Posts from the Breaking News Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Whatever hopes the Cavaliers had of winning the final two games of the series against the Celtics just took a huge hit, as sharp-shooter Daniel Gibson has been ruled out of Game 6 with a separated shoulder. Gibson left Game 5 early in the fourth quarter with the injury, which will keep him out of action for at least one-two weeks. Which, you know, is bad news for Cleveland, because this series definitely won't last past Sunday, and might not even get that far.

While Gibson's only big game of the series came in Game 4 where he dropped in 14 points, the fact that he's a long range threat tends to open things up for the all-important one, LeBron James. So even though Gibson's firepower won't necessarily be missed, his presence will be, and that might be just enough to get the Celtics over the hump on the road in Game 6.

Would Sven-Goran Eriksson trade a run at the UEFA Cup for a run at the Gold Cup?

Apparently, that's what the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación is hoping. According to The Guardian, Mexico has approached Eriksson about managing its national team.

Mexico fired Hugo Sanchez last March after he failed to lead the Mexican U-23 team to the Olympics and is reportedly chasing after a high-profile European manager to replace Sanchez. Eriksson tops Mexico's wish list in part because he brought Mexican national Nery Castillo to Man City last January.

I have my doubts that the successful Swede, who has won league titles in Italy and Portugal, would leave Europe to manage a national team in CONCACAF. Yes, he would have an easy road to the World Cup in 2010, but that might not be enough of a challenge for him. Plus, we don't know if the secretarial pool in Mexico would be to his liking.

Eriksson is also linked to Chelsea and might be waiting to see what happens to Avram Grant before making his final decision. Man City fans, meanwhile, are continuing to campaign to save Sven from getting sacked. They even have an online petition. Good luck getting Thaksin Shinawatra to notice that, guys.

A few months ago, I made the argument in this space that the winner of the U.S. Open Cup, the American equivalent to England's FA Cup, deserved a spot in the new CONCACAF Champions League. Someone out there must have been listening.

CONCACAF announced the qualification format for its new Champions League last night, and starting this year, the 2008 U.S. Open Cup champion will earn a bid to the 2009-10 Champions League. This will allow clubs playing in United Soccer Leagues, the divisions below Major League Soccer, an opportunity to qualify for the Champions League. Last year, six MLS clubs were knocked out of the Open Cup by USL clubs, and both the Seattle Sounders and Carolina Railhawks of USL-1 reached the semifinals and took their MLS opponents to extra time before bowing out.

In addition, the 2008 Supporters' Shield winner and both MLS Cup finalists will earn Champions League bids. Because the New England Revolution was both Open Cup winner and MLS Cup runner-up last season, that club will take the Open Cup spot, and Chivas USA will take the vacant spot because they had the second-best regular season record.

The NBA named their Executive of the Year today, and not surprisingly, the prize went to the Celtics' Danny Ainge. The Celtics were able to go from one of the worst teams in the league a season ago to the team with the most regular season wins this year, a feat that's worth recognizing to some extent. But as our headline states (sentiment courtesy of Matt Moore), Ainge was really more lucky in getting Garnett (by way of his relationship with Kevin McHale) than he was skillful in pulling off any amazing deal.

The alternatives to Ainge though aren't really that exciting either. The Lakers' Mitch Kupchak finished second, largely because he didn't acquiesce to Kobe's off-season trade demands, and because he was able to get Pau Gasol from Memphis for Kwame Brown. As great as that deal was though, Mitch wouldn't have even pursued it had Andrew Bynum not gone down with a knee injury. Still, Kupchak is the one who put together this Laker roster over several seasons, and now that it's all come together, he seems like the logical choice.

One final note on this award, and that's the fact that inexplicably, third place went to Hornets' GM Jeff Bower. Now, either the people who vote for this award are completely lazy, or they simply don't know what they're talking about. The only difference between this year's Hornets roster and the one from last season is the addition of Morris Peterson and Melvin Ely. So those guys are the reason NOLA has the Spurs down 3-2? I don't think so. Plus, Bower didn't even draft Chris Paul or Davd West, so how he can receive so much credit for the team's success this season is beyond me.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter said today that an independent investigation is needed of the New England Patriots' practice of spying on their opponents.

"There ought to be an impartial investigation, an outside investigation, like the investigation that baseball had with Senator George Mitchell," Specter said.

Specter said he first became interested in the Patriotgate story in November, when he first heard that the NFL had destroyed the tapes the Patriots turned in to the league. He said the NFL was not responsive to his requests for more information, and he suggested that the league is trying to sweep the issue under the rug.

