Should Na have been penalized?

Kevin Na made an odd move on the 15^th tee Saturday in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. 

Preparing to hit a driver on the par-4 hole, Na took his backswing, then made a high-speed downswing, but passed the clubhead well over the top of the ball.

PGA Tour officials looked at the swing on video and ruled Na did not make an attempt to strike the ball, Golf Channel reported. So he was not penalized. Fellow player Tommy Gainey, interviewed on air, indicated he wasn’t totally convinced that Na should not have been charged with a stroke.After his round, Na told GolfChannel's Todd Lewis that he did not intend to strike the ball.

Na shares the 54-hole lead with Nick Watney at 17 under par.

Should Na have been penalized?

Kevin Na made an odd move on the 15^th tee Saturday in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. 

Preparing to hit a driver on the par-4 hole, Na took his backswing, then made a high-speed downswing, but passed the clubhead well over the top of the ball.

PGA Tour officials looked at the swing on video and ruled Na did not make an attempt to strike the ball, Golf Channel reported. So he was not penalized. Fellow player Tommy Gainey, interviewed on air, indicated he wasn’t totally convinced that Na should not have been charged with a stroke.After his round, Na told GolfChannel's Todd Lewis that he did not intend to strike the ball.

Na shares the 54-hole lead with Nick Watney at 17 under par.

Should Na have been penalized?

Kevin Na made an odd move on the 15^th tee Saturday in the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. 

Preparing to hit a driver on the par-4 hole, Na took his backswing, then made a high-speed downswing, but passed the clubhead well over the top of the ball.

PGA Tour officials looked at the swing on video and ruled Na did not make an attempt to strike the ball, Golf Channel reported. So he was not penalized. Fellow player Tommy Gainey, interviewed on air, indicated he wasn’t totally convinced that Na should not have been charged with a stroke.After his round, Na told GolfChannel's Todd Lewis that he did not intend to strike the ball.

Na shares the 54-hole lead with Nick Watney at 17 under par.

Hughes Open NORCECA

The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Emily Day and Heather Hughes won its first two matches on Friday at the NORCECA Beach Circuit event in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Meanwhile the U.S. men’s team of Andy McGuire (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Avery Drost (Hawthorne, Calif.) opened the tournament with two losses.

Day (Torrance, Calif.) and Hughes (Fallbrook, Calif.) opened pool play with a 21-8, 21-7 victory in 33 minutes over Jamie Farley and Valissia Brathwaite of the Virgin Islands.

The U.S. pair followed that with a 21-18, 21-11 win over the Mexico 3 team of Vanessa Virgen and Ana Rios. Day and Hughes will return to Puerto Vallarta on Oct. 16-22 to compete at the Pan American Games.

McGuire and Drost dropped their first match to Puerto Rico’s Roberto Rodríguez and Christopher Underwood, 24-22, 23-21 in 49 minutes. They fell in their second match to Canada’s Christian Redmann and Benjamin Saxton, 18-21, 21-18, 15-11 in 58 minutes.

Hughes Open NORCECA

The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Emily Day and Heather Hughes won its first two matches on Friday at the NORCECA Beach Circuit event in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Meanwhile the U.S. men’s team of Andy McGuire (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Avery Drost (Hawthorne, Calif.) opened the tournament with two losses.

Day (Torrance, Calif.) and Hughes (Fallbrook, Calif.) opened pool play with a 21-8, 21-7 victory in 33 minutes over Jamie Farley and Valissia Brathwaite of the Virgin Islands.

The U.S. pair followed that with a 21-18, 21-11 win over the Mexico 3 team of Vanessa Virgen and Ana Rios. Day and Hughes will return to Puerto Vallarta on Oct. 16-22 to compete at the Pan American Games.

McGuire and Drost dropped their first match to Puerto Rico’s Roberto Rodríguez and Christopher Underwood, 24-22, 23-21 in 49 minutes. They fell in their second match to Canada’s Christian Redmann and Benjamin Saxton, 18-21, 21-18, 15-11 in 58 minutes.

Hughes Open NORCECA

The U.S. women’s beach volleyball team of Emily Day and Heather Hughes won its first two matches on Friday at the NORCECA Beach Circuit event in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Meanwhile the U.S. men’s team of Andy McGuire (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and Avery Drost (Hawthorne, Calif.) opened the tournament with two losses.

Day (Torrance, Calif.) and Hughes (Fallbrook, Calif.) opened pool play with a 21-8, 21-7 victory in 33 minutes over Jamie Farley and Valissia Brathwaite of the Virgin Islands.

The U.S. pair followed that with a 21-18, 21-11 win over the Mexico 3 team of Vanessa Virgen and Ana Rios. Day and Hughes will return to Puerto Vallarta on Oct. 16-22 to compete at the Pan American Games.

McGuire and Drost dropped their first match to Puerto Rico’s Roberto Rodríguez and Christopher Underwood, 24-22, 23-21 in 49 minutes. They fell in their second match to Canada’s Christian Redmann and Benjamin Saxton, 18-21, 21-18, 15-11 in 58 minutes.

The U.S. Women’s Sitting Team won the gold medal:Golden Girls

The U.S. Golden Women’s Sitting Team won the gold medal at the Parapan American Zonal Championship on Saturday after downing Brazil, 25-13, 25-12, 25-15 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“The team had a great tournament,” team captain Katie Holloway (Lake Stevens, Wash./UCO Resident Athlete) said. “We didn’t lose a set the entire tournament showing our consistency of play. Everyone played well.”

Holloway led the team with 17 points coming from 12 kills, three aces and a pair of blocks, while Monique Burkland (Ardmore, Okla./UCO Resident Athlete) charted 10 points from six aces and four kills. Nichole Millage (Champaign, Ill./UCO Resident Athlete) connected on six kills, two aces and a block for nine points and libero, Bethany Zummo (Dublin, Calif./UCO Resident Athlete) posted a 91 percent good and 70 percent excellent pass percentages.

Head Coach Bill Hamiter (Bethany, Okla.) started Heather Erickson (Fayetteville, N.C./UCO Resident Athlete) and Holloway at outside, Kari Miller (Washington, D.C.) and Burkland at middle, and Kaleo Kanahele (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Millage at setter/rightside the first two sets and subbed Angela DeHaan (Yuba City, Calif.) for Kanahele in the third set.

Team USA had previously qualified for London 2012, so when Brazil defeated Canada in their semifinal match on Friday, Brazil qualified for London as well.

"It will be wonderful to have two teams representing our zone in London," stated Hamiter.

The U.S. Women’s Sitting Team won the gold medal:Golden Girls

The U.S. Golden Women’s Sitting Team won the gold medal at the Parapan American Zonal Championship on Saturday after downing Brazil, 25-13, 25-12, 25-15 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“The team had a great tournament,” team captain Katie Holloway (Lake Stevens, Wash./UCO Resident Athlete) said. “We didn’t lose a set the entire tournament showing our consistency of play. Everyone played well.”

