In this Feb. 4, 2017, file photo, Miami Heat forward Derrick Williams (22) dunks against the Philadelphia 76ers in the second half of an NBA basketball game in Miami. The Cavaliers intend to sign forward derrick williams to a 10-day contract. Williams, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2011 draft, is traveling to Oklahoma City and the NBA champions hope to sign him before they face the Thunder on Thursday night. Williams was recently released by the Miami Heat after averaging 5.9 points in 25 games.(AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)
Williams, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2011 draft, is traveling to Oklahoma City and the NBA champions hope to sign him before they face the Thunder on Thursday night. Williams was recently released by the Miami Heat after averaging 5.9 points in 25 games.
The Cavs have been looking for roster help for several weeks and have been focused on finding a backup point guard or big man before the Feb. 23 trade deadline. Clevelands depth has been challenged after center Chris Andersen sustained a season-ending knee injury and with guard J.R. Smith still sidelined following thumb surgery.
Cleveland recently held tryouts for several veteran point guards and forward Lance Stephenson, who signed a 10-day deal with Minnesota.
The Cavs won their fourth straight game on Wednesday at Indiana and coach Tyronn Lue said its possible h**l rest LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love against the Thunder.
Bob Costas is stepping down from hosting the Olympics on NBC and Mike Tirico will replace him. USA TODAY Sports
Costas took over the Olympics prime-time hosting role in Barcelona in 1992.(Photo: Ron Chenoy, USA TODAY Sports)
For a generation, Bob Costas has been the face and the voice of the Olympic Games in the United States, a principled, steady and versatile presence on NBCs coverage from Barcelona to Rio, stretching from the early 1990s well into the 21stcentury.
Just as he seamlessly accepted the metaphoric broadcasting torch from the legendary Jim McKay all those years ago, Costas passed it on to Mike Tirico Thursday morning on The Today Show, announcing that he would no longer host the Olympics and would host just one more Super Bowl, next years game in Minneapolis, before taking on an emeritus role with NBC Sports.
Ive been lucky to have such a long and enjoyable run, Costas told USA TODAY Sports in a telephone interview. So I just thought, better to leave before they ask me to leave.
Costas idea to step away was long in the planning. He said he mentioned the idea to NBC executives a year and a half ago. I knew Rio would be my last Olympics, and this last football season would be my last full season, although once Mike came on board, I did less than a full schedule. I didnt want this news to get in the way of our coverage of the Rio Olympics, or the NFL season, even in just the slightest way. So we left it until now. It just feels like the right time."
He added, Im glad that Sochi wasnt the last one. You wouldnt want your pink-eye Olympics to be your last Olympics.
This doesnt mean retirement or even anything close to it, he said. It opens up more time to do the things that I feel Im most connected to. There will still be events, features and interviews where I can make a significant contribution at NBC, but it will also leave more time for baseball (on MLB Network), and then, at some point down the road, Ill have a chance to do more of the long-form programming I enjoy.
Costas has always found himself at home at the intersection of sports and society. Most noteworthy was his hosting of NBCsLater with Bob Costasfrom 1988-1994, where one weeks worth of interviews began this way: Martin Scorsese on Monday, Mary Tyler Moore on Tuesday and Hank Aaron on Wednesday.
He has occasionally used his sports hosting platform to discuss issues ranging from gun violence, steroids and concussions to the controversial name of Washingtons NFL team.
Ive always felt one can appreciate the history, drama and romance of sports, Costas said, while at the same time being aware of and addressing the issues involved in sports. To me, theres no contradiction in that.
For most of us, Costas is synonymous with the Olympic Games. His run began by hosting NBCs late night show in Seoul in 1988, then taking over the prime-time hosting role in Barcelona in 1992 for the next 11 Olympic Games aired by NBC.
His favorite moment? When I have to pick one, I always say Muhammad Ali lighting the torch in Atlanta in 1996 because it was such a unique moment. It seemed to pull together so much of his life and a good portion of the history of sports and social issues in the second half of the 20thcentury.
Costas specifically mentioned the reaction in the stadium, which was so remarkable it has stuck with me to this day as well.
