A foot short with the baton. Eight inches short in the sand.

Hoping to win a pair of gold medals Friday, Marion Jones was shut out instead. After finishing fifth in the long jump, a botched relay handoff ended her chances of winning even a single medal in Athens — a disastrous finish to her tumultuous summer.

“It was an extremely disappointing performance for me. It exceeded my wildest dreams in a negative sense,” Jones said. “I looked for great things this year. It didn’t happen for me and it didn’t happen for the team this year.”

Jones was trying to do in a few hours what few elite athletes can achieve in a lifetime — win two Olympic medals, one on the track and one on the field.

With the fastest time in the world this year, the U.S. 400-meter relay team had taken gold for granted and was aiming for a world record. But they could only watch as Jamaica won in 41.73 seconds. Russia won the silver medal in 42.27, and France got the bronze in 42.54.

Jones, running the second leg an hour after her final long jump, was close to the lead as she approached Lauryn Williams, the 100-meter silver medalist. But Williams started running her leg too soon. Jones reached once, then shouted “Wait up! Wait up!” as she reached a second time.

Williams was left grasping at air while Jones reached desperately for her younger teammate.

———

The Americans won’t be the Olympic basketball champions for the first time since 1988, beaten by an Argentine team that lacks stars but simply knows how to play together better.

Manu Ginobili scored 29 points to lead Argentina to an 89-81 victory in the semifinals Friday night, humbling the nation where the game was invented and perfected.

Bronze is now the best the Americans can do with their hastily assembled assortment of NBA stars that showed weaknesses almost from the moment it began practicing in late July, a month after its opponents.

Indeed, the Dream Team days are long gone. It’s the first time since pro players were added for the 1992 Olympics that the United States will not go home with gold.

“We fought as hard as we could,” Allen Iverson said. “We couldn’t get it done for whatever reason. They were a better team than us.”

Quarterback Quincy Carter signed with the New York Jets on Tuesday, three weeks after his surprising release by Dallas.

Carter, who started every game for the Cowboys last season, was released Aug. 4, before the team’s first exhibition game. Reports said he failed a drug test and the NFL Players Association has filed a request for arbitration in the case.

Gene Upshaw, the union’s executive director, told The Associated Press that the NFLPA will continue to press the case. “We have to,” he said, adding that part of the grievance involves potential salary loss to Carter.

With the Jets, Carter will back up Chad Pennington, giving the team an experienced second-stringer. Neither of the other two quarterbacks, second-year man Brooks Bollinger nor Ricky Ray, who played in the Canadian Football League, has ever taken an NFL snap.

Ironically, Carter; successor is 40-year-old Vinny Testaverde, who was released this spring by the Jets after starting 57 games in six seasons.

Carter, a second-round draft choice by the Cowboys in 2001, started all 31 games in which he played for Dallas, including 17 last season — 16 in the regular season and one in the playoffs. In his career, he has 507 completions in 902 attempts for 5,839 yards with 29 touchdowns and 36 interceptions.

Known for his mobility, he has run 140 times for 498 yards.

AP Football Writer Dave Goldberg contributed to this report.

The U.S. men’s basketball team went on a 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter and finally showed signs of hitting top form to beat Australia 89-79 in the men’s Olympic basketball tournament Thursday.

Sharply criticized around the world for being a selfish group of individuals, the U.S. team once again fell behind and trailed after three quarters despite having far more firepower than their opponents.

But the Americans came out for the final quarter and finally showed they could play team defense, pass the ball efficiently and utilize their athleticism on the fast break to notch their second win in three preliminary round games.

“It’s kind of life and death for us right now,” said 19-year-old LeBron James who came off the bench to provide much needed spark, scoring eight points and handing out five assists.

“I’m not used to coming off the bench, but when we represent your country we have to respect our coach’s decisions. So it doesn’t matter for me not to be a starter. I can contribute from the bench and I think today we brought some energy in the court and we helped our team recover and finally get the victory.”

Tim Duncan had fouled out, Allen Iverson was playing with a broken thumb, and Greece had just passed the ball inside with a chance to pull within two points with 18 seconds left.

Lamar Odom defended the play perfectly, holding his hand steady and high and getting a piece of Dimitris Pipanikoulaou’s layup attempt. Odom, playing despite severe dehydration, rebounded the miss and made two free throws to lock up the U.S. team’s 77-71 victory Tuesday night in its second game of the Olympics.

In a much closer contest than expected, the Americans bounced back from their embarrassing opening loss to Puerto Rico and avoided dropping to 0-2, which would have matched their loss total from the previous 68 years at the Summer Games.

The big plays down the stretch came from Odom and Carlos Boozer after Duncan fouled out and Iverson cooled off following a strong start. The Americans didn’t have a great game, but that didn’t matter much to them.