Holloway led the team with 17 points coming from 12 kills, three aces and a pair of blocks, while Monique Burkland (Ardmore, Okla./UCO Resident Athlete) charted 10 points from six aces and four kills. Nichole Millage (Champaign, Ill./UCO Resident Athlete) connected on six kills, two aces and a block for nine points and libero, Bethany Zummo (Dublin, Calif./UCO Resident Athlete) posted a 91 percent good and 70 percent excellent pass percentages.

Head Coach Bill Hamiter (Bethany, Okla.) started Heather Erickson (Fayetteville, N.C./UCO Resident Athlete) and Holloway at outside, Kari Miller (Washington, D.C.) and Burkland at middle, and Kaleo Kanahele (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Millage at setter/rightside the first two sets and subbed Angela DeHaan (Yuba City, Calif.) for Kanahele in the third set.

Team USA had previously qualified for London 2012, so when Brazil defeated Canada in their semifinal match on Friday, Brazil qualified for London as well.

"It will be wonderful to have two teams representing our zone in London," stated Hamiter.

The U.S. Women’s Sitting Team won the gold medal:Golden Girls

The U.S. Golden Women’s Sitting Team won the gold medal at the Parapan American Zonal Championship on Saturday after downing Brazil, 25-13, 25-12, 25-15 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

“The team had a great tournament,” team captain Katie Holloway (Lake Stevens, Wash./UCO Resident Athlete) said. “We didn’t lose a set the entire tournament showing our consistency of play. Everyone played well.”

Holloway led the team with 17 points coming from 12 kills, three aces and a pair of blocks, while Monique Burkland (Ardmore, Okla./UCO Resident Athlete) charted 10 points from six aces and four kills. Nichole Millage (Champaign, Ill./UCO Resident Athlete) connected on six kills, two aces and a block for nine points and libero, Bethany Zummo (Dublin, Calif./UCO Resident Athlete) posted a 91 percent good and 70 percent excellent pass percentages.

Head Coach Bill Hamiter (Bethany, Okla.) started Heather Erickson (Fayetteville, N.C./UCO Resident Athlete) and Holloway at outside, Kari Miller (Washington, D.C.) and Burkland at middle, and Kaleo Kanahele (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Millage at setter/rightside the first two sets and subbed Angela DeHaan (Yuba City, Calif.) for Kanahele in the third set.

Team USA had previously qualified for London 2012, so when Brazil defeated Canada in their semifinal match on Friday, Brazil qualified for London as well.

"It will be wonderful to have two teams representing our zone in London," stated Hamiter.

NBA may be forced to cancel

NBA may be forced to cancel part of regular season schedule if labor deal isn't reached this weekend.

NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter is said to be resisting calls for the players' union to decertify as cancellation of games looms.

Unless a deal is struck this weekend, the start of the NBA season and first part of the 82-game schedule is destined for the chopping block.

In announcing that the owners' and players' full bargaining teams will come to New York Friday to begin the most critical round of talks since the two sides started negotiating more than two years ago, commissioner David Stern admitted Wednesday that "there are enormous consequences at play here on the basis of the weekend. Either we'll make very good progress ...or we won't make any progress and then it won't be a question of just starting the season on time. There will be a lot of risk from the absence of progress."

Wednesday's four-hour session in Manhattan yielded some movement, but the two sides are still far apart on the key issue of how to divide $4.3 billion.

"We're not close to a deal, not at all," said one member of the NBA Players Association negotiating team.

If the stalemate continues, Stern would likely announce the cancellation of the Nov. 1 season-opening games and perhaps the first month of the schedule by early next week. Even though the league isn't scheduled to tip off for more than a month, it still needs around a month after a deal is struck to put the new collective bargaining agreement in writing, conduct free agency and provide ample time for teams to conduct an abbreviated training camp and preseason before starting the season.

"I'm focused on, let's get the two committees in and see whether they can have a season or not have a season, and that's what's at risk this weekend," Stern said.

According to a league spokesman who was asked to clarify that statement, Stern did not mean that the entire 82-game season will be at risk when the two sides meet this weekend. In the last lockout, cancellations were done piecemeal. But the loss of games would undoubtedly revive talk about the players decertifying to prevent owners from instituting a hard salary cap and major salary rollbacks.

With negotiations going nowhere and players scheduled to start losing their first paychecks on Nov. 16, several powerful player agents have been pushing hard for the players to blow up the union and go to the courts to try to force owners to make a better deal than they are offering now.

"You can say they're storming the gates," said one high-ranking union official, earlier this week, about the pro-decertification lobby. "That would be a fair characterization."

Arn Tellem, Bill Duffy, Dan Fegan, Mark Bartelstein and Jeff Schwartz - the big five agents behind the decertification effort who represent almost a third of the NBA's 450 players - have been talking seriously about knocking down the gates since owners locked the players out on July 1. From that point until the end of August, the five were upset with union executive director Billy Hunter for allowing nearly two months to go by with only one negotiating session to show for it. According to sources, there is a strong belief among the five that Hunter is not going to be able to reach a favorable deal for his side and that they would do better without the union.

NBA may be forced to cancel

NBA may be forced to cancel part of regular season schedule if labor deal isn't reached this weekend.

NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter is said to be resisting calls for the players' union to decertify as cancellation of games looms.

Unless a deal is struck this weekend, the start of the NBA season and first part of the 82-game schedule is destined for the chopping block.

In announcing that the owners' and players' full bargaining teams will come to New York Friday to begin the most critical round of talks since the two sides started negotiating more than two years ago, commissioner David Stern admitted Wednesday that "there are enormous consequences at play here on the basis of the weekend. Either we'll make very good progress ...or we won't make any progress and then it won't be a question of just starting the season on time. There will be a lot of risk from the absence of progress."

Wednesday's four-hour session in Manhattan yielded some movement, but the two sides are still far apart on the key issue of how to divide $4.3 billion.

"We're not close to a deal, not at all," said one member of the NBA Players Association negotiating team.

If the stalemate continues, Stern would likely announce the cancellation of the Nov. 1 season-opening games and perhaps the first month of the schedule by early next week. Even though the league isn't scheduled to tip off for more than a month, it still needs around a month after a deal is struck to put the new collective bargaining agreement in writing, conduct free agency and provide ample time for teams to conduct an abbreviated training camp and preseason before starting the season.

"I'm focused on, let's get the two committees in and see whether they can have a season or not have a season, and that's what's at risk this weekend," Stern said.

According to a league spokesman who was asked to clarify that statement, Stern did not mean that the entire 82-game season will be at risk when the two sides meet this weekend. In the last lockout, cancellations were done piecemeal. But the loss of games would undoubtedly revive talk about the players decertifying to prevent owners from instituting a hard salary cap and major salary rollbacks.

With negotiations going nowhere and players scheduled to start losing their first paychecks on Nov. 16, several powerful player agents have been pushing hard for the players to blow up the union and go to the courts to try to force owners to make a better deal than they are offering now.

"You can say they're storming the gates," said one high-ranking union official, earlier this week, about the pro-decertification lobby. "That would be a fair characterization."

