Sports briefs for December 26, 2003

Friday, Dec. 26, 2003 | 10:55 a.m.

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant said in a televised interview Thursday night that he sometimes becomes distracted or scared as he fights a felony sexual assault charge.

"You're just ... living in a nightmare and just can't really wake up out of it," Bryant said in the interview broadcast on ABC at halftime of the Lakers' 99-87 loss to Houston.

Bryant is charged with attacking a 19-year-old employee at a Colorado resort in June. He has said the two had consensual sex.

Asked if he has trouble keeping his mind on basketball during games, Bryant said: "Sometimes it wanders and I have to try to bring myself back to center. It's human nature, I guess."

He said he is sometimes "a little bit" scared.

"If you can't control, you just kind of have to let it go. And at times that can be extremely difficult but, you know, you do it," he said.

Bryant is scheduled to return to Eagle, Colo., for another hearing Jan. 23. He faces four years to life in prison or 20 years to life on probation if convicted.

League fines Texans

The NFL fined Houston Texans quarterback David Carr and center Steve McKinney for spoofing New Orleans receiver Joe Horn's cell-phone call in the end zone. The amount of the fines was not disclosed. Horn was fined $30,000 by the NFL on Dec. 16 for his choreographed celebration during New Orleans' victory over the New York Giants on Dec. 14. On Sunday, Carr and McKinney acted as if a cell phone was stashed underneath the goal post padding after Carr's 20-yard touchdown pass to Corey Bradford against Tennessee.

Player sues PGA

Pro golfer Greg Kraft sued the PGA Tour for failing to warn players about the risk of contracting a fungal infection at a tournament in Tucson, Ariz., the St. Petersburg Times reported Thursday.

Kraft, 39, filed the lawsuit earlier this week. He thinks he got valley fever, an illness most common in the southwestern United States, at the Tucson Open in February 2002.

Omni Hotels Management Corp., which operates the resort where the tournament took place, was also named as a defendant.

Kraft, an 11-year Tour player, earned $71,756 this year, placing him 220th on the PGA's money leaders list. Kraft lost his tour card, and the PGA Tour has refused to give him a medical waiver.

Beckham makes news

David Beckham, the most recognizable face in the world's most popular game, was the biggest newsmaker in international sports in 2003.

The England captain's $43 million transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid was voted the top sports story of the year in a worldwide poll of Associated Press subscribers.