The Rockets began the free-agent recruiting period with an 11 p.m. call to Spurs guard Brent Barry on Monday, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said, but the team might already have hit a snag in its plan to bring back forward Carl Landry.

Shanay Briscoe of Cypress Christian High School, one of only three high school female athletes in the nation to be invited to the U.S. Olympic Trials, kept her dream to advance to Beijing after jumping 5-10 1/2 in the preliminary round of the women’s long jump Monday night. Briscoe will advance to the finals, which will be held Friday evening.

Georgia Tech cornerback Jerrard Tarrant has been charged with rape and has been suspended from the football team.

Manny Ramirez said he patched things up with a Boston Red Sox employee he reportedly shoved to the ground during an argument in Houston, and the club said the matter is over.

This summer, a fractured world is gathering in two distinct locales — Beijing and Las Vegas — for one-in-a-kind global competition. The Sum-
mer Olympics begin Aug. 8; the World Series of Poker Main Event begins Thursday. Let me count the ways the WSOP is better than the Olympiad:

Four-time All-Star Lance Berkman remains in prime position to start at first base for the National League in the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium on July 15.

Antawn Jamison is back in the Washington Wizards fold. Now it’s time to focus on Gilbert Arenas. The Wizards achieved a major free-agency goal Monday when two-time All-Star forward Jamison signed a four-year, $50 million contract. The deal also serves as an expensive piece of bait to lure Arenas, who had said he would not return unless the team also kept his friend.

Thank you, Spain! You reminded us that soccer played on the ground with purpose and technique can still make you a winner. You reminded us that you can also win by staying true to your style. Spain made history Sunday, winning the 2008 European Championship, its first major trophy in 44 years.

HOISTING their coach in the air and singing Queen’s We Are the Champions, Spain’s victorious soccer players returned to Madrid on Monday to hundreds of thousands of joyous fans ready to celebrate the European title. The players emerged from an open-top bus to form a conga line toward a stage at Colon Square

Tiger Woods does not know when he can play golf again, but he said Monday his rebuilt left knee has been sore his entire PGA Tour career, and he looks forward to playing on two good legs.