• Price, Time settle suit • Warriors rookie Diogu breaks hand • Phillies fire GM Ed Wade Price, Time settle suit EL PASO, Texas — Texas-El Paso football coach Mike Price felt vindicated after a settlement was reached with Time
• Price, Time settle suit
• Warriors rookie Diogu breaks hand
• Phillies fire GM Ed Wade
Price, Time settle suit
EL PASO, Texas — Texas-El Paso football coach Mike Price felt vindicated after a settlement was reached with Time Inc. over a Sports Illustrated article recounting a night of drinking at a topless bar in Florida.
“I’m one happy man right now,” Price said Monday. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciated my wife, Joyce, and my family’s loyalty and love. Without their strength, encouragement and support I don’t know if I would have made it.”
Price sued the magazine for $20 million, claiming he was defamed and slandered by a story detailing his actions the night he visited a topless bar in Pensacola, Fla., in April 2003 while still head coach at Alabama.
He acknowledged being heavily intoxicated, but denied allegations of sex at his hotel that the magazine reported. Alabama fired Price a few days before the article was published.
When asked about that night at the strip club, he paused Monday and said, “I definitely would have made a different decision that one night, no question. That was a bad night.”
Price couldn’t discuss any details of the settlement reached late Friday. In a statement, the publisher did not disclose terms but said suit was “amicably resolved.”
“Mr. Price asserts that certain events were falsely reported in the story. Sports Illustrated continues to stand behind its story,” the Time Inc. statement said.
Time Inc. owns Sports Illustrated.
Rick McCabe, a spokesman for Time Inc., said the settlement also resolved Price’s claims against reporter Don Yaeger, who wrote the Sports Illustrated article and still works for the magazine.
Warriors rookie Diogu breaks hand
OAKLAND, Calif. — Golden State rookie forward Ike Diogu has a broken bone in his left hand, and will miss the Warriors’ first two exhibition games.
Diogu, the ninth overall pick from Arizona State, was hurt during practice in Hawai’i on Sunday. Golden State will face the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday and Wednesday in Honolulu before returning to California, when Diogu will be re-evaluated.
Phillies fire GM Ed Wade
PHILADELPHIA — Ed Wade was fired as general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday after failing to get them into the playoffs during his eight years on the job.
The Phillies went 88-74 this season and finished one game behind NL wild-card winner Houston, and attendance dropped by more than a half-million.
The Phillies haven’t reached the playoffs since 1993, and have won just one championship (1980) in the franchise’s 123-year history.
Wade, 49, has two years remaining on his contract and it’s unknown whether he’ll remain in the organization. He was very unpopular in Philadelphia.
