Reuters Sports

( Reuters ) - Houston has been selected to host the 2013 NBA All-Star game for the second time in seven years, the league said on Wednesday. The game will be played February 17 and marks the third time the Texas city has hosted the event. The 1989 and 2006 All-Star games were also in Houston, home to the NBA 's Rockets . "Houston is a spectacular sports city, and for one week it will be the basketball capital of the world," NBA Commissioner David Stern said in a statement. This year's All...Read Full Story

OTTAWA ( Reuters ) - More trade show than sporting showcase, the National Hockey League (NHL) All Star game in the current form is designed to be a fun-filled promotional vehicle for the league and the biggest names. But there was a serious shortage of star power on the Scotiabank Place ice on Sunday. Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was sidelined with concussion-like symptoms and a significant neck injury and the NHL's only other marketing kingpin, Washington Capitals sniper...Read Full Story

(Reuters) - The fun and games of the National Hockey League's All-Star weekend turned serious Saturday as league commissioner Gary Bettman and player's union chief Donald Fehr danced around questions about a looming labor war. With the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) set to expire on September 15, NHL owners and the players association ( NHLPA ) have been quietly preparing the framework for negotiations that could prove as contentious as those that wiped out the entire 2004-05...Read Full Story

MIAMI , JAN 27 - MIAMI ( Reuters ) - The Miami Heat have won eight of their nine games without Dwyane Wade but after he returned with 28 points in Friday's victory over the New York Knicks , the face of the franchise laughed off the idea the team could get by without him. While Wade sat on the sidelines, there had been chatter on the airwaves and social networks over the idea that the Heat are better without Wade. It is a notion the seven-times All Star guard Wade said was "ridiculous." "That...Read Full Story

( Reuters ) - Super Bowl-bound Tom Coughlin of the New York Giants and Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots are competitive coaches that share a penchant for preparation, according to a former coach who won a title with both on his staff. Former head coach Bill Parcells, a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist for the Class of 2012, won a Super Bowl with the Giants in 1991 with Coughlin and Belichick on his staff as assistants. "They do have an awful lot in common," Parcells said in an...Read Full Story