BASKETBALL
Cooper and Ace Flagg are headed to Maine for basketball games this winter. And now it’s known when, and against whom, they’ll be playing.
The Flaggs’ Montverde Academy boys’ basketball team will play twice in Portland, Jan. 5 and 6.
Montverde will play South Shore High School of Brooklyn, New York, at the Cross Insurance Arena at 7:30 p.m. Jan, 5, and CATS Academy Boston of Braintree, Massachusetts, the following day at the Portland Expo. The time for the second game is still undetermined.
The games are being dubbed on the Montverde schedule as the “Maine Event.” They will mark the first time the Newport natives, both 16, play official games in Maine since leading Nokomis Regional High to the 2022 Class A championship.
Cooper Flagg, who reclassified to the Class of 2024 in August, is currently the top-ranked high school basketball player in the country, according to ESPN and Rivals.com, and is entertaining scholarship offers from a list of schools including Duke, Kansas and Connecticut.
Ace Flagg has received Division I offers from a list including West Virginia, Saint Joseph’s and the University of Maine.
OBIT: Brendan Malone, father of Denver Nuggets Coach Michael Malone and a driving force behind the Detroit Pistons “Bad Boys” defenses in the late 1980s and early ’90s, has died at age 81.
A Nuggets representative told The Associated Press on Tuesday that a family member confirmed his death.
Malone spent three decades as an assistant or head coach in the NBA, working for the Knicks, Pacers, Cavaliers, Magic, Raptors and Pistons. He also served as the lead assistant for his son with the Kings.
It was during his time as Chuck Daly’s assistant in Detroit from 1988-95 that the elder Malone championed “The Jordan Rules,” a set of defensive principles designed to curtail Michael Jordan’s offensive prowess.
Although Jordan eventually found ways for the Bulls to surpass the Pistons, the strategy helped Detroit eliminate Chicago in the Eastern Conference Finals on the way to a pair of NBA titles in 1989 and ’90.
NBA: Payton Pritchard scored 17 points to lead Boston in scoring for a third straight preseason game and the Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers for the second time in four days, 112-101 at Philadelphia.
Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White each had 11 points in the first half, and Pritchard added 10 points to help Boston build a 67-59 lead.
Porzingis scored five of Boston’s opening seven points.
Pritchard played 24 minutes and Porzingis, Holiday and White did not play after each logged 17 minutes in the first half. Pritchard was 7 of 15 from the field, including 3 of 9 from 3-point range. White, who led the league in blocks by a guard last season, also had three blocks in the first half.
New Sixer Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 18 points with four 3-pointers and Tyrese Maxey added 17 points. Joel Embiid and James Harden again did not play.
Pritchard was coming off a 21-point performance in a 114-107 loss to New York on Monday. He also scored 26 points in a 114-106 win over Philadelphia to begin the preseason on Sunday.
• The Charlotte Hornets waived former first-round draft pick Kai Jones just three days after the center/forward announced on social media that he had requested to be traded.
The 19th overall pick in 2021 out of Texas, Jones appeared in 67 games in two seasons with the Hornets, averaging 2.7 points in 9.1 minutes per game.
COLLEGES
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Kansas announced that an independent panel has downgraded five Level I violations lodged by the NCAA against the men’s basketball program and Jayhawks Coach Bill Self, ending a years-long saga by giving KU three years of probation and no other penalties.
The school had appealed the violations, which sprung from a 2017 investigation into college basketball corruption, through the Independent Accountability Review Process that was created to handle complex cases. Among the NCAA charges was a lack of institutional control and an allegation that Self failed in his responsibility to keep the program in compliance.
The case hinged on whether representatives of the apparel company Adidas were considered boosters — the school contends they were not — when two of them arranged payments to prospective recruits. The school never disputed that the payments were made, only that it had any knowledge of the inducements.
BASEBALL
MAJORS: Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said personnel changes are possible after three days of meetings last week that followed the team’s worst season in three decades.
“We’re going to be making some changes. Some may be more subtle than others. But I think we’ve uncovered certainly things we can do better,” he said during a panel discussion with team president Randy Levine at Sportico’s Invest in Sports conference.
Asked by The Associated Press afterward what changes could be made, he said: “Anything’s possible. There’s a lot more discussions to be had.”
New York failed to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The Yankees finished 82-80, their worst record since 1992, despite a 2023 payroll projected at $281 million and a luxury tax bill estimated at $31 million.
Steinbrenner said a group of 15 team officials met last week in Tampa, Florida.
“I want you to challenge everything, all of our philosophies, all of our practices, but more importantly, in a respectful way, I want you to challenge each other. I want you to critique each other. Check your egos at the door,” he recalled.
“At times it got a little dicey. but it was respectful the entire time. And there wasn’t one stone we left unturned, from health of the team, what we’re doing in the clubhouse, clubhouse culture, what we do in the weight room, analytics, pro scouting, biomechanics, is there enough communication between everybody.”
Brian Cashman, the general manager since 1998, agreed last December to a four-year contract. Aaron Boone took over as manager before the 2018 season and has one more guaranteed season in a three-year deal that includes a team option for 2025.
Steinbrenner filled in team captain Aaron Judge during a meeting Tuesday at Yankee Stadium and planned to speak with ace pitcher Gerrit Cole.
• Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor had surgery to remove a bone spur from his right elbow, and the team said he is expected to be ready for spring training in mid-February.
Lindor, who turns 30 next month, hit .254 with 31 homers and 98 RBI in his third season with the Mets, who finished fourth in the NL East at 75-87.
• Mets owner Steve Cohen hopes to construct a casino adjacent to Citi Field as a way to attract people to the area near the ballpark.
Cohen, who bought the Mets before the 2021 season, hopes to create attractions near the stadium in Queens in the manner of other teams.
“There’s nothing going on. The only thing you can do at Citi Field is get your hubcap changed or maybe get back a catalytic converter,” he said during the closing session of Sportico’s Invest in Sports conference. “The way I would describe it is 50 acres of cement.”
GOLF
PGA: Byeong Hun An was suspended for violating the PGA Tour’s anti-doping policy because of a banned substance found in cough medicine sold over the counter in South Korea.
The PGA Tour announced the three-month suspension and said the 32-year-old An cooperated during the process and accepted his suspension.
He is believed to be the eighth player suspended since the PGA Tour began drug testing in 2008, and the first since Matt Every in 2019.
TENNIS
SHANGHAI MASTERS: Grigor Dimitrov upset second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals at Shanghai.
Dimitrov, who hadn’t beaten the former No. 1 in their three previous meetings, was crisp from both wings and used his backhand drop shot to keep Alcaraz off balance. The Bulgarian struck 29 winners and 10 aces and rallied after relinquishing a 5-3 lead in the first set to reach his 17th Masters quarterfinal.
Dimitrov will next meet 22nd-seeded Nicolas Jarry, who beat wild-card entry Diego Schwartzmann 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to make the last eight of a Masters tournament for the first time.
Also, Ugo Humbert eliminated J.J. Wolf 6-1, 6-2 in a dominant 58-minute victory. T
Humbert will next play fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev, who beat No. 12 Tommy Paul 7-5, 7-5.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Three former Australian Open champions — Naomi Osaka, Caroline Wozniacki and Angelique Kerber — are set to return to Melbourne Park in January following maternity leave, joined by 2022 winner Rafael Nadal and hometown favorite Nick Kyrgios.
The tournament will run from Jan. 14-28, with its opening day of play on a Sunday for the first time.
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