Truth & Rumors: Dec. 13, 2004

MLB

Baseball's Hot Stove is heating up with a flurry of rumors and gossip. To keep you up-to-date, we've created a special edition of Hot Stove Truth & Rumors.

NBA

Malone (right) may be Tim Duncan's teammate in San Antonio. Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images • Pete McEntegart: The 10 Spot -- Mon., Dec. 13 • Truth & Rumors: Mailman headed to San Antonio? • Chris Ballard: Five NBAers not to watch • Lang Whitaker: Our own football tournament • More Blogs: Deitsch | Cannella | Wertheim Click here for Today's Sign of the Apocalypse, Game to Watch, Leading Off gallery and much more!

Although the Knicks contacted the agent for Karl Malone last week, team officials expect him to sign with the Spurs. The Knicks' president, Isiah Thomas, admitted that Malone was not interested in playing in New York.
  -- New York Times

Thomas did nothing to quash speculation that he wants to acquire Toronto's Vince Carter, but he insisted that Allan Houston was not the bait. Nor will he be for any deal, Thomas said. Toronto turned down a Knicks offer that included Houston, asking instead for Jamal Crawford, whom Thomas has deemed off limits.
 -- New York Times

Shipped to Denver in a draft-day deal two years ago, Marcus Camby admitted he and his buddy Latrell Sprewell, still yearn to return to play for the Knicks.
 -- New York Post

Camby, on the prospect of his team acquiring New Jersey point guard Jason Kidd: "We've got a capable point guard running things. I wouldn't trade Andre (Miller) for anybody."

So far, Kidd's surgically repaired left knee has held up and the Nets are just three games out of first place behind the Knicks in the Atlantic Division. The more the Nets win, the more Kidd's trade value should increase. But of course, the more the Nets win, the harder it will be for Nets president Rod Thorn to trade his superstar since the Nets believe Kidd can help them win the division.
  -- New York Daily News

Derrick Coleman is essentially an insurance policy for the Pistons right now. There is an outside chance he could eventually be thrown into a trade deal, but there has been no discussion of that.
 -- Detroit News

Ex-Celtic Antoine Walker, who will be a free agent if he doesn't get a contract extension from Atlanta this summer, pines to return to Boston.
 -- Boston Herald

The Cavaliers are shopping Dajuan Wagner and center DeSagana Diop.
 -- Willoughby News-Herald

Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy dismissed a report that rookie Shaun Livingston, sidelined since suffering a dislocated right kneecap last month in practice, would not play again this season. He said Livingston's recovery is on pace and that he should return after the All-Star break, if not sooner.
 -- Los Angeles Times

NFL

49ers co-owner John York failed to shed new light on coach Dennis Erickson's situation in a postgame interview. Rumors have it that York will meet with Erickson today and at that time Erickson will broach the topic of the future of his assistants. If Erickson refuses to fire some of his coaches, then Erickson's future with the 49ers could be in question.
 -- San Francisco Chronicle

Tom Coughlin told the Giants he was sticking with Eli Manning as the starting quarterback. Manning's rating is 33.8. Kurt Warner's is 86.5. Warner was 5-4 as a starter, while Manning is 0-4.
 -- New York Post

Joey Harrington is still the Lions quarterback, but even in giving him the endorsement after the Lions' 16-13 loss Sunday to the Packers, coach Steve Mariucci was not altogether convincing.
 -- Detroit Free Press

Patriots sources confirmed that Charlie Weis will remain with the Pats through the remainder of the season and then join Notre Dame. That decision was not dictated by the team. It was Weis' desire to finish out the year.
  -- Boston Herald

GM A.J. Smith envisions a scenario in which the Chargers have Drew Brees and Philip Rivers on the roster next year, even if the team has already committed $40 million over eight years to Rivers. But San Diego is $21 million under the salary cap and may be able to afford both in a league in which quarterback injuries are common.
 -- Washington Post

Ozzie Newsome is the first target of owner Randy Lerner, and the Ravens GM is exactly what the Browns need.
 -- Akron Beacon Journal

Retired Packers exec Ron Wolf gave a strong endorsement to Mike Reinfeldt, the former Green Bay executive who was among the first candidates for Browns GM recommended by a head-hunting firm.
 -- Cleveland Plain Dealer

Other candidates believed to be contacted by the head-hunting firm to gauge their interest in the Browns job are: Randy Mueller, former Saints and Seahawks GM; Ron Hill, Falcons VP of football operations; Tom Heckert Jr., Eagles VP of player personnel; Bobby Grier, Texans associate director of pro scouting; and Kevin Colbert, Steelers director of football operations. Others expected to be contacted include: Tom Modrak, Bills assistant GM; and Tim Ruskell, Falcons assistant GM.
 -- Cleveland Plain Dealer

Add Russ Grimm, offensive line and assistant head coach for the Steelers, to the list of candidates being pushed for the Browns head coaching job.
 -- Cleveland Plain Dealer

Would it surprise you if Shannon Sharpe decided in the spring that he wanted to play again, a la his good buddy and kindred spirit Deion Sanders? It's fathomable. However, what has suddenly become unfathomable is the notion of Sharpe playing for the Broncos again. That relationship may have been severed, at least as long as Mike Shanahan is around.
  -- Denver Post

NHL

Senators owner Eugene Melnyk told NHL commissioner Gary Bettman he doesn't think the deal offered by the players is good enough. "It's not a solution," said Melnyk. "It's a one-shot deal that doesn't work." it's believed most of the other 29 owners feel the same way. That casts a large shadow of doubt over tomorrow's meeting between the two sides in Toronto. It also means a salary cap could be part of tomorrow's counter-proposal delivered by Bettman and VP Bill Daly to NHLPA boss Bob Goodenow and the union's executive committee. If that's the case, there's a good chance the season could be dead.
  -- Ottawa Sun

Fan racism against black soccer players in Europe spilled into the hockey rink yesterday, as spectators in St. Petersburg, Russia, twice tossed bananas or banana peels on to the ice at Anson Carter. Playing with a touring team of locked-out NHL stars. Carter told reporters in Russia. "I'm not surprised -- look around." The banana-tossing occurred on a day when the English-language St. Petersburg Times had a front-page story about attacks on ethnic minorities in the city.
 -- Toronto Star

Nine months after stunning fans with a scurrilous act, suspended Canucks player Todd Bertuzzi, wearing the familiar No. 44 jersey, experienced a near-deafening ovation from a sellout crowd of more than 16,000 at the Pacific Coliseum when introduced at a Vancouver charity event organized by a teammate. Bettman suspended Bertuzzi indefinitely after Bertuzzi slugged Colorado's Steve Moore from behind in a game on March 8. Bertuzzi is to stand trial in B.C. Provincial Court on Jan. 17, charged with assault causing bodily harm.
 -- Globe & Mail

Soccer

Real Madrid and Real Sociedad will play out the final seven minutes of last night's match in January. The match was suspended when a bomb scare emptied the Bernabeu stadium with two minutes and 40 seconds of the clash still to play and the score at 1-1.
 -- The Guardian (UK)

English Premier League chairman Dave Richards and chief executive Richard Scudamore have written a strongly worded joint letter to the chairmen and chief executives of all 20 clubs telling them to stop making remarks that could be damaging to the league or its future TV negotiations. There is a growing concern that falling crowds, the drop in away fans and decline in the number of people watching live Premiership matches on TV mean that the League's phenomenal popularity and commercial success have peaked and that their next TV contract, in 2007, could produce less cash.
 -- The Guardian (UK)

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