assistant

Former Lakers assistant coach Damon Jones became the first among 34 defendants to plead guilty Tuesday in an expansive gambling indictment that also ensnared Hall of Fame player Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat star Terry Rozier and organized crime figures.

Jones was a Lakers coach in 2022 and 2023, long after he retired from an 11-year NBA playing career with 11 teams. Before a Feb. 9, 2023, game between the Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks in which LeBron James was a late scratch because of a foot injury, evidence showed that Jones urged a co-conspirator to “get a big bet on Milwaukee before the information is out!”

Jones urged his co-conspirator in a text: “Bet enough so Djones can eat to [sic] now!!!”

Jones and James were considered good friends for years. A person close to James told The Times in October that the Lakers star didn’t know that Jones was selling injury information to gamblers placing bets.

Jones had entered not guilty pleas in November to the two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in sports betting and rigged poker game schemes. However, during back-to-back hearings in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday, he entered guilty pleas to those charges.

Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 6 before separate judges in the two cases. Guidelines call for 21 to 27 months in prison for the sports gambling charge and 63 to 78 months for the charge on rigged poker games. Prosecutors said they agreed to shave 15 months from the sentence in exchange for Jones pleading guilty by April 30.

He pleaded guilty in the sports betting case first. In a prepared statement, he acknowledged that he conspired with others to defraud sports betting companies by using “insider information that I obtained as a result of my relationships as a former player.”

Jones, 49, said the goal of the sports betting conspiracy was to use his insider knowledge of injuries to players to make money gambling.

“I would like to sincerely apologize to the court, my family, my peers and also the National Basketball Association,” said Jones, who was paid $21 million as a player.

Next came pleading guilty to participating in rigged poker games. Jones admitted that he was paid to use his NBA celebrity to lure deep-pocketed gamblers to poker games in Miami and New York.

Again reading from a statement, Jones said that, based on conversations with his co-conspirators at poker games, “I knew these games were rigged and that players were being cheated.”

And again he concluded with an apology, addressing the court, his family and friends.

“I’m really sorry to everyone involved for my actions,” he said.

Prosecutors said Monday they would seek additional charges against Rozier in the sports betting case because they had developed evidence that the 10-year NBA veteran solicited a bribe during an alleged gambling scheme.

According to the original indictment, when Rozier played for the Charlotte Hornets in 2023, he told friends he was planning to leave a game early with a “supposed injury,” allowing others to place wagers. Rozier has made $135 million as a player.

Billups, who played with the Clippers for two seasons and later was a member of Clippers coach Ty Lue’s staff before being named head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers in 2021, is charged with rigging underground poker games that authorities said were backed by three of New York’s Mafia families. Billups, who was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2024, made $107 million as a player.

Even without the obvious emotional attachment, Steve McNamara feels like an excellent appointment for Hull FC; after all there are few coaches on the market who have his calibre, his experience, his list of achievements.

Hull is a notoriously intense place to be involved in rugby league, a goldfish bowl of passion and expectation that McNamara as much as anyone will be aware of and ready for, but also who understands and feels that passion himself.

It is an acquisition for the Black and Whites that makes total sense. John Cartwright has established a good culture at Hull since taking over, but you sense McNamara can take them even further.

He went into Catalans and changed the club from a stop-off point for expensively recruited flawed yet gifted imports into a proper ‘team’. The Dragons won a Challenge Cup and made two Grand Finals, despite all of the trials and tribulations faced by the Perpignan club in terms of travel and financial costs.

After being thrust into the Bradford job as a young coach, taking on England equally in the relative infancy of his career and having developed his coaching as a highly-rated assistant in the NRL with Sydney Roosters and New Zealand Warriors before his Catalans adventure, McNamara has armed himself with a variety of skills and experiences.

McNamara is likely to be backed by co-owner Andrew Thirkill and director of rugby Richie Myler, overhauling the squad in his own manner, but he is also a coach that should instill confidence in Hull’s homegrown talent – Lewis Martin, Davy Litten, Harvey Barron – all players who would find themselves a key part of the future vision.

You only have to look at the improvement at Warrington in 2026, McNamara has bolstered Sam Burgess’ staff, his fingerprints are all over the upturn in fortunes, and the results are tangible.

Importantly, you feel McNamara will have time and tremendous goodwill from the fanbase. Time to build, time to implement and time to get it right.

