Florida Sentinel Bulletin

NEW YORK—Dean Meminger, the former Marquette guard who played a reserve role on the New York Knicks’ 1973 NBA championship team, was found dead Friday in a Manhattan hotel room. He was 65.

New York City police said staff at the Hamilton Heights Hotel found Meminger unconscious and unresponsive inside a room and emergency medical personnel pronounced him dead. Police said there were no signs of trauma and that the cause of death hadn’t been determined. They said an investigation is ongoing.

This is a story so outrageous, that is just may be true. Allegedly, Lamar Odom is a crack cocaine user, which is the reason why his marriage to Khloe Kardashian is on the rocks, no pun intended. That also would explain his fall off from NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2011 to an also ran on the NBA basketball court.

Lamar has allegedly gone off the rails with drug use … which is the principal cause of the crisis in his marriage to Khloe Kardashian.  As we reported Lamar went to a rehab facility a year ago this month and stayed for 3 weeks before bailing — and we’re told the problem was crack.

Sources say Lamar’s crack use was extreme before he went to rehab, but he cleaned up his act during the basketball season that just ended.  Sources say shortly after he hung up his jersey, he started again with a bang.

Khloe threw Lamar out of the house a few days ago after he rejected an attempt at an intervention.

Allen Iverson is prepared to officially announce his retirement from the NBA in the coming days, a source close to the native of Virginia told SLAM.

Iverson, 38, played his last professional basketball in Turkey in 2011. Before that, he appeared in his final NBA game, as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, in 2010.

When he last spoke publicly, at a Sixers game on March 30, Iverson answered a question about continuing his career by saying, “My No. 1 goal is trying to accomplish to be the best dad that I can. And if basketball is in my near future, then God will make that happen. But if not, I had a great ride and I’ve done a lot of special things that a lot of guys have not been able to accomplish and people thought I couldn’t accomplish.”

Although he never won an NBA championship, he can boast career averages of 26.7 ppg, 6.2 apg and 2.2 spg as well as 11 All-Star game selections, a league MVP award, four scoring titles.

Also, Iverson still has some sick Reebok signature sneakers.

On Tuesday during an interview on WDAE 620AM radio, Hall of Fame quarterback, Fran Tarkenton, tore into Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback, Josh Freeman, belittling him and was quoted as saying, “sometimes he plays at a nice level, but just plays God-awful and has proved he can’t play.”

After being told about Tarkenton’s comments, Freeman said, “anytime you have negative football plays or don’t convert on third down, it’s frustrating. You go out there with a goal in mind and you want to see it through. “It’s preseason, and no, it doesn’t count, but to us it still matters. I know during the game with the Patriots everyone was frustrated on the sidelines. We wanted to get a drive going. “I think Tarkenton’s perception would have been different if I had done a better job of avoiding at least one of the sacks.”

Freeman’s father has advised him to not let anyone pollute his thought process, his mind, and tell him you’re great or you’re awful, either way. He told him to avoid favorable commentary as well.

Usain Bolt sprinted past Carl Lewis into the world track championship record book by completing a triple gold-medal performance Sunday in Moscow while anchoring Jamaica to victory in the 400-meter relay.

His march to greatness continues, and Bolt says he’s not going to slow down. He tied the American sprint legend with his 10th world championship medal. Each has eight gold medals, but the scale tips in Bolt’s favor because he has a pair of silver medals, while Lewis has a silver and bronze.

CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers have signed Anthony Bennett, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft, to his guaranteed rookie contract.

Financial terms were not immediately known, but the deal can be worth up to $22.8 million over four years. Bennett was somewhat of a surprising selection by the Cavaliers, who believe the 6-foot-8, 240-pounder from UNLV can play power forward.

He’s recovering from shoulder surgery, but the Toronto native is expected to be ready for the start of training camp. He averaged 16.1 points and 8.1 rebounds as a freshman with the Runnin’ Rebels.

Ty Lawson and his pregnant girlfriend, Ashley Pettiford aka Ashley King from Bad Girls Club, have joint mug shots.

This is not the best of looks for the NBA star who was arrested and released on bond over a domestic violence incident.

Pettiford was also arrested and the details surrounding this case are ugly. According to the report, police were called to Lawson’s Denver home around 9 a. m. last Saturday morning in response to a report of a domestic argument involving Lawson and his girlfriend, Ashley — who is six months pregnant.

Lawson was placed under arrest on suspicion of domestic violence, as well as criminal mischief (for throwing Pettiford’s phone) and harassment.

Pettiford was arrested for criminal mischief (for destroying Lawson’s phone) and domestic violence. They have both since been released on $1,000 bond.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers exposed their lack of depth Friday night in their 25-21 preseason loss to the New England Patriots.

With starters Carl Nicks and David Joseph missing from the offensive line, and newly acquired cornerback, Darrelle Revis missing from the defense.

Depth on the offensive line and defensive back was badly exposed.

Ted Larsen was in for Nicks, and Mike Remmers was in for Joseph. The result was quarterback Josh Freeman being sacked on three of his six drop backs. He never got the opportunity to develop any kind of momentum on offense.

Freeman’s counterpart, Tom Brady, went 8-for-8 on his first drive that ended with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Danny Amendola, and a 2-point conversion.

Freeman completed a 4-yard pass to tight end Tom Crabtree, and running back Mike James ran 11 yards to give the Bucs a first down. But Freeman was sacked twice in the next three plays.

The Bucs had a scare on the first play of the second drive when running back Doug Martin went down after taking a knee to the head. He’s expected to recover.

The Bucs also lost cornerback Anthony Gaitor to a hip injury, and receiver Tiquan Underwood to a knee injury.

This Saturday, the Bucs will travel to South Beach to face the Miami Dolphins.

In one short year, the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks have elevated their rivalry to new heights. The battle for the city of New York has become ferocious, as the hatred between both NBA sides has become legitimate.

Knicks point guard Raymond Felton and Nets forward Paul Pierce have become the latest to feud.

Felton recently made it very clear that the Nets will never take over the hearts and minds of New York. Despite making the postseason last season, Felton believes that the words on the front of their respective jerseys say it all:

“They will never take over the city. Because we’ve got ‘New York’ on our chest,” Felton said Sunday. “They’ve got ‘Brooklyn’ on their chest, and we’ve got ‘New York.’ They’ll never take over the city.

“[Pierce] saying that is just him talking. At the end of the day, it’s all about rivalries. We understand that — he knows that, I know that. He’s just trying to fuel it.”

Knicks fans are certain to agree.

The Knicks and Nets played four times during the 2012-13 NBA regular season, splitting the season series 2-2. In the offseason, Brooklyn added long-time, high-profile Knicks rivals in Pierce and Kevin Garnett, while New York tried countering with the acquisitions of Andrea Bargnani and Metta World Peace.