Arn Tellem, Bill Duffy, Dan Fegan, Mark Bartelstein and Jeff Schwartz - the big five agents behind the decertification effort who represent almost a third of the NBA's 450 players - have been talking seriously about knocking down the gates since owners locked the players out on July 1. From that point until the end of August, the five were upset with union executive director Billy Hunter for allowing nearly two months to go by with only one negotiating session to show for it. According to sources, there is a strong belief among the five that Hunter is not going to be able to reach a favorable deal for his side and that they would do better without the union.

NBA may be forced to cancel

NBA may be forced to cancel part of regular season schedule if labor deal isn't reached this weekend.

NBA Players Association executive director Billy Hunter is said to be resisting calls for the players' union to decertify as cancellation of games looms.

Unless a deal is struck this weekend, the start of the NBA season and first part of the 82-game schedule is destined for the chopping block.

In announcing that the owners' and players' full bargaining teams will come to New York Friday to begin the most critical round of talks since the two sides started negotiating more than two years ago, commissioner David Stern admitted Wednesday that "there are enormous consequences at play here on the basis of the weekend. Either we'll make very good progress ...or we won't make any progress and then it won't be a question of just starting the season on time. There will be a lot of risk from the absence of progress."

Wednesday's four-hour session in Manhattan yielded some movement, but the two sides are still far apart on the key issue of how to divide $4.3 billion.

"We're not close to a deal, not at all," said one member of the NBA Players Association negotiating team.

If the stalemate continues, Stern would likely announce the cancellation of the Nov. 1 season-opening games and perhaps the first month of the schedule by early next week. Even though the league isn't scheduled to tip off for more than a month, it still needs around a month after a deal is struck to put the new collective bargaining agreement in writing, conduct free agency and provide ample time for teams to conduct an abbreviated training camp and preseason before starting the season.

"I'm focused on, let's get the two committees in and see whether they can have a season or not have a season, and that's what's at risk this weekend," Stern said.

According to a league spokesman who was asked to clarify that statement, Stern did not mean that the entire 82-game season will be at risk when the two sides meet this weekend. In the last lockout, cancellations were done piecemeal. But the loss of games would undoubtedly revive talk about the players decertifying to prevent owners from instituting a hard salary cap and major salary rollbacks.

With negotiations going nowhere and players scheduled to start losing their first paychecks on Nov. 16, several powerful player agents have been pushing hard for the players to blow up the union and go to the courts to try to force owners to make a better deal than they are offering now.

"You can say they're storming the gates," said one high-ranking union official, earlier this week, about the pro-decertification lobby. "That would be a fair characterization."

Arn Tellem, Bill Duffy, Dan Fegan, Mark Bartelstein and Jeff Schwartz - the big five agents behind the decertification effort who represent almost a third of the NBA's 450 players - have been talking seriously about knocking down the gates since owners locked the players out on July 1. From that point until the end of August, the five were upset with union executive director Billy Hunter for allowing nearly two months to go by with only one negotiating session to show for it. According to sources, there is a strong belief among the five that Hunter is not going to be able to reach a favorable deal for his side and that they would do better without the union.

Adelman ready for next chapter

There was a point this summer when I was chatting with a veteran NBA player who played for Rick Adelman and knows the longtime coach as well as anyone.

The Minnesota coaching search had just begun and Adelman's name had hardly been mentioned publicly, but I told this player what I had heard about the search: Timberwolves general manager David Kahn, the much-maligned executive who once covered Adelman as a sports writer for The Oregonian, was coveting the game's eighth winningest coach above all other candidates.

To which said player replied ... "There's no way in hell Rick goes there."

Well what do you know?

In a move that was surprising mainly because it was assumed he wanted to spent the twilight years of his career, well, winning, the 65-year-old coach with a .605 winning percentage (career record of 945-616) officially joined a team with a combined record of 32-132 in the last two seasons on Wednesday.

And while his decision surely had much to do with the $15 million in guaranteed money he was reportedly given, there were still plenty of questions to be answered about how he got to Minnesota and where he planned on taking this "sort of talented but previously terrible" team.

Adelman -- whom I covered while at The Sacramento Bee in 2005-06 but am fairly sure I'll never be in a position to hire -- answered each and every one of my curiosities during our chat regarding his decision.

From the reasons (no, reason) he's not in Houston anymore to a report that he has disdain for Kahn to the rationale he employed regarding both the Lakers' opening that he didn't fill and the T-Wolves' vacancy he did, he explained the offseason move that was unexpected and incredibly intriguing.

One disappointing disclaimer: Because of league rules pertaining to the lockout, Adelman couldn't discuss specific players and thus couldn't reveal his thoughts on the likes of Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, Derrick Williams et al.

SI.com: So a player swore to me there was no way you'd take this job. Why was he wrong?

Adelman: Well, I'd gone through the summer and I'd looked at a lot of other situations. Minnesota approached me on it and he kept talking to me about it, and we kept thinking more and more about it. I thought about how there could be something else next year job-wise or whatever that might turn out to be better. I just looked at their roster, and I know they've lost a lot of games, but they've got a very young team that has some talent and I just felt like maybe this is a situation where you add a couple pieces or whatever and you can turn it around the other direction pretty quickly.

I also thought about the fact that you take some jobs that you think are very good and you end up because of the expectations and things aren't what you thought, they just blow up in your face too. They can be just as tough of a job. That happened to me in Houston, where we lost the two guys who we lost Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady and the whole situation changed. I just looked at it and thought, 'Maybe it's a chance for me to take on a challenge like this, and where I am in my career and everything and see if I can't turn it around.'

SI.com: You were always very candid about your Golden State chapter and how that was such a negative experience and memory for you. Are you convinced this situation won't be that? (Adelman posted his only two losing seasons of his 18 total while with the Warriors from 1995-97.)

Adelman: I think that situation when I look back on it, we actually had a lot of veterans on that team, and they were going to make changes because of the free agency of some of the players. I think I probably made some mistakes there in the way I handled some of that situation (Adelman has said before that he wouldn't have allowed Tim Hardaway to force a trade to Miami midway through the 1995-96 season). And then once they made the changes, everything went south because they didn't have a lot of good, young players. These people are different because they're young, so many guys in their early 20s, but I think their talent is there and you have to get them to understand what they have to do to turn this thing around and have some success. That's going to be the hardest thing is to change their mentality, because they've lost for two years in a row. But at Golden State, we just had a bad mix of people and I'm hoping that's not the case here.

SI.com: Speaking of people in Minnesota, can you touch on the notion that you can't stand your new boss.

Adelman: It just was written -- and I don't know where he came from, and the way he wrote it -- about despising Kahn, or however he put it, it's just not true. David is the one who actually contacted me and we had numerous conversations about the job. He just said, 'It's going to be a tough job,' and why would you jump into a job like that where you don't get along with the person? I don't know where it came from. I understand things happen, but the fact that I'm here should tell people that there's not that much truth to it.

SI.com: How will this work in terms of personnel? A lot of people don't realize that in Sacramento you had a significant voice in personnel moves and I'd imagine you'd like to have that again.

