Florida Sentinel Bulletin

SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Bonds’ post-trial hearing was postponed from Friday to June 17, giving prosecutors more time to consider whether to retry the home run king and allowing the former player’s lawyers another month to sharpen their arguments for throwing out the lone conviction.

The seven-time NL MVP was convicted of one count of obstruction of justice April 13 for giving an evasive answer in 2003 to a grand jury investigating the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.

The federal court jury, which deliberated for four days, deadlocked on three counts charging the former San Francisco Giants star with making false statements when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and when he said only his doctors injected him.

Bonds’ lawyers and federal prosecutors announced an agreement on the delay Wednesday.

The deadline for Bonds’ motions asking U.S. District Judge Susan Illston to overrule the jury and find him not guilty on the obstruction count or — alternatively — to order a new trial also was reset to June 17.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers linebacker Jon Beason won a civil suit Thursday brought by a man who accused the three-time Pro Bowl pick of punching him in the face at a Charlotte strip club.

After five hours of deliberations over two days, the jury of eight women and four men determined Beason did not strike Gregory Frye nearly two years ago. The jury also ruled Frye slandered Beason and awarded Beason $1 in damages.

“It was fair. It’s been a long time coming, almost two years,” Beason said outside the Mecklenburg County Courthouse. “The thing for us people in the public eye, once somebody says something, a percentage of people are going to believe it. That’s the thing that was the most troubling, to sleep with.

Thought basketball superstar Maya Moore had already broken every record? Think again.

The University of Connecti-cut phenomenon inked a historic endorsement deal with Nike imprint, Jordan Brand, becoming the first female basketball signee on the brand’s roster. The 22-year-old forward joins Derek Jeter, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Andre Johnson as the newest athlete signed with the brand.

In a press release from the company announcing the deal, Nike and the Jordan family expressed their excitement naming Moore as their newest brand ambassador. Michael Jordan, the brands namesake said:

“I am thrilled to welcome Maya Moore into the Jordan Brand. Not only has Maya proven to be a prolific winner on the court, but her hunger and determination to make an impact off the court makes her a valuable addition to the Jordan family. We look forward to working with Maya as she carries her success to the next level.”

LAS VEGAS — Charles Oakley, one of the NBA’s all-time tough guys and now a Charlotte Bobcats assistant, has sued a Las Vegas resort over what he calls a May 2010 “gang-style beat down” by security guards who injured him.

Oakley filed the lawsuit Thursday in Clark County District Court against the Aria hotel-casino at MGM Resorts International’s CityCenter complex, the Las Vegas Sun reported. Five security officers also were named in the lawsuit.

Oakley was an invited guest at Aria’s VIP pool area May 28 when he left the area, the complaint says, but security officers and staff prevented him from re-entering.

After a “verbal altercation” with officers, Oakley attempted to return to his room when he was “assaulted” by them in a secluded area of the resort, the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint contends the officers wrestled Oakley to the ground and punched and handcuffed him, and that he was taken to the hospital with injuries to his neck, back, head and wrist, “all or some of which may be permanent and disabling.”

The complaint alleges negligence, assault, assault with excessive force, battery, false imprisonment and defamation. It seeks unspecified general, special and punitive damages.

An MGM Resorts International spokeswoman said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

The openly transgender member of the George Washington women’s basketball team, whose groundbreaking season was cut short by a pair of concussions, says he won’t play in his senior year.

The school announced that Kye Allums ”has decided that it is in his best interest to no longer participate in intercollegiate athletics.”

“I alone came to this conclusion,” Allums said in a statement released by the university, ”and I thank the athletic department for respecting my wishes.”

The statement offered no further details, although GW said Allums has enrolled in classes for the fall semester.

Allums made international headlines when he announced before the start of the season in November that he preferred to be known as a man. He said he was putting off hormone treatments and gender-changing surgery so that he could continue to play for the women’s team.

But he suffered two concussions early in the season and played in only eight games. He said that he had suffered a total of eight concussions, that he was having memory problems and that he was unsure whether he would be cleared medically to play his senior season. He said doctors told him that if he were a football player, his playing days would certainly be over.

