Sports

AMMAN — The first round of the Jordan Karting Championship Rotax Max Challenge kicks off on Friday with the participation of 18 drivers from Lebanon, Oman and Jordan at Jordan Speed Centre.

This season the winner of the Jordan Karting Championship will reserve a seat in the Rotax MAX Challenge, a motor sport race for karts, approved by and complying with the Commission Internationale de Karting/Federation Internationale de l’Automobile.

The Rotax MAX Challenge follows strict regulations starting with the technical specifications of the engines in which only Rotax Max kart engines are allowed and there are three race classes: Junior MAX, with 20.4 hp (13–16 years of age), MAX, with 28.5 hp (15 years and older) and DD2, 2 speed shifter class with 32.6 hp (15 years and older).

The Jordan Karting Championship will include several categories: Micro Max (7-10 years), Mini Max (10-13 years), Junior Max (13-16 years), Senior Max (15 years and older), DD2 (15 years and older) and Masters Max (32 years and older).

Jordan Motorsport’s karting committee member Barkev Shadian told The Jordan Times that the event will be held at night because of the holy month of Ramadan.

“The race will start at 10pm while the pre-final race will begin at 11:50pm and will consist of 15 laps. The finals will consist of 20 laps. We are trying to make it a family event in order to attract families and a younger audience who like this sport,” he said.

“We are happy to have drivers from Oman and Lebanon with us as this is a very challenging championship and the level of competition will be high,” he added.

Last year, Amir Najjar won the Mini Max category, Royd Hanoush the Junior Max and Hesham Najjar the Senior Max.

We expect a lot of competition among drivers who we believe have a good chance to become rally drivers or speed test drivers, as they have shown a lot of dedication and enthusiasm,” Shadian said.

CLEVELAND — Cleveland’s chances of taking a long overdue championship rest largely upon the shoulders of LeBron James, and he carried the load impressively Tuesday, scoring 40 points to lead Cavaliers to a 96-91 win against Golden State, and a 2-1 lead in the NBA finals.

With Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving out injured, James takes on even more responsibility than is standard for one of the all-time greats, and he and city of Cleveland — which has not won a major sports title for 51 years — now stands two wins from the championship.

Pushed by an expectant home crowd and aided by gritty Australian sidekick Matthew Dellavedova, James and Cavaliers survived Golden State’s furious fourth-quarter comeback led by league MVP Stephen Curry.

James added 12 rebounds and eight assists in 46 minutes, his third stellar performance in his fifth straight finals. Cavs, who won Game 2 at Golden State for their first ever finals win, got their first at Quicken Loans Arena, which shook from start to finish. They’ll have a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series in Game 4 on Thursday.

Through three games, James has played 142 of 154 possible minutes, scored 123 points and taken 107 shots.

“I’m just trying to do whatever it takes to help our team win,” he said. “It’s the finals, and it’s whatever it takes. This is a totally different challenge.”

Cleveland, which led by 20 points in the third quarter, nearly threw the game away. Cavs looked certain winner when they led 92-83 with 51 seconds left, but then came a scoring flurry by Curry.

Warriors star found his shooting touch in the fourth quarter, scoring 17 points. Golden State got a huge lift from reserve David Lee, but they rode Curry, who made five 3-pointers — his last with 18.9 seconds to pull the Warriors within 94-91.

The visiting team looked capable of pulling off an amazing comeback after it appeared to force a turnover with 17.5 seconds to go. However a review of the play showed Klay Thompson was out of bounds when he made contact with the ball that Dellavedova was holding in his hands.

From the inbound pass, James was fouled and made two free throws with 16.8 seconds left. On Golden State’s last possession, Andre Iguodala appeared to get fouled on an errant 3-point attempt and Cavs pulled down the rebound to close out a win that nearly slipped away.

“We’re a young group,” James said, “and like I told the group, ‘It’s OK.’ We haven’t been in a lot of these situations, if any, with this group.”

Curry finished with 27 points but had three turnovers in the final minute. Iguodala scored 15, Thompson, 14 and Lee, who didn’t play in Games 1 or 2, had 11.

Despite the loss, Curry feels he’s now in a rhythm.

“I found something when it comes to how I’m going to be able to attack their pick-and-rolls,” Curry said. “I’ll keep that in the memory bank going into Game 4.”

James once again was helped by Dellavedova, who hounded Curry for three quarters, dived on the floor for loose balls and came up with a huge three-point play, flinging in a layup as he fell with 2:27 left to put the Cavs up 84-80.