Of course, that brings extra pressure, being that ‘hometown’ appointment with the expectation he can drive Hull towards becoming a genuine force. McNamara is in the career arc you feel will give him the ability to cope.

One player who will carry Brazil’s World Cup hopes on his shoulders is Vinicius Jr.

The forward has eight goals in 47 appearances for Brazil and has been influential for Real Madrid again this campaign with 11 goals in La Liga and five more in the Champions League.

“Vinicius is a football star because of his talent,” Ancelotti said.

“He’s one of the most talented players in the world, so he carries this weight because everyone expects him to win the game alone and the expectations on him are higher than any other player – maybe only Kylian Mbappe right now.”

The 25-year-old has also had to deal with discrimination since moving to Spain, where he has faced 20 incidents of alleged abuse in eight years.

The latest incident came in Real Madrid’s Champions League knockout phase play-off tie at Benfica in February, following which the Brazilian winger said “racists are cowards”.

“Having a manager like my father is really good – in being close to the stars,” the Brazil assistant said.

“We just focused on what he [Vinicius] could improve and he has room for improvement. Even if he’s one of the best, maybe personal opinion, the best player in the world, but everyone has room for improvement.

“So we focus on that because we have a manager who is a specialist in making stars not feel alone and he always did that with stars like Didier Drogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski.”

Ancelotti, 36, held discussions to take charge of Scottish side Rangers last season before taking up his first managerial role at Brazilian side Botafago – only to be sacked five months later in December 2025.

The Italian, however, has continued to work with his father, who was named Brazil boss in May 2025 after four years at Real Madrid, where he won three Champions League titles and two La Liga titles over two spells.

Five-time World Cup winners Brazil have not lifted the trophy since their last triumph in 2002 but Ancelotti believes the Selecao “will be ready for the World Cup”.

“It will be difficult because it will be after a really long season,” said Ancelotti.

“There are players that will reach the World Cup with more than 60 games and this is not good. It will be not good for the show or the people that are watching.

“So we will take care of the players physically. It will be important because the weather will be so hot. It will be a competition that will be decided by small details.

“But I can say that we have a really competitive team that can play football that could be efficient in a competition like that. So we are positive.”

Brazil will face Morocco in their World Cup opener on 13 June in New Jersey before taking on Scotland and Haiti in Group C.

Manchester City assistant manager Pep Lijnders has hinted midfielder Bernardo Silva’s nine-year spell at the club will end this summer, saying “every good story comes to an end”.

The 31-year-old’s contract expires at the end of the season. He has not yet signed an extension and has been linked with La Liga leaders Barcelona, Serie A side Juventus and clubs in America.

Lijnders was on media duty after Saturday’s 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final win over Liverpool with manager Pep Guardiola serving a touchline ban, and reflected on the importance of the Portuguese international to City.

“You never replace a player with the same kind of player because they don’t exist,” he said.

“Bernardo Silva is unique. The way he controls games, the way he moves, the way he receives, the way he leads, the way he sees the solutions. All these things.

“But it will be hard because, as I said, in the game, when he is not playing you will see how he is missed – and that’s one game. Imagine a season.

“But every good story comes to an end, and I hope he enjoys the last months – there are only six weeks – and has a good farewell.

“He deserves all that attention as well.”

Europe’s top leagues have been summoned to a meeting with Uefa in the summer to discuss how video assistant referee (VAR) technology is being used.

The summit of referee chiefs from the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 will discuss how to reset VAR to its intended interpretation of only intervening in the clearest of errors.

Roberto Rosetti – the head of Uefa’s referees – called the meeting after saying last month the game must not “go in this direction of microscopic VAR interventions”.

Uefa wants to discuss with leagues how they use VAR, and the thresholds applied.

“I believe that we forgot the reason why VAR was introduced,” Rosetti said.

“In objective decisions, it is fantastic. For interpretations, subjective evaluation is more difficult.

“That’s why we started to speak about clear and obvious mistakes – clear evidence.”

VAR is operated very differently across Europe.

The Premier League has the lowest VAR intervention rate this season – 0.275 per game – thought that has not meant less controversy over decisions.

Figures released last month showed the Bundesliga and La Liga come next at 0.38 interventions per game, with Serie A at 0.44 and Ligue 1 at 0.47.

In the Champions League, interventions are at a rate of 0.45 per game.

Rosetti also wants all leagues to speak “only one technical language” after controversy over the inconsistent application of laws such as handball.

It is hoped the meeting could lead to a more universal approach to the laws and with how VAR is used.