Former Trail Blazer Duckworth dead at 44

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Aug 26, 2008 | by Anonymous

Former Portland Trail Blazers center Kevin Duckworth, a "gentle giant" with a feathery touch from the paint, has died. He was 44.

Duckworth, part of a Trail Blazers goodwill tour, was scheduled to hold a free basketball clinic when he died Monday night. The Depoe Bay Fire Department said it responded about 10 p.m. to a report of a man who was down and not breathing at Salishan Lodge at Gleneden Beach (Ore.).

The cause of death was to be determined by a medical examiner, but the Lincoln County sheriff's office said there was no indication of foul play.

"Within the world of basketball, within those Trail Blazers teams, he was a jokester," said Phoenix Suns coach Terry Porter, who played with Duckworth. "He was a big loving teddy bear. ... He was just a great guy."

Duckworth averaged 11.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game over 11 seasons in the NBA, helping Portland reach the NBA finals in 1990 and 1992. The two-time All-Star also played for San Antonio, Washington, Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Clippers.

-- Former Kings star Wayman Tisdale had part of his right leg amputated because of bone cancer. "Everything went well," Tisdale's wife, Regina, said. Tisdale is now an award-winning jazz musician.

Tisdale, who also played for Indiana and Phoenix in a 12-year NBA career, first learned he had cancerous cyst below his right knee after he broke his leg in a fall at his home in Los Angeles on Feb. 8, 2007.

-- Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers will undergo surgery on his damaged right pinkie. He was injured in a Feb. 5 game against New Jersey but put off surgery until after the Olympics.

-- Boston signed its first-round draft pick J.R. Giddens. The 6- foot-5 point guard, the 30th pick in the draft, averaged 16.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game as a senior at New Mexico.

Golf

The LPGA will require players to speak English starting in 2009, with professionals who have been tour members for two years facing suspension if they can't pass an oral evaluation of English skills. The rule is effective immediately for new players. "We live in a sports-entertainment environment," said Libba Galloway, deputy commissioner of the tour. "For an athlete to be successful today in the sports entertainment world we live in, they need to be great performers on and off the course, and being able to communicate effectively with sponsors and fans is a big part of this." There are 121 international players on tour, including 45 players from South Korea. Angela Park, born in Brazil of South Korean heritage and raised in the United States, said the policy is good for the tour and its international players. "A lot of Korean players think they are being targeted, but it's just because there are so many of them," Park said.

Track and field

Federal prosecutors briefly moved disgraced sprinter Marion Jones from a Texas prison to the Bay Area three months ago in case they needed her to testify against her former coach on trial for lying to investigators, according to a published report. The New York Times, citing an anonymous source, said prosecutors would have called Jones as a rebuttal witness if coach Trevor Graham had testified in his own defense. A jury convicted Graham of lying to a federal investigator during the government's probe of BALCO. Last Tuesday, Jones was transferred from a federal prison in Fort Worth to a community corrections center in San Antonio. She's scheduled to be released March 5. She received a six-month sentence after pleading guilty to lying to federal investigators about her performance- enhancing drug use.

Motor sports

Reed Sorenson will leave Chip Ganassi Racing next season as the 22-year-old driver signed a multiyear contract to join Gillett Evernham Motorsports, where he'll join Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler. "I'm going over here to try to make myself a better driver," said Sorenson, who enters this weekend's stop in Southern California at No. 31 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings.

-- The Budweiser Shootout will be around at least three more years with a new format that places the emphasis on the four manufacturers in the Sprint Cup series. The season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 7 will have a field of 24 cars representing the top six teams from Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Toyota. It will be based on the final 2008 car owner points. But Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman won't be in the Shootout lineup because of a change of teams.

Basketball

Aito Garcia Reneses quit as Spain's coach after leading the national team to a silver medal at the Beijing Olympics. "I don't want to coach only for two months a year," said Garcia Reneses, who is expected to take over at Spanish club Unicaja. He had been in charge of the national team for less than three months. Spain lost to the United States 107-118 for the Olympic gold medal. Garcia Reneses will be succeeded by Jose Vicente Hernandez.

Soccer

Panama's Tauro beat Major League Soccer's Chivas USA 2-0 in Panama City in the first leg of a CONCACAF Champions League preliminary-round series. Edwin Aguilar scored in each half for El Tauro. The second leg of the home-and-home, total-goals series will be played next Tuesday at Carson.