Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/33100
Thursday NBAFinals — Game 2, Mavericks at Heat, 6 p.m., ABC MLB — Giants at Cardinals, 5 p.m., CSNB MLB—Pirates at Mets, 10 a.m., MLBN French Open — Women’s semis, 5 a.m., ESPN2 PGA— Memorial Tournament, Noon, TGC Softball World Series — ESPN2, 10 a.m., 4 p.m. Sports 1B Thursday June 2, 2011 Shaq: ’I’m about to retire’ BOSTON (AP) — He was a prolif- ic producer of rebounds and record albums. And nicknames, too, as if at 7- foot-1 and 350 pounds he was too big for the simple ‘‘Shaq’’ that made him an instantly recognizable, one-name star in all of his endeavors. Shaquille O’Neal had more than 28,000 points and almost 4 million Twitter followers. He appeared in six NBA finals, three times as the MVP, and seven feature films, twice in a star- ring role. A 15-time All-Star, four-time cham- pion and the 2000 NBA Most Valuable Player, Shaquille O’Neal announced his retirement on Twitter on Wednes- day after spending most of his 19th season on the Boston Celtics bench, in street clothes because of leg injuries. Along with a mid-afternoon tweet saying, ‘‘im retiring,’’ O’Neal included a link to a 16-second video of him say- ing, ‘‘We did it; 19 years, baby. Thank you very much. That’s why I’m telling you first: I’m about to retire. Love you. Talk to you soon.’’ An inveterate prankster who gave himself a new nickname — or several — in each of his six NBA cities, O’Neal did not notify his latest team, leaving it wondering about his plans. He played just 37 games this season, the first of a two-year deal at the veter- an’s minimum salary, making just three brief appearances after Feb. 1. ‘‘He’s a giant,’’ commissioner David Stern said Wednesday at the NBA finals in Miami. ‘‘He’s physical- ly imposing; he has an imposing smile. In the game, he imposed his will, and he has done it for quite a long time. It’s been a great run here, and we’re going to miss him greatly. We hope we can find ways to keep him involved in the game.’’ O’Neal retires fifth all-time with 28,596 points, 12th with 13,099 rebounds, and a .582 field goal per- centage that is second only to Artis Gilmore among players with more than 2,000 baskets. His free throw per- centage of .527 — well, now is not the time to dwell on that. ‘‘I’m a little bit sad,’’ said Heat pres- ident Pat Riley, who also coached O’Neal when he won a title in Miami and watched Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning when they retired. ‘‘It’s been an honor to be part of coaching great, great play- ers. And he will go down as one of the greatest of all time.’’ Also one of the most charismatic players in NBA history, O’Neal was a franchise-saver when the Orlando Magic made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 1992 draft. He took them from the lottery to the playoffs in two years, and then led them to the NBA finals in his third year before they were swept by the Houston Rockets. O’Neal signed with the Los Ange- les Lakers in 1996 and had his greatest success there, winning three titles alongside Kobe Bryant and coach Phil Jackson. But amid tension between O’Neal and Bryant after a loss to the Detroit Pistons in the finals, O’Neal was traded to the Heat in the summer of 2004. After 3 1/2 years in Miami, a tenure that included his fourth NBA championship, O’Neal became a veter- an for hire, moving to Phoenix and 5-time French champ Nadal to face Murray PARIS (AP) — At last, Rafael Nadal sounded satisfied. Then again, what could he possibly have com- plained about Wednesday? The five-time French Open champion reached the semifinals and improved his career record at Roland Garros to 43- 1 with a clean-as-can-be 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory over the only man he’s ever lost to there, two-time runner-up Robin Soderling. ‘‘Today, I played better. Much better, in my opinion,’’ Nadal said. ‘‘It was nothing secret, noth- ing magic. ... I found a lot of solutions.’’ After Nadal’s previous match, he chided himself for not hitting the ball with conviction and fretted that his level of tennis wasn’t good enough to win the tournament a sixth time, which would tie Bjorn Borg’s record for the most by a man in history. Against Soderling, Nadal was at his ‘‘King of Clay’’ best. MCT photo Shaquille O’Neal’s 19-year NBA career is coming to an end. then Cleveland and finally Boston. But he couldn’t deliver another title for Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire with the Suns, with LeBron James with the Cavaliers, or with the Celtics’ Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. At each stop, he endeared himself to the fans and his new teammates with his effervescent smile and playful atti- tude, including the habit of adopting a new nickname he felt embodied his role with his new team. In Phoenix he was the ‘‘Big Shaqtus’’; in Boston, the ‘‘Big Shamroq.’’ ‘‘What a career for Shaq Diesel!!’’ James wrote on Twitter. ‘‘The most dominating force to ever play the game. Great person to be around as well. Comedy all the time!!’’ O’Neal embraced social network- ing, amassing more than 3.8 million followers on his Twitter account and keeping them informed on his ‘‘ran- dom acts of Shaqness’’ — like sitting in Harvard Square, pretending to be a statue, or going out in drag on Hal- loween. But O’Neal’s off-court per- sona couldn’t disguise the fact he was getting old, and while he showed he could still play with younger oppo- nents, he couldn’t manage to stay on the court with them. He missed a week in November with a bruised right knee, a week in December with a calf injury, and another in January with a sore right hip. He returned for three games — a OAKLAND (AP) — A.J. Burnett settled down after an early homer to snap an 11-start winless streak on the road, and Nick Swisher homered against his former team to help the New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics for the 10th straight time, 4-2 on Wednesday. Derek Jeter got his 2,984th hit and Alex Rodriguez drove in a run for the Yankees, who have their longest winning streak against the A’s since win- ning 14 in a row from 1956- 57. Josh Willingham hit a two-run home run and Gio Gonzalez (5-3) took his first loss since April for Oakland, which was swept by the Yankees in a three-game series and has lost 23 of the last 26 meetings against New York. Burnett (6-3) had not won a game away from Yankee Stadium since last July in Cleveland, going 0-5 with a 5.64 ERA in his pre- vious 11 road starts. He looked to be on his way to another rough day when Willingham homered in the first inning, but didn’t allow anything else. Burnett gave up two runs and three hits in seven innings for the fourth straight strong start from New York’s rotation, giving the Yankees a season-long four-game win streak. Bur- nett allowed only one hit after the first inning — a two-out triple by Coco Crisp in the fifth. Joba Chamberlain pitched a scoreless eighth, snaring a line drive to start an inning-ending double play. Mariano Rivera fin- ished for his 14th save in 17 chances and first since May 10. It was Rivera’s 1,002nd career appearance, tying Goose Gossage for 14th place all-time. total of about 34 minutes — before missing the next 27 games with what the team called a sore right leg. Although the injury was originally expected to keep him out just a few games, his absence stretched to more than two months. He returned to play in one more regular-season game, but lasted just 5 minutes, 29 seconds before reinjuring the leg and limping off the court. He missed Boston’s entire first-round series against the New York Knicks and made two appearances against Miami, a total of 12 minutes, and scored two points. In all, O’Neal averaged just 9.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 20.3 minutes this season while playing in 37 games — all career lows. ‘‘I’m glad that he retired. I think it was time,’’ former guard Tim Hard- away said. ‘‘He was hurting his legacy. You don’t want to see anybody hurt their legacy when they’re going out. I think a lot of people are happy he did- n’t go through that pain of waiting too long. And I think it was tough for everybody to watch Shaq when he was playing hurt like that at the end of this season.’’ And that left O’Neal in the market for a new nickname. After announcing his retirement, he asked fans to give him a nickname that befit his retire- ment. He reported at about 5 p.m. that ‘‘The Big 401K’’ was the leader. ‘‘I know you can do better, though,’’ he said in another video. ‘‘I’m here all day. I’m retired.’’ Yankees beat Athletics for 10th straight time The A’s came into the series on a four-game win- ning streak with their top three starters lined up to face the powerful Yankees. But New York battered Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson and Gonzalez for 18 runs in the three-game sweep. Gonzalez allowed four runs five hits and four walks in 6 1-3 innings. For the third straight day, the A’s fell behind before even coming to bat. After allowing two-run homers in the first inning the past two days, Oakland managed to keep the deficit at one this time: Jeter led off with a double — the third straight game he has opened with a hit — and scored on Rodriguez’s two-out double. That was the first hit allowed by Gonzalez in 22 at-bats with runners in scor- ing position and two outs. Oakland responded in the bottom half with a two- run homer of its own. Will- ingham’s 10th of the season came with two outs and David DeJesus on second, giving the A’s a 2-1 lead. That ended a stretch of 60 straight innings that Oak- land did not hold a lead at the end of a frame against the Yankees. The lead lasted only until the fourth inning, when Swisher connected for a three-run shot off Gonzalez, one of the players