Adelman: Oh, I think it's going to be good. We talked about that when I talked to David about the job. I talked to Glen [Taylor, the Timberwolves owner], and I talked to David, and I'm pretty assured that I'm going to have a lot of input on the decisions we make. I think that's the way it should be, and that's the way Geoff [Petrie, Kings basketball president] and I worked, too. You have to talk things through, and we were very good at doing that, at listening to each other. And I think from a players' standpoint that you have to see that the front office and ownership and the coach, that everybody is one. I'm sure I'm going to have input, but I also understand that my biggest challenge with this job is going to be coaching the team, coaching the players that I have. I certainly would like to have input on all the changes, but I can't get caught up in that when I'm not coaching the team.

SI.com: Was that an important point for you in negotiations?

Adelman: Yeah, it was important. Yeah.

SI.com: So you obviously had interest in the Lakers job, but how did that go down?

Adelan: I think anybody would be interested, and that's because of the talent they have and the situation they're in. It's very intriguing to look at that. It just came down to the fact that we had some discussions about the team, about a lot of things, but they chose to go in a different route [in hiring Mike Brown]. It never really got to the point of, 'Are you going to take the job or not?' And frankly, it was very quick after the season ended and I had just moved from Houston back to Portland, so it was kind of a whirlwind thing. But the fact that they decided pretty quickly that they were going to go with Mike, that was kind of it. But certainly it's a job that would intrigue anybody with the talent level they have.

SI.com: That's quite a turnaround mentally to be looking at a championship-or-bust situation one minute and considering a spot like Minnesota the next.

Adelman: Yeah, and that's how it was going to be, too. Perception is always there, and you just said it, championship or bust. And then you're following probably the greatest coach in history, record-wise [in Phil Jackson], so there was a lot of stuff there too. Certainly when you win, it's better than when you lose, but sometimes even when you win, you lose.

SI.com: Did the way you left Houston leave a bad taste in your mouth?

Adelman: I don't think it's a bad taste. I just think after talking through it, we were still getting along at that point and I could have gone back, but I just think there was a difference in philosophy from what they saw going forward to what I wanted to do, and it was just time to part ways.

SI.com: Philosophy in terms of the culture, or what do you mean?

Adelman: I don't think it was even that. You can look at a lot of stuff after the fact when people leave or whatever, and it's happened every time I've been some place -- it happened in Sacramento, too. There's always going to be things written that may or may not be true. But it's just the fact that they were willing to bring me back -- they told me that -- but they wanted to change things. They wanted to change our staff. They told me we had done a good job, and I just thought we could've done things differently. I had a very good staff, and thought we could've done things differently and they felt like, 'No, we'd like to see a different influence.' I didn't want to do that.

SI.com: Specifically, are you talking about Chris Finch? (The former coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers was widely known to be seen as a head coaching successor in Houston and has since been added to the staff of new coach Kevin McHale).

Adelman: Well it wasn't even who they were bringing in, just the fact of who they wanted me to let go. (Note: Elston Turner, Adelman's longtime lead assistant, subsequently turned down a head coaching interview in Houston and became the lead assistant in Phoenix.)

SI.com: You obviously have a big void to fill with Turner gone. How's the staff looking?

Adelman: I have a good idea of what I'm going to do. We've just gotten through the process. I think it's crucial for me to get a staff I really can trust working with these young guys. We'll have a very good staff. There's about five or six names, guys that I've known who have been around and I just want to make sure I have the right mix.

SI.com: It has been reported that your son, David, will be joining you. That has to be a joy to be able to add him.

Adelman: Well we haven't really solidified that yet, but it's an opportunity. I mean that's part of why you do this, so someone has a chance. And hopefully he'll have a chance to do something different and have an opportunity to do that. Really that has not happened yet. I think it's just premature. It's going to work out, but it hasn't been done yet.

SI.com: You can't talk about specific players because of the lockout, but do you see the kind of roster that can run your corner offense or will there be any revamping to the style?

Adelman: I think we're going to try to do some of the same things but probably tweak it once we get it on the court and actually see what people can do. We always do that, where we vary it depending on the people we have.

Adelman ready for next chapter

There was a point this summer when I was chatting with a veteran NBA player who played for Rick Adelman and knows the longtime coach as well as anyone.

The Minnesota coaching search had just begun and Adelman's name had hardly been mentioned publicly, but I told this player what I had heard about the search: Timberwolves general manager David Kahn, the much-maligned executive who once covered Adelman as a sports writer for The Oregonian, was coveting the game's eighth winningest coach above all other candidates.

To which said player replied ... "There's no way in hell Rick goes there."

Well what do you know?

In a move that was surprising mainly because it was assumed he wanted to spent the twilight years of his career, well, winning, the 65-year-old coach with a .605 winning percentage (career record of 945-616) officially joined a team with a combined record of 32-132 in the last two seasons on Wednesday.

And while his decision surely had much to do with the $15 million in guaranteed money he was reportedly given, there were still plenty of questions to be answered about how he got to Minnesota and where he planned on taking this "sort of talented but previously terrible" team.

Adelman -- whom I covered while at The Sacramento Bee in 2005-06 but am fairly sure I'll never be in a position to hire -- answered each and every one of my curiosities during our chat regarding his decision.

From the reasons (no, reason) he's not in Houston anymore to a report that he has disdain for Kahn to the rationale he employed regarding both the Lakers' opening that he didn't fill and the T-Wolves' vacancy he did, he explained the offseason move that was unexpected and incredibly intriguing.

One disappointing disclaimer: Because of league rules pertaining to the lockout, Adelman couldn't discuss specific players and thus couldn't reveal his thoughts on the likes of Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, Derrick Williams et al.

SI.com: So a player swore to me there was no way you'd take this job. Why was he wrong?

Adelman: Well, I'd gone through the summer and I'd looked at a lot of other situations. Minnesota approached me on it and he kept talking to me about it, and we kept thinking more and more about it. I thought about how there could be something else next year job-wise or whatever that might turn out to be better. I just looked at their roster, and I know they've lost a lot of games, but they've got a very young team that has some talent and I just felt like maybe this is a situation where you add a couple pieces or whatever and you can turn it around the other direction pretty quickly.

I also thought about the fact that you take some jobs that you think are very good and you end up because of the expectations and things aren't what you thought, they just blow up in your face too. They can be just as tough of a job. That happened to me in Houston, where we lost the two guys who we lost Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady and the whole situation changed. I just looked at it and thought, 'Maybe it's a chance for me to take on a challenge like this, and where I am in my career and everything and see if I can't turn it around.'

SI.com: You were always very candid about your Golden State chapter and how that was such a negative experience and memory for you. Are you convinced this situation won't be that? (Adelman posted his only two losing seasons of his 18 total while with the Warriors from 1995-97.)

