Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Three-time NBA champion Stephen Curry on Tuesday signaled that he is willing to take NASA up on its offer to tour its lunar lab in Houston after his pronouncement this week that he does not believe humans ever walked on the Moon.
During the "Winging It" podcast released on Monday, the Golden State Warriors guard asked fellow players Vince Carter and Kent Bazemore whether they believed humans had ever been to the Moon.
The players said they did not, to which two-time MVP Curry said: "They're gonna come get us. I don't think so either."
"Sorry, I don't want to start conspiracies."
After Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon in 1969, a further 10 American astronauts on five subsequent missions stepped onto the lunar surface.
The 30-year-old's statement created a commotion on social media and led NASA to extend an invitation to Curry to come and see evidence of the Moon landing for himself.
"There's lots of evidence NASA landed 12 American astronauts on the Moon from 1969-1972," Allard Beutel, a spokesman for the U.S. federal agency, said in a statement.
"We'd love for Mr. Curry to tour the lunar lab at our Johnson Space Center in Houston, perhaps the next time the Warriors are in town to play the Rockets," he added.
Beutel said the lab housed hundreds of Moon rocks and the Apollo mission control.
"During his visit, he can see first-hand what we did 50 years ago, as well as what we're doing now to go back to the Moon in the coming years, but this time to stay," he said.
Curry responded on Twitter to a CNN story on the controversy that included NASA's statement with a smiling emoji wearing sunglasses, an indication that he may be willing to make the trip when the Warriors visit the Houston Rockets on March 23.
The commotion over his remarks came after Boston Celtics guard Kyrie Irving was widely mocked last year for saying he believed the world was flat.
In October, Irving apologized for the comments, saying science teachers had approached him to say he was making their jobs more difficult.
Curry attended Davidson College in North Carolina from 2006-2009 but left for the NBA before his final year and did not graduate.
Cycling: Sky to end team sponsorship after 2019 season
The future of Team Sky has been cast into doubt after its owner and sponsor, broadcaster Sky, confirmed it will end involvement in professional cycling after the 2019 season, the British-based outfit said on Wednesday.
The decision means the hugely successful team, which has won eight Grand Tours since 2012, will need to begin the search for another source of funding from the beginning of 2020 and continue to compete under a new name.
"While Sky will be moving on at the end of next year, the team is open minded about the future and the potential of working with a new partner, should the right opportunity present itself," team principal Dave Brailsford said in a statement.
"We aren't finished yet by any means. There is another exciting year of racing ahead of us and we will be doing everything we can to deliver more Team Sky success in 2019."
Team Sky was founded in 2010 with an ambitious goal of securing a first Tour de France victory by a British cyclist within five years, a feat they achieved just two years later when Bradley Wiggins triumphed in Paris.
Chris Froome then claimed the first of four Tour de France wins a year later and became the first cyclist in more than 30 years to hold all three Grand Tour titles at the same time when he added the 2017 Vuelta a Espana and 2018 Giro d'Italia to his list of honours.
Earlier this year, Froome's team mate Geraint Thomas became the third Briton to win the Tour de France for Sky, who have amassed 322 overall victories since their formation.
"The end of 2019 is the right time for us to move on as we open a new chapter in Sky's story and turn our focus to different initiatives including our Sky Ocean Rescue campaign," Sky Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch said.
In an open letter to fans on Wednesday, Team Sky said changes at the satellite broadcaster had played a part in Sky's decision to withdraw from cycling.
