Florida Sentinel Bulletin

MINNEAPOLIS — The NFL’s lockout remains in place, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. That means the league likely won’t get back to business until at least next month – and maybe much longer than that.

The 8th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the lockout can stay until a full appeal is heard on whether it is legal. That hearing is scheduled for June 3 in St. Louis, before the same panel that issued this 2-1 decision.

The appellate court said it believes the NFL has proven it “likely will suffer some degree of irreparable harm without a stay.” The court also cast doubt on the conclusions of U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson, who ruled April 25 that the lockout should be lifted to save the players from irreversible damage. The 8th Circuit panel put her decision on hold four days later.

ATLANTA — One week after being named the youngest Most Valuable Player in league history, Chicago’s Derrick Rose made headlines again by being selected to the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his short career.

Los Angeles’ Kobe Bryant, Miami’s LeBron James, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant and Orlando’s Dwight Howard join Rose on the first team.

Bryant was named to the team for the sixth straight season and ninth time in his career. James — the lone unanimous choice — earned honors for the fourth straight season and fifth time overall. Howard was voted in for the fourth consecutive season and Durant made the team for the second time.

The All-NBA Second Team features Miami’s Dwyane Wade, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, Los Angeles’ Pau Gasol, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki and New York’s Amar’e Stoudemire.

San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili, New Orleans’ Chris Paul, Memphis’ Zach Randolph, Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge and Atlanta’s Al Horford comprise the third team.

DALLAS — Former Dallas Cowboys running back Ron Springs, who spent the past four years in a coma after losing oxygen during a 2007 operation, has died without ever regaining consciousness. He was 54.

Former Cowboys teammate Everson Walls, who donated a kidney to Springs for a transplant, says the Springs family informed him that his friend died about 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Medical City Dallas hospital.

The hospital is where Springs first slipped into the coma in 2007 after undergoing surgery to remove a cyst from his forearm about seven months after receiving the kidney.

In 2008, Springs’ wife, Adriane, filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against two doctors she says caused brain damage to her husband during the cyst surgery.

Despite the lengthy coma, the death came as a surprise, Walls said.

Springs was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys out of Ohio State in 1979 and became a starter alongside Tony Dorsett in ‘81, the year Walls arrived as an undrafted rookie from Grambling. Springs left in 1985, finishing his career with two seasons in Tampa Bay.

He ran for 2,519 yards, had 2,259 yards receiving and scored 10 touchdowns in his NFL career.

ATLANTA — A 38-year-old TV sports anchor from Chicago was found dead Thursday morning in his Atlanta hotel room, where he was staying while covering the Chicago Bulls-Atlanta Hawks NBA playoff series.

Daryl Hawks worked for WMAQ-TV since 2008. Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos said Hawks was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead and police do not suspect anything criminal.

Hawks had been staying in the Omni Hotel at CNN Center, which is next to Philips Arena where the Bulls and Hawks play Game 6 Thursday night.

Hotel employees found him in his room at about 9:30 a.m. after he missed a wake-up call.

DANVILLE, Va. — Bill Lester became the first black driver to win a Grand-Am Road Racing event, teaming with Jordan Taylor to top the Rolex Series’ GT class Saturday in the Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway.

“We’re ecstatic,” Lester said. “Everything came together for us. We knew at the beginning of the season that this team had a lot of potential.”

The breakthrough victory in the Autohaus Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro came in the hometown of auto racing pioneer Wendell Scott, the only black driver to win NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

DALLAS  — Jason Kidd is determined to make the most of what could be his last chance to finally win an NBA title.

The last two days, the 38-year-old point guard has been the last member of the Dallas Mavericks to leave the court after practice.

Kidd reached the NBA finals in 2002 and ‘03 with the New Jersey Nets. They lost both series and he’s never been back. This is the first time he’s even made it as far as the conference finals.

The Mavericks will open the Western Conference finals.

If the Mavs wins it all, Kidd would become the oldest point guard ever to win a championship.

Parade Magazine  published its 35th annual All-America High School Girls Basketball team, and among the three Florida players making the roster is Amber Henson, a 6’4” forward/center from Sickles High School.

Henson, who has verbally committed to attend Duke University in 2011-2012, was honored as Parade Magazine All-America fourth team member in 2009 and named to the third team in 2010.

Henson was honored as a 2010 ESPN Rise Underclass All-American, and named Florida Times Hillsborough County Player of the Year in 2009 and 2010, and to the Times’ All-Suncoast first team in 2010.

Henson averaged 22.1 points per game, 12.1 rebounds, and 4.9 blocks as a junior to help Sickles to a 25-4 record and the 5A State region final. She recorded 20 double doubles in 2009-2010.

As a sophomore, Henson averaged 19.2 points per game in helping her team to the region semi-finals.

Henson’s family moved to Tampa from Round Rock, Texas before her sophomore year. She also plays for the AAU for the Orlando Coments.

Henson’s brother, John, plays for the North Carolina Tar Heels, and she’s a member of the National Honor Society.

Henson is a right-handed shooter and wears #33 because her father and brother also wore that number. She says her favorite food is her dad’s ribs, and her favorite sports website is ESPN. Her favorite NBA players are Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard, and other than basketball, her favorite sport is football.

Keith McCants, once a feared defensive player in the NFL and an All-American coming out of the University of Alabama, is now reportedly in constant physical agony because of football injuries.

McCants, 43, walks with a cane and has been diagnosed with clinical depression and early stages of dementia. It has been reported that sometimes, he can’t recognize family members.

McCants was a first-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was given a $7.4 million contract and the largest signing bonus ever given a rookie defender.

McCants, who has a wife in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, moved back to the bay area within the past year. He also had been entered into a drug rehabilitation program.

In December, McCants was arrested after police said he was found leaving an exotic dance club with a crack cocaine pipe on the console of his car. His female passenger had cocaine in her purse, police said.

In February, as McCants removed identification from his pocket during a police stop, the officer said she notice a plastic wrapper of cocaine. When she tried to handcuff McCants, he pulled away and fled.

Last week, McCants pleaded guilty in both cases. The judge withheld adjudication, sentencing him to the 16 days he had served. He remains jailed on a warrant from Mobile, where authorities said he didn’t appear in court last year on a controlled substance charge.

BOSTON — The Celtics are working on a deal with coach Doc Rivers that would bring him back for another run at an NBA title with Boston’s aging Big Three — and then keep him on the bench to work with the rebuilt roster that is expected to follow.

The two sides are nearing agreement on a deal for “more than two or three years,” a person with knowledge of the said.