It's settled: Sonics off to Oklahoma City

The SuperSonics will move to Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 season as part of a settlement announced Wednesday with the city of Seattle. The agreement ends a contentious relationship that culminated in a recent six-day federal trial over terms of the team's KeyArena lease. The judge was scheduled to rule yesterday. The settlement calls for Sonics owner Clay Bennett and the Professional Basketball Club LLC to pay up to $75 million to the city in exchange for the immediate termination of the KeyArena lease between the NBA team and the city. The team's name and colors will be staying in Seattle. "We made it," Bennett said after stepping to an Oklahoma City podium featuring the NBA logo and the letters OKC. "The NBA will be in Oklahoma City next season." Bennett said the settlement calls for a payment of $45 million immediately, and would include another $30 million in 2013 if the state authorizes at least $75 million in public funding to renovate KeyArena by the end of 2009 and Seattle doesn't obtain an NBA franchise in the next five years . . . The Mavericks had to give up DeSagana Diop to get Jason Kidd. Now, the 7-foot center is headed back to Dallas. Diop agreed to a $31 million, five-year contract with the Mavericks, according to a person close to the negotiations. Dallas also agreed to a one-year, minimum-salary contract with former Celtic Gerald Green, who had been unemployed since March . . . Tamika Catchings scored a season-high 18 points and the Fever beat the Chicago Sky, 74-67, in a WNBA game in Indianapolis.

Brian McNamee asked a federal court late Wednesday night to dismiss Roger Clemens's defamation lawsuit or move the case to New York. Clemens sued McNamee in January after his former trainer accused him in the Mitchell Report of using steroids and human growth hormone. The case originally was filed in Clemens's home state of Texas and was shifted in February to the U.S. District Court in Houston. McNamee's lawyers first tried to dismiss the case in early March. When Clemens's lawyers responded May 27, they added a new claim of "intentional infliction of emotional distress" and two additional claims of defamation.

Hideki Matsui could be out until after the All-Star break as the Yankees slugger tries to work his way back from a sore left knee. General manager Brian Cashman said that Matsui was still hobbled by the injury, which landed him on the disabled list last week. The club had hoped he'd be ready to take batting practice this weekend, but Cashman said that timeframe is no longer realistic. Matsui is batting .323 with 7 homers and 34 RBIs in 69 games. The Yankees also said outfielder Shelley Duncan, who started the season with the big league club, separated his shoulder Tuesday night making a diving catch for Triple A Columbus and will likely miss the rest of the season . . . Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez and his wife have split less than three months after the birth of the couple's second daughter, according to a report in the New York Daily News . . . Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal will have surgery to relieve pressure on a disk in his lower back and could be out at least eight weeks. Furcal left a rehab assignment with the team's Triple A affiliate in Las Vegas Tuesday after experiencing discomfort in his back . . . The San Diego Padres landed five highly regarded 16-year-olds on the first day of the international signing period. The Padres committed nearly $5 million in signing bonuses to the five, including $2 million to righthander Adis Portillo of Venezuela . . . The Athletics agreed to a minor league contract with prized 16-year-old pitching prospect Michael Inoa of the Dominican Republic that included a $4.25 million signing bonus, an A's record for signing an amateur player. The Athletics also placed third baseman Eric Chavez on the 15-day DL because of a sore right shoulder . . . Closer Matt Capps will be sidelined for approximately eight weeks with a shoulder injury, the fourth Pirates pitcher to go on the disabled list in the last two weeks . . . Jeff Francis, a 17-game winner last season who has struggled this season with a 3-7 mark, was placed on the 15-day DL with shoulder inflammation . . . Reds shortstop Alex Gonzalez is scheduled for surgery on his troublesome left knee, which has sidelined him all season. The surgery will end his chances of returning this season . . . Florida shortstop Hanley Ramirez was selected NL player of the month for June, the first Marlin to win the award since Jeff Conine in June 1995. Ramirez set a franchise record for most home runs in a month with 10.

Tennessee signed football coach Phillip Fulmer and men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl to new deals that will keep them with the Volunteers through 2014 Fulmer's deal is worth an average of nearly $3 million over the next seven seasons. Pearl was previously signed through 2013 and made $1.3 million last season. His new deal increases his salary to an average $2.3 million a year . . . Indiana University will give up two basketball scholarships for the upcoming season in anticipation of penalties related to the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate, assistant athletic director Frank Cuervo said . . . The University of Massachusetts men's basketball team will play home and away games with Atlantic-10 Conference foes La Salle, Rhode Island, and Saint Joseph's in 2008-09.

Midfielder Lindsay Tarpley scored an early goal and the United States national women's team beat Norway, 4-0, in a pre-Olympic tuneup in Fredrikstad, Norway. Carli Lloyd, Angela Hucles, and Abby Wambach added goals for the Americans . . . Olympic gold medalist runner Tim Montgomery opted for a plea hearing today in Norfolk, Va., instead of going ahead with a trial next week on heroin distribution charges. Montgomery, the former 100-meter world record-holder, was indicted for allegedly dealing more than 100 grams of heroin in Virginia. In May, a judge in New York sentenced Montgomery to 46 months in prison for his part in a multimillion-dollar fake-check scheme . . . In Milan, double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius slowed on the final straight in his first able-bodied race in nearly a year, finishing fourth and well outside the Olympic qualifying time. He resumed training six weeks ago when sports' highest court ruled he was eligible to run in Beijing . . . Light flyweight Luis Yanez fired back at US boxing coach Dan Campbell, claiming the coach's decision to kick him off the Beijing Olympic team was a hasty, harsh response to a long-stewing conflict. Yanez and his personal coach, Dennis Rodarte, also criticized Campbell's teaching methods, conditioning practices and communication skills. Yanez was kicked off the US team Monday after he skipped three weeks of workouts in Colorado Springs during June without telling the coaching staff where he was, Campbell said. The 106-pound boxer will fight his removal, requesting an appeal hearing for early next week and retaining a lawyer in hopes of being reinstated to the team . . . Eleven days after Scott Kalitta was killed in a racing accident, the NHRA reduced the length of Top Fuel and Funny Car races from a quarter-mile to 1,000 feet in an interim safety measure.