The city’s attorney said Friday he hasn’t decided whether to drop a marijuana possession charge against Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony, even though a friend of the player’s said the drugs found in Anthony’s backpack belonged to him.

“We’re still looking at the facts in the case,” City Attorney Cole Finegan said.

Anthony received a summons on Oct. 15 at Denver International Airport after a small amount of marijuana was found in his bag as the team prepared to travel to Milwaukee for an exhibition game.

Anthony’s lawyer, Daniel Recht, said the marijuana belonged to James Cunningham of St. Louis, who often stays with Anthony when he’s in Denver on business. Cunningham has signed an affidavit saying the drugs belonged to him.

After the news of Anthony’s citation broke Thursday, Recht met with Finegan and said he expected the case to be dropped.

Before Thursday night’s exhibition game in Los Angeles against the Clippers, Anthony said he was innocent and that he did not use or intentionally possess marijuana. He said he regretted any embarrassment he had caused his family, fans and team.

Recht has also said he received a letter from general manager Kiki Vandeweghe verifying Anthony passed four random drug tests last season and another just two weeks ago. The letter also said tests from U.S. Olympic Committee at the Athens Games this summer came back negative.

The Cavaliers star guard and his longtime girlfriend, a 19-year-old Akron woman, had a baby boy Wednesday. No other details were available.

James left the team’s training camp in Columbus to be with her and his new son. He was expected to rejoin the team Thursday as he prepares for his second NBA season.

During the team’s media day Monday at Gund Arena, James wouldn’t comment when asked if he were about to become a father. He has always been guarded about his private life.

Fatherhood should fit James well. The reigning rookie of the year, who turns 20 in December, is most relaxed when he is among children. This summer, he donated money to refurbish basketball courts and youth community centers in Akron. He has also donated supplies to the city’s schools.

James was raised as an only child by his mother Gloria, who was estranged from James’ father when he was a youngster

“That’s my main goal, to try and be a better father than the one I had,” James told the Akron Beacon Journal. “I didn’t know him. I didn’t know the situation he was in. But I’m going to do my job the best way I can.”

MIAMI (AP) — Maybe Ricky Williams is tired of traveling. Maybe he has run out of books to read. Or maybe he doesn’t want to pay the $8.6 million he owes the Miami Dolphins for breach of contract.

Whatever the reason, Williams wants to rejoin the Dolphins and has asked the NFL how soon he can return, his agent said Tuesday.

It’s unclear whether the 2002 NFL rushing champion must serve a suspension the rest of this season for repeated violations of the league drug program. He has asked the league for a hearing to clarify his status, but no date has been set.

A Dolphins source speaking on condition of anonymity said the team’s understanding is that Williams can’t play this year because of the violations.

Williams left the Dolphins reeling when he retired just before training camp in late July, and they’re off to an 0-4 start, their worst since 1966. His agent, Leigh Steinberg, declined to discuss Williams’ change of heart.

“All I can tell you is that Ricky has asked me to explore and to try to facilitate his return,” Steinberg said. “He’s excited and in good shape and misses football.”

One likely factor for Williams’ reversal: On Sept. 24, an arbitrator ordered him to repay more than $8.6 million to the team for breaching his contract.

Steinberg and the Dolphins declined to say whether there have been recent conversations between the two parties.

“This is an issue between the player, his representative and the league,” Dolphins general manager Rick Spielman said. “Accordingly, we don’t have a comment on the matter.”

Last week, coach Dave Wannstedt said he hadn’t talked to Williams in about a month.

Separating Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal on different teams on different coasts has done nothing to lessen the animosity between the one-time Los Angeles Laker teammates. If anything, the feud is escalating.

On Wednesday, O’Neal dismissed as “ridiculous” Bryant’s allegations that O’Neal had paid up to $1 million in hush money to various women and then took his own shot by saying, “I’m not the one buying love.”

O’Neal made the remark over the telephone to a staffer at ESPN, the network said, after the Los Angeles Times quoted a police report as saying Bryant told detectives in Eagle, Colo., “he should have done what Shaq does … that Shaq would pay his women not to say anything” and already had paid up to $1 million “for situations like this.”