They needed a win and they got one.

BOSTON (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers resumed their makeover Friday by trading Gary Payton and Rick Fox to the Boston Celtics for Chucky Atkins, Marcus Banks and Chris Mihm.

The Celtics also received a conditional first-round draft pick and cash in the deal and sent a second-round pick to the Western Conference champions.

The teams were once among the NBA’s fiercest rivals, but Boston has fallen on hard times since winning its 16th championship in 1986. Since then, the Lakers have won five titles and lost three times in the Finals, including this year’s upset by the Detroit Pistons.

Payton and Karl Malone took a large pay cut to join the Lakers as free agents last summer, each All-Star hoping to win his first championship.

Despite struggling through his first year with the team, the 36-year-old Payton exercised a $5.4 million option to come back for another season.

Fox was a Celtic for six seasons before joining the Lakers and winning three NBA titles. He has averaged 9.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists over his career.

NEW KENT, Va. (AP) — Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick pleaded guilty Tuesday to reckless driving and no contest to marijuana possession, shortly after he was suspended from the university for the 2004 season.

The younger brother of Atlanta Falcons quarterback and former Hokies’ star Michael Vick was fined $300 and his driver’s license was suspended for 60 days for reckless driving. As part of a plea agreement, he was placed in a first offender program on the marijuana charge.

Vick refused to answer reporters’ questions outside the courthouse, but his lawyers distributed a written statement from his client. Vick apologized and said he intends to return to Virginia Tech.

“I have learned a great deal from the mistakes I have made,” the statement said. “I will work hard to earn respect as an athlete and a person. I understand that I had a responsibility to conduct myself appropriately at all times and will work to do that. I am asking that Virginia Tech, and the other people who support me, not give up on me.”

The first offender program will require Vick to perform 24 hours of community service, undergo drug counseling and random drug tests, and give up his driver’s license for an additional six months.

The judge ordered Vick to return to court on Aug. 9, 2005, to determine whether he has met all the requirements.

Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said in a statement the team will support Vick.

“Marcus Vick is a young man with a good heart who has made some poor decisions but still has an opportunity to have a bright future,” Beamer said.

The 20-year-old has had a series of run-ins with the law this offseason.

In May, he was convicted on three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after he and two teammates gave alcohol to 14- and 15-year-old girls at the players’ apartment. He was acquitted of a charge of having sex with one of the girls and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $2,250 for the other charges.

The reckless driving and marijuana possession charges were filed against Vick last month after an early morning traffic stop on Interstate 64 in New Kent Kent County. He was clocked on radar at 86 mph, 21 mph above the speed limit, state police said. The traffic stop led to the marijuana possession charge.

Re-admittance to the university is contingent on Vick’s successful completion of a drug education and counseling program.

Athletic director Jim Weaver said he told Vick any further criminal, athletic or university violations will result in Vick’s permanent dismissal from Virginia Tech sports.

The suspension “is a stiff penalty,” Virginia Tech president Charles Steger said. “Vick won’t play this year and loses that year of eligibility. If there is any more trouble, his Virginia Tech career is effectively ended.”

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) � The U.S. men’s Olympic team did more than merely lose. It was embarrassed and exposed like never before in international competition.

Losing an exhibition game for the first time when using NBA players, the Americans were completely outclassed by lightly regarded Italy, never even making it close in the fourth quarter of a 95-78 upset Tuesday.

“This is a wakeup call for us,” Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson said. “I think we need something like this to understand it’s not going to be easy.”

The Americans were sloppy with the ball and couldn’t handle Italy’s zone defenses and 3-point shooting. Italy not only made 15 from behind the arc but also showed superior ball movement and poise in handing the Americans their most lopsided defeat since pros began competing in 1992.

“They’re going to be in for a lot of lessons for the next few weeks,” U.S. coach Larry Brown said. “It’s a young team, and it’s a different game internationally.”

Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony led the Americans with 17 points, and two-time NBA MVP Tim Duncan added 15.

Italy, whose roster is filled entirely by players from that country’s league, was led by Giacomo Galanda’s 28 points and Gianluca Basile’s 25.

While the Italians were fifth at the Sydney Olympics, the United States is unbeaten at the Summer Games and in Olympic qualifying since NBA players were allowed in 1992, taking four straight gold medals. It will seek a fifth in a row at the Aug. 13-29 Athens Olympics.

But the United States is sending its youngest team to the Olympics � the average age is 23.50 � since the door opened for NBAers.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Mike Tyson was knocked out in the fourth round Friday night in a shocking end to the latest comeback of the fighter who once was the most feared heavyweight of his era.

