Florida Sentinel Bulletin

One day you’re dreaming of championship rings with your buddies; the next you’re stepping off of a charter plane as the face of a rebuild. Rockets guard James Harden can be forgiven if his head is still spinning after the Thunder moved him in a blockbuster trade just days before the start of the 2012-13 season.

Over the last 10 days, with his whole life turned upside down, he’s signed an $80 million contract extension and keyed a nice start to the Rockets’ season. Still, it sounds as if he’s not totally content with how the process played out. Harden wishes the Thunder hadn’t rushed him to make a decision during the final stages of contract extension negotiations.

Why didn’t officials give him longer than an hour to consider a final four-year, $54 million offer before trading him? “After everything we established — everything we had done — you give me an hour?” “This was one of the biggest decisions of my life. I wanted to go home and pray about it. It hurt me. It hurt.”

PITTSBURGH – The Steelers will likely be without receiver Antonio Brown when they host reeling Kansas City Monday night. Brown sprained his right ankle early in a 24-20 victory over the New York Giants last Sunday and Coach Mike Tomlin doesn’t anticipate Brown being available.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL – Former NFL wide receiver David Boston could face nearly three years in prison for punching a woman last year.

Palm Beach County prosecutors say the 34-year-old Boston pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated battery. He faces up to 35 months in prison at a Dec. 7 hearing. Authorities say Boston had been drinking at a Boca Raton home last November when he punched a woman twice in the head, leaving a wound requiring 10 stitches.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.  — The New England Patriots moved to shore up their shaky secondary on Thursday by obtaining cornerback Aqib Talib from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Patriots traded their fourth-round pick in next year’s draft for the former first-round choice, who is coming off his second NFL suspension, and a seventh-rounder in 2012.

Talib, who has 18 interceptions since being taken by Tampa Bay with the 20th pick in 2008 out of Kansas, will be eligible to play in the Patriots’ next game on Nov. 11 after serving a four-game suspension for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.

He said at the time of the suspension that he took an Adderall pill without a prescription “around the beginning of training camp.” He also was suspended without pay for the regular-season opener in 2010 and fined one additional game check for violating the NFL’s personal-conduct policy. That penalty resulted from an altercation with a St. Petersburg cab driver during training camp in August 2009.

DALLAS – The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said on Wednesday that it will pursue a misdemeanor family violence charge against Cowboys star wide receiver Dez Bryant.

District Attorney Craig Watkins said Wednesday afternoon that his office has accepted the charge against Bryant and that a court date will be set.

However, Watkins said his office could still decide to handle the charge differently in the future. In other words, the DA’s office could still drop the charge or reach a plea deal, just as prosecutors could in any criminal case.

Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Tyron Smith spends his Sundays helping to protect star quarterback Tony Romo from being harassed and tormented by opposing defenses. On Tuesday, police had to protect him from being harassed and tormented by his closest family members over money.

On Tuesday afternoon, Dallas police responded to a 911 call to Smith’s North Dallas home, where two of his sisters along with a third unknown person showed up to “harass and torment” him “in the pursuit of collecting financial gain,” according to police reports. It was the second time in four days that the siblings showed up at his home.

Smith, 21, is in his second year with the Cowboys, his first as their starting left tackle, is considered to be a rising star. The ninth-overall pick out of Southern California in 2011, the 6-foot-5, 308-pound Smith signed to a four-year, $12.5 million contract last season with “America’s Team” and it has brought with it a lot of unwanted attention from his family.

Over the summer, Smith filed a restraining order through his attorneys against his stepfather, Roy Pinkney, and his mother, Frankie Pinkney, barring them from contacting Smith, even through siblings.

One of the rising faces of the NBA, Los Angeles Clipper Blake Griffin, is now one of the faces of the Jordan Brand according to CBS Sports. Joining Oklahoma City Thunder Guard Russell Westbrook, Griffin joins the sneaker brand which bears the names of the game’s greatest player.

Griffin debuted in Jordan Brand kicks last night in a victory over the Memphis Grizzlies by  sporting a sharp pair of cobalt blue Super Fly Jordans. The Clippers’ high-flying forward and two time NBA All-Star  has become the latest NBA star to join Nike’s Jordan Brand joining teammate Chris Paul, Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, Nets guard Joe Johnson, Heat guard Ray Allen and more.

It’s a question not often posed when discussing today’s NBA: are certain teams too white? The inverse — are teams, or the NBA for that matter, too black — has been raised several times in recent years. In a league where black players have made up at least 75 percent of team rosters since the 1991-92 season — the idea of a team being too white seems somewhat  out of place.

But this week, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on the overwhelming number of white players on the Minnesota Timberwolves roster.  Reporters Jerry Zgoda and Dennis Brackin call the team’s roster the “whitest since the Boston Celtics teams of the 1980s.”

On Sunday at 4 p. m., the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will take the field at the Oakland Coliseum to face the Raiders without a key offensive player.

Starting left guard Carl Nicks has been lost for the season with a toe injury. Another starter, Davin Joseph, was also lost for the season with an injury. The Bucs are coming off a thrilling victory over the Minnesota Vikings, and are now 3-4 in the lethargic NFC South.

At the beginning of the season, the Buccaneer offensive line was considered the strength of the team, and the factor behind their selection of running back Doug Martin with their first pick. The offensive line has seen the benching of Jeremy Trueblood, who was replaced by Demar Dotson. That was followed by the benching of Joseph’s replacement, Ted Larsen, who was replaced by journeyman, Jamon Meredith. On Sunday, two of the Bucs’ five projected offensive line starters will line up (left tackle Donald Penn and center, Jeremy Zuttah).

Both quarterback Josh Freeman and running back Doug Martin are coming off record-setting performances last week, and are expected to put up big numbers against a suspect Raider defense. The Buccaneers also announced that the NFL may suspend cornerback Eric Wright for his alleged use of the banned substance, Adderall.