Lebron James' triple-double lifts Heat to NBA title

  MIAMI -- Music blared and confetti fell, the only celebration LeBron James really wanted in Miami.

Not that one two summers ago, the welcoming rally where he boasted of multiple titles, perhaps without realizing how hard it would be to win just one.

He dreamed of this moment, with teammates surrounding him and the NBA championship trophy beside him.

"You know, my dream has become a reality now, and it's the best feeling I ever had," James said.

James had 26 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists, leading the Miami Heat in a 121-106 rout of the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night to win the NBA Finals in five games.

Ripped and ridiculed for the way he announced he was leaving Cleveland and taking his talents to South Beach, it's all worth it now for James.

Best player in the game. Best team in the league.

And now, NBA champion.

"I'm happy now that eight years later, nine years later since I've been drafted, that I can finally say that I'm a champion, and I did it the right way," James said. "I didn't shortcut anything. You know, I put a lot of hard work and dedication in it, and hard work pays off. It's a great moment for myself."

And for his teammates, who watched the Dallas Mavericks celebrate on their floor last year.

James left the game along with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh for good with 3:01 remaining for a round of hugs and the start for a party he's been waiting for since arriving in the NBA out of high school as the No. 1 pick of the 2003 draft. James hopped up and down in the final minutes, shared a long hug with opponent Kevin Durant, and then soaked in the "MVP! MVP! chants during the raucous postgame.

"I wanted to become a champion someday," James said. "I didn't know exactly when it would happen, but I put in a lot of hard work."

He was a choker last year, the guy who came up small in the fourth quarter, mocked for "shrinking" in the moment while playing with what he called "hatred" in trying to prove his critics wrong.

He came to Miami seeking an easier road to the finals but found it tougher than he expected, the Heat coming up empty last year and nearly getting knocked out in the Eastern Conference finals this time by Boston. Facing elimination there, James poured in 45 points on the road to force a Game 7 and the Heat won it at home.

"It was the hardest thing I've ever done as a basketball player," James said. "You just put a lot of hard work into it and you hope that one day it will pay off for you."

This time, with a chance to clinch, the Heat took control in the second quarter, briefly lost it and blew the game open again in the third behind their role players, James content to pass to wide-open 3-point shooters while the Thunder focused all their attention on him.

The disappointment of losing to Dallas in six games a year ago vanished in a blowout of the demoralized Thunder, who got 32 points and 11 rebounds from Durant.

Bosh and Wade, the other members of the Big Three who sat alongside James as he promised titles at his Miami welcoming party, both had strong games. Bosh, who wept as the Heat left their own court after losing Game 6 last year, finished with 24 points and Wade scored 20. The Heat also got a huge boost from Mike Miller, who made seven 3-pointers and scored 23 points.

That all made it easier for James, the most heavily scrutinized player in the league since his departure from Cleveland, when he announced he was "taking his talents to South Beach" on a TV special called "The Decision" that was criticized everywhere from water coolers to the commissioner's office. James has said he wishes he handled things differently, but few who watched the Cavs fail to assemble championship talent around him could have argued with his desire to depart.

In Miami he found a team that didn't need him to do it alone, though he reminded everyone during this sensational postseason run that he still could when necessary. He got support whenever he needed it in this series, from Shane Battier's 17 points in Game 2 to Mario Chalmers' 25 in Game 4.

In the clincher it was Miller, banged up from so many injuries that he limped from the bench to scorer's table when he checked in. He made his fourth 3-pointer of the half right before James' fast-break basket capped a 15-2 run that extended Miami's lead to 53-36 with 4:42 remaining in the first half.

The Thunder were making a remarkably early trip to the finals just three years after starting 3-29, beating the Mavericks, Lakers and Spurs along the way. With Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka and James Harden all 23 or younger, the Thunder have the pieces in place for a lengthy stay atop the Western Conference.

But their inexperience showed in this series, a few questionable decisions, possessions and outright mistakes costing them in their franchise's first finals appearance since Seattle lost to Chicago in 1996. Westbrook scored 19 but made only four of his 20 shots, unable to come up with anything close to his 43-point outing in Game 4, and Harden finished a miserable series with 19.

"It hurts, man," Durant said. "We're all brothers on this team and it just hurts to go out like this. We made it to the finals, which was cool for us, but we didn't want to just make it there. Unfortunately we lost, so it's tough."

Nothing they did could have stopped James, anyway.

Appearing fully recovered from the leg cramps that forced him to sit out the end of Game 4, he was dominant again, a combination of strength and speed that is practically unmatched in the game and rarely seen in its history.