You hear a lot of sounds in a stadium or an arena," he said"but something you seldom hear is an audible gasp. When Ali stepped out of the shadows, and Janet Evans handed him the torch, you saw him trembling that way, and yet somehow his presence was still dynamic, and even in silence, he was as profound as he often had been at his most vocal. It took a couple of seconds to sink in, and then came this thunderous roar of not only appreciation but respect. I get goosebumps thinking about it even now.
Costas will likely appear on future Olympic broadcasts in the same way Tom Brokaw contributes now and then to NBC news shows.
I still have a number of good years left, he said. But I have to think about how I use those years. Id like to be able to say of everything I do from now on, Yep, thats just what I should have done, something distinctive to me, something where I could do my best possible work.
children went to sleep Wednesday night with visions of shredded cheese dancing in their heads. Shopkeepers decorated windows with designer pizza boxes and cutters. Adults everywhere will be leaving pizza parlors with arms straining under the weight of dozens of pies to be given as gifts.
Thank you to the good people of Dewey"s Pizzain Lakewood (8516 Detroit Ave.) for letting us observe the magic of their kitchen in motion, making pizzas for the good boys and girls on this, the most magic of days.
Sarah Hyland performs "Don"t Cha" by The Pussycat Dolls | Lip Sync Battle
Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Sarah Hyland and boyfriend Dominic Sherwood celebrated two special occasions this week.
The 26-year-old American actress dedicated a sweet post to the 27-year-old English actor Tuesday on Instagram to mark their second anniversary as a couple.
"Happy 2 year to my #1 @domsherwood (I wrote a sappy thing for your birthday so... yeah)," she captioned a photo of herself with the Shadowhunters star.
Hyland had shared a black and white snapshot and a loving message to Sherwood to celebrate his birthday the day previous.
""The best thing to hold onto in life is each other" Happy Birthday @domsherwood," she wrote.
"Thank you for inspiring me on a daily basis to be a better person. To not take things too seriously. And to remember the little things. You"re my rock," the modern family star added.
hyland and Sherwood were first linked in January 2015 after co-starring in the 2014 movie Vampire Academy. The actress couldn"t help but gush about her beau to E! News in April 2015 following word Sherwood was cast in Shadowhunters.
"He"s amazing," she said. "He"s an amazing person. We became such good things on Vampire Academy. I"m so happy for him. It"s an amazing thing."
Hyland plays Haley Dunphy on Modern Family, which airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC. Sherwood portrays Jace Wayland on Shadowhunters, which premiered a second season on Freeform in January.
ANNA NICOLE SMITH - "E" TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY [359]
This week marks the 10-year anniversary of the death of Texas native Anna Nicole Smith, who captured the heart of America with her beautiful looks and the rags-to-riches tale of a dirt-poor small-town girlturned superstar.
NEW YORK FEBRUARY 12: Anna Nicole Smith walks the runway at the Heatherette fashion show on February 12, 2004 during Olympus 2004 Fashion Week, in New York City. (Photo by Matthew Peyton/Getty Images)
On Tuesday,Buzzfeed published a profile detailing the late American icons rise to fame and the subsequent destruction of her image, her life and her health. Here area few Texas highlights from the profile on Smith, who was born in Houston and raised in Mexia.
the high-fashion look didnt count for much in Mexia, or even in Dallasor Houston, and Vickie Lynn needed a body that would help her survive the world she lived in, and maybe even escape it.
Born Vickie Lynn Hogan, the models 6-foot figure and stunning looks were too much for the small town (Mexias population was only about 6,000 in the 1960s, when Smith was born). So she left Mexia when she was 18, a single mother recently divorced from her allegedly abusive husband, and she headed to Houston.
Though inescapably connected with a commodity drawn up from deep in the ground, Houston belongs to the ocean.
The profile details a part of the Lone Star State many Texans know well: Dry farmland giving way to pink skies and sudden downpours all-too-common on the land along the Gulf Coast.
Buzzfeed writes:
Its a port city, and like all port cities, it is a place of transformation: a place where the skyline can change seemingly overnight, where fortunes can be won and lost in an instant, and where the people who kept you down all your life cant keep you down anymore, because you can become whatever you say you are or at least whatever the city will pay you to be.
