The Chicago Bulls have finalized a sign-and-trade deal for point guard Lonzo Ball with with the New Orleans Pelicans.
The announcement Sunday night comes after Ball agreed last week to a four-year, $85 million contract with Chicago. The Bulls sent Garrett Temple, Tomas Satoransky, a 2024 second-round draft pick and cash to New Orleans.
Ball, a four-year veteran who turns 24 in October and entered the offseason as a restricted free agent, is coming off his most productive season. In his second year with the Pelicans, he averaged career highs in points (14.6 per game) and field-goal percentage (41.4) while averaging 5.7 assists. Drafted second overall by the Lakers out of UCLA in 2017, Ball has changed his shooting mechanics since being traded to New Orleans as part of a blockbuster deal that sent Anthony Davis to Los Angeles.
Ball hit a career-high 172 3-pointers last season while making a career-best 37.8% of his shots from deep.
Tennis
Collins wins second
career title
American Danielle Collins won her second career title in just a two-week span, holding off No. 4 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-7 (10), 6-1 after a thrilling second-set tiebreaker Sunday in the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, California.
Collins, seeded seventh, won her first championship at Palermo on July 25 in Italy. The 27-year-old Collins dropped just two games in her semifinal rout of Croatian Ana Konjuh.
On Sunday, she reminded herself she would have to be patient to outlast Kasatkina — and there would be some mistakes.
“I got off to a pretty good start in the first set and played some solid tennis. I don’t think Daria was playing her best in the first set. In the second set she really stepped her game up at 5-3 when I was up,” Collins said. “Today I executed my game plan well. It’s tough when you go against an opponent who runs down so many balls, anticipates so well, because a lot of times you’re having to win the point six, seven, eight times.”
Sinner outlasts McDonald in Washington
It felt like Jannik Sinner had the upper hand through almost his entire match against Mackie McDonald. Finally, after nearly three hours, Sinner could celebrate a victory and a tournament championship.
Sinner became the first teenager to win an ATP 500 event, beating McDonald 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 to take the Citi Open title Sunday. It was a struggle for the fifth-seeded Sinner. McDonald fought off 10 set points before losing the first set, and Sinner failed to convert two match points while up 5-2 in the third.
McDonald rallied to make it 5-all in the final set, but he ultimately fell short. Sinner finally won when McDonald’s backhand went into the net, and he celebrated by holding up his racquet with one hand and a No. 1 sign with the other.
Sinner, who turns 20 on Aug. 16, won his third ATP title and second this year. He was the first Italian finalist in this tournament’s 52-year history, and he became the event’s third-youngest champion, behind 18-year-old Andy Roddick in 2001 and 19-year-old Juan Martin del Potro in 2008.
Teenagers had been 0-5 in ATP 500 finals since the category was created in 2009.
Golf
Ancer wins St. Jude for first PGA Tour title
Abraham Ancer of Mexico won the FedEx St. Jude Invitational on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title, beating Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama and Sam Burns with a 6-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole of a playoff.
Ancer won the World Golf Championships event at TPC Southland in Memphis, Tennessee, after Burns’ 5 1/2-foot putt — on the same line as Ancer — lipped out.
Ancer, 30, a former University of Oklahoma player who was born in McAllen, Texas, closed with a 2-under 68 to match Matsuyama and Burns at 16-under 264. Matsuyama shot a 63, and Burns had a 64.
Ancer became the fourth Mexican winner on the PGA Tour, following Victor Regalado, Cesar Sanudo and Carlos Ortiz, and the seventh player to win a WGC event for his first tour victory. He’s projected to jump to 10th in the world ranking.
Harris English, the 2013 champion at TPC Southwind, was a stroke back after a 73 after leading after each of the first three days.
Colleges
Missouri hires
Reed-Francois as
athletic director
Missouri hired UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois as its AD on Sunday.
Reed-Francois, who has been AD at UNLV since 2017, will replace Jim Sterk, who stepped down two weeks ago.
She will become the second woman hired as an athletic director in the Southeastern Conference and the first at one of the league’s 13 public schools. Candice Storey Lee was named AD at Vanderbilt, the SEC’s lone private school, last year.
Reed-Francois previously worked at Virginia Tech, where she oversaw day-to-day operations of the football program and at Tennessee, where she was the first woman to be the lead administrator of an SEC men’s basketball program.
During her time at UNLV, the school opened a $35 million football complex and negotiated a deal to for the Rebels’ football program to play its home games at Allegiant Stadium, new home of the Las Vegas Raiders.
The former rower at UCLA has also worked at Cincinnati, Fresno State, San Jose State and California.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
Join the Discussion