BASKETBALL

Rudy Gobert made some history. Victor Wembanyama nearly did.

Gobert, the Minnesota center, was announced Tuesday night as the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year for a record-tying fourth time — joining Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace.

It was the fifth time in the last 11 seasons that a French center won defensive player of the year — and it sure seems like Wembanyama will add to that country’s total before long. The San Antonio rookie center, announced Monday as the league’s Rookie of the Year, was second in the voting and fell one spot short of being the first player to win the DPOY trophy in Year 1 of his NBA career.

Joakim Noah became the first Frenchman to win DPOY when he was the overwhelming choice in 2014, and Gobert now has the trophies for 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2024.

Miami center Bam Adebayo was third, his best-ever finish in the voting. He was fourth in 2021 and 2022, along with fifth in 2020 and 2023.

• The NBA has fined Jamal Murray $100,000 for throwing multiple items in the direction of an official during a playoff game between the Nuggets and Timberwolves, the league announced.

Murray avoided a suspension after the league reviewed the incident, sources told The Denver Post. He will be eligible to play Friday in Game 3 of the second-round series, which the Nuggets trail 2-0.

Murray was seated at the end of the home bench during the second quarter of Game 2 when he threw what appeared to be a heat pack in the direction of lead official Marc Davis. The item flew past Davis, who was on the baseline, and landed near the feet of Karl-Anthony Towns, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Jackson during live play. Murray had been frustrated with the officiating throughout the first half of what turned out to be a 106-80 loss.

Davis was not aware the item came from Denver’s bench, he said in a pool report interview, otherwise the officials could have reviewed the incident under the NBA’s “hostile act trigger.” A review would have resulted in a technical foul but not an ejection.

WNBA: Caitlin Clark’s first WNBA game in Los Angeles is being moved to a bigger stage.

The Los Angeles Sparks said their home game against Clark and the Indiana Fever on May 24 is being moved from Walter Pyramid on the Long Beach State campus to Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles.

Two other Sparks home games — May 26 against Dallas and June 5 against Minnesota — are also moving to Crypto.com Arena.

That’s where the Sparks usually play all their games and it seats 19,067 for basketball games. Walter Pyramid seats 5,000. The games were originally moved to Long Beach because of construction at Crypto.com Arena.

• The wait for full-time charter flights for WNBA teams finally is over with Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announcing the league’s plans to start the program this season.

“We intend to fund a full-time charter for this season,” Engelbert said in a meeting with sports editors.

She said the league will launch the program “as soon as we can get planes in places.”

Engelbert said the program will cost the league around $25 million per year for the next two seasons.

FOOTBALL

NFL: Joe Burrow threw some crisp passes in a team workout Tuesday and said rehabbing his surgically repaired right wrist is still a work in progress.

The Bengals’ quarterback was cleared to throw about a month ago, but hasn’t been cleared for contact yet. He hopes to be fully ready to go by training camp.

“I felt good the last couple of days,” the 27-year-old Burrow said. “I don’t ever know how it’s going to feel until I wake up the next morning, but I was encouraged by the last couple of days for sure.”

Burrow was lost for the season when he suffered a torn ligament in his right wrist in the 10th game, a loss to Baltimore on Nov. 16 that dropped the Bengals’ record to 5-5. He had surgery on his wrist Nov. 27.

Backup Jake Browning led Cincinnati to a 4-3 record the rest of the way and the team missed the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. The Bengals finished 9-8, last in the AFC North.

• The Tennessee Titans have bolstered their wide receiving group by reuniting first-year coach Brian Callahan with someone he knows very well in Tyler Boyd, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.

Tennessee agreed to a one-year deal worth up to $4.5 million, the person told the AP on condition of anonymity because the agreement has not been announced.

Boyd, 29, spent his first eight seasons in the NFL with Cincinnati, including the past five with Callahan as the Bengals’ offensive coordinator. Boyd visited Tennessee last week only to leave without agreeing to a deal.

• Kansas City Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice is suspected of assault in Dallas a little over a month after he was one of the speeding drivers in a chain-reaction crash that led to multiple charges, according to a newspaper report.

Law enforcement officials told The Dallas Morning News that Rice was suspected of assaulting a person at a downtown nightclub early Monday, and that the person went to a hospital after the encounter.