In Houston, Smith still going by Vickie Lynn found jobs at Walmart and Red Lobster in the mid-1980s.
Houston was the implant capital of America
Now heres a today I learned story you can tell your friends about.
Silicone breast implants were invented in 1961 by two surgeons from Baylor University, and according to Buzzfeed, theywere one of Houstons hottest commodities in the 1980s, almost as synonymous with Texas-sized dreams and desires as the lasso was.
However, Houston also later became the implant-related lawsuit capital of the world in the early 1990s, as women sued manufacturers for faulty implants.
she became anna nicole smith while dancing at a Houston strip club
After realizing Walmart and Red Lobster couldnt pay the bills, Smithtook a job dancing at the Executive Suite, a strip club near Houston Intercontinental Airport.
Buzzfeed reports the businessmen who frequented the club didnt much care for Smiths body, as she was both too big and too small for the business of seduction.
So Smith saved her money to get breast implants and buy herself the body of Anna Nicole Smith, saying goodbye to Vickie Lynn and landing a job at Ricks, the legendary Houston strip club that some claimed had singlehandedly popularized the silicone implant, Buzzfeed writes.
She met J. Howard Marshall while dancing at Ricks in 1988. Marshall, an elderly man who had gotten rich on the East Texas oil boom of the early 20th century, would later become Smiths husband.
Read the rest of the profile, which goes into detail about Smiths professional life, her personal relationships and her ties to her Texas family.
MLS SOCCER: MEXICO VS. ICELAND MARK RALSTON/Getty ImagesRob BlanchetteFeatured ColumnistFebruary 8, 2017
Mexico meet Iceland in the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, as the two nations face off in friendly competition on Wednesday.
El Tri have provided a strong squad for their first contest of 2017 against one of the surprise packages of UEFA Euro 2016.
Heimir Hallgrimsson"s men have achieved astonishing success in the past two years, and despite being one of Europe"s smallest nations, they pack a serious punch as they box well above their weight class.
Venue:Sam Boyd Stadium, Whitney, Nevada, United States
TV: Univision Deportes USA
Stream:Univision NOW
RONALDO SCHEMIDT/Getty Images
Giovani dos Santos andRafa Marquez both make the trip to Las Vegas for the Mexicans.
Iceland have had phenomenal success in recent times and will be a serious threat to Mexico in the United States.
Despite the match being played on neutral territory, the encounter will feel like a home match for the Mexicans, as many of their fans will likely populate the stands.
a packed calendar awaiting them, with theConfederations Cup, Gold Cup and World Cup qualifiers all to come for El Tri.
Tom Marshallof ESPN FC reported managerJuan Carlos Osorio has opted for a largely experienced squad for the friendly but has called up Monterrey stopper Hugo Gonzalez, America defender Edson Alvarez and Atlas" Luis Reyes into his setup for the first time.
The match falls outside of an official FIFA international date, meaning European clubs do not have to release their players for the game, according to Marshall.
NELSON ALMEIDA/Getty Images
Gilbert Manzano of theLas Vegas Review-Journalreported the contest could have a record attendance for a soccer match in Las Vegas after 22,000 tickets were sold at theSam Boyd Stadium, according to Gabriel Gabor,who represents the communications department of Major League Soccer.
Gabor said:"We are on our way to one of the largest soccer crowds in the history of the city."
The record is 29,152, which was set in 2012 when Cristiano Ronaldo"s Real Madrid took on Santos Laguna.
Discussing Mexico"s options for the starting XI in Nevada,Marshallsaid he feltAlan Mendoza should be given a shot:
Mendoza is Mexican, left-footed and playing regular first-division football. That trio of attributes immediately catapults him into national team contention given that so few other players combine them. The fact that the versatile Mendoza has been playing at full-back -- a problem position for El Tri -- only strengthens his case.
The contest will give both teams the chance to test their options ahead of the upcoming international matches scheduled for major tournaments.
Dos Santos has continued to impress during his spell in the Major League Soccer with L.A. Galaxy, andOsorio is likely to look towards the 27-year-old for inspiration in this match and for the campaign ahead.
