IN BRIEF

BASKETBALL

Like father, like son: Ewing Jr. joins Knicks

Talk about pressure. Patrick Ewing Jr. is following in the footsteps of his famous father again.

The New York Knicks acquired the younger Ewing from the Houston Rockets on Friday for the draft rights to center Frederic Weis.

"Coming to the Knicks, and hopefully being able to contribute, means a lot to me," Ewing Jr. said in a statement. "It has always been my dream to play for this team. My goal is to show the coaches that I can play and do all that I can to help the team win some games."

Ewing Jr., who played at Georgetown, as did his father, was selected by Sacramento with the 43rd pick in this year's NBA Draft and traded with Ron Artest to the Rockets on Aug. 14. Now, he's on to New York, where his father ruled the paint at Madison Square Garden for 15 of his 17 NBA seasons.

Also: San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, who led Argentina to a bronze medal in the Beijing Olympics, will need surgery to repair a ligament injury in his left ankle.

The Spurs said Ginobili will have surgery next week.

Ginobili said an MRI of his ankle showed no improvement from a previous exam two months ago. He led the Spurs in scoring last season (19.5 points) and won the league's sixth man award.

Former Seattle SuperSonics owner Howard Schultz said he's dropping his lawsuit against new team owner Clay Bennett, ending an attempt to regain ownership of the team that is moving to Oklahoma City.

The Starbucks Corp. CEO filed a motion for dismissal in federal court.

In a letter to former members of his ownership group, Schultz said two recent rulings in his lawsuit have convinced him it's unlikely to succeed.

UNLV ATHLETICS

Women's soccer team wins tourney opener

Sophomore Ashleigh Shoughro scored 62 seconds into the match as the Rebels women's soccer team overwhelmed UNR 5-1 to open the Nike Invitational at Peter Johann Memorial Field.

Brianna Moore, Niki Connolly, Katherine Orellana and Amanda Forester also scored for UNLV (2-0-1), which ran its home unbeaten streak, dating to last season, to 11 games.

Also: Junior Jessica Walters had a career-high 27 kills as the Rebels volleyball team evened its record at 1-1 with a 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-19, 25-23) victory Arizona State in the Sheraton Classic in Tempe, Ariz.

UNLV lost its opening match in the tournament earlier in the day to Dayton, 3-1 (23-25, 25-18, 25-21, 26-24).

The Rebels cross country team placed third in the season-opening four-team UC San Diego Quad meet in San Diego, which was won by the host Tritons.

Senior Jennis Shearer finished second individually, covering the 21/2-mile course in 15 minutes, 39.6 seconds. Bre Schofield of UCSD was first in 15:17.4.

MISCELLANEOUS

Ruiz has big challenge in heavyweight fight

John Ruiz is counting on the size of his heart to make up for the 10 inches and 79 pounds he'll be giving up to Nikolai Valuev in their WBA heavyweight title bout today in Berlin.

"Only the size of a boxer's heart wins on the canvas," Ruiz, a Las Vegas resident, said after the weigh-in. "And I am sure mine's bigger."

The 7-foot Valuev weighed in at 318 pounds, and the 6-2 Ruiz was 239 pounds.

Ruiz is getting his third chance to win the WBA heavyweight belt. He will be trying to avenge a disputed loss to Valuev in 2005, also in Berlin.

Also: IBF junior featherweight champion Steve Molitor stopped Ceferino Dario Labarda in the 10th round in Rama, Ontario, to move into position for a title unification bout with Celestino Caballero.

Molitor (28-0, 11 knockouts) floored Labarda (18-1) in the ninth round with a flurry of punches, then finished off the Argentine challenger 2:34 into the 10th when referee Charlie Fitch called the fight.

The Chinese gold-medal winning gymnast at the center of an Olympic age dispute isn't upset by the controversy.

He Kexin -- who won two golds at the Beijing Olympics -- and four other members of China's women's gymnastics team were subject to persistent questioning about their ages. The age dispute prompted an ongoing investigation at the urging of the International Olympic Committee.

"I don't get upset because I have answered this question many times; there's no need to explain anymore," He said in Hong Kong, where the Chinese gold medalists arrived for a three-day visit.

Gold medalists Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin and Kobe Bryant, along with 150 other U.S. Olympic team members, will be on the Sept. 8 season premiere of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Winfrey plans to tape the show at Chicago's Millennium Park on Wednesday.

Harpo Productions says Winfrey intends the show as a "welcome home celebration" and a chance to showcase Chicago as the city bids for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Usain Bolt easily won the 100 meters in 9.83 seconds in the Weltklasse meet in Zurich, Switzerland, his first competition since his record-shattering performance in the Olympics.

Bolt's return was upstaged by Pamela Jelimo, the 18-year-old Kenyan who won the women's 800 in 1:54.01, the fastest time in more than two decades and the third fastest in history at the distance.

Federal prosecutors are considering charging the wife and mother-in-law of Barry Bonds' personal trainer in an effort to pressure Greg Anderson to testify against the slugger during his perjury trial, The New York Times reported.

A lawyer representing Anderson's wife, Nicole Gestas, and others familiar with the matter told the newspaper that prosecutors are considering charging her and her mother, Madeleine Gestas, with tax-related crimes.

The NHL's Ottawa Senators traded defenseman Andrej Meszaros to the Tampa Bay Lightning for defensemen Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard and a first-round pick in 2009.

Meszaros had nine goals, 27 assists and 50 penalty minutes in 82 regular-season games for the Senators last season.

Zenit St. Petersburg won the European Super Cup for the first time, upsetting Manchester United 2-1 in Monte Carlo, Monaco, on goals by Pavel Pogrebnyak and Danny.