Rumors

Danny Cunningham: Altman: "[Max Strus] is going to miss a few months." Added that Strus will be in Sarasota with the team still, despite not being able to participate.

Twitter

In Sarasota, Kim Donaghy printed out for me the first 98 pages of her unfinished and unpublished memoir, The Ref's Wife. In it, she writes of the paradox of being both "lonely for him" and "truly afraid of him." She describes the moment she picked up his official NBA jacket to put it in the wash and found in the pocket "a huge wad of $100 bills rolled in a rubber band." How huge? With her thumbs and forefingers, she made an "O" the diameter of an orange. She struggled to recall exactly when, but she told me she probably started finding the cash in 2004, during the season. At the time, she told herself the money was from golf-course betting. But she would keep finding such rolls in his pockets as the years went on. When I asked, she said she never counted the money, never confronted him about its existence. "Why?" She gave a one-word answer: "Scared."

ESPN

Recently, Duquette said Connaughton was set to be in Sarasota, Fla., where the team has its spring training complex, for a charity event hosted by college basketball analyst Dick Vitale, and would stop by the facility “and see our people and maybe work out.” Connaughton spent a couple of weeks throwing in Sarasota last summer after his rookie season in the NBA. Vitale’s charity gala was held in Sarasota on May 12.

Baltimore Sun

We caught up with Sager, who provided this update: “I was blessed with a wonderful childhood growing up in Batavia, Ill., I furthered my education at Northwestern University, and I climbed the career ladder as a News Director, Meteorologist, and a Sports Director in Sarasota, Tampa-St. Pete, Ft. Myers, Kansas City, and Atlanta where I have spent the past 35 years as loyal employee at Turner Broadcasting. “I have met life’s challenges by climbing the Great Wall of China, riding with the bulls in Pamplona, sailing the Pacific Ocean with Ted Turner, jumping out of airplanes over Kansas, hang gliding off the cliffs of Mexico, bungee jumping atop a tower in San Antonio, and swimming with the sharks in the Caribbean.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

After graduating in 1973 with a degree in speech, Sager moved to Sarasota, Fla., where he worked as a sailing instructor, a bouncer at Big Daddy’s and a cub reporter at a radio station. A memorable audition tape—he rocked a blue-and-yellow seersucker suit—landed him on TV as a weatherman. From Tampa to Turner, execs tried to whitewash his wardrobe, going so far as to airbrush the bright hues from his jackets in promotional photos. Finally, they found a beat that could embrace his peacock sensibilities: the NBA. Alas, Kevin Garnett compared him to a Christmas ornament, Phil Jackson to the Good Humor Man, Charles Barkley to a pimp. He was heckled mercilessly. “There’s no way you bought that piece of s--- in Philadelphia!” one fan shouted in the City of Brotherly Love. Sager raised the garment bag from Boyds as proof.

Sports Illustrated

“I don’t think there is any reason why they’d remove me from the stadium,” Donaghy told The Linemakers via phone from his Sarasota, Fla. home. “I’m there to take in a game and look at some live action and do a bit of scouting. I’m not even too sure that anyone is really going to notice me, to be honest with you.”

Sporting News

So far, 34-year-old Vince Carter completed 13 seasons in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors, New Jersey Nets, Orlando Magic and currently with the Phoenix Suns. I caught up with Vince Carter at the Dick Vitale Gala reception in Sarasota, where North Carolina coach Roy Williams was being honored, for a few brief questions. Namely, how much longer does he see his NBA career lasting? “I’ve never been a person to put a cap on my ability or my career. I’m just gonna play it as it goes,” Vince Carter said. “I still plan on playing 15 years, that’s been my goal since Day 1 and I’m gonna try to accomplish that.”

Orlando Sentinel