Adelman: I think that situation when I look back on it, we actually had a lot of veterans on that team, and they were going to make changes because of the free agency of some of the players. I think I probably made some mistakes there in the way I handled some of that situation (Adelman has said before that he wouldn't have allowed Tim Hardaway to force a trade to Miami midway through the 1995-96 season). And then once they made the changes, everything went south because they didn't have a lot of good, young players. These people are different because they're young, so many guys in their early 20s, but I think their talent is there and you have to get them to understand what they have to do to turn this thing around and have some success. That's going to be the hardest thing is to change their mentality, because they've lost for two years in a row. But at Golden State, we just had a bad mix of people and I'm hoping that's not the case here.

SI.com: Speaking of people in Minnesota, can you touch on the notion that you can't stand your new boss.

Adelman: It just was written -- and I don't know where he came from, and the way he wrote it -- about despising Kahn, or however he put it, it's just not true. David is the one who actually contacted me and we had numerous conversations about the job. He just said, 'It's going to be a tough job,' and why would you jump into a job like that where you don't get along with the person? I don't know where it came from. I understand things happen, but the fact that I'm here should tell people that there's not that much truth to it.

SI.com: How will this work in terms of personnel? A lot of people don't realize that in Sacramento you had a significant voice in personnel moves and I'd imagine you'd like to have that again.

Adelman: Oh, I think it's going to be good. We talked about that when I talked to David about the job. I talked to Glen [Taylor, the Timberwolves owner], and I talked to David, and I'm pretty assured that I'm going to have a lot of input on the decisions we make. I think that's the way it should be, and that's the way Geoff [Petrie, Kings basketball president] and I worked, too. You have to talk things through, and we were very good at doing that, at listening to each other. And I think from a players' standpoint that you have to see that the front office and ownership and the coach, that everybody is one. I'm sure I'm going to have input, but I also understand that my biggest challenge with this job is going to be coaching the team, coaching the players that I have. I certainly would like to have input on all the changes, but I can't get caught up in that when I'm not coaching the team.

SI.com: Was that an important point for you in negotiations?

Adelman: Yeah, it was important. Yeah.

SI.com: So you obviously had interest in the Lakers job, but how did that go down?

Adelan: I think anybody would be interested, and that's because of the talent they have and the situation they're in. It's very intriguing to look at that. It just came down to the fact that we had some discussions about the team, about a lot of things, but they chose to go in a different route [in hiring Mike Brown]. It never really got to the point of, 'Are you going to take the job or not?' And frankly, it was very quick after the season ended and I had just moved from Houston back to Portland, so it was kind of a whirlwind thing. But the fact that they decided pretty quickly that they were going to go with Mike, that was kind of it. But certainly it's a job that would intrigue anybody with the talent level they have.

SI.com: That's quite a turnaround mentally to be looking at a championship-or-bust situation one minute and considering a spot like Minnesota the next.

Adelman: Yeah, and that's how it was going to be, too. Perception is always there, and you just said it, championship or bust. And then you're following probably the greatest coach in history, record-wise [in Phil Jackson], so there was a lot of stuff there too. Certainly when you win, it's better than when you lose, but sometimes even when you win, you lose.

SI.com: Did the way you left Houston leave a bad taste in your mouth?

Adelman: I don't think it's a bad taste. I just think after talking through it, we were still getting along at that point and I could have gone back, but I just think there was a difference in philosophy from what they saw going forward to what I wanted to do, and it was just time to part ways.

SI.com: Philosophy in terms of the culture, or what do you mean?

Adelman: I don't think it was even that. You can look at a lot of stuff after the fact when people leave or whatever, and it's happened every time I've been some place -- it happened in Sacramento, too. There's always going to be things written that may or may not be true. But it's just the fact that they were willing to bring me back -- they told me that -- but they wanted to change things. They wanted to change our staff. They told me we had done a good job, and I just thought we could've done things differently. I had a very good staff, and thought we could've done things differently and they felt like, 'No, we'd like to see a different influence.' I didn't want to do that.

SI.com: Specifically, are you talking about Chris Finch? (The former coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers was widely known to be seen as a head coaching successor in Houston and has since been added to the staff of new coach Kevin McHale).

Adelman: Well it wasn't even who they were bringing in, just the fact of who they wanted me to let go. (Note: Elston Turner, Adelman's longtime lead assistant, subsequently turned down a head coaching interview in Houston and became the lead assistant in Phoenix.)

SI.com: You obviously have a big void to fill with Turner gone. How's the staff looking?

Adelman: I have a good idea of what I'm going to do. We've just gotten through the process. I think it's crucial for me to get a staff I really can trust working with these young guys. We'll have a very good staff. There's about five or six names, guys that I've known who have been around and I just want to make sure I have the right mix.

SI.com: It has been reported that your son, David, will be joining you. That has to be a joy to be able to add him.

Adelman: Well we haven't really solidified that yet, but it's an opportunity. I mean that's part of why you do this, so someone has a chance. And hopefully he'll have a chance to do something different and have an opportunity to do that. Really that has not happened yet. I think it's just premature. It's going to work out, but it hasn't been done yet.

SI.com: You can't talk about specific players because of the lockout, but do you see the kind of roster that can run your corner offense or will there be any revamping to the style?

Adelman: I think we're going to try to do some of the same things but probably tweak it once we get it on the court and actually see what people can do. We always do that, where we vary it depending on the people we have.

Adelman ready for next chapter

There was a point this summer when I was chatting with a veteran NBA player who played for Rick Adelman and knows the longtime coach as well as anyone.

The Minnesota coaching search had just begun and Adelman's name had hardly been mentioned publicly, but I told this player what I had heard about the search: Timberwolves general manager David Kahn, the much-maligned executive who once covered Adelman as a sports writer for The Oregonian, was coveting the game's eighth winningest coach above all other candidates.

To which said player replied ... "There's no way in hell Rick goes there."

Well what do you know?

In a move that was surprising mainly because it was assumed he wanted to spent the twilight years of his career, well, winning, the 65-year-old coach with a .605 winning percentage (career record of 945-616) officially joined a team with a combined record of 32-132 in the last two seasons on Wednesday.

And while his decision surely had much to do with the $15 million in guaranteed money he was reportedly given, there were still plenty of questions to be answered about how he got to Minnesota and where he planned on taking this "sort of talented but previously terrible" team.

Adelman -- whom I covered while at The Sacramento Bee in 2005-06 but am fairly sure I'll never be in a position to hire -- answered each and every one of my curiosities during our chat regarding his decision.

From the reasons (no, reason) he's not in Houston anymore to a report that he has disdain for Kahn to the rationale he employed regarding both the Lakers' opening that he didn't fill and the T-Wolves' vacancy he did, he explained the offseason move that was unexpected and incredibly intriguing.

One disappointing disclaimer: Because of league rules pertaining to the lockout, Adelman couldn't discuss specific players and thus couldn't reveal his thoughts on the likes of Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio, Derrick Williams et al.

SI.com: So a player swore to me there was no way you'd take this job. Why was he wrong?

