Sports Digest: USA Basketball announces Kerr as next Olympic men’s coach

OLYMPICS

Steve Kerr was formally announced as the next coach of the U.S. men’s basketball team on Monday in San Francisco, a not-very-well-kept secret in recent weeks that the Golden State coach would be taking over for Gregg Popovich and leading the Americans – if they qualify – into the 2023 Basketball World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Kerr’s assistants will be Miami Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra, Phoenix Suns Coach Monty Williams and Gonzaga Coach Mark Few. Williams has been an assistant before, under former U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski. Spoelstra and Few were involved in coaching the U.S. select team, which was assembled to practice against the Olympic team, this past summer.

Kerr would be the 16th different coach to take the U.S. men into an Olympics. Of the previous 15, 13 have emerged with gold. His hiring for the job represents the first major decision by Grant Hill in his role as managing director of the men’s national team, the position he’s taking after Jerry Colangelo helped the Americans win the last four Olympic gold medals in that role.

TENNIS

COVID-19: Rafael Nadal tested positive for the coronavirus after playing in an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi, the Spaniard said Monday. Nadal wrote on Twitter that the positive result came from a PCR test he took after arriving in Spain.

Nadal said he is enduring “unpleasant moments” but hopes to improve “little by little.” He is in isolation at home and everyone who has been in contact with him was informed of his positive result.

Among those possibly in contact with Nadal was Spain’s former monarch, Juan Carlos I, who has been living in the United Arab Emirates since allegations of financial scandals swirled and embarrassed the Spanish royal household last year. According to Spain’s El Mundo newspaper, Nadal and Juan Carlos, who is 83, shared a meal on Saturday. The paper also published photos of both of them posing together without masks.

Nadal said he had been tested every two days while away and all results had come back negative, with the last one on Saturday. Nadal said that as a consequence of the positive result he will have to be flexible with his playing schedule. He said he will analyze his upcoming options depending on his condition.

BASEBALL

MINOR LEAGUES: Four minor league teams that lost their big league affiliations before the 2021 season have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Major League Baseball, using a law firm that has represented players’ unions.

Parent companies of the Staten Island Yankees, Tri-City Valley Cats, Norwich Sea Unicorns and Salem-Keizer Volcanoes filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accusing the baseball commissioner’s office of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.

MLB ended the Professional Baseball Agreement that governed the relationship between the majors and minors in late 2020, after minor league seasons were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Affiliates were cut from a minimum of 160 to 120, the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues that had governed the minors since 1901 was shut down and MLB took over operation of the minors.

“The takeover plan is nothing less than a naked, horizontal agreement to cement MLB’s dominance over all professional baseball,” the lawsuit said. “There is no plausible procompetitive justification for this anticompetitive agreement.”

The suit alleged MLB made decisions to retain minor league teams based on whether they were owned by parent clubs or had political ownership, citing Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s interest in North Carolina’s Class A Asheville Tourists. MLB said at the time that the changes would cut travel and improve conditions for minor leaguers. The league had no immediate comment Monday.

MAJORS: New San Diego Padres manager Bob Melvin has rounded out his coaching staff with the addition of Matt Williams, a former All-Star third baseman and Washington Nationals manager, and Bryan Price, former manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

Williams, best known for his 10 seasons with the NL West rival San Francisco Giants, will be third-base coach. Price will be senior adviser to the coaching staff.

SKIING

MEN’S WORLD CUP: Confirming himself as the undisputed favorite for an Olympic gold medal, Swiss skier Marco Odermatt won a World Cup race at Alta Badia by a massive margin Monday for his third victory in four giant slalom races this season.

After leading the opening run in what is traditionally the longest and perhaps toughest giant slalom race of the season, Odermatt finished with a 1.01-second advantage over Luca De Aliprandini of Italy. Alexander Schmid of Germany finished third, 1.09 behind, as the top three held their positions from the first leg.

Odermatt extended his lead atop the overall standings to a comfortable 228 points over Austrian speed specialist Matthias Mayer. Odermatt finished second behind Henrik Kristoffersen in another giant slalom on the Gran Risa on Sunday.

COVID-19: Two more skiers have tested positive for the coronavirus with the Beijing Olympics less than two months away. Austrian world champion Katharina Liensberger and Alice Robinson of New Zealand joined Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami on the sidelines with COVID-19.

All three women will likely have to sit out two World Cup giant slalom races in Courchevel, France, this week. Robinson and Gut-Behrami already missed races in Val d’Isere over the weekend.

“Unfortunately I’ve tested positive to COVID 19 this past week while at my base in Italy and have been in isolation since,” Robinson wrote on Instagram. “I’m doing fine and now I’m just aiming to recover as quickly as I can and try to get back on the slopes as soon as possible.”

SOCCER

EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE: Tottenham has been forced to forfeit a Europa Conference League game that can’t be rescheduled following a bout of COVID-19 cases at the club, eliminating the team from the competition. The UEFA disciplinary committee decided Monday to award Rennes a 3-0 victory, confirming the French team and Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem will advance from Group G.

Several Tottenham players and staff tested posted for the virus ahead of the match against Rennes on Dec. 9. The game was postponed and no replacement date could be found by the Dec. 31 deadline. UEFA has routinely penalized teams responsible for European competition games not being played during the pandemic with 3-0 losses. The rules have been upheld in several cases at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

PREMIER LEAGUE: Premier League clubs decided against pausing the season despite 10 fixtures being postponed in the previous week due to the most widespread coronavirus outbreaks to date across squads.

While more than 90% of players in the Italian and Spanish leagues have been fully vaccinated, the Premier League disclosed that only 77% of its players had received two doses. In its first update on vaccine take-up in two months, the league also said 16% of players had not received even a single dose.

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