Boldin to retire if released
Fresh off a Super Bowl win one week ago, Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Anquan Boldin says he will retire if the team releases him.
“I won’t play in another uniform,” Boldin said in an interview on Friday on NBC Sports Radio. “We have a saying: ‘Once a Raven, always a Raven,’ and I’ll always be a Raven.”
Boldin, 32, who has one year left in his four-year, $25 million deal is owed $6 million in his final season. If the release is made, it’s expected to be because of salary-cap reasons.
Boldin caught 65 passes for 921 yards and four touchdowns in 15 games with Baltimore this season. In Baltimore’s 34-31 Super Bowl win against the San Francisco 49ers, Boldin caught six passes for 104 yards and a touchdown.
“I think you go out and let your play speak for itself,” Boldin said during the NBC interview. “You deal with that if you have to, but, I think for me—I know for me—Baltimore is the only place I want to play.”
Garnett hits 25,000-point mark
Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett became the 16th player in NBA history to score 25,000 points.
The milestone occurred during Thursday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers, when Garnett hit a turnaround fadeaway with 8:08 minutes left to in the second quarter.
Garnett joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Moses Malone, Elvin Hayes, Hakeem Olajuwon, Oscar Robertson, Dominique Wilkins, John Havlicek, Alex English, Reggie Miller and Jerry West.
“I guess when you’ve been in the league as long as I’ve been in it, you want to accomplish some things,” Garnett told ESPNBoston.com. “ Nothing more, nothing special in it. I guess some day it’ll mean something to me. But at this point, it’s relative… I’m not into the individual stuff, but obviously I’ve accomplished some things in this league, so that’s a good thing.”
King Felix to skip World Baseball Classic
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez will not compete for Venezuela in the upcoming World Baseball Classic because of contract negotiations with the Mariners, according to his representative from the Octagon agency.
Hernandez, who had been announced as Venezuela’s No. 1 starter, is in the middle of negotiations for a five-year, $135.5 million contract extension.
“Felix called Luis Sojo with a lot of pain in his heart to inform him that he could not play with Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic,” Wilfredo Polidor of the Octago agency told Deportes ESPN on Friday. “It’s a shame because he was really eager to start the first game for Venezuela against the Dominican Republic.”
Hernandez is a three-time All-Star and the 2010 American League Cy Young Award winner.
Venezula is in Pool C for the WBC with the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Spain.