”I’m a fighter. I’m still trying to come back,” he said at the time. ”I really do want to come back and play.”

In his forthcoming autobiography, former professional boxer Sugar Ray Leonard makes a few unexpected accusations.

In the book entitled “The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring,” the ex-fighter reveals darker moments in his life, from cocaine use to growing up in a household with domestic violence and alcohol abuse to surviving a car wreck.

Still, the most shocking account in the book is when Leonard reveals that he was sexually abused as a young fighter by an unnamed “prominent Olympic boxing coach.”

According to reports by the New York Times:
Leonard writes that when the coach accompanied him as a 15-year-old and another young fighter to a boxing event in Utica, N.Y., in 1971, he had the teenagers take a bath in a tub of hot water and Epsom salts while he sat on the other side of the bathroom. They suspected “something a bit inappropriate” was occurring, but did not want to question a strong male authority figure.

Several years later, Leonard describes sitting in a car in a deserted parking lot across from a recreation center, listening intently as the same coach, said to be in his late 40s, explained how much a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics would mean to his future.

He was flattered, filled with hope, as any young athlete would be. But he writes: “Before I knew it, he had unzipped my pants and put his hand, then mouth, on an area that has haunted me for life. I didn’t scream. I didn’t look at him. I just opened the door and ran.”

He adds that when he first decided to discuss the incident in the book, which is co-authored with Michael Arkush, he offered a version in which the abuser stopped before there was actual contact.

“That was painful enough,” Leonard writes. “But last year, after watching the actor Todd Bridges bare his soul on Oprah’s show about how he was sexually abused as a kid, I realized I would never be free unless I revealed the whole truth, no matter how much it hurt.”

Sugar Ray Leonard’s book comes out on June 6th, and it will be interesting to read whatever the boxing Hall of Famer has written in his autobiography.

TAMPA, Fla. — The Buccaneers have said no to HBO.

Tampa Bay has declined an invitation to be featured on the cable TV network’s next edition of “Hard Knocks,” the team said on its Twitter account Monday.

“We have respectfully declined this year’s ‘Hard Knocks’ invitation,” the team announced. “Wonderful show, but the team wants to keep the focus on the field in 2011.”

Tampa Bay went from 3-13 in 2009 to 10-6 last season and has a strong core of young players led by quarterback Josh Freeman, receiver Mike Williams and defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.

“Hard Knocks” won three Sports Emmys for its portrayal of the New York Jets in last year’s series. The show has been on the air intermittently since its debut in 2001 with the Baltimore Ravens.

In subsequent years, the Dallas Cowboys (2002 and 2008), Kansas City Chiefs (2007), Cincinnati Bengals (2009) and Jets have been spotlighted.

“Finding and selecting a team for ‘Hard Knocks’ each year is a process,” HBO spokesman Ray Stallone said. “We remain optimistic.”

BOSTON — Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers is recovering from surgery to remove a benign polyp from his throat.

The team said doctors told Rivers he is cancer free.

Rivers joked that his family will be happy that he can’t talk for two weeks. But he also urged all coaches to get their throats checked after the stress put on their vocal cords during the season.

The Celtics were eliminated from the playoffs in the second round by the Miami Heat. Rivers signed a five-year extension with the team last week.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL — Tiger Woods says he didn’t do any more damage to his left leg at The Players Championship and expects to play the U.S. Open next month.

Woods made it only nine holes last week at The Players – his shortest tournament ever – when he withdrew after nine holes because of what he described as a chain reaction of pain from his left knee to left Achilles and tightening in his calf. He shot 42 on the front nine.

On his website Monday, Woods said he irritated the knee and Achilles without making them worse. He said doctors have advised rest, cold water therapy and soft tissue treatment, which he said he already had been receiving.

“Aggravating my injury is very disappointing,” Woods said. “I’ll do whatever is necessary to play in the U.S. Open, and I’m hopeful I can be there to compete.”

The U.S. Open is June 16-19 at Congressional, a course on which Woods won in 2009 at the AT&T National.