Bryant's complaints caught on video
The latest twist in the Kobe Bryant saga involves an amateur video of the nine-time All-Star denouncing Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and teammate Andrew Bynum.
Lakers spokesman John Black said Tuesday the team was contacted about the video before Bryant first requested to be traded on May 30.
"It doesn't change our stance at all," Black said a day after saying essentially the same thing -- that the team has no plans to trade the two-time defending NBA scoring champion.
"These people called us about a month ago, they told us they wanted to sell it, we told them we had no interest in buying it," Black said. "That's the end of the story. There's been no further contact between them and us."
A spokesman for the men trying to peddle the video to media outlets told The New York Times they were talking with Bryant when one decided to take a photograph and some video, but they didn't believe Bryant was aware they were filming.
Basketball
West Virginia men's basketball coach Bob Huggins has completed his staff with the hiring of his third and final assistant coach. Larry Harrison will join the Mountaineers after spending this past season as a scout with the NBA's Washington Wizards.
• The Sacramento Kings reached an agreement in principle with New Mexico State coach Reggie Theus to become their new coach.
Cycling
The International Cycling Union has asked all 600 ProTour cyclists to sign an anti-doping charter saying they are not involved in doping and promise to submit DNA samples to Spanish authorities investigating the Operation Puerto.
Golf
U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera was welcomed by hundreds of Argentine compatriots during a motorcade from the airport to his home yesterday. With an Argentina flag draped over his shoulders, Cabrera held trophy he won at Oakmont through the sunroof of a station wagon during the drive with a police escort at Villa Allende in the central province of Cordoba.
• The final round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont drew 2.5 million more viewers than last year. Sunday's coverage on NBC earned a 6.4 national rating and 16 share, up 36 percent from the 4.7/12 after Tiger Woods missed the cut in 2006.
• Michelle Wie decided yesterday to withdraw from the PGA Tour John Deere Classic as she tries to return from wrist injuries that have sent the 17-year-old from Hawaii into a deep slump of high scores and shrinking confidence.
• Pine-Richland graduate Mike Van Sickle shot a 12-under-par 60 yesterday at Tom's Run Golf Course in Blairsville to win the Dick's Sporting Goods Tri-State Amateur.
Off the field
Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, 74, is facing two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence in connection with his arrest last month.
• A state appeals court in Manhattan dismissed former basketball star Latrell Sprewell's libel suit against the New York Post over the newspaper's account of how he broke his finger nearly five years ago.
• The lawyer for Guillermo Coria told a jury in New Brunswick, N.J., yesterday that the young tennis player lost two seasons, millions of dollars and his reputation because of "sloppy manufacturing" that tainted a multivitamin with a steroid.
• Former NBA All-Star Vin Baker, whose 14-year career was marred by bouts of depression and alcoholism, was charged early yesterday with drunken driving after leaving a casino in Norwich, Conn.
