JURISPRUDENCE

Former football and baseball star Bo Jackson has been awarded just over $21 million by a Cobb County judge in Georgia in his civil extortion case against his niece and nephew, whom he accused of relentless harassment and intimidation.

The judgment came Feb. 2 alongside a permanent protective order barring siblings Thomas Lee Anderson and Erica M. Anderson, also known as Erica Anderson Ross, from further bothering or contacting Jackson and his immediate family members. The Andersons must stay at least 500 yards away from the Jacksons and their homes, workplaces and schools, and remove from social media any content about them.

Jackson’s lawsuit alleged that Thomas and Erica Anderson, who live in Cobb County and Texas, respectively, tried to extort $20 million.

Jackson claimed the harassment started in 2022 and included threatening social media posts and messages, public allegations casting him in a false light, and public disclosure of private information intended to cause him severe emotional distress. He said Thomas Anderson wrote on Facebook that he would release photos, text and medical records to “show America” that he wasn’t playing around.

BASKETBALL

G LEAGUE: Buddy Boeheim had a career-high 38 points, knocking down seven 3-pointers, to lead the short-handed Motor City Cruise past the Maine Celtics 120-112 at the Expo.

Zavier Simpson had 22 points, Nathan Knight added in 20, while Jayce Johnson had 14 points and 13 rebounds for Motor City (10-8), which had only eight players available due to NBA call-ups.

JD Davison also had a career-high 38 points, scoring 12 straight fourth-quarter points for Maine (9-9). Jordan Walsh and Drew Peterson each added 11 points.

OLYMPICS: USA Basketball announced that Jennifer Rizzotti will coach the defending Olympic gold medalist women’s 3×3 team at this year’s Paris Games, and that Joe Lewandowski will coach the American men’s team.

Lewandowski has been involved with USA Basketball’s 3×3 efforts for a decade, and last year led the U.S. to gold at the Pan American Games and silver at the World Cup.

Rizzotti, a former UConn star, coached three gold-medal-winning women’s 3×3 teams for the U.S. last year – at the World Cup, AmeriCup and PanAm Games. She won gold as an assistant coach to Dawn Staley at the 5-on-5 level at the Tokyo Olympics, and chairs the USA Basketball Women’s National Team Committee that will select the roster for the Paris Games in 5-on-5.

WNBA: Washington Mystics star forward Elena Delle Donne, a two-time WNBA MVP, might step away from basketball for an undetermined period of time, according to multiple reports.

ESPN, citing anonymous sources, reported Wednesday that Delle Donne does not intend to sign the one-year supermax deal the Mystics have offered her.

Delle Donne, 34, had told the organization that she was unsure about her future in the hopes she would not interfere with the Mystics’ offseason plans. The team responded by placing the core designation on Delle Donne, rather than take a chance on losing her without compensation in free agency, ESPN reported.

Delle Donne, who has undergone multiple back surgeries, averaged 16.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists last season.

HOCKEY

OLYMPICS: Minnesota Wild general manager and three-time U.S. Olympian Bill Guerin will be responsible for overseeing the building of the United States teams competing in the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament next year and the 2026 Winter Games, USA Hockey announced.

The hiring of Guerin as GM is a carryover from three years ago, when he was tabbed as the U.S. Olympic team general manager before having to relinquish the role after the NHL decided against players competing at the 2022 Beijing Games because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHL:  Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev will be sidelined indefinitely after undergoing surgery to stabilize fractures to both the tibia and fibula in his left leg.

The team said there’s no definitive timetable for the 25-year-old’s return.

Sergachev was injured during the second period of Tampa Bay’s 3-1 road loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday night. He left the ice on a stretcher after his leg bent at an awkward angle following an exchange of hits with Rangers forward Alexis Lafreniere.