Yao Ming

Yao said in an interview with a Chinese newspaper that regaining his old form is only possible if he can play all 82 games in the coming season without encountering any problems. “Talk about recovering my form is nothing but nonsense and will only be realized if I can get through the next season smoothly,” he said.

The seven-time All Star suffered a career-threatening foot injury during the Rockets’ Western Conference semifinals encounter against the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009. He has not played any competitive basketball since then. He will return to the Rockets this year after exercising his player option to avoid becoming a free agent.

Without Yao in the previous season, the Rockets failed to reach the playoffs for the first time in four seasons.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Kovalchuk and the Devils can appeal the league ruling through the players’ association, which should file a grievance in the next five business days to have the deal approved. Both the Devils management and Kovalchuk’s agent insist that the contract does not violate the existing collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ union.

According to the league, the final years of the contract circumvents the salary cap rules. Under the contract, the Devils will pay Kovalchuk only $550,000 in each of the last five years, allowing New Jersey to take an average of $6-million salary-cap hit each year throughout the 17-year deal. Kovalchuk is slated to receive $98.5 million in the first 11 years of the contract.

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello said the contract, which would have been the longest in league history, is not the first of its kind in the NHL. “This is within the rules. This is in the CBA. There are precedents that have been set. But I would agree we shouldn’t have these. I’m also saying that because it’s legal and this is something that ownership felt comfortable doing for the right reasons.”

If the contract is turned down with finality and the Devils refuse to restructure the deal, Kovalchuk will become an unrestricted free agent again and allow other teams to negotiate deals with the 27-year-old winger, who has been the NHL’s top goal scorer since 2001.

Piniella announced on Tuesday that he would be retiring at the end of the season, closing the book on a managerial career that has lasted 22 years. Piniella, 66, said it was time that he spent more time with his family, from whom he has been away for most of his MLB stint. “I’ve been away from home since 1962. That’s about 50 years,” said Piniella, who started his MLB career as a player in 1964 and was an All-American during his stint at University of Tampa.

Meanwhile, the Cubs used Piniella’s announcement as a motivation, rallying from a 1-7 deficit in the fifth inning. Aramis Ramirez hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth, the second of three he hit for the day, to cap a strong inning that saw the Cubs score five runs off Wesley Wright. Geovany Soto tied the score with a solo homer in the sixth, and the rout was on from there. The Cubs scored seven more runs from the seventh inning onwards, giving Piniella a reason to smile after a tiring day. “It was emotional and draining, but it is over with and now my situation doesn’t have to be disturbed anymore and we can concentrate on the team, which is important,” he said.

Juwan Howard

The 1996 contract was eventually voided by the NBA for violating salary cap rules, allowing the then-Washington Bullets to keep the 1994 Draft’s 5th overall pick. This time though, there would not be any problem as the 17-year veteran agreed to receive the minimum for the chance to win a championship.

Riley, who thought then of partnering Howard with Alonzo Mourning, still believes that the 37-year-old Chicago native will fit right to a Miami Heat team that now includes LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh. “We feel that Juwan’s ability to play both the four and five spot will be complimentary to what we have put together,” Riley said.

Howard’s signing gives the Heat 12 players on their roster. He is not expected to contribute much on points but his experience is something that the Heat could use. “I’m looking forward to working hard this upcoming season and contributing in any way I can,” Howard said.

Miami is Howard’s eighth team in a 17-year career. He averaged 6 points last year in 73 games for the Portland Trail Blazers.

Alberto Contador

Schleck was trying to attack in the final climb of stage 15 when his bike lost its chain, forcing him to stop and allowing Contador to move ahead. Schleck expressed dismay over his competitor’s failure to stop and wait for him as he fixed his bike, calling his rival’s actions as unfair. “In the same situation I would not have taken advantage,” Schleck said.

Contador will begin the 16th stage with an 8-second lead, while Samuel Sanchez and Denis Menchov, who both joined Contador in leaving Schleck behind, are in third and fourth places, respectively. Sanchez is 2 minutes behind Contador, while Menchov is 13 seconds further.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Thomas Voeckler won stage 15, giving the hosts their second-straight stage victory after Christophe Riblon’s win on Sunday. Voeckler finished the 187.5-kilometer route from Pamiers to Bagneres-de-Luchon in 4 hour, 44 minutes, and 51 seconds, 1:20 ahead of his closest rivals.