Dellavedova was treated for cramps and did not appear at the postgame news conference. Cavs said he was on an intravenous drip before being taken to the Cleveland Clinic for further procedures.

After two overtime games in Oakland, Game 3 didn’t have quite the same last-second drama, but it didn’t lack any intensity as players were sprawled on the floor fighting for loose balls.

Cavs seemed to take control in the third, building their 20-point lead with a breathtaking 12-0 run that included 3-pointers by James and J.R. Smith. Curry ended the spurt with a 3 and the Warriors opened the final period with a 13-2 blast to make it 74-68.

Curry, who went just 2 of 15 on 3s in Game 2, hit a couple of ‘did-he-really-just-do-that’ 3s in the fourth before the Warriors ran out of time.

Still, they’re confident they can come back again.

“I’m telling you that right now,” Thompson said, “if we get our offense back, which we will, we’re going to win this series.”

As if Cleveland didn’t have enough injuries, Iman Shumpert, one of the team’s top defenders, hurt his left shoulder in the first quarter. It’s the same shoulder Shumpert injured while he was with New York earlier this season, sidelining him for six weeks.

Shumpert returned midway through the second quarter, knocking down a 3-pointer to put Cavs ahead by seven but he played virtually with one arm the rest of the way.

“We can’t afford another injury,” James said, forcing a smile.

USA Today (TNS) 

Hall of fame basketball coach Don Nelson used Hack-A-Whoever. “It’s very effective,” Nelson said in one breath. “You’d be silly not to use it.”

In the next breath, Nelson said, “I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s good for basketball.”

San Antonio Spurs coach and basketball philosopher Gregg Popovich, who also employs the strategy and did so in his first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers, understands the NBA’s predicament.

“On an intellectual or principle basis, I think you’re on high ground,” Popovich said of the tactic. “Now, visual-wise, it’s awful. It couldn’t be worse. I tend to side on the principle side where it’s basketball, and if we have a guy who can’t shoot and it’s an important part of the game, I should probably get him off the court.”

In Game 2 between Los Angeles Clippers and Houston Rockets on Wednesday, the teams combined to shoot 96 free throws, including 64 by the Rockets. Houston centre Dwight Howard was 8-of-21 from the line and though Clippers centre DeAndre Jordan was 4-of-6, Clippers coach Doc Rivers removed him from the game during a stretch of the game’s final minutes.

It has become — to some critics — a blight on the product. It’s not a question of viable strategy. Teams have taken what was supposed to be disadvantage (fouling) and turned into an advantage (putting poor free throw shooters on the foul line). Now, there is some disagreement about the strategy’s effectiveness.

The question is: Should it be strategy at all? Should the league eliminate intentional backcourt and frontcourt fouls with no play on the basketball?

The NBA will grapple with the topic in the coming weeks. The league’s general manager meetings are scheduled for next week, and the competition committee generally meets during the NBA Finals.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he is undecided on the issue, and while Silver is open to ideas, he is cautious to make changes to the structure of the game.

“I don’t like it. Aesthetically, it’s not good, for a fan to watch it, even though I find the strategy fascinating,” Silver told Bleacher Report Radio. “On the other hand, the last time we discussed it at our board meeting several years ago, I remember Michael Jordan was at that meeting. Larry Bird was at that meeting, and the greats who were there, their reactions was, ‘Guys gotta make their free throws.”

Though it might ugly to watch, Silver said the data revealed that viewers are not changing the channel when Hack-A-Whoever is used.

Remember, Silver might be in charge but he alone doesn’t make changes, and it doesn’t sound like he feels strongly enough about to force change. The league’s competition committee will study the issue and make a recommendation. If the committee feels a change might be better for the game, owners must vote to approve the change. But if owners don’t mind the strategy or have coaches and general managers who like the strategy, it will be difficult for the league to eliminate it.

Popovich makes a case for keeping it.

“There will be a lot of discussion about the fouling, as there should be. But principle-wise, I feel really strongly that it’s a tactic that can be used,” Popovich said. “If someone can’t shoot free throws, that’s their problem.

“As I’ve said before, if we’re not allowed to do something to take advantage of a team’s weakness, a trade should be made before each game. ‘We won’t foul your guy, but you promise not to block any of our shots.’ Or, ‘We won’t foul your guy, and you allow us to shoot all uncontested shots.’”

Popovich gets to the heart of the game: Score as many points as possible and prevent the opponent from scoring, and if putting a poor foul shooter on the line prevents a team from scoring points, then the tactic shouldn’t be banned.

Fouls are part of the game and free throws are part of the game so fouling a player and making him shoot free throws should be part of the game. In baseball, intentional walks are part of the game, and it’s not like Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers can refuse an intentional walk.

