Sports Thread #1 For 2/23/10: Jayson Williams To Serve At least 18 Months In Jail

Photo from Johnson/Pool

One of the luckiest individual sport figures ever will finally be locked up.

A tearful Jayson Williams apologized Tuesday for the fatal shooting of limo driver before he was sentenced to up to five years in prison.

This means the former NBA star will be eligible for parole after serving just 18 months for the death of Costas (Gus) Christofi.

The slain driver's sister, Andrea Adams, had asked the judge to make Williams serve the max - with no parole.

An angry look crossed Adams' face as State Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman imposed the more lenient sentence.

But it closed the book on a painful chapter in the troubled life of the former power forward that took eight years to resolve.

And he was clearly lachrymose about it:

In court, a tearful Williams apologized to the Christofi family and to his own family and friends.

"I sincerely apologize for my actions that caused [Christofi's] death," Williams said. "I'm embarrassed and deeply sorry for my choices and actions.

"To my family, please forgive me for the pain I've caused my children. You deserve a better father, son, brother than I have been," he said.

Most have focused of course on Canada probably facing Russia in the quarterfinals instead of the finals in Olympic hockey thanks to the bad lost to the US on Sunday. But just as important of a factor in that predicted final happening two rounds earlier is because of the Canadians mediocre display against the Swiss.

By going into overtime to win that game, Mike Babcock's side cost themselves a chance to finish ahead of Finland and the Czech Republic in the final preliminary standings.

If the Canadians had defeated the Swiss in regular time, they would have received the final bye spot that the top second place team in all of the groups received instead of the Fins. Canada had a better goal difference than Finland, but lost out on the point total between the Fins and the Czech Republic.

And for that, your gold medal match is now a contest where the loser will not medal. Wow.

Kobe is returning to action tonight. The Lakers went 4-1 without him if you didn't know.

Julius Peppers and Darren Sharper will be on the market. Oh boy.

Amazingly enough, the Patriots and Vince Wilfork have reconciled to the point that he could be there for a while. Belichick knows how important Wilfork is, and him and Bob Kraft finally won't be cheap like they have done their non-Tom Brady employees for several years now.

Despite another big win for UConn in the Big East last night at home against West Virginia, they still are on the outside looking in for the NCAA tournament.

The lone highlight of this year's New York Knicks season is a celebration of the team 40 years ago:


And I never understood UEFA's decision to make the Champions League Round of 16 stage an endless month process now. There was nothing wrong with the first two knockout stages being a fortnight long. Now this decision to split up the four matchups by one week and making their return leg be three weeks after the first one is just plain silliness to the max.

Your first sports thread.

Update: A day after LaDanian Tomlinson was released by the Chargers, Brian Westbrook has been released by the Eagles.

This comes as no surprise as well, as Westbrook is in the same position as Tomlinson is right now. A running back who has seen his best days go by. And that reality makes it all the more silly over talk of Tomlinson possibly going to the Eagles.

Why get rid of your old running back to bring in another?