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Tim James apologized for being late. A rough day at work, said the Miami Heat’s 1999 first-round draft pick. Vehicles broke down, problems flared up, and he simply fell behind.
“It happens,” James said. “Even here.”
Even on the front line of the Iraq war.
A former NBA player who often wondered about his true calling, Tim James [...]

A $1 million improvement project at Springfield’s historic Symphony Hall will be mostly completed in time for the Sept. 11 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony.
The ceremony is usually held at the Hall of Fame, which can accommodate about 1,200 people. With this year’s high-profile class that includes Michael Jordan, David Robinson and [...]

England’s debutant batsman Jonathan Trott, who scored 119 runs in the second innings of the fifth and final Ashes Test match at The Oval, is related to a former Australian Test batsman, who played at the turn of the 19th century.
Trott is related to Albert Trott, who played for both Australia and England and [...]

South African cricket team coach Mickey Arthur has said that Warwickshire opener Jonathan Trott is not good enough to play for South Africa.
In a blunt assessment of England’s newest Test batsman, Arthur said Cape Town-born Trott would at best be playing for South Africa’s Second XI despite representing the same national under-19s side as Proteas [...]

Odgers Ray and Berndtson, an executive search company more used to filling positions in boardrooms than cricket dressing rooms, will consult 38 advisers including captain Andrew Strauss and his predecessors Nasser Hussain and Sir Ian Botham before finalizing the name of the new English coach.
Odgers head of international sports practice Simon Cummins said one major [...]

Shoaib Akhtar has failed to appear for a fitness test which would have helped him reserve his place in the national team for the limited over series in Sri Lanka.
Acting chief selector Wasim Bari said Akhtar skipped fitness tests on Monday and Tuesday.
Bari said Akhtar had informed the board that his mother was unwell, and [...]

England’s Ashes-winning cricketers are now hot commercial properties.
According to John Taylor, chairman of Sports Impact, a leading consultancy, “Brands want to be associated with winners and the whole country will see England’s cricketers in that category again now.”
When England won the Ashes in 2005, the stars were Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen. This time the [...]