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The Houston Rockets’ NBA All-Star center and China’s most recognizable athlete awoke Sunday to more bad news: a powerful aftershock had killed one person and destroyed 70,000 homes.

“Every day the number is going up. This morning it was over 62,000 people killed,” Yao said. “We are very sad for the people we have lost in the earthquake.”

Yao was at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Sunday for the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 — one of five major stock car races in the United States, shooting hoops with stock-car drivers and getting a lesson on changing tires from a pit crew as part of a promotion with Coca-Cola. But a somber Yao was clearly focused on the devastation to his home country.

“We have a long way to go to create a new place for the people who don’t have a place to stay right now,” Yao said.

Yao, who has donated $290,000 and filmed public service television announcements through the Red Cross for the relief efforts, led the crowd in a moment of silence for China’s victims before the Coca-Cola 600.

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CARACAS, Venezuela - Former major league pitcher Geremi Gonzalez, who won 11 games for the Chicago Cubs in 1997, was killed by a lightning strike in his native Venezuela on Sunday. He was 33.

Emergency management official Herman Bracho said Monday that Gonzalez was struck by lightning at a beach.

Gonzalez pitched for five major league teams from 1997-2006. The right-hander appeared in 131 games with 83 starts, compiling a 30-35 record.

Gonzalez also played for the Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets. He made a combined 24 appearances for the Mets and Brewers in his final major league season in 2006.

Kobe Bryant scored all but two of his 27 points after halftime, including a go-ahead, 10-foot jumper in the lane with 23.9 seconds remaining, and the Lakers rallied from a 20-point deficit to beat the Spurs in Game 1.

Game 2 will be played Friday night before the best-of-7 series shifts to San Antonio for the third and fourth games. The Lakers are 7-0 in the postseason at Staples Center, where they’ve won 13 consecutive games overall.

Bryant’s jumper put the Lakers ahead for good after two free throws by Manu Ginobili with 1:22 remaining and a follow shot by Tim Duncan with 41 seconds left tied the game at 85. After Bryant’s basket, Ginobili missed a 3-pointer and Sasha Vujacic made two free throws with 7.3 seconds to go, completing the scoring.

The Lakers outscored the Spurs 24-13 in the fourth quarter, when San Antonio shot 3-for-21, including 1-for-9 from 3-point range.

“We almost gave up home-court advantage to a great effort by the Spurs,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “That was a big comeback. We were deep in the hole, there was no doubt about it. Twenty down and half the quarter gone in the third period. It was a struggle to fight back into the ballgame by the end of the third quarter.”

As Manu Ginobili dribbled out the final few seconds of the second-round series clincher, Tony Parker walked over and gave him a congratulatory pat on the head.

There would be no exuberant celebration for the San Antonio Spurs when the final horn sounded — only a few hugs for a job well done. This playoff-savvy group was exhausted after a seven-game triumph over the younger, upstart New Orleans Hornets, but its title defense endures.

Ginobili scored 26 points, hitting four free throws in the final minute, to send the Spurs to the Western Conference finals with a 91-82 victory Monday night.

Parker added 17 points, including a crucial jumper in the final minute, as the Spurs held off a late rally to become the first team in this series to win on the road.

“We really believed we had a chance to win on the road here,” said Spurs forward Tim Duncan, who had 16 points and 14 rebounds. “It’s just a lot of confidence. A lot of games under our belt.”

With a nucleus of Chris Paul, David West and Tyson Chandler, the Hornets appear destined for greater things, but now is not their time.

“One thing I want them to remember when they start working out next season is how they feel right now,” said Hornets coach Byron Scott, adding he was proud that his team, which did not make the playoffs last season, pushed the Spurs as far as it did.

The first charter planes carrying Manchester United and Chelsea supporters have arrived in Moscow as the Russian capital gears up to host the first all- English final in the history of Europe’s most prestigious club competition.

Newly-crowned English champions Manchester United face Chelsea, the team that pushed them for the title all the way to the final match day of the season, in what promises to be an epic encounter in the Champions League final on May 21. The game will be played at the city’s Luzhniki stadium.

“The fans have already been put on buses and are heading to their respective accommodation with a traffic-police escort,” said a Domodedovo airport representative, adding that the airport was expecting to greet some 100 charter planes before the final.

The Russian authorities have ruled that fans in possession of a match ticket will not need a visa to enter Russia for the final. Some 40,000 English fans are expected to pour into Moscow for the game.

Luzhniki authorities announced on Monday that over 500,000 flowers had been used to decorate the stadium complex.

Moscow police are also prepared to meet the English fans, whose reputation for violence and drunkenness precedes them, announcing that 65,000 video cameras would be installed all over the city to monitor the behavior of the fans.