The statement came near the end of a lengthy interrogation about a hotel employee’s complaint that Bryant had raped her.

The Times said it was unclear precisely what Bryant meant by his remarks.

Prosecutors dropped criminal charges against Bryant earlier this month at the accuser’s request, but the woman has filed a federal civil suit against him in Denver, seeking unspecified damages for pain and suffering since the case began.

O’Neal was informed of Bryant’s allegation last September, and the relationship between the two was cool throughout the 2003-04 season. O’Neal was subsequently traded to the Miami Heat.

“This whole situation is ridiculous,” O’Neal told ESPN. “I never hang out with Kobe, I never hung around him. In the seven or eight years we were together, we were never together. So how this guy can think he knows anything about me or my business is funny. And one last thing — I’m not the one buying love. He’s the one buying love.”

O’Neal’s latter comment was an apparent reference to a ring — reportedly costing several million dollars — that Bryant gave his wife, Vanessa, after he was charged with felony sexual assault last summer.

There have been no published reports of O’Neal ever being accused of any sex crimes. He was charged with misdemeanor battery in Orange County, Fla., in 1998 after a 23-year-old Walt Disney World employee claimed he grabbed her neck, but the case was dismissed in 2000.

Former Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams was ordered Friday to repay the team more than $8.6 million for breaching his contract when he suddenly quit before training camp.

Arbitrator Richard Bloch ruled Friday that Williams must repay $8,616,353 in bonus money under the contract he left behind when he shocked the Dolphins and their fans with his sudden retirement. The contract ran through 2007.

“We are pleased that Mr. Bloch has confirmed that Ricky Williams breached his contract with the Dolphins and is required to repay compensation,” NFL senior vice president/general counsel Dennis Curran said.

“This decision is consistent with many other cases that have affirmed the right of NFL clubs and players to negotiate compensation based on the player’s fulfillment of the contract,” Curran said.

The Dolphins declined comment Friday, saying they only talk about players on their roster.

Williams’ agent, Leigh Steinberg, was out of the country, his office said. He didn’t immediately return a phone message left Friday.

The Dolphins had filed a grievance against Williams, asking an arbitrator to uphold their contractual right to recover the money paid to him between the signing bonus and incentives. Before the grievance, the Dolphins mailed a letter to Williams asking him to report or pay the money back.

Williams also called the team, telling them he would come back if he received a new contract. The Dolphins declined that request.

Williams has given many reasons why he called Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt days before workouts were to begin in July to tell him he was quitting. At different times, Williams has expressed displeasure with his contract, an excessive workload and new offensive coordinator Chris Foerster.

It was not immediately known what would happen if Williams declared bankruptcy or decided to return to the team.

But even if the 27-year-old Williams wanted to return, he faces a suspension for the entire 2004 season for violating the NFL drug policy. He has acknowledged testing positive for marijuana three times.

The Carolina Panthers have not had a very good week: Running back Stephen Davis was lost Friday with a knee injury, just days after star receiver Steve Smith broke his leg.

Davis and Smith are the defending NFC champions’ top two offensive threats.

Davis, who ran for a career-best 1,444 yards last season, began having problems with his knee after practice Thursday, and an MRI showed “a small cartilage problem,” coach John Fox said Friday.

He had arthroscopic surgery Friday, and will miss Sunday’s game at Kansas City. The Panthers said he would be out two to five weeks.

Smith, who led Carolina in receptions (88) and yards receiving (1,110), is out indefinitely after breaking his left leg in Monday night’s loss to Green Bay.

DeShaun Foster will replace Davis at running back, and rookie Keary Colbert is expected to start at receiver. Chris Gamble, another rookie, could replace Smith on punt returns.

“As I told the team, we have got 53 men out here we think we can start and win for us. They have got to step up,” Fox said. “It is part of the game. Kansas City is going to play without some starters. These guys understand that. It is not the first time it has happened.”

