Sports briefs 8/3
WNBA
The Los Angeles Sparks traded All-Star guard Kelsey Plum to the Phoenix Mercury for a first-round pick next year, Monique Akoa Makani and a second-round draft choice in 2028.
The deal was finalized late Saturday night ahead of Sunday’s trade deadline. It’s rare for an All-Star to be traded in the middle of the season, only happening a handful of times before Saturday night.
“Kelsey is one of the league’s most dynamic players,” Mercury GM Nick U’Ren said. “She is a fierce competitor with a winning mentality who impacts the game on both ends of the floor. Her combination of shooting, explosiveness and decision-making allows her to create offense at a high level and makes her one of the league’s most complete guards. We have wanted Kelsey here for a long time, and we’re excited to finally bring her to Phoenix as we continue to build on our foundation.”
Plum was averaging a career-best 23.9 points and 6.4 assists before getting hurt. Los Angeles has struggled without her, including its last six games.
Phoenix is currently 11-19 and six games behind the New York Liberty, who sit in eighth place. New York edged Phoenix 94-92 on Saturday.
College sports
The Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences agreed to support a Senate bill that seeks to regulate college sports, ending a breakneck week of negotiations and pulling the bipartisan measure out of what looked like a certain death spiral.
School presidents from both conferences voted to back the bill after receiving last-minute concessions over language regarding third-party name-image-likeness deals and the so-called “associated entities” that often broker those arrangements between players and schools.
More details need to be worked out, but the headline is that the bill still has a chance to earn the 60 votes it needs to halt debate and head to an up-or-down vote before the Senate heads for summer break next Friday.
The summer recess is increasingly looking like an intractable deadline for the Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan effort headed by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
After the conferences, which had balked at large sections of the bill, put out a short release announcing they supported the act “as currently drafted,” Cruz put out a short statement on social media thanking the leagues and saying: “Let’s save college sports.” And Cantwell said: “Good. Now progress can be made in protecting women and Olympic athletes and moving the legislation closer to the President’s desk.”
Baseball
Home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak left the game Sunday between the Detroit Tigers and Athletics after taking a foul ball off his mask.
Rehak was hurt with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning on Sunday when A’s outfielder Henry Bolte fouled off a pitch from Keider Montero. The ball hit Rehak squarely in the mask, knocking it to the ground.
Tigers catcher Eduardo Valencia quickly checked on Rehak, who was then attended to by a trainer. After a few minutes, Rehak left the game and there was a brief delay as second base umpire Adam Beck went back to the umpires’ locker room beyond the center-field wall to put on the equipment and take over behind the plate.
Soccer
Brais Méndez scored a late equalizer in his MLS debut and the Columbus Crew played Inter Miami to a 2-2 draw on Saturday night.
Lionel Messi, who entered as a substitute in the 53rd after leading Argentina to its second straight World Cup final appearance, had several good scoring chances in the closing stages but couldn’t find the back of the net.