July 18 2009
Sports Bites

Construction workers have agreed to end a weeklong strike that threatened to derail the completion of already tightly-scheduled projects for the World Cup, union officials and employers said Wednesday. Workers agreed on a pay increase of 12 percent, below the earlier demand of 13 percent, and work at sites across South Africa is to resume on Thursday. "The strike is over," said Lesiba Seshoka, spokesman for the National Union of Mineworkers. "We got a good offer." About 70,000 workers began striking July 8, stopping work on stadiums, airports, freeways and Johannesburg's new high-speed rail link - projects that are scheduled to be finished by December. The World Cup football championship is to be held in the summer of 2010.

Channing Frye grew up cheering for the Phoenix Suns. Now he'll play for them.
"It feels good to be home," Frye said at a U.S. Airways Center news conference Tuesday. "I know I'm comfortable here. I know I can win in this state. The 6-foot-11, 250-pound Frye agreed to a two-year contract with the second year at his option. He will earn about $2 million next season. The Suns formally introduced Frye, not that he needed it. His news conference was held in the arena where he led St. Mary's High School to the 5A state championship in 2001. Frye went on to become a star at the University of Arizona, and four years later, he's back in the desert. The 26-year-old Frye said he chose the Suns over Cleveland, Denver and Washington. That was a business decision, but there also may have been some emotion involved.

It’s no rush with D-Wade. When Dwayne Wade checked his cell phone shortly after midnight Sunday, he got perhaps the most predictable text message of his life. After all, it hardly classifies as stunning news that the Miami Heat want to keep him. Wade said Heat president Pat Riley texted those sentiments very early Sunday, in what amounts to a largely ceremonial move. The Heat had to wait until 12:01 a.m. on July 12 before they could formally offer an extension to the reigning NBA scoring champion, and Wade said Riley didn't wait too long before pressing the send button. "It's no rush," Wade said. "We all know that." Wade didn't reveal specifics of what the text message said, other than confirming the obvious, that Riley was reaffirming Miami's hope that the 2006 NBA finals MVP sticks around for many years to come.

The Los Angeles Lakers have retracted an offer to Lamar Odom, saying that talks to re-sign the free agent have stalled. Lakers public relations director John Black said the NBA champions took the offer off the table in the past two days. "There are specifics behind why we pulled it, but that's not something we're going to get into," Black said. According to the Los Angeles Times, Lakers owner Jerry Buss offered Odom two deals. One was worth $36 million for four years and the other was for $10 million a season for three years. Odom, who will turn 30 in November, made $14.1 million this past season.