Rumors

In the midst of Utah Jazz fans being frustrated over the lack of ability to stream games during the upcoming season, the team on Monday announced a second option to do just that. “In the coming days,” fuboTV, a streaming service that emphasizes sports, will start carrying AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, the television home of the Utah Jazz, NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights and MLB’s Colorado Rockies. The announcement said it will first launch in Utah and Nevada and “the surrounding areas” and expand in the future.

deseret.com

During a pregame ceremony honoring Bryant, every Dodgers player and coach took the foul line wearing a gold Lakers No. 8 or No. 24 jersey — the two numbers the guard wore during his Hall of Fame career — as did former Dodger and current Rockies outfielder Matt Kemp. Vin Scully narrated a memorial video shown on the scoreboards and posted online. And before first pitch, an old clip of Bryant announcing, “It’s time for Dodger baseball,” echoed around the park.

Los Angeles Times

According to data bases compiled by USA Today, players in these three major leagues alone earned nearly $9 billion in 2013. Most of that income is taxed at the highest rate of 39.6 percent, and for the first time a surcharge of .9 percent was added to the previous 1.45 percent Medicare tax employees pay on income that exceeds $250,000 to help pay for Obamacare. Even though the overall federal tax burden of nearly 42 percent for these athletes is reduced by deductions, experts say most can only claim enough in agent fees, mortgage interest, dependents and charitable donations to whittle the bill down less than 10 percent. So assuming deductions reduce the overall tax burden to 33 percent, the amount paid in federal taxes on $9 billion of earnings is still $3 billion. “You definitely look at the bottom-line [tax] figure and you go, ‘Jeesh, that’s a lot of money,’ said Colorado Rockies outfielder Michael Cuddyer, who is in the last year of a three-year, $31.5 million contract. “Then you look at the net income and you go, ‘Jeesh, that’s a lot of money too.’’’

The Fields of Green

Marc Stein: Rumble out of the Rockies: Denver Nuggets expressing certifiable interest in trying to sign free-agent PG Nate Robinson

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Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti landed his very first job in the NBA after an interview with Spurs basketball chief R.C. Buford that literally was conducted on the run. The memory of sidestepping his way down the sideline of a basketball court high in the Colorado Rockies to sell himself to Buford remains so vivid for Presti that he rises from his desk at the Thunder’s offices and sidesteps from one end to the other as he retells the tale. “I was 23 years old and had just graduated college,” said Presti, now 35 but still the league’s youngest GM. “By some pretty fortunate circumstances I ended up at a basketball camp in Aspen that R.C. Buford was involved with. I was told R.C. would be there and there might be an opportunity for me to meet him.” After three days without seeing Buford, Presti feared his dream of an NBA internship would not be fulfilled. “It was a four-day camp and he didn’t arrive until the fourth day,” he said. “By then I was pretty desperate, so when R.C. refereed a game, I went up and down the court with him.”

San Antonio Express-News