Adelman: Well, I'd gone through the summer and I'd looked at a lot of other situations. Minnesota approached me on it and he kept talking to me about it, and we kept thinking more and more about it. I thought about how there could be something else next year job-wise or whatever that might turn out to be better. I just looked at their roster, and I know they've lost a lot of games, but they've got a very young team that has some talent and I just felt like maybe this is a situation where you add a couple pieces or whatever and you can turn it around the other direction pretty quickly.

I also thought about the fact that you take some jobs that you think are very good and you end up because of the expectations and things aren't what you thought, they just blow up in your face too. They can be just as tough of a job. That happened to me in Houston, where we lost the two guys who we lost Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady and the whole situation changed. I just looked at it and thought, 'Maybe it's a chance for me to take on a challenge like this, and where I am in my career and everything and see if I can't turn it around.'

SI.com: You were always very candid about your Golden State chapter and how that was such a negative experience and memory for you. Are you convinced this situation won't be that? (Adelman posted his only two losing seasons of his 18 total while with the Warriors from 1995-97.)

Adelman: I think that situation when I look back on it, we actually had a lot of veterans on that team, and they were going to make changes because of the free agency of some of the players. I think I probably made some mistakes there in the way I handled some of that situation (Adelman has said before that he wouldn't have allowed Tim Hardaway to force a trade to Miami midway through the 1995-96 season). And then once they made the changes, everything went south because they didn't have a lot of good, young players. These people are different because they're young, so many guys in their early 20s, but I think their talent is there and you have to get them to understand what they have to do to turn this thing around and have some success. That's going to be the hardest thing is to change their mentality, because they've lost for two years in a row. But at Golden State, we just had a bad mix of people and I'm hoping that's not the case here.

SI.com: Speaking of people in Minnesota, can you touch on the notion that you can't stand your new boss.

Adelman: It just was written -- and I don't know where he came from, and the way he wrote it -- about despising Kahn, or however he put it, it's just not true. David is the one who actually contacted me and we had numerous conversations about the job. He just said, 'It's going to be a tough job,' and why would you jump into a job like that where you don't get along with the person? I don't know where it came from. I understand things happen, but the fact that I'm here should tell people that there's not that much truth to it.

SI.com: How will this work in terms of personnel? A lot of people don't realize that in Sacramento you had a significant voice in personnel moves and I'd imagine you'd like to have that again.

Adelman: Oh, I think it's going to be good. We talked about that when I talked to David about the job. I talked to Glen [Taylor, the Timberwolves owner], and I talked to David, and I'm pretty assured that I'm going to have a lot of input on the decisions we make. I think that's the way it should be, and that's the way Geoff [Petrie, Kings basketball president] and I worked, too. You have to talk things through, and we were very good at doing that, at listening to each other. And I think from a players' standpoint that you have to see that the front office and ownership and the coach, that everybody is one. I'm sure I'm going to have input, but I also understand that my biggest challenge with this job is going to be coaching the team, coaching the players that I have. I certainly would like to have input on all the changes, but I can't get caught up in that when I'm not coaching the team.

SI.com: Was that an important point for you in negotiations?

Adelman: Yeah, it was important. Yeah.

SI.com: So you obviously had interest in the Lakers job, but how did that go down?

Adelan: I think anybody would be interested, and that's because of the talent they have and the situation they're in. It's very intriguing to look at that. It just came down to the fact that we had some discussions about the team, about a lot of things, but they chose to go in a different route [in hiring Mike Brown]. It never really got to the point of, 'Are you going to take the job or not?' And frankly, it was very quick after the season ended and I had just moved from Houston back to Portland, so it was kind of a whirlwind thing. But the fact that they decided pretty quickly that they were going to go with Mike, that was kind of it. But certainly it's a job that would intrigue anybody with the talent level they have.

SI.com: That's quite a turnaround mentally to be looking at a championship-or-bust situation one minute and considering a spot like Minnesota the next.

Adelman: Yeah, and that's how it was going to be, too. Perception is always there, and you just said it, championship or bust. And then you're following probably the greatest coach in history, record-wise [in Phil Jackson], so there was a lot of stuff there too. Certainly when you win, it's better than when you lose, but sometimes even when you win, you lose.

SI.com: Did the way you left Houston leave a bad taste in your mouth?

Adelman: I don't think it's a bad taste. I just think after talking through it, we were still getting along at that point and I could have gone back, but I just think there was a difference in philosophy from what they saw going forward to what I wanted to do, and it was just time to part ways.

SI.com: Philosophy in terms of the culture, or what do you mean?

Adelman: I don't think it was even that. You can look at a lot of stuff after the fact when people leave or whatever, and it's happened every time I've been some place -- it happened in Sacramento, too. There's always going to be things written that may or may not be true. But it's just the fact that they were willing to bring me back -- they told me that -- but they wanted to change things. They wanted to change our staff. They told me we had done a good job, and I just thought we could've done things differently. I had a very good staff, and thought we could've done things differently and they felt like, 'No, we'd like to see a different influence.' I didn't want to do that.

SI.com: Specifically, are you talking about Chris Finch? (The former coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers was widely known to be seen as a head coaching successor in Houston and has since been added to the staff of new coach Kevin McHale).

Adelman: Well it wasn't even who they were bringing in, just the fact of who they wanted me to let go. (Note: Elston Turner, Adelman's longtime lead assistant, subsequently turned down a head coaching interview in Houston and became the lead assistant in Phoenix.)

SI.com: You obviously have a big void to fill with Turner gone. How's the staff looking?

Adelman: I have a good idea of what I'm going to do. We've just gotten through the process. I think it's crucial for me to get a staff I really can trust working with these young guys. We'll have a very good staff. There's about five or six names, guys that I've known who have been around and I just want to make sure I have the right mix.

SI.com: It has been reported that your son, David, will be joining you. That has to be a joy to be able to add him.

Adelman: Well we haven't really solidified that yet, but it's an opportunity. I mean that's part of why you do this, so someone has a chance. And hopefully he'll have a chance to do something different and have an opportunity to do that. Really that has not happened yet. I think it's just premature. It's going to work out, but it hasn't been done yet.

SI.com: You can't talk about specific players because of the lockout, but do you see the kind of roster that can run your corner offense or will there be any revamping to the style?

Adelman: I think we're going to try to do some of the same things but probably tweak it once we get it on the court and actually see what people can do. We always do that, where we vary it depending on the people we have.

UEFA Champions League:Kaka

Real Madrid star Kaka celebrates scoring his team's second goal during their Champions League clash against Ajax at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid. Kaka shone as Madrid blitzed the Dutch side with some ferocious counter-attacks. Their first goal came in a breathtaking move that took 16 seconds and involved 5 players and 7 passes.

Nine-time European champions Real Madrid strolled to a 3-0 victory over Dutch giants Ajax on Tuesday in their Champions League match to make it maximum points from their first two matches.

Goals from Cristian Ronaldo, Kaka - his first in the competition since 2009 - and French striker Karim Benzema sees them top the group two pooints ahead of Lyon. The result left Aitor Karanka - who was running things from the touchline as Jose Mourinho served out the third of his three match touchline ban - happy with both the team and Kaka in particular. "He (Kaka) has had a bad patch and it's been difficult for him, to see him happy and enjoying his football makes me happy too," said Karanka. "At no moment were we in any danger, we played to our strengths and from the first goal we were comfortable," he added.

