By Chris Sheridan As a follow-up to my report earlier this week that Team USA plans to hold training camp in New York City this summer, word came out through the French newspaper L’Equipe today that France is likely to be the Americans’ opponent. We can add to that info by definitively stating that the date for that game is Sunday, Aug.

Ashley Judd has done it : I have had so many wonderful memories over the years, but I’ll leave you with my most recent.

By John Hollinger ATLANTA – As far as hits go, this one was a big miss.

  SI’s Ian Thomsen wrote about the likelihood of the NBA adopting a stricter salary cap in 2011 bringing up the question if the NBA would benefit from restricting the amount team’s cans spend on their roster. We’ve seen super-teams form in recent years with the triad of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce coming together in Boston and the LA Lakers bringing in Paul Gasol and Ron Artest to compliment Kobe Bryant

Use this great rule for your team that I picked up from Alan Stein: Do not allow players to bend over and put their hands on their knees when they’re tired. If so, discipline with some conditioning.

By Marc Stein The NBA’s trade deadline is now only three Thursdays away. Which naturally calls for some fresh dribbles of trade chatter from various team executives and league insiders: The Blazers have indeed registered their interest in Washington center Brendan Haywood, given Haywood’s obvious appeal as a short-term replacement – with an expiring $6 million contract – for the fallen Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla. But one source close to the situation said that the talks didn’t go far when the Wiz indicated that they’d want both Rudy Fernandez and Nicolas Batum headlining the return package for Haywood, who’s averaging 9.8 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks

Ok, let’s have a little speculative fun. The Leafs, Hurricanes and Oilers are the only teams in definitive selling mode as we approach the Olympic break and subsequent trade deadline and with the way things are going there may not be all that many other sellers out there

  Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals are flying high atop the NHL’s Southeast Division after they made it eight wins in a row Wednesday night with a thrashing of the Anaheim Ducks 5-1 .

By Chris Broussard Ever since J.R. Smith sulked on the bench because of limited playing time (12 minutes) in Saturday’s overtime victory over New Orleans, there’s been speculation that Denver might trade him.

  Last Friday night’s contest between the Chicago Bulls and Phonexi Suns was a benchmark game for 21-year-old Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose . The 2008-09 Rookie of the Year has proved the last year and a half that he was one of the most promosing young players in the NBA, but on Friday against the Phoneix Suns he showed that he’s ready to step up and be a star. Prior to the game Rose announced that he would donate $1,000 to the relief effort ongoing in Haiti for every point he scored against the Suns and the point guard didn’t dissapoint