the A’s acquired when they dealt Swisher to the Chicago White Sox three years ago. Notes: Yankees LHP CC Sabathia threw out the ceremonial first pitch as part of a ceremony to honor the Little League program in his hometown of Vallejo, Calif. ... Oakland DH Hideki Matsui, who is hitting just .222, got his second straight day off against a RHP. ... Oakland reliever Joey Devine has not allowed an earned run in 33 consecutive innings dating to May 23, 2008. He scrambled along the baseline to dig out and get back shots that would be winners against most anyone else. He went from defense to offense in a blink, winning 14 of the first 19 points that lasted at least 10 strokes, according to the AP’s tally. He made a hard-to-believe 13 unforced errors total; Soderling made 41. Nadal broke in each of the first two games the 6-foot-4 Soderling served, six times in all. ‘‘He played really good. It’s the first match this tournament that he played well all the time,’’ said Toni Nadal, Rafael’s uncle and coach. ‘‘Well, only in the third set was I a little worried. But it was very good for us today.’’ On Friday, the top-seeded Nadal will take on No. 4 Andy Murray, who became only the third British man in the last 70 years to reach the French Open semifinals by beating unseeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 7-6 (2), 7-5, 6-2. Murray’s been playing with a torn tendon in his right ankle since twisting it in the third round, and he trailed Chela 4-1, then 5-3, before saving two set points and turning the match around. ‘‘Just a really scrappy match,’’ said Murray, who is 0-3 in Grand Slam finals. ‘‘I didn’t start particu- larly well and then got a little bit better, started moving a bit better, towards the end of the first set.’’ The other men’s semifinal is No. 2 Novak Djokovic, who is 41-0 in 2011 and has won 43 con- secutive matches overall, against No. 3 Roger Fed- erer, owner of a record 16 Grand Slam titles. It’s the 12th time in the history of the Open era, which began in 1968, that the top four seeded men reached the semifinals at a Grand Slam tournament — and first since the 2006 French Open. In contrast, none of the top four seeded players will participate in the women’s semifinals Thurs- day, when No. 5 Francesca Schiavone of Italy, the defending champion, faces No. 11 Marion Bartoli of France, and No. 6 Li Na of China meets No. 7 Maria Sharapova of Russia. For Sharapova, who had right shoulder surgery in October 2008, it’s her first major semifinal in more than three years, and she is bidding to com- plete a career Grand Slam. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006, and the Australian Open in 2008, but never has been to a final in Paris. ‘‘I put a lot of work in to be in this stage of the Grand Slams,’’ Sharapova said after beating No. 15 Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-0, 6-3 Wednesday with her fiance, New Jersey Nets guard Sasha Vujacic, in the stands. ‘‘I’m really happy that it’s here.’’ Li, who became the first Chinese player to reach any major final at the Australian Open in January, was a 7-5, 6-2 winner over No. 4 Victoria Azaren- ka. ‘‘So many people think I’m not so good (on a) clay court,’’ Li said, ‘‘but I think now they should change a little bit.’’ No one ever has doubted Nadal’s proficiency on the slow, red surface. Since 2005, the year he won his first French Open title in his tournament debut, Nadal is 198-8 on clay, including an 81-match unbeaten streak that ended in 2007. The only blemish on his Roland Garros record remains a fourth-round loss in 2009 to Soderling. But Nadal beat the Swede in last year’s final in straight sets and was just as dominant Wednesday. When Nadal closed a 14-stroke exchange with a run-around forehand winner that caught a line to earn a break point at 1-all in the second set, Soder- ling shook his head. The next point went 11 strokes as Nadal kept getting the ball back until Soderling sent a forehand wide then raised both arms as if to say, ‘‘What do I need to do to win one of these?’’ Nadal broke again to get to 4-1, and while the match was all of 74 minutes old, it also was all but over. ‘‘I was able to move very well; even better today than in any other matches in this tournament,’’ Nadal said. ‘‘I had the feeling I was really covering the court much better and I was able to run a lot better.’’ If the Spaniard’s bad-mouthing of his own per- formances earlier in the tournament was meant to fool opponents, Soderling wasn’t listening. ‘‘Against the world No. 1, you never expect any- one to play bad,’’ Soderling said. ‘‘I mean, it would be pretty stupid.’’ Murray, for his part, also figures he knows what sort of showing he’ll get from Nadal, who leads their career series 10-4. ‘‘Even in practice, he plays well against me,’’ Murray said, ‘‘so I don’t expect him to play badly on Friday.’’ French Open NBA N.Y. Yankees 4 Athletics 2