Ilya Kovalchuk

The deal will make Kovalchuk a member of the New Jersey Devils through the 2026-2027 season, when the high-scoring Russian winger will have been 44 years old. The agreement concludes an often times tumultuous negotiation period between Kovalchuk, the NHL’s top goal scorer since 2001, and several teams that included the Los Angeles Kings, New York Islanders, and Russia Kontinental Hockey League team SKA St. Petersburg.

Kovalchuk, 27, was traded to the Devils by the Atlanta Thrashers in February after he turned down a 12-year contract extension worth $101 million from the team. He became an unrestricted free agent on July 1 when his existing contract expired. Although Kovalchuk did not say why he chose to stay in New Jersey, his agent believes that the Devils’ reputation as a perennial Stanley Cup contender weighed heavily in his ward’s decision. “Obviously his goal is to win the Stanley Cup. If he didn’t think there was an opportunity to do that, then he would not have gone there,” agent Jay Grossman said.

Kovalchuk played a total of eight seasons for the Thrashers but reached the playoffs only in the 2006-2007, when Atlanta was swept by the New York Rangers in the conference quarterfinals.

Miller is expected to play back-up to the returning Yao Ming and could share time with the much-improved Luis Scola. “Luis had a heck of a year. And I finally get to play with Yao instead of guarding his big butt. The team is pretty solid,” Miller said.

Miller made the decision after talking to Chicago teammate Joakim Noah, with whom he became close when he was rehired by the Bulls in the middle of the 2008 to 2009 season. “It’s going to be very different with him not around. He’s a real professional,” Noah said, adding that he learned a lot from Miller in the short time that they were together.

The Yankees moved three games ahead of the Rays in the race for the top in the AL East thanks to a strong fifth inning that saw New York score four runs off All-Star starter David Price, who absorbed his worst outing this season by giving up seven runs and seven hits in five innings. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez had one RBI each and Jorge Posada scored a double to cap the strong bottom fifth for the Yankees, who trailed 0-3 in the first inning.

However, the win was overshadowed by the specter of not having Pettitte for an extended time. Pettitte, who suffered the injury in the third inning, will be out at least four weeks. It was the second time in as many games that a Yankees starter was hurt early. A day earlier, A.J. Burnett left after only two-plus innings in New York’s 5-10 loss. Burnett suffered cuts in both hands after slamming a set of double doors in frustration. He later apologized to his teammates for the outburst.

Schleck still leads Contador by 31 seconds with five more stages to go, as the two top contenders for the overall title were contented to guard each other in the difficult Revel to Ax 3 Domaines 14th stage, which was won by French rider Christophe Riblon of team AG2R. Riblon touched the finished line one minute and eight seconds ahead of Schleck and Contador, while Samuel Sanchez, who is third in the overall standings, came in 54 seconds behind the stage winner.

Schleck, who finished runner-up to Contador last year, said he might try to attack on Monday’s 15th stage from Pamiers to Babneres-de-Luchon, a route that would feature a long descent to the finish. The 187.5-kilometer stage is also infamous for its Portet d’Aspet pass, which is where Italian Olympic champion Fabio Casartelli died in a crash in the 1995 edition of the Tour.

Tour officials expelled Renshaw after he head-butted Garmin-Transitions lead-out man Julian Dean, who was leading the stage when the incident happened. The head-butts forced Dean to slowdown, clearing the way for Cavendish to win the sprint with Alessandro Petacchi and Dean’s teammate, Tyler Farrar, coming in third.

Officials said Renshaw was given the “severe” punishment as his offense was considered “flagrant.” The Switzerland-based UCI, cycling’s governing body, said Renshaw’s actions constituted an “illegal sprint.”

The chaos did not affect the top contenders for the overall championship as Andy Schleck of Luxembourg and Alberto Contador of Spain maintained their top-two spots in the general classification.

Schleck, who has now been wearing the yellow jersey for three days, leads Contador by 41 seconds going into Friday’s 130.7-mile 12th stage from Bourg-de-Peage to Mende.