Foster was a solid backup to Davis last year, and started two games in place of him while Davis nursed an ankle injury. He ran for 429 yards on 113 carries, and had 26 receptions for 207 yards and two touchdowns.

Foster was also solid in the postseason, running for 196 yards and two touchdowns in four games.

He first proved his worth in a regular-season game at Indianapolis, filling in for Davis when he left in the second half with a bruised arm. Foster came in and carried 16 times for 85 yards to help the Panthers to an overtime victory.

Serena Williams, right, argues with chair umpire Mariana Alves, left, during her match with Jennifer Capriati at the U.S. Open in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2004. Williams came up on the losing end when Alves overruled the line judge in the opening game of the third set. Capriati went on to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 and moved on to the semifinals.

With rain washing out live matches, people had a chance to see the officiating error that took a point from Williams and gave it to Capriati in the third set’s opening game Tuesday night.

That replay was everywhere. Well, everywhere, that is, but the chair umpire’s stand during the match itself.

And with no new results to talk about, the buzz around the National Tennis Center on Wednesday afternoon was about whether instant replay or other tools should be used to help make better rulings. There were at least two other questionable calls in the final game of Capriati’s 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win.

“It was such a horrendous call. If I was closer to the court, I would have run onto the court,” said John McEnroe, who called the match on USA. “I’ve seen a lot of bad calls in my day, but I don’t think I’ve seen three bad calls in a set like that.”

Not surprisingly, given his “You cannot be serious!” reputation for on-court arguments, McEnroe favors adding some form of replay to tennis.

He would put limits, though, as there are in other pro sports, such as perhaps some sort of penalty for a wrong challenge. In the NFL, for example, a team can get up to three chances per game to question calls; if it loses a challenge, it forfeits a timeout. Limited forms of replay are used in the NHL and NBA, too, but baseball has never shown any interest in trying it.

Serena Williams demonstrated that her shaky knee is holding up fine, sweeping past Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-2 yesterday to reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.

Once again dressed in black, the two-time Open champion had little trouble in winning her fourth straight match at Flushing Meadows. Williams took this one with her serving, finishing with 12 aces compared with one double fault.

Williams was forced to pull out of last month’s Olympics because of pain in her left knee. She had surgery on it in August 2003, and missed 8-1/2 months while recovering.

In fact, she said a few doctors advised her to skip this tournament.

“My knee is doing pretty good right now. I haven’t had any worries,” she said. “I’m just excited to be here because I wasn’t supposed to come.”

Williams advanced to yet another matchup with Jennifer Capriati, who beat Ai Sugiyama 7-5, 6-2.

Williams is 10-6 lifetime against Capriati, including 3-3 in Grand Slam events. Capriati defeated her in the French Open quarterfinals this year, then lost to Williams in the Wimbledon quarters.

“I like playing Jennifer a lot, I really do,” Williams said. “We always play each other. We really know each other’s games.”

Of Williams, Capriati said, “I’ve played her at her best. I’ve played her at her worst. I’ve played her at my best, me at my worst. I can just only worry about myself, really.”

The criminal case against Kobe Bryant case collapsed Wednesday as prosecutors dropped the sexual assault charge against him, saying they had no choice because the NBA star’s accuser no longer wanted to participate.

Bryant, whose trial had been days from opening arguments, responded with an apology to the woman who had accused him and whose civil suit for damages is still pending.

“Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did,” Bryant said. “I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter.”

The woman’s attorney, John Clune, said she has been through an extremely difficult time since she alleged she was raped, and that she was disturbed by a series of courthouse mistakes that included release of her name and medical history. She has been the subject of death threats and relentless media coverage in the high-profile case.

“It is in her sincere belief that when this case ends, she does not want to be brought back into the criminal process,” Clune said.

“The difficulties that this case has imposed on this woman the past year are unimaginable.”

The dismissal marks a dramatic but not entirely unexpected turn in the high-profile case against one the NBA’s brightest young stars. For months, prosecutors had insisted they had a strong enough case to win a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt, but legal experts said their case was greatly weakened when Bryant’s attorneys convinced the judge to allow some evidence about his accuser’s sexual history.