Dallas police did not name Rice as the suspect in detailing a report of the incident to The Associated Press. Officers were dispatched to the nightclub about 2:30 a.m. Monday over a report of an assault, and the victim self-transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Rice reported to the Chiefs for voluntary workouts last month, when Chiefs Coach Andy Reid said he had spoken to the receiver and the team was letting the legal process play out.

•  Joe Collier, the former Buffalo Bills head coach and architect of the Denver Broncos’ famed “Orange Crush” defense, has died. He was 91.

The Broncos said Collier’s family confirmed that he died at his Littleton, Colorado, home on Monday night.

CFL: The CFL suspended Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly for at least nine regular-season games following its investigation into a lawsuit filed by a former strength and conditioning coach against both the player and club.

Kelly is also suspended for Toronto’s two preseason games for violating its gender-based violence policy, the league announced.

Kelly will be required to undergo confidential assessments by an independent expert and attend mandatory counselling sessions conducted by a gender-based violence expert.

Kelly, 30, was the CFL’s outstanding player last season after leading Toronto to a league-best and franchise-record 16-2 record.

COLLEGES

MEN’S BASKETBALL: Colorado Coach Tad Boyle is adding basketball great Danny Manning to his coaching staff in a reunion of former Kansas teammates.

Boyle and Manning spent a season together with the Jayhawks in 1984-85. Manning would later go on to lead Kansas to the 1988 NCAA championship, an improbable run that earned the team the nickname “Danny and the Miracles.”

The addition of Manning comes as the Buffaloes prepare to rejoin the Big 12 Conference. Manning and Boyle will now routinely face their alma mater.

Manning, who turns 58 on May 17, begins his time in Boulder on June 1. He will work with a team that’s coming off a 26-win season and an NCAA Tournament appearance. The Buffaloes saw several players enter the NBA draft, including freshman Cody Williams, who could be a lottery pick.

Manning spent the past two seasons as associate head coach at Louisville. He’s also served as the head coach at Tulsa and Wake Forest. In addition, he was the interim head coach at Maryland in 2021-22.

• Star guard Kadary Richmond is transferring to St. John’s from Seton Hall, staying close to home inside the Big East but switching sides in their Hudson River rivalry.

Rated the top player still available in the transfer portal, the 6-foot-6 Richmond was a first-team All-Big East selection last season. He led the Pirates to their second National Invitation Tournament championship after they were one of the first four teams left out of the NCAA Tournament.

AUTO RACING

INDYCAR: Roger Penske has suspended the president of Team Penske along with three others for the next two races for their roles in the cheating scandal that has rocked IndyCar ahead of the Indianapolis 500.

Penske said in an interview with The Associated Press that a review done by his general counsel found no “malicious intent by anyone” and chalked up the incident as a breakdown in internal processes and miscommunication.

He also said he remains committed to reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden, who was stripped of his March 10 victory for the scandal, and is actively trying to sign the two-time IndyCar champion to a contract extension.

The scandal dates to the IndyCar opener in March won by Newgarden. Six weeks later, the series discovered that the three Penske cars were able to use a software system to get a horsepower boost on starts and restarts, which is against the rules.

TENNIS

ITALIAN OPEN:  Paula Badosa showed signs of her former top-five form during a 6-2, 6-3 victory over 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva in the first round at Rome.

Badosa was ranked as high as No. 2 before she missed the second half of last year due to a back injury that has also slowed her this season. She’s now No. 126.

Also on the red clay at the Foro Italico, Ana Bogdan beat 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-1; Yulia Putintseva defeated Martina Trevisan 6-3, 6-4; and Shelby Rogers routed Lisa Pigato 6-1, 6-0.

The men’s tournament starts on Wednesday.

SOCCER

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Central defender Mats Hummels headed Borussia Dortmund into the final as the German team won 1-0 at Paris Saint-Germain.

Moments after Warren Zaïre-Emery missed an open goal for PSG, Hummels rose unchallenged to head in Julian Brandt’s corner from the left in the 50th minute.

Dortmund won both legs 1-0 and largely contained PSG striker Kylian Mbappé, who is leaving at the end of the season.

Coach Edin Terzić’s team will play either record 14-time champion Real Madrid or six-time winner Bayern Munich on June 1 at Wembley Stadium. Madrid and Bayern drew 2-2 in the first leg and play on Wednesday.

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