Whether Specter gets his Mitchell Commission or not, there's no question that despite the talk this morning that the Spygate story is over, Specter doesn't think it should be -- and U.S. senators have a way of keeping stories alive.

Tony Kornheiser announced on his radio show this morning that he has accepted a buyout from the Washington Post, effectively retiring him as a newspaper writer/worker.

Kornheiser has been at the Post since 1979 and for a pair of generations -- ours and our parents -- is probably considered the most important sports journalism voice from the Capitol area. Kornheiser sounded (as transcribed by Dan Steinberg) melancholy about his departure.

"All I ever wanted to be was a newspaper writer," he said, which is likely not something that anyone under the age of 30 will ever say again. "This other stuff is great, but I don't care about it," he continued. "In my mind that's what it says on the headstone, it says 'newspaper guy.' "

But he also said he signed the papers to take the Post's buyout last night, after working here for, I believe, 29 years. He said he still might contract with The Post to do his Talking Points videos and his Page 2 excerpts, and he said some people in the leadership asked him to stay but didn't really insist, and even though he'll keep doing PTI and the radio show and MNF, he said he feared he'd never have the moral high ground again.

Wow. I know that last sentence is not word-for-word from Tony's mouth, but what does that say about his relationship with ESPN? Lacks moral high ground but involves a ton of money? Maybe. If that's the case, and I sense that plugging every ABC/Disney product in sight is not his idea of "moral high ground", then it's kind of sad to think that Kornheiser will eventually be known for that work and not his WaPo writing.

The Boston Herald has apologized for its article saying the New England Patriots videotaped the St. Louis Rams' final walk-through practice before the 2002 Super Bowl. The apology reads in full:
The February 2 Herald story, written by John Tomase and headlined, "Source: Pats employee filmed Rams" has not been removed from the newspaper's web archive.

Previously on FanHouse:
Boston Herald Owes Its Readers an Explanation on Patriots Spygate Story
Will Patriots Owner Bob Kraft Sue the Boston Herald Over Spygate Story?
Chris Mortensen: ESPN Had Rams' Walk-Through Story, It Didn't Meet Our Standards

Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs.

Speaking to media about an hour ago, Pistons coach Flip Saunders indicated that he didn't expect to have Chauncey Billups active for tonight's game. He left open the possibility that Billups might change his mind but said that Billups still didn't feel right following this morning's shootaround.

"It's up to the players [to decide] when they're right," said Saunders. "And when they're right, I don't want them to have any hesitation, because if they're not right and they have hesitation, they're not going to play very good, to be honest. So, he's got to feel comfortable as far as about it."

Saunders added that if Billups wanted to give it a go, he'd have the blessing of the training staff. "We don't think that he can hurt it anymore, but he just feels that there's still some soreness in there. I think that it's more than anything else."

With Billups in street clothes, Saunders said he'd go with the same roster he used in Game 4, which means that Juan Dixon and Lindsey Hunter will be active while little-used power forward Amir Johnson will be the odd man out. Rookie Rodney Stuckey will get the start. In speaking with Magic coach Stan Van Gundy and Rashard Lewis, whether the Pistons have Billups won't change a thing in Orlando's game plan.

The NBA revealed it's All-Rookie Teams today, and by and large there weren't any huge surprises. But can you guess who the only unanimous choice to the first team was? If you guessed Rookie of the Year Kevin Durant ... you'd be wrong.

Actually, it was Al Horford, who finished with 29 first-place votes. Durant finished with 28. It's too bad the ballots aren't open -- I'd love to see which NBA coach actually thought Durant was no better than the sixth-best rookie this year. (Remember, coaches can't vote for their own players but aren't limited by position.) Luis Scola (26 first place votes), Al Thornton (20) and Jeff Green (15) rounded out the first team.

On the second team is Jamario Moon (12), Juan Carlos Navarro (5), Thaddeus Young (4), Rodney Stuckey (5) and Carl Landry (1). Other players receiving first place votes include Joakim Noah (1), Nick Young (2), Mike Conley (1) and Corey Brewer (1).

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell met with former Patriots videotape assistant Matt Walsh and Walsh's lawyer today, and Goodell made clear afterward that he believes the issue of New England taping the St. Louis Rams' final walk-through practice before the 2002 Super Bowl is over.

"There was no Rams walk-through tape," Goodell said. "No one asked him to tape the walk-through. He's not aware of anyone else who taped the walk-through. He had not seen such a tape. He is not aware of anyone who knows of such a tape."