It was a spectacularly quick counter-attack move on 25 minutes involving one touch passing from five different players that broke the deadlock, Ronaldo finishing with his right foot a move in which he was earlier involved.

Kaka received a pass from Ronaldo on 41 minutes and, instead of giving the easier return pass, turned and fired a left footed shot into the bottom right hand corner.

After the interval Madrid improved their passing game taking no more than three minutes for Kaka to finish off a sweeping move by edging the ball into the path of Benzema who made sure from 10 yards.

UEFA Champions League:Kaka

Real Madrid star Kaka celebrates scoring his team's second goal during their Champions League clash against Ajax at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid. Kaka shone as Madrid blitzed the Dutch side with some ferocious counter-attacks. Their first goal came in a breathtaking move that took 16 seconds and involved 5 players and 7 passes.

Nine-time European champions Real Madrid strolled to a 3-0 victory over Dutch giants Ajax on Tuesday in their Champions League match to make it maximum points from their first two matches.

Goals from Cristian Ronaldo, Kaka - his first in the competition since 2009 - and French striker Karim Benzema sees them top the group two pooints ahead of Lyon. The result left Aitor Karanka - who was running things from the touchline as Jose Mourinho served out the third of his three match touchline ban - happy with both the team and Kaka in particular. "He (Kaka) has had a bad patch and it's been difficult for him, to see him happy and enjoying his football makes me happy too," said Karanka. "At no moment were we in any danger, we played to our strengths and from the first goal we were comfortable," he added.

It was a spectacularly quick counter-attack move on 25 minutes involving one touch passing from five different players that broke the deadlock, Ronaldo finishing with his right foot a move in which he was earlier involved.

Kaka received a pass from Ronaldo on 41 minutes and, instead of giving the easier return pass, turned and fired a left footed shot into the bottom right hand corner.

After the interval Madrid improved their passing game taking no more than three minutes for Kaka to finish off a sweeping move by edging the ball into the path of Benzema who made sure from 10 yards.

UEFA Champions League:Kaka

Real Madrid star Kaka celebrates scoring his team's second goal during their Champions League clash against Ajax at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid. Kaka shone as Madrid blitzed the Dutch side with some ferocious counter-attacks. Their first goal came in a breathtaking move that took 16 seconds and involved 5 players and 7 passes.

Nine-time European champions Real Madrid strolled to a 3-0 victory over Dutch giants Ajax on Tuesday in their Champions League match to make it maximum points from their first two matches.

Goals from Cristian Ronaldo, Kaka - his first in the competition since 2009 - and French striker Karim Benzema sees them top the group two pooints ahead of Lyon. The result left Aitor Karanka - who was running things from the touchline as Jose Mourinho served out the third of his three match touchline ban - happy with both the team and Kaka in particular. "He (Kaka) has had a bad patch and it's been difficult for him, to see him happy and enjoying his football makes me happy too," said Karanka. "At no moment were we in any danger, we played to our strengths and from the first goal we were comfortable," he added.

It was a spectacularly quick counter-attack move on 25 minutes involving one touch passing from five different players that broke the deadlock, Ronaldo finishing with his right foot a move in which he was earlier involved.

Kaka received a pass from Ronaldo on 41 minutes and, instead of giving the easier return pass, turned and fired a left footed shot into the bottom right hand corner.

After the interval Madrid improved their passing game taking no more than three minutes for Kaka to finish off a sweeping move by edging the ball into the path of Benzema who made sure from 10 yards.

Carlos Tevez Refus : Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich offered to come Manchester city star Carlos Tevez for playing there own clab.But Manchester City star Carlos Tevez on Wednesday denied refusing to come off the substitutes bench during his team's Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich.

City manager Roberto Mancini angrily said Tevez was "finished" at the club after accusing the Argentinian of refusing to appear in the second half of Tuesday's game with the Premier League team trailing 2-0.

Wednesday:Tevez denied Mancini's comments in a statement.

"In Munich on Tuesday I had warmed up and was ready to play. This is not the right time to get into specific details as to why this did not happen. But I wish to state that I never refused to play," Tevez said.

The 27-year-old striker blamed his failure to appear on "confusion" on the City bench and apologised to the club's fans for "any misunderstanding."

"I would like to apologise to all Manchester City fans, with whom I have always had a strong relationship, for any misunderstanding that occurred in Munich," Tevez said.

"They understand that when I am on the pitch I have always given my best for the club.

"Going forward I am ready to play when required and to fulfil my obligations."

Mancini had indicated Tevez -- reportedly one of the highest earners in English football with weekly wages of more than £200,000 -- would never play for the club again in the aftermath of Tuesday's defeat.

"If I have my way he will be out. He's finished with me," Mancini said.

"He refused to come on the pitch. What I said to Carlos is between me, him and the team but I am really disappointed because it is Carlos.

"Can you imagine a Bayern Munich, Milan or Man United player doing this?" he said. "He refused to warm up and again refused to go on the pitch.

Mancini later added he would be speaking with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak in the next few days to decide what to do with Tevez.

"In the next days, we will speak with Khaldoon," said Mancini. "It is normal. He is the chairman. He decides everything.

 

"I cannot accept this behaviour from him (Tevez). I decide the substitutions, not Carlos."

Ex-players and media commentators backed Mancini on Wednesday, with former Liverpool star Graeme Souness describing Tevez as a "disgrace to football."

"He (Tevez) is one bad apple," Souness told Sky Sports. "He's a disgrace to football. He epitomises what most people think is wrong with modern football

Carlos Tevez Refus : Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich offered to come Manchester city star Carlos Tevez for playing there own clab.But Manchester City star Carlos Tevez on Wednesday denied refusing to come off the substitutes bench during his team's Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich.

City manager Roberto Mancini angrily said Tevez was "finished" at the club after accusing the Argentinian of refusing to appear in the second half of Tuesday's game with the Premier League team trailing 2-0.

Wednesday:Tevez denied Mancini's comments in a statement.

"In Munich on Tuesday I had warmed up and was ready to play. This is not the right time to get into specific details as to why this did not happen. But I wish to state that I never refused to play," Tevez said.

The 27-year-old striker blamed his failure to appear on "confusion" on the City bench and apologised to the club's fans for "any misunderstanding."

"I would like to apologise to all Manchester City fans, with whom I have always had a strong relationship, for any misunderstanding that occurred in Munich," Tevez said.

"They understand that when I am on the pitch I have always given my best for the club.

"Going forward I am ready to play when required and to fulfil my obligations."

Mancini had indicated Tevez -- reportedly one of the highest earners in English football with weekly wages of more than £200,000 -- would never play for the club again in the aftermath of Tuesday's defeat.

"If I have my way he will be out. He's finished with me," Mancini said.

"He refused to come on the pitch. What I said to Carlos is between me, him and the team but I am really disappointed because it is Carlos.

