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National
NBA
Celtics playing sans Pierce
Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce has an injury in his left foot that will keep him out for two to three weeks.
Pierce has a stress reaction — a swelling of the bone and the soft tissue surrounding it, team spokesman Jeff Twiss said Thursday. Pierce will miss Friday night’s game against Philadelphia and the five-game road trip that starts Tuesday in Denver.
Pierce said his foot started hurting after Saturday’s game in Charlotte. He felt pain again after Wednesday night’s 96-95 loss to Golden State in which he scored 27 points and had an MRI on Thursday morning.
Baseball
Pettitte back in Big Apple
Andy Pettitte returned to New York for a reunion and decided to stay.
After three seasons with his hometown Houston Astros, he came up to the big city for a Nov. 10 gathering of the Yankees’ 1996 World Series championship team, a benefit for manager Joe Torre’s Safe at Home Foundation.
By Dec. 8, Pettitte had changed his mind, turning down a $12 million offer to stay with the Astros to accept a $16 million, one-year contract with the Yankees, a deal that was finalized Thursday.
Pettitte said Torre and the Yankees put on a “absolutely the full-court press on me” to persuade him to rejoin Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and perhaps Bernie Williams.
The 34-year-old left-hander pitched for the Yankees from 1995-03 and went 13-8 for them in postseason play. He was 14-13 with a 4.20 ERA last season and joins a Yankees rotation that is projected to include Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina, Randy Johnson and Kei Igawa — or perhaps Carl Pavano is trying to come back from injuries that have sidelined him since mid-2005.
Tennis
No damages for Williams
The father of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams is liable but doesn’t have to pay damages in a lawsuit that claimed he reneged on a deal for his daughters to play in an exhibition match.
A jury Thursday cleared Venus Williams of all allegations but said Serena Williams let her father act as an agent for her. Neither sister must pay damages.
The Williams sisters expressed relief at the verdict.
“Venus and I would really like to thank the jury again because they really were able to see the truth in this matter,” Serena Williams said.