebacker Von Miller suffered a season-ending ankle injury toward the end of practice Tuesday.

The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because the team hadn’t addressed Miller’s injury, said the team was awaiting results of an MRI on Miller.

The practice took place indoors because of a snowstorm that struck the Rocky Mountains after a series of upper-90s and 100-degree days.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

WACO, Texas (AP) - Baylor became the third Big 12 team forced to postpone its scheduled season opener this weekend after Louisiana Tech reported multiple positive COVID-19 tests Tuesday, less than two weeks after a hurricane affected its campus.

Louisiana Tech athletic director Tommy McClelland said Tuesday night that it wasn’t possible for the Bulldogs to play Saturday at Baylor because of the positive tests and contact tracing that would keep other players out the game.

The school didn’t provide any specific numbers, but said there was a spike in cases in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura on Aug. 27 that impacted the campus in Ruston, Louisiana, which is more than 200 miles inland. McClelland the school had only one positive case in the three weeks before the current outbreak, an indication that protocols in place were working.

COLLEGE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida State women’s basketball coach Sue Semrau is taking a leave of absence to be with her mother, who is recovering from ovarian cancer, the school announced Tuesday.

Semrau, who will spend time with her family in Seattle, has led the program for the past 23 years. She’ll be replaced by Brooke Wyckoff, who has been an assistant for 10 years and associate head coach since 2018.

The 58-year-old Semrau has a 453-257 career record. Her teams twice won the ACC regular season title and reached the NCAA Tournament regional finals three times, most recently in 2017.

SOCCER

ZURICH (AP) - The start of World Cup qualifying for lower-ranked teams in North and Central America and the Caribbean was postponed Tuesday until next year, which means there aren’t enough remaining dates in the current FIFA calendar to complete the program.

FIFA and regional soccer body CONCACAF said qualifiers that had been scheduled for October and November had to be pushed back because of travel and quarantine rules during the coronavirus pandemic.

Thirty lower-ranked nations were due to play four qualifiers each this year but those games should now start in March 2021. Only three of those teams will advance to join the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Honduras in a final eight-team group, from which three teams will qualify directly for the 2022 tournament in Qatar.

NEW YORK (AP) - Add 100 international goals to the extraordinary list of milestones achieved by soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 35-year-old Ronaldo become just the second male player to reach a century of goals for a national team when he curled a free kick into the top corner from 25 meters for the first of his two strikes in Portugal’s 2-0 away win against Sweden in the Nations League on Tuesday.

Scoring one of the best goals of his international career was a fitting way to enter the “100 Club,” where he joins former Iran striker Ali Daei, and he wheeled away in delight in an empty Friends Arena in Stockholm before performing his trademark celebration - the mid-air pirouette.

Ronaldo, who was playing in his 165th game for Portugal, then added a second goal - another curler into the top corner - and needs nine more to surpass the international record of 109 scored by Daei from 1993-2006.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Portland Timbers midfielder Sebastian Blanco tore the ACL in his right knee and will miss the rest of the season.

Blanco will have surgery next week, the team said. He injured his knee early in Portland’s 2-1 victory at Seattle on Sunday.

Blanco was named MVP of the recent MLS is Back tournament in Florida. He had three goals and five assists as the Timbers won the tournament.

SPORTS BUSINESS

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - The University of Colorado has signed a partnership deal with a Denver-based sports betting operator.

The five-year corporate sponsorship with PointsBet was negotiated by Learfield IMG College, the media rights holder for Buffaloes athletics. PointsBet will have signage at Colorado’s football stadium and basketball arena and ads on radio broadcasts and other media.

The deal also includes support for the athletic department’s Scripps Leadership and Career Development program, which helps prepare student-athletes for their post-playing days.

OBITUARY

NEW YORK (AP) - Gene Budig, the self-effacing educator and baseball fan from small-town Nebraska who became the head of three major universities and the last president of the American League, died Tuesday. He was 81.

His death was announced by the commissioner’s office and the Charleston RiverDogs, a minor league team he co-owned. No cause was given. He had been in hospice in South Carolina.

Budig succeeded Bobby Brown as AL president in 1994 and augmented his staff with Larry Doby, the first Black player in the AL. Budig held the job until baseball owners abolished league presidents under a reorganization urged by Selig in 2000.

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