It's july and local sports fans are talking basketball. So are we, but there's also tennis, golf, baseball, football and soccer to discuss ...

I'm glad the Jazz took my advice and selected Morris Almond last week. Of course, I wasn't the only one who believed it was a good idea to take the sharpshooter, as evidenced by the positive reaction of most Jazz fans. Now we'll have to see if Almond turns out to be another Gilbert Arenas (No. 31 pick) or Michael Finley (No. 21), a Trajan Langdon or J.J. Redick or something in between ...

The Jazz have to make decisions on whether to sign or match offers for free agents Dee Brown, C.J. Miles and Rafael Araujo. I definitely think the Jazz should re-sign Brown and Miles, who aren't that expensive and have shown flashes of what they could do in the future.

As for Araujo, the Jazz can get along fine without him, but perhaps they should make an effort to sign him. I've always liked Jarron Collins because he is such an all-around good guy and just because he went to the same college as my daughter. But I wonder if the Jazz might be better off keeping the younger, more physical Araujo, than the solid, yet unspectacular Collins ...

As one who sat for nearly three hours waiting in the rain hoping to see Guillermo Vilas play on Centre Court at Wimbledon nearly 30 years ago, I can sympathize with those who are missing Wimbledon matches because of constant rain this year. It's long past time for Wimbledon to construct a retractable roof at Centre Court and at Court 1 to at least get a few matches in each rainy day ...

The sad saga of Michelle Wie hit another low point last week when she shot 82 in the first round of the U.S. Open and withdrew in the second round before she could shoot a 90 because of a wrist injury. Maybe the best thing for Wie right now would be to take the rest of the year off, get healthy and start fresh in 2008 ...

I can't figure out how a Korean-born golfer didn't win the U.S. Women's Open Sunday. The fourth through 10th places belonged to Se Ri Pak, In-Bee Park, Ji Yai Shin, Jee Young Lee, Jeong Jang, Mi Hyun Kim and Kyoeong Bae, all Koreans. Second place went to Mexico's Lorena Ochoa and third to Brazilian-born Angela Park. Amazingly, American Cristie Kerr, somehow held on to win her first major ...

Did you see the thrilling finish at the Buick Open Sunday afternoon? Yes, I'm being serious. Brian Bateman, who I don't believe I'd heard of before Sunday, won with a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole after making a clutch par putt on the 17th hole. That beat three players by one stroke and five by two shots ...

I was hoping Barry Bonds would fall just short of breaking Hank Aaron's home run record, but it looks inevitable now that he's within five homers of the record. He says he doesn't care what most fans think of him, but if Barry really wanted to change his public perception, he should retire the day he gets to 754 and leave the record to Hank ...

It's just Real Salt Lake's luck, isn't it? Just when RSL finally gets its first win of the year, against one of the league's best teams, it has to wait around for 10 days for another chance at a W ...

Finally, for you college football junkies, who think summer is just a hot, boring time waiting for the start of grid season — remember it's a little over a month until the start of college football camps in early August.

---

E-mail: sor@desnews.com