Sports briefs
Roughriders win title
The West Virginia Roughriders won the American Arena Football League championship Saturday night, defeating the Carolina Energy 55-29 in the title game played at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, W.Va.
West Virginia finished the season with a 13-0 record. Carolina was 9-1.
U.S. women’s team
a TV ratings hit
The Americans’ 2-1 victory over France set a record for the most-watched Women’s World Cup quarterfinal match on U.S. English-language television.
Fox drew 6.12 million viewers for Friday’s match, and peaked at 8.24 million. The game was the most-watched English-language soccer telecast in the country since last year’s men’s World Cup final.
In addition, Sunday’s match averaged 211,000 viewers online, making it the most streamed Women’s World Cup game ever.
The U.S. 2015 quarterfinal win over Chile averaged 5.74 million, which aired in prime time.
The Americans will face England in the semifinals Tuesday.
NBA free agency begins
Kawhi Leonard is planning meetings in Los Angeles. Kevin Durant will do the same in New York.
Those are the cities where they’ll begin free agency.
Where they will end it will finally start to get clearer soon.
NBA teams will start opening their checkbooks Sunday at 6 p.m. EDT, when the negotiating window for one of the most hotly anticipated free-agent periods begins and with more than 200 players – including two dozen with at least one All-Star appearance – eligible to change teams in the coming weeks.
“Some people could say, ‘Oh my God, look at all that player movement,'” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said during this past season. “On the other hand, that player movement could be very positive for a lot of teams.”
Leonard, Durant, Klay Thompson, Nikola Vucevic, Al Horford and Khris Middleton are among the top players who will be deciding whether to change addresses or not. Boston apparently knows it will be losing Kyrie Irving, because a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Saturday that fellow All-Star point guard Kemba Walker has informed the Charlotte Hornets that he’s leaving them for the Celtics. Irving’s focus is believed to be on joining the Brooklyn Nets.
No deals can be signed until July 6 because of the league’s annual moratorium, though players and teams can enter into agreements starting Sunday.
“There’s a lot of obviously decisions that will go into the summer,” Golden State guard Stephen Curry said. “And we’ll deal with those accordingly.”
Everyone will, and won’t have a choice.
Changes could shift the balance of NBA power considerably – especially if Durant leaves the Warriors and Leonard leaves the NBA champion Toronto Raptors. Durant will be pursued by the Brooklyn Nets, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers along with Golden State; Leonard is likely to hear pitches from the Los Angeles Lakers, the Clippers and the Raptors.