Pops returns to the NBA

Former George Washington star and team Great Britain forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu has returned to the NBA. The English born Ghanaian native had been playing in Spain with DKV Joventut until December when he was released due to a shoulder injury. Pops returned to Texas earlier in February and suited up for the D-League's Austin Toro's before the San Antonio Spurs signed him to a 10 day contract. Here's hoping Pops finds his place with the Spurs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/basketball/4840574/Pops-Mensah-Bonsu-returns-to-NBA-with-San-Antonio-Spurs.html

Raiders make Asomugha NFL's highest paid player

The Oakland Raiders gave free-agent pro bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha the NFL's top salary not just among Cornerbacks but at all positions. The Raiders and owner Al Davis signed Asomugha to a three-year $45.3 million contract with $28.5 million of the contract guaranteed. Asomugha and his agent, Tom Condon of CAA came out on top in the negotiations with the Raiders as in addition to the guaranteed portion of the contract, they were able to get the Raiders to include a guarantee not to use the Franchise player tag on Asomugha in the future when he becomes a free agent after the 2010 or 2011 season. Congrats to Nnamdi on the big contract, regardless of the impact it will have on the NFL and it's teams(as the grumblings among the NFL front offices indicates), Nnamdi and his agent did what they had to do and got their money and a smart deal in the cold business that is the NFL.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/19/SPFE1613OO.DTL

NBA tidbits

Luol Deng injury-
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=274273&src=150

Kelenna Azubuike return from injury-http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/playerbreakingnews
.asp?sport=NBA&id=1239&line=110929&spln=1

Emeka Okafors play being overshadowed in Southeast Division-http:
//www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page
=nba/news/news.aspx?id=4214911

Kenya get new national team coach

The Harambee Stars of Kenya have a new national team coach. Lesotho Coach Antoine Hey has signed a contract to take over the Kenyan national team when his contract with Lesotho runs out at the end of February. Hey takes over from Francis Kimanzi, who was sacked by the Kenyan Federation. The German born Hey will have a tough task ahead as he will be taking over a Kenyan team that are in Group B of the CAF World Cup Qualifying zone against Nigeria, Mozambique and Tunisia.

http:
//www.goal.com/en/news/89/africa/2009/02/19/1116811/
german-coach-antoine-hey-takes-over-kenya

NBA trade deadline news

Only a couple of players found themselves in the trade mix over the past 24hrs of craziness that is called the NBA trade deadline.
The Portland TrailBlazers sent Ike Diogu to the Sacramento Kings in a three way trade that involved the Chicago Bulls. The deal will allow Diogu to get more playing time as the Kings have cleared out most of their big men this week-Brad Miller and Shelden Williams. The deal also allows the Portland TrailBlazers to gain a trade exception as they received Michael Ruffin in the deal.
The Chicago Bulls traded Thabo Sefolosha to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a 2009 first round pick. Unfortunately, to make room for Thabo on their roster, the Thunder had to release Saer Sene.

Shakeup in Nigerian Coaching ranks

After the lackluster performance of the Flying Eagles at the 2009 African Youth Championship, the NFA have replaced Coach Ladan Bosso with former Eagles star Daniel Amokachi. Amokachi has spent the last year working as an assistant under Amodu Shaibu's regime with the Super Eagles. Amokachi will lead the U-17s to the FIFA World Youth Championships with Fatai Amoo and Aloy Agu at his side.

http://www.goal.com/
en/news/89/africa/2009/02/19/1116749/former-everton
-star-daniel-amokachi-leads-nigeria-coaching-shake-

Adebayor is African Footballer of the Year

Togolese international and Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor was named African Footballer of the Year on Tuesday in a gala in Lagos, Nigeria.
The 25 year old Adebayor beat out Chelsea's Michael Essien and Egyptian Mohamed Aboutrika for the award. Adebayor scored 24 goals for Arsenal last term and
scored four goals in three games for Togo in their World Cup Qualification campaign.
Congrats to Emmanuel as well as to Salomon Kalou for being named African Young Player of the Year.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=618018&sec=global&cc=5901

College Basketball news

Hasheem Thabeet and his Uconn Huskies squad have been making their presence felt in the upper half of the top 25 rankings this season. Here's an article on the 7-3 center and his ridiculous triple double against Providence.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/2009/01/31/
2009-01-31_hasheem_thabeet_helps_uconn_make_case_fo.html

Also, here's a writeup on the Aminu brothers, Alade and Al-Farouq.
The brothers faced off recently when Georgia Tech took on Wake Forest, check out the link.

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/
printedition/2009/02/01/aminus0201.html

Ghana wins AYC

Congratulations to the Ghanaian U-20s who won their third African Youth Championship title. The Black Satellites defeated Cameroon 2-0 in the final with a brace from tournament top scorer Ransford Osei.
The Flying Eagles of Nigeria won the third place play-off 2-1 over South Africa with goals from Rabiu Ibrahim and Frank Temile.

http://www.peacefmonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19719:ghana-wins-2009-youth-championship&catid=14:sports-news&Itemid=57

Apologies

My sincere apologies to blog readers out there for the week off.
Let's get you caught up on all the latest news and gists.