Wade skipped to each side of the court before the opening tip with arms up to pump up the fans, then James showed them nothing wrong with his legs, throwing down an emphatic fast-break dunk to open the scoring. He made consecutive baskets while being fouled, showing no expression after the second, as if he'd hardly even known he was hit. Drawing so much attention from the Thunder, he started finding his wide-open shooters, and the Heat built a nine-point lead before going to the second up 31-26.

Oklahoma City got back within five early in the third before consecutive 3-pointers by Chalmers and Battier triggered a 27-7 burst that made it 88-63 on another 3-pointer by Miller. James didn't even score in the run until it was almost over, hitting a pair of free throws after he was flagrantly fouled by Derek Fisher while powering toward the basket.

Gone was the tentative player who was mocked for shrinking on the big stage last year, too willing to defer to others who didn't possess half his talents. This time, he was at peace off the court and attacking on it, vowing to have no regrets and playing in such a way they wouldn't be necessary.

Miami had outscored Oklahoma City by just 389-384 over the first four games, but the Thunder were buried under a barrage of 14 3-pointers, tying the NBA record.

"They just hit 3s after 3s. They got it going and we couldn't stop them," Thunder center Kendrick Perkins said. "Things just didn't go our way."

Notes: Miami became the third team to sweep the middle three games at home in the 2-3-2 format. The Detroit Pistons took all three from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2004 before the Heat did it against Dallas in 2006. ... Coach Erik Spoelstra tied Pat Riley for the Heat franchise record with his 34th postseason win. He is 34-22, while Riley was just 34-36. ... The four-game losing streak that Oklahoma City finished the season with was its longest of the season. The Thunder had dropped three straight games to Memphis, Miami and Indiana from April 2-6.

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Baseball team forfeits title game over female player

  Eyewitness NewsPHOENIX -- Instead of playing in a championship baseball game, Paige Sultzbach and her team won't even make it to the dugout.

A Phoenix school that was scheduled to play the 15-year-old Mesa girl and her male teammates forfeited the game rather than face a female player.

Our Lady of Sorrows bowed out of Thursday night's game against Mesa Preparatory Academy in the Arizona Charter Athletic Association championship. The game had been scheduled at Phoenix College.

Paige, who plays second base at Mesa Prep, had to sit out two previous games against Our Lady of Sorrows out of respect for its beliefs. But having her miss the championship was not an option for Mesa Prep.

Paige's mother, Pamela Sultzbach, told The Arizona Republic, which first reported the story, the team found out about the forfeit Wednesday.

"This is not a contact sport, it shouldn't be an issue," Pamela Sultzbach said. "It wasn't that they were afraid they were going to hurt or injure her, it's that (they believe) a girl's place is not on a field."

Officials at Our Lady of Sorrows declined comment. In a written statement Thursday, the school said the decision to forfeit was consistent with a policy prohibiting co-ed sports.

The statement also said the school teaches boys respect by not placing girls in athletic competition, where "proper boundaries can only be respected with difficulty."

Our Lady of Sorrows is run by the U.S. branch of the Society of Saint Pius X. The group represents conservative, traditional priests who broke from the Catholic Church in the 1980s.

In junior high, Paige played softball and volleyball. Because Mesa Prep does not have a girls softball team, she tried out for the boys baseball team and received support from her coach and her fellow teammates.

Lisa Maatz, director of public policy at the American Association of University Women, said the situation is a clear example of why Title IX law, which enforces gender equality in education programs including sports, is needed.

"The very idea that such stereotypes are so strong, they'd actually forfeit a game simply because a girl was on the field. That's ridiculous," Maatz said. "Does she have cooties?"

Nancy Hogshead-Makar, senior director of advocacy for the Women's Sports Foundation, said the school's decision to forfeit doesn't aid its own students.

"In real life, these boys are going to be competing against the girls for jobs, for positions in graduate programs or in trade schools," Hogshead-Makar said. "In every other area of their life, they are going to be competing side by side."

Both schools play in the seven-team 1A division of the ACAA. Our Lady of Sorrows won the Western Division and Mesa Prep won the Eastern Division with an undefeated season.

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NCAA Cross-Country - Washington's 2 Freshmen Lead Women to the 2008 National Cross-Country Title

Chestnut wins 5th straight hot dog title; Thomas wins

  By VERENA DOBNIKNEW YORK -- Joey Chestnut scarfed down 62 hot dogs to win his fifth consecutive Fourth of July hot dog eating contest at Coney Island - the equivalent of about 20,000 calories in 10 minutes.

It wasn't a personal best for the 27-year-old nicknamed Jaws, but it was enough to out-eat second-place finisher Patrick Bertoletti by nine wieners. Chestnut, of San Jose, Calif., won $10,000 and the coveted mustard-yellow belt.

"I feel great!" he said after the contest, adding that he was going to drink a lot of water and avoid hot dogs for a few days. Chestnut started at a blistering pace but couldn't beat his own record of 68 "because I kept messing up," he said, pausing for a burp. "Excuse me," he told reporters squeezed around him.

