BASKETBALL

NBA:  The Brooklyn Nets listed Kyrie Irving as ineligible to play in their home exhibition game Friday, another strong indication he has not met New York’s vaccination requirement. Irving has not been with the Nets for any of their practices in New York, where professional athletes are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to practice or play.

The Nets are prevented by law from revealing whether he has been vaccinated, but listed him as “ineligible to play” in the injury report for their preseason game Friday against Milwaukee.

There is nothing related to the NBA that would cause a player to have that designation.

Unless Irving is vaccinated, he would have to miss the Nets’ 41 home games and their two road games against the New York Knicks. The NBA has said he wouldn’t be paid for any of those games.

He practiced with the Nets last week when they held training camp in San Diego, but hasn’t been with the team since it returned home.

• Herb Turetzky retired Thursday after spending 54 years as the official scorer of the Nets franchise in two leagues and two states.

The only scorer in franchise history, Turetzky worked more than 2,200 games, earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for most professional basketball games scored. That included 1,465 consecutive regular-season and playoff games, beginning in the 1984-85 season and ending in October 2018.

OLYMPICS

U.S. MEN’S HOCKEY: Chicago winger Patrick Kane and defenseman Seth Jones and Toronto center Auston Matthews were the first three players named to the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team on Thursday.

The U.S. has not won Olympic gold since 1980. NHL players began participating in the Olympics in 1998 and went five times before the league skipped the South Korea Games in 2018. The league, Players’ Association and International Ice Hockey Federation asked each country to pick three players before the start of the NHL season. Each country’s list of 55 players is due in mid-October with final rosters – 3 goalies and 22 skaters – unveiled in January.

GOLF

LPGA: Jin Young Ko ran off six birdies over a seven-hole stretch on the back nine for an 8-under 63 on Thursday to build an early three-shot lead in the Cognizant Founders Cup in West Caldwell, New Jersey. It was her 11th consecutive round in the 60s, three short of the record that Annika Sorenstam set in 2005.

Sandra Gal had a 66 despite not making birdie on any of the par 5s at Mountain Ridge. The large group at 67 included Nelly Korda, the No. 1 player in women’s golf who had not played since the Solheim Cup a month ago, U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso and two-time major champion So Yeon Ryu.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Jon Rahm made a superb start on his return to Spain, shooting an 8-under 63 in the first round of the Spanish Open on Thursday. Rahm was 6-under-par through his first eight holes before making his only bogey and finishing with three more birdies on his back nine.

Rahm, who started on the 10th hole, was two shots behind clubhouse leader Ross McGowan, the Englishman who had eight birdies and an eagle in a 10 under round of 61. Rahm was a shot back of second-place countryman Sebastian Garcia, who had only one bogey in his 9 under 62 at Campo de Campo Villa de Madrid.

TRACK AND FIELD

DOPING CHARGES: Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare is facing three charges in a doping case which surfaced in dramatic circumstances when she was barred from running in the Olympic 100-meter semifinals hours before the race.

The Athletics Integrity Unit revealed on Thursday that Okagbare tested positive for blood booster EPO in Nigeria in June, in addition to another failed test for human growth hormone in Slovakia in July, which was announced during the Olympics.

Okagbare was also charged with failing to cooperate with the investigation after she disobeyed an order to produce “documents, records and electronic storage devices” in relation to the other charges, the AIU said.

SOCCER

U.S. TOPS JAMAICA: Ricardo Pepi got a pair of goals early in the second half, becoming at 18 the youngest American to score in consecutive World Cup qualifiers, and the United States dominated Jamaica in a 2-0 victory Thursday night in Austin, Texas.

Pepi, who scored the his first international goal to break a second-half tie at Honduras, put the U.S. ahead in the 49th minute to cap a quick end-to-end movement and added another goal in the 62nd.

Playing without injured attackers Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna, the 13th-ranked Americans won their second consecutive qualifier after opening with a pair of draws and improved to eight points after four of 14 matches in the final round of the North and Central American and Caribbean region, The other six nations all played later Thursday.

No. 59 Jamaica, which has not gone to the World Cup since 1998, has one point after four matches.

PREMIER LEAGUE: Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund completed a buyout of Premier League club Newcastle on Thursday, giving hope to fans dreaming of a first title in almost a century but concerning human rights activists that the kingdom had gained a foothold in the world’s richest soccer league.

Supporters descended on the club’s St. James’ Park stadium, some chanting “we are Saudis, we do what we want” and others singing “we’ve got our club back” amid the promise of long-desired investment.

The 300-million-pound ($409 million) takeover had been pursued since 2017 but stalled and then collapsed last year over concerns about how much control the Saudi state would have in the running of Newcastle amid scrutiny over piracy of sports broadcasts and human rights violations in the kingdom.

RONALDO LAWSUIT: A federal magistrate judge in Nevada has sided with Cristiano Ronaldo’s lawyers against a woman who sued for more than the $375,000 in hush money she received in 2010 after saying the international soccer star raped her in Las Vegas.

In a scathing recommendation to the judge hearing the case, Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts on Wednesday blamed Kathryn Mayorga’s attorney, Leslie Mark Stovall, for inappropriately basing the civil damages lawsuit on leaked and stolen documents shown to be privileged communications between Ronaldo and his lawyers.

“Dismissing Mayorga’s case for the inappropriate conduct of her attorney is a harsh result,” the magistrate wrote in his 23-page report to U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey. “But it is, unfortunately, the only appropriate sanction to ensure the integrity of the judicial process.”

“Stovall has acted in bad faith to his client’s – and his profession’s – detriment,” Albregts decided.

Stovall and other attorneys in his office did not immediately respond Thursday to telephone and email messages about Albregt’s report.

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