An autopsy by the state medical examiner’s office has confirmed that former Portland Trail Blazer Kevin Duckworth died last week of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with congestive heart failure. Cardiomyopathy is a primary disease of the heart that, along with Duckworth’s high blood pressure, resulted in enlargement of his heart, which had been failing for some time.

The former Blazers center and two-time NBA All-Star died last Monday night in Lincoln County.
The Depoe Bay Fire Department responded to a report about 10 p.m. that night of an unconscious man at Salishan Lodge. Paramedics worked on Duckworth for 30 minutes but he never regained consciousness. He appeared to have gone into cardiac arrest, officials said. He was pronounced dead at 10:23 p.m., said Lt. Dennis Knudson.

A Cuban taekwondo athlete and his coach were banned from the sport for life after Angel Matos kicked the referee in the face immediately following his bronze-medal match disqualification.

His coach, Leudis Gonzalez didn’t even offer an apology for Matos’ face-kick after the men’s over-80 kg (176 pounds) match. Matos was winning 3-2, with 1:02 in the second round, when he fell to the mat after being hit by his opponent, Kazakhstan’s Arman Chilmanov. He was sitting on the floor, waiting for medical attention, which led to his disqualification for taking too much injury time. Fighters get one minute, and Matos was disqualified when his time ran out.

Furious, Matos questioned the call, pushed a judge, then pushed and kicked referee Chakir Chelbat of Sweden. Matos spat on the floor and was finally escorted out. That’s the Olympic spirit guys!

Rafael Nadal will become No. 1 in the rankings Monday, and now he’s is numero uno at the Olympics.
Nadal won a gold medal Sunday, overcoming two set points in the second set and holding every service game to beat Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3. Nadal’s gold medal was the first ever for Spain in Olympic tennis. Nadal was already assured of taking over the No. 1 ranking Monday for the first time, ending Roger Federer’s reign after almost 5 years. Nadal has won 38 of his past 39 matches.

Elena Dementieva took the gold in women’s singles, taking advantage of 17 double-faults by another Russian, Dinara Safina to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.

In women’s doubles, Venus and Serena Williams won the glory and the gold, taking down Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-2, 6-0.

On Wednesday, Phelps swam into history as the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 10th and 11th career gold medals and five world records in five events at the Beijing Games.

A day after joining fellow Olympians Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis with gold medal No. 9, Phelps set a standard all his own when he won the 200-meter butterfly. An hour later, he swam the lead off of a runaway victory by the U.S. 800 freestyle relay team, which destroyed the old world mark in becoming the first team to break the 7-minute barrier.

Seemingly immune to fatigue, he set a blistering pace of 1 minute, 43.31 seconds that got the Americans rolling toward a winning time of 6:58.56.

The Arizona Diamondbacks acquired slugging outfielder Adam Dunn from the Cincinnati Reds yesterday for a minor-league pitcher and two players to be named later. Dunn, 28, was batting .233 this season for the Reds with 32 homers, tied for tops in the majors.

The Oakland Raiders signed Adam Archuleta to a contract yesterday in a move that will add some needed depth to their defensive line. Archuleta was at the Raiders training facility in at the beginning of the day and left with trainer Rod Martin to have a full physical. The Raiders released safety Greg Wesley to make some room on the roster. Archuleta has been a safety in the NFL but played linebacker in college at Arizona State. He could contend for a spot as a backup safety or for the starting strong side linebacker.

Michael Phelps opened his epic quest for a record eight gold medals in dominating fashion by smashing his own world record in the 400-meter IM. With President Bush in the bleachers, Phelps dominated his first event of the Beijing Olympics on Sunday morning, beating his own world record and all chances for his challengers with a mark of 4 minutes, 3.84 seconds in the 400-meter individual medley. One down, seven to go in Phelps’ quest to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals.

The Brett Favre years in Green Bay are now officially over. His legendary career is not. The month-long drama has now come to an end, with the Packers agreeing to trade their future Hall-of-Fame quarterback to the New York Jets, as it was first reported Wednesday night.

“We’re going to take this one year at a time,” Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum said on a conference call early Thursday morning. “We’re excited to have Brett on the team this year.”

Favre, who announced his NFL playing career was over in March, is expected to be introduced at a 6 p.m. news conference at Cleveland Browns Stadium before the Jets play their first exhibition game.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has gone from being an unlikely candidate to one of the favorites in the bidding war to buy the Cubs, now that he’s picked up support from NBA Commissioner David Stern and others as the pool of prospective owners gets smaller.

Crain’s Chicago Business recently quoted one of the bidders as saying Cuban is now “the lead guy” in the quest to buy the Cubs, while Boston Red Sox owner John Henry said in an e-mail to the New York Times that he could think of “no one better suited to reverse the fortunes of the Cubs for the long term” than Cuban.

Although a Cubs official denied any of the remaining bidders is in fact, leading the pack, saying “we’re still at the starting gate” in the process, it’s apparent that support for Cuban is gaining in his bid to purchase the club after many believed he never would gain favor with MLB owners.

Slugger Manny Ramirez’s tumultuous relationship with the Boston Red Sox is finally over.

Ramirez has been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Red Sox will pay the remaining $7 million of Ramirez’s contract owed for this season. Ramirez, the MVP of the 2004 World Series, remains one of baseball’s best hitters and has enjoyed lots of career-defining moments with the franchise. But his relationship with the Red Sox went sour again recently, prompting the All-Star outfielder to agree to the deal.

Outfielder Jason Bay is going to Boston and the Pittsburgh Pirates get four minor leaguers as part of the three-way deal. Third baseman Andy LaRoche and right-handed pitcher Bryan Morris will go to the Pirates from the Dodgers. Outfielder Brandon Moss and right-handed pitcher will leave the Red Sox organization for Pittsburgh.