Conviction for man who hit Pacers' Jackson with car

Basketball Betting Lines

02/12/2007 -

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -A man who hit former Indiana Pacers guard Stephen Jackson with a car during a fight outside a strip club last fall was convicted Monday in a ruling by a judge.

Deon Willford waived his right to a jury trial, allowing Marion Superior Court Judge Patricia Gifford to render a verdict. She found the 23-year-old man guilty of felony battery and failure to stop at a scene of an accident, a misdemeanor.

He will be sentenced Feb. 28. He faces two to eight years in prison for the felony and up to a year for the misdemeanor.

Jackson, who now plays for Golden State, left the courtroom to catch a flight to Denver, where the Warriors play Monday night.

``I leave everything in God's hands and continue to work on playing basketball,'' he said.

Jackson was booked into jail Oct. 12 and has been free since on $10,000 bond. He has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of criminal recklessness and misdemeanor counts of battery and disorderly conduct in the fight outside Club Rio on Oct. 6. His trial is April 12. The criminal recklessness charge carries a prison term of six months to three years.

Willford's car hit Jackson after the fight started. The defendant testified Monday that the 6-foot-8 player was walking toward his car and pointing a gun at him.

``I thought he was trying to kill me,'' Willford said.

Other witnesses said Jackson was walking away from Willford's car and had no weapon out at the time. Jackson said he was hit by the car after he fired shots in the air from his pearl-handled 9 mm pistol to try to break up the fight. He had chipped teeth and bruised knees and needed plastic surgery on his lip after being hit by the car, he said.

Jackson testified that when he was walking from the club to his car, a man approached him shouting, ``dump, dump!''

``Where I'm from, 'dump' means pull out your gun and shoot,'' he said.

Pacers guard Jamaal Tinsley testified that he also grabbed his gun and put it in his pocket when he heard ``dump.'' He did not fire any shots and was not charged.

Jackson said the man, identified by prosecutors as Willford's cousin, Quentin ``Fingers'' Willford, had one hand in a back pocket and another in his shirt. The fight started after Jackson and those with him realized Willford had no weapon.

``It was like an all-out brawl,'' Jackson said. ``I started seeing more and more faces I didn't know.'' He said he fired a couple of shots in the air to break up the fight, and then the car hit him.

Besides Tinsley, Pacers swingman Marquis Daniels and former Pacer Jimmie Hunter were with Jackson at the club during the fight but not charged.

At the time, Jackson was on probation for his role in a brawl between Indiana Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans in 2004. Jackson pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault and battery charges in September 2005 for his role in the 2004 brawl.

A Michigan judge ruled that the Indiana charges constituted a violation of Jackson's probation. Jackson, who was traded earlier this year, faces up to 30 days in jail on the probation violation.

Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Sportsbookonlinegambling Basketball Betting News

<< Krajicek set to return from concussion
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -Vancouver Canucks defenseman Lukas Krajicek is ready to return from a concussion after missing two games.Krajicek, hammered by 6-foot-3, 228-pound Edmonton winger Zach Stortini on his first shift last Tuesday night,

<< Giants release Arrington, Emmons, Petitgout
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -The New York Giants released linebacker LaVar Arrington and two other starters Monday in the first major shake-up under new general manager Jerry Reese.New York also cut linebacker Carlos Emmons and offensive tackle Luke

<< Benson tears rotator cuff; likely to miss season
BALTIMORE (AP) -Orioles pitcher Kris Benson has a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder and will almost certainly miss the 2007 season.A recent MRI exam revealed a partial tear, Benson's agent, Gregg Clifton said Monday. The injury will require su

<< Former NBA player overwhelmed by coverage
NEW YORK (AP) -Five days after becoming the first NBA player to acknowledge his homosexuality, former center John Amaechi said the spotlight has been chaotic.Amaechi, whose ``Man in the Middle'' memoir will be released Wednesday, said he has been de

<< Herges agrees to minor league deal with Rockies
DENVER (AP) -Right-handed pitcher Matt Herges agreed to a minor league contract Monday with the Colorado Rockies, who invited him to their spring training camp.If added to the 40-man roster, Herges would get $600,000, one-year contract and the chanc

Reeling Wizards 'not sinking yet' >>
WASHINGTON (AP) -The Washington Wizards, who rode good chemistry to become a feel-good story over the first half of the NBA season, have hit the skids in losing four of their past five games. A lot has gone wrong in a few days, dampening what was su

Huskers' Lucky hospitalized for undisclosed reason >>
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky was hospitalized Monday for undisclosed reasons after Lincoln police responded to a call at his residence.The Nebraska athletic department said in a release Monday that Lucky was admitted Sunday

Riley set to return to Heat after All-Star break >>
MIAMI (AP) -Pat Riley will resume coaching the Miami Heat following the All-Star break, an official within the NBA said Monday.The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Riley has not formally announced his plans. Riley is expected to anno

Brand out against Pistons >>
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -Clippers forward Elton Brand will miss Monday night's game against the Detroit Pistons with back spasms.Brand began having problems with his back during Sunday's loss in Indiana, and could not get it loosened up during earl

Dice-K arrives for first U.S. spring training >>
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -Dice-K arrived at spring training.And so did crowds of reporters, photographers and television crews who flocked to Florida to chronicle the $100 million Japanese ace's landing. That didn't count the handful of puzzled passers-by w

NFL Football Office Pools : NFL Football Contests

NFL Football Office Pool Printable Schedules

Welcome to our free football office pool page. Run your own NFL Football Office Pool. Create your own pool, invite your friends to join. Compete with your with co-workers, friends or family for bragging rights every week. Exchange some hard hits without risk of injury -- Trash Talk with your fellow co-workers.

Football Pickem Pools: Your basic office pool format, where you pick the winner of each game, either against the spread or straight up. Spice up your pool by using confidence ranks, key picks, and other options. Pick 5 pools available. You can print NFL Football Office Pools here. Custom ranks available. Custom point spreads. Use Pro and/or College games, even D1AA games can be included. Many many other options.

Football Survivor Pools: Also known as Knockout, Suicide, Eliminator, Survival and Loser pools. Pick one team each week. If they win you advance to the next round. If they lose, you're out. The catch: You can only pick a team once. Many options like Pick a Team Only [Once,Twice,Unlimited], [1,2,3,4,5] Strikes and You're Out, Double Picks, Bye Weeks, Alias Entries and more. Very easy to set up and manage.

Football Share Pools: Pick college and/or pro football game winners using Vegas odds in our own unique Share Pool format. Accumulate points by picking pointspread and over/under winners. Risk as many points as you want on any game. The person with the most points (shares) at the end wins. Perfect for the Playoffs and Bowl Seasons.

Fantasy Football Pools: Fantasy football pool managers love our easy to use interface and custom settings. Points and head to head leagues, custom points, offline drafts, live scoring, waiver wire, trades and more. Live customer service by email or phone. $50 flat fee.

To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your NFL football betting needs.

SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.