Sports in brief

nba

Schedule sneak peek to be given Tuesday

The league will release its opening week and Christmas Day schedules during a special at 7 p.m. Tuesday on the NBA TV network. The full schedule will be released Aug. 10. This is the first time the league will release portions early.

Wizards: No. 17 overall pick Kevin Seraphin, acquired in a June draft-day trade with the Bulls, signed. Under the rookie pay scale, Seraphin, 20, a 6-foot-9 forward from French Guyana, gets a four-year contract that guarantees him about $2.7 million the first two years.

soccer

Public slamming for North Korea Cup team

North Korea's national team and coach have been publicly rebuked for losing all three games at the World Cup in South Africa, news reports said.

The team and coach Kim Jong Hun were summoned to a July 2, six-hour meeting in Pyongyang and subjected to severe criticism, the U.S.-financed Radio Free Asia reported.

Sports minister Pak Myong Chol was among some 400 government officials, athletes and students at the closed-door session, Radio Free Asia report said. Team members were forced to reprimand their coach at the end of the gathering, the report said.

et cetera

boxing: Wladimir Klitschko will defend his heavyweight titles against Samuel Peter of Nigeria on Sept. 11 in Germany.

Horses: Reigning horse of the year Rachel Alexandra will make her next start in the Personal Ensign Stakes on Aug. 29 at Saratoga Race Course in New York.

tennis: Defending champion Sam Querrey beat Rainer Schuettler 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (9-7) in the quarterfinals of the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles.

Times wires

basketball

Lawyer: men with guns threatened ex-player's former wife

MEMPHIS — Lorenzen Wright's ex-wife was threatened by three men who were carrying guns and looking for the former NBA and University of Memphis player about six weeks before he was shot to death, her attorney said Friday.

Sherra Wright warned her ex-husband, with whom she had seven children, about the visit to her home by men dressed in sport coats with weapons tucked in their waistbands, Gail Mathes said. But she didn't tell authorities until Monday. "She was told that if she said anything, she would be killed, or her children," Mathes said.

The body of Wright, 34, was found in woods in Memphis on Wednesday. He was last seen around midnight July 18, when he stayed over at his ex-wife's house. Sherra Wright told officers he left in the middle of the night with an unidentified person. Police records indicate Wright was probably carrying a large amount of cash.

An investigation is also under way in Germantown, a Memphis suburb, about how a 911 call from Wright's phone early July 19 was handled. Deputy police Chief Rodney Bright said department officials did not know about the call until Tuesday. He said he couldn't discuss what was said on it. The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that the dispatcher heard a garbled male voice utter an expletive and then heard at least 10 gunshots. The call went dead, and no one answered when the dispatcher called back, the newspaper reported.