"Can you imagine a Bayern Munich, Milan or Man United player doing this?" he said. "He refused to warm up and again refused to go on the pitch.

Mancini later added he would be speaking with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak in the next few days to decide what to do with Tevez.

"In the next days, we will speak with Khaldoon," said Mancini. "It is normal. He is the chairman. He decides everything.

 

"I cannot accept this behaviour from him (Tevez). I decide the substitutions, not Carlos."

Ex-players and media commentators backed Mancini on Wednesday, with former Liverpool star Graeme Souness describing Tevez as a "disgrace to football."

"He (Tevez) is one bad apple," Souness told Sky Sports. "He's a disgrace to football. He epitomises what most people think is wrong with modern football

Carlos Tevez Refus : Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich offered to come Manchester city star Carlos Tevez for playing there own clab.But Manchester City star Carlos Tevez on Wednesday denied refusing to come off the substitutes bench during his team's Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich.

City manager Roberto Mancini angrily said Tevez was "finished" at the club after accusing the Argentinian of refusing to appear in the second half of Tuesday's game with the Premier League team trailing 2-0.

Wednesday:Tevez denied Mancini's comments in a statement.

"In Munich on Tuesday I had warmed up and was ready to play. This is not the right time to get into specific details as to why this did not happen. But I wish to state that I never refused to play," Tevez said.

The 27-year-old striker blamed his failure to appear on "confusion" on the City bench and apologised to the club's fans for "any misunderstanding."

"I would like to apologise to all Manchester City fans, with whom I have always had a strong relationship, for any misunderstanding that occurred in Munich," Tevez said.

"They understand that when I am on the pitch I have always given my best for the club.

"Going forward I am ready to play when required and to fulfil my obligations."

Mancini had indicated Tevez -- reportedly one of the highest earners in English football with weekly wages of more than £200,000 -- would never play for the club again in the aftermath of Tuesday's defeat.

"If I have my way he will be out. He's finished with me," Mancini said.

"He refused to come on the pitch. What I said to Carlos is between me, him and the team but I am really disappointed because it is Carlos.

"Can you imagine a Bayern Munich, Milan or Man United player doing this?" he said. "He refused to warm up and again refused to go on the pitch.

Mancini later added he would be speaking with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak in the next few days to decide what to do with Tevez.

"In the next days, we will speak with Khaldoon," said Mancini. "It is normal. He is the chairman. He decides everything.

 

"I cannot accept this behaviour from him (Tevez). I decide the substitutions, not Carlos."

Ex-players and media commentators backed Mancini on Wednesday, with former Liverpool star Graeme Souness describing Tevez as a "disgrace to football."

"He (Tevez) is one bad apple," Souness told Sky Sports. "He's a disgrace to football. He epitomises what most people think is wrong with modern football

2013:Atlantic 10 Moving Tourney to Brooklyn

In 2013 is  beginning year for the Atlantic 10 will move its basketball tournament to Brooklyn. The conference will host its championship in the new Barclays Center, which will also be home to the NBA's Nets.

The Atlantic 10 has long searched for a steady tournament destination without much success. Since the first one in 1977, it has been held in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Morgantown, W. Va., East Rutherford, N.J., and Dayton, Ohio, among other sites. 

It has been held in Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City at last five years,N.J. It will also be held there in 2012.

The move to Atlantic City — close in proximity to the conference's three Philadelphia-based schools, La Salle, Temple and St. Joseph's — had mixed results. When the neighboring schools made deep tournament runs, the attendance would jump a bit.

When those programs went home early — or didn't make the tournament at all — the experiment suffered.

For instance, the 2011 final pitted Richmond and Dayton. The announced crowd for that title game was 5,602 in a facility that holds 10,500. The year before, when Temple met Richmond, the total was 7,882.

The decision to try Atlantic City also meant a close destination to the league's offices in Philadelphia. The conference though, under the direction of Bernadette McGlade, has since moved its headquarters to Newport News, Va. 

Attendance aside, the Barclays Center will be a facilities upgrade over Boardwalk Hall, which opened in 1929, and also houses the ECAC hockey tournament. With the move to Brooklyn, the Atlantic 10 may also be able to feed off some of the media and publicity generated by the Big East tournament in Madison Square Garden. Traditionally, the A-10 final is played on Selection Sunday in the afternoon, just a day after the Big East final is held. 

The league has called a Wednesday press conference in New York at 12:30 p.m. McGlade will be in attendance, as will Rhode Island coach Jim Baron and Fordham coach Tom Pecora. The latter two are both New York natives.

The Atlantic 10 has 14 basketball members: Charlotte, Dayton, Duquesne, Fordham, George Washington, La Salle, UMass, Rhode Island, Richmond, St. Bonaventure, St. Joseph's, St. Louis, Temple and Xavier. Last year, three programs — Temple, Xavier and Richmond — made the NCAA tournament, compiling a 3-3 mark.

2013:Atlantic 10 Moving Tourney to Brooklyn

In 2013 is  beginning year for the Atlantic 10 will move its basketball tournament to Brooklyn. The conference will host its championship in the new Barclays Center, which will also be home to the NBA's Nets.

The Atlantic 10 has long searched for a steady tournament destination without much success. Since the first one in 1977, it has been held in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Morgantown, W. Va., East Rutherford, N.J., and Dayton, Ohio, among other sites. 

It has been held in Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City at last five years,N.J. It will also be held there in 2012.

The move to Atlantic City — close in proximity to the conference's three Philadelphia-based schools, La Salle, Temple and St. Joseph's — had mixed results. When the neighboring schools made deep tournament runs, the attendance would jump a bit.

When those programs went home early — or didn't make the tournament at all — the experiment suffered.

For instance, the 2011 final pitted Richmond and Dayton. The announced crowd for that title game was 5,602 in a facility that holds 10,500. The year before, when Temple met Richmond, the total was 7,882.

The decision to try Atlantic City also meant a close destination to the league's offices in Philadelphia. The conference though, under the direction of Bernadette McGlade, has since moved its headquarters to Newport News, Va. 

Attendance aside, the Barclays Center will be a facilities upgrade over Boardwalk Hall, which opened in 1929, and also houses the ECAC hockey tournament. With the move to Brooklyn, the Atlantic 10 may also be able to feed off some of the media and publicity generated by the Big East tournament in Madison Square Garden. Traditionally, the A-10 final is played on Selection Sunday in the afternoon, just a day after the Big East final is held. 

The league has called a Wednesday press conference in New York at 12:30 p.m. McGlade will be in attendance, as will Rhode Island coach Jim Baron and Fordham coach Tom Pecora. The latter two are both New York natives.

The Atlantic 10 has 14 basketball members: Charlotte, Dayton, Duquesne, Fordham, George Washington, La Salle, UMass, Rhode Island, Richmond, St. Bonaventure, St. Joseph's, St. Louis, Temple and Xavier. Last year, three programs — Temple, Xavier and Richmond — made the NCAA tournament, compiling a 3-3 mark.