Critics of the move says it’s not basketball, and SB Nation’s Tom Ziller is a proponent of banning Hack-A-Whoever. His solution, which has been trumpeted by others: Give the team fouled in the bonus the option of taking the ball out of bounds or shooting free throws.

TNT’s Reggie Miller believes the league will take action, eliminating the backcourt fouls where the defender grabs the poor free throw shooter away from ball. Miller also posits that if that happens, teams will also become clever and still find ways to put poor foul shooters on the line.

When asked about Hack-A-Shaq in European leagues, Blatt said the strategy doesn’t exist. “It’s considered unsportsmanlike,” he said.

“We have fouled players who are poor foul shooters, but in a legal and tactical fashion,” Blatt said. “There’s no such thing as Hack-A-Shaq. That’s one of the reasons I believe they can and should change the rule. ... You can’t foul a guy with no relation to the game whatsoever. And the referees are educated enough to understand when it’s a basketball play and when you’re grabbing a guy at the other end of the court who’s not involved in the play so as to purposely on the line. ...

“That’s one of those rules overseas that I think is better than what we have here.”

Time will tell if the NBA feels the same way.

LONDON — Formula One has lost some of its buzz, big team budgets are running out of control, sanctioning fees and ticket prices are too high, and historic European races must stay on the calendar.

Zak Brown, the American boss of the world’s largest motorsport marketing agency, is running through a check list of where Grand Prix racing is going wrong and what needs to be done to put it right.

If overall the tone remains positive, it comes with a clear health warning.

“From our [company] standpoint, interest is as strong as ever,” the founder of Just Marketing International (JMI) and chief executive of Chime Communications-owned CSM Sport and Entertainment, told Reuters in his London office.

“But if you separate how we are doing and look at the sport as a whole...other people aren’t announcing deals, the McLaren car is pretty blank.

“The overall sponsorship economy, while we are bucking the trend, is very down in Formula One,” added the former racing driver who some have tipped as a possible successor to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

“That’s a fact, just look at the cars.”

McLaren, whose cars have very little branding, have not had a title sponsor since 2013. Struggling Sauber have swathes of space available for backers while the Manor Marussia car is almost a blank canvas.

They compare unfavourably to the pictures adorning the office walls of some of the historic F1 cars Brown owns — an ex-Ayrton Senna Lotus 98T and Michael Schumacher Benetton B191 among them.

The sport is beset with arguments about governance, how to cut costs and give teams more money and fears that historic races like Monza in Italy face the axe while exotic new destinations are added.

The German Grand Prix has already been cancelled for 2015 while Monza is out of contract after 2016. France went in 2008.

While the sport enjoys annual turnover in excess of $1.5 billion, half of that goes to the commercial rights holder while the remainder is split between teams based on performance past and present.

Brown said the challenges were fixable, although he recognised that was easier said than done in a sport where the stakeholders rarely agree on anything.

“The potential for the sport is untapped. I think it needs, as an industry, to be much better marketed. It’s not where it needs to be,” he declared.

“The budgets are out of control. And that then forces the whole eco-system of the sport to be financially strained... the expense of the sport is out of balance with the commercial value of the sport. Budgets now are $200-300-400 million. It’s nuts.”

“We don’t need $400 million budgets. And if we don’t need $400 million budgets, we don’t need the same size of sanctioning fees which are putting tracks out of business, which then means we don’t need to charge the consumers as much.”

Brown said some existing sponsors had voiced concern that the calendar was moving too far from traditional markets.

“Losing Germany: I haven’t had anything other than disappointment from sponsors on that,” he added. “With Italy there will be the same reaction.

“Some of the new markets, Mexico, are fantastic. Some of the other markets that are new, less so.”

“We are adding some good ones...but then there is speculation of a third race in the Middle East. How can you have three races there and none in Germany?” asked the 43-year-old.

“I think the two they have are outstanding and contribute a lot to the sport but a third? I don’t think the market can support that.”

Brown said companies already involved in Formula One understood the natural ebb and flow of the sport but others might be holding back.

“What I’m seeing is... attendance is down, TV ratings are down, car count [the number on the starting grid] is struggling. So your key performance indicators are all on a downward trajectory right now,” he said.

“Every single client we had that was up for renewal has renewed. Every client we have that is in Formula One, is happy they are in Formula One.

“But even though the sport is massive, marketers do like things that are hot and buzzy. And right now Formula One doesn’t have the buzz it’s historically had. I think it can come back but they need to work on the product.”