Unheralded British heavyweight Danny Williams landed a flurry of punches that sent Tyson sprawling into the ropes, perhaps ending his career with the same kind of fury that Tyson once unleashed on other fighters.

Williams, a heavy underdog, improved to 32-3 with 27 knockouts. Tyson, who was hoping to fight often and improbably regain his former glories to get out of millions in debt, fell to 50-5-2 with 44 KOs. The loss was Tyson’s first in 41 non-title fights.

Williams immediately proposed to his longtime fianc�e, Zoe, the mother of his two daughters, who accepted, and not because the Englishman made a $350,000 purse tonight with a lot more to come.

“Williams was laying on him,” said Tyson’s trainer, Freddie Roach. “I think it wore him out. He had a great amount of firepower. Mike moved his head well, threw a lot of good combinations, but Williams has a lot of heart. He took a lot of hard punches.”

The fighter once called the baddest man on the planet went down from a final right hand, then laid helplessly along the ropes, blood streaming down his face. Tyson tried to get up to beat the count, then fell down again and the fight was waved to a stunning close at 2:51 of the fourth round.

Damn, that may be all she wrote for Tyson, buddy been on a real loosing streak…

USC is beginning the 2004 season where many felt it should have ended the 2003 campaign — atop the Coaches’ poll.

The Trojans went 12-1 last season and routed Michigan in the Rose Bowl but earned just a split of the national championship. All but three of the 63 coaches — obligated to vote for the winner of the BCS title game — cast their first-place ballots for Louisiana State, which defeated Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.

USC, which returns numerous stars from last year’s squad, earned 44 of the 61 first-place votes and 1,500 points.

The Sooners (12-2), who finished third in last year’s final poll, received 12 first-place votes and are second with 1,426 points. LSU (13-1) garnered the other five first-place votes and is third with 1,387 points.

Georgia (11-3), which finished sixth last year, is fourth, followed by Miami (11-2), which is joining the Atlantic Coast Conference this season.

Florida State (10-3) is sixth, followed by Michigan (10-3), Texas (10-3), Ohio State (11-2) and Florida (8-5).

West Virginia (8-5), which is expected to highlight a depleted Big East Conference, begins the season 11th, followed by Iowa (10-3), Kansas State (11-4), Tennessee (10-3) and California (8-6) – the only team to beat USC last season.

Clemson (9-4) is 16th, while Missouri (8-5), Auburn (8-5), Virginia (8-5), Maryland (10-3), Utah (10-2), Wisconsin (7-6), Minnesota (10-3), Purdue (9-4) and Oregon (8-5) complete the poll.

Nebraska (10-3), which is under first-year coach Bill Callahan, leads the group of others receiving votes.

Complete Coaches Poll Here – CLICK HERE

The Ricky Williams retirement news was startling to everyone in and around the Dolphins. No exceptions. You want to knock Dave Wannstedt over with a feather? You could have done that Friday afternoon in Naples, the tiny resort town on the west coast of Florida.

Here is some insight to how he felt:

“I don’t want to do it anymore,” Williams told Le Batard. “That’s it. I don’t want to do this anymore. If people really care about me, that would be enough for them.”

Ricky being Ricky. When I woke to the news Sunday, I have to say my first thought (after, of course, “Wow!”) was: I’m always surprised that more NFL players don’t retire before their time.

Two reasons. One: Have you ever stood on the sidelines of an NFL game? I have. It’s positively scary. Grown men — big grown men, hopped-up big grown men — are running into each other, often head-on, at full speed. The sound and fury is about three times what you see on TV. Maybe the players who’ve done it for so long are immune to it, but let me tell you something, people — those are car wrecks that go on out there. Bruce Smith once told me his job on Sundays was a series of car accidents, and he had to steel himself to the fact that he was sacrificing X number of years off his life to make the lives of his extended family members (and himself, certainly) better.

Second reason: This may come as a shock to you, but not every football player loves football. Ricky Williams didn’t love the game. He liked it, sure. But love? Not Williams. He likes too many things in life to be in love with football. Traveling, photography, his kids, being alone. And after making $16 million or so in football over his five seasons, he knew he could do what he wanted to do. When you read this, I’m sure many of you are going to think, “What’s there not to like about playing a sport and making millions for a living?” Well, to most people, nothing. And to most football players, nothing. But it is physically and mentally demanding. It should not be a crime for a man to want to do other things with his life than play football. Which is why, other than his timing (which is a severe betrayal to his teammates and employers, the same betrayal Barry Sanders inflicted on the Lions six years ago, and enough for a Dolphin fan to hate the guy), this decision ought to be perfectly fine with anyone. It’s America. A guy can do what he wants.

So long buddy, Im pretty sure that anxiety issue he had played a roll into his choice.