Bertoletti, of Chicago, won $5,000, and third-place contestant Tim Janus, of New York, won $2,500.

This year, for the first time, the annual contest in front of Nathan's Famous fast-food stand was broken into two divisions, one for men and one for women.

Sonya Thomas, known as the "Black Widow" of competitive eating, won with 40 downed dogs, earning her $10,000 and her own pink champion's belt.

"I'm so happy!" said Thomas, of Alexandria, Va.

She started out neck-and-neck with second-place finisher Juliet Lee but later pulled ahead.

"I looked over, and I said, `No way!' But I have to focus myself, because I cannot keep up with her now," Thomas said.

Instead, she preserved her biggest jolt of energy for the winning end.

Lee, of Germantown, Md., ate 29? wieners, and Stephanie Torres, of Las Cruces, N.M., downed 28?.

Both Thomas and Chestnut broke world records in 2009, he with 68 and she with 41.

Chestnut's chief rival, Takeru Kobayashi, stayed away from the contest this year, staging a separate competition where he ate 69 dogs in 10 minutes - which would have been a world record.

The slim Japanese champ held the record for hot dog eating from 2001 to 2007. After refusing to sign an exclusive contract with Major League Eating, the fast-food equivalent of the NFL, he was banned from the competition last year.

But he showed up anyway, wearing a T-shirt that said "Free Kobi," rushed the stage and was arrested. Charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, obstruction of property and trespassing were later dropped.

This year, the Japanese native nicknamed the "Tsunami" held the unofficial contest from a rooftop on ritzy Fifth Avenue, eating near a giant plasma TV airing the official competition live.

The annual spectacle on Coney Island draws tens of thousands of holiday revelers, watching as contestants shimmy, slither and bounce as they dip hot dogs in water and cram them down their throats.

For some, it's a painful reminder of excess - especially as the U.S. battles a growing obesity problem. The American Medical Association opposes competitive eating, saying it's harmful to the human body.

"I am disgusted watching them, in a world where we try to do our best not to overeat and become obese," said contest viewer Eve Harrison, 42, a New York City art dealer who lives in North Salem, N.Y.

And hot dogs aren't exactly the healthiest of choices. In addition to beef, they include salt and various food additives, including sorbitol and hydrolyzed soy.

But the competitive eaters are quite trim. Chestnut is over 6 feet tall and a muscly 218 pounds, and Thomas and her rival Lee weighed in at barely 100 pounds each.

"I don't think it's supposed to be seen as anything other than a satire," attendee Eli Pearlstein said of the competition.

And for one scorching summer day, it's a good fit for that most American of places - kitschy Coney Island.

Joining the 2011 men's lineup were three new contestants flown in from China - the next big target market for the Nathan's brand.

Master of ceremonies George Shea acknowledged that the eating contest is one big sales gimmick - for Nathan's products. It's been a wild marketing success.

In the past seven years, Nathan's revenues have soared by more than 90 percent, with more than 450 million hot dogs sold annually and the value of its publicly traded shares tripling. Nathan's donated 100,000 hot dogs to the food bank before the competition.

In the end, the contest is less about food than hunger for money.

Major League Eating organizes about 100 eating events for such varied foods as oysters, cheesesteak and asparagus - sponsored by brands like 7-Eleven, Roy Rogers, Krystal and Harrah's.

On Monday, visitors enjoyed new Italian-made amusement park rides that are part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's vision for the redevelopment of the People's Playground on Coney Island. The seaside neighborhood served as an escape for generations of Americans, but fell into seedy disrepair in recent years.

The first hot dog was sold here by German-born butcher Charles Feltman, but it was his Polish-born employee, Nathan Handwerker, who really scored by opening his own business in 1916 - Nathan's Famous.

According to local lore, the Nathan's contest was started by immigrant men arguing about who was most American. They settled their dispute by trying to out-eat each other. Irishman Jim Mullen won with a paltry 13 dogs.

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Petra Kvitova to Win Wimbledon title

  Eyewitness NewsENGLAND -- Petra Kvitova Upsets Maria Sharapova to Win Wimbledon Title

Petra Kvitova, the 24-year-old Czech, beat Maria Sharapova, the one-time Wimbledon champion, 6-3, 6-4, to win her first ever Grand Slam title.

Kvitova, the eighth-seed, made short work of her Russian rival, taking less than two hours to beat Sharapova, who spent the entire match scrambling to catch up.

Kvitova was playing in her first major final, but it was three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova that showed her nerves. The 2004 Wimbledon champion double-faulted six times, including twice to get broken to 4-2 in the first set.

On Sunday, Rafael Nadal of Spain will meet Novak Djokovic of Serbia for the men's title.

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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