“Practically the whole city will be under video surveillance,” said Vyacheslav Kozlov, Moscow deputy police chief.

Both Manchester United and Chelsea are expected to arrive in Moscow today.

Russian authorities, especially wary after the trouble that marred last Wednesday’s UEFA Cup final in Manchester, have opened a Champions League village on Red Square in what has been seen as an attempt to keep the English fans in one place and under control.

The ‘village’ will feature a celebrity match between Russian football legends and European football greats on the day of the big game.

Slovakia’s Lubos Michel will referee the final.

After squandering a 14-point lead at Boston in a hail of missed free throws and getting entangled by the Celtics’ spiderweb-like defense in Game 5, LeBron James and his teammates are down 3-2 and facing elimination from the NBA playoffs on Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena.

They’ll go into Game 6 short-handed.

Guard Daniel Gibson, one of the club’s best perimeter shooters and a star in last year’s postseason, separated his left shoulder going for a loose ball early in the fourth quarter of Game 5 and will need a minimum of one week to recover.

The Cavaliers may be done before he’s well.

Ryan Braun agreed to the largest contract in Milwaukee Brewers’ history.

Braun’s contract, which runs through 2015, replaces the $455,000, one-year renewal the Brewers gave him in spring training. It includes a $2.3 million bonus this season and could increase to $51 million through escalators.

The deal surpasses the $42 million, four-year contract the Brewers gave free-agent pitcher Jeff Suppan got before the 2007 season.

General manager Doug Melvin said Braun made a commitment from the start, just like when he immediately signed after being selected with the fifth pick of the 2005 amateur draft.

Braun’s power was never a question from the start, but his league-high 26 errors last season forced the team to move him from third base to left field. Braun has not had an error there in 39 games this season.

He becomes the first player with a long-term deal among the Brewers’ young core, which includes Prince Fielder, Corey Hart, Rickie Weeks and J.J. Hardy. Braun hopes the others get long-term contracts.

CLEVELAND - Back to even, and back to Boston— with authority. LeBron James scored 21 points, jamming in a powerhouse dunk over a defenseless Kevin Garnett in the final two minutes, as the beat the homesick Celtics 88-77 in Game 4 on Monday night to tie the best-of-seven series at 2-2.

Boston dropped to 0-5 on the road in the post season, a stunning slip for a team that went 31-10 on the road during the regular season. During a short visit to Ohio, the Celtics lost their momentum in the series but will now head home, where they went 35-6 before the playoffs started.

Game 5 is Wednesday night, and Game 6 will be back in Cleveland on Friday.

James was just 7-for-20 from the floor, but he did everything else for the Cavs, who are attempting to overcome an 0-2 deficit for the second time in two years.

In the final 8:45, James had four assists, a 3-pointer and a right-handed dunk that rattled Quicken Loans Arena and became the signature moment of this series.

SAN ANTONIO - There was no third-quarter breakdown for the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night, just the desperate play of a team whose quest for a second straight NBA title was on the line. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili both scored 31 points to lead the Spurs to a 110-99 victory over the New Orleans Hornets in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals.

With the win, the Spurs avoided falling into an ominous 0-3 hole from which no NBA team has never returned.

Chris Paul led the Hornets, who still hold a 2-1 series lead, with 35 points and nine assists. David West had 23 points and 12 rebounds for New Orleans, which was dominant in the first two games of the series.

Game 4 is Sunday night in San Antonio.

LOS ANGELES - Finally, an MVP award for Kobe Bryant.

Regarded as the NBA’s best player for several years but never its most valuable, Bryant earned the honor at last on Tuesday after leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference.

He called the award a blessing and an honor and emphasized that he wants another trophy this year.

“It’s Hollywood, it’s a movie script. The perfect ending would be for us to hold a championship trophy at the end of it,” Bryant said at a news conference attended by his teammates, club officials, his wife and two daughters.

“This is an award I couldn’t have won on my own. I can’t thank these guys (his teammates) enough. These are my guys, these are my brothers. Let’s get ready for tomorrow.”

The Lakers try to take a 2-0 lead against Utah in their conference semifinal on Wednesday night. Bryant will receive the MVP trophy from commissioner David Stern before the game.

Bryant entered the season as the league’s two-time defending scoring champion. He had finished as high as third in the MVP voting twice — after the 2002-03 season, when he averaged 30 points for the first time, and last year when Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki won.

“I don’t know anybody who’s ever deserved this trophy more. I don’t know anybody who’s ever worked as hard to accomplish what he’s accomplished,” said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who had five-time MVP Michael Jordan with Chicago and was at the Lakers’ helm when Shaquille O’Neal won the award in 2000.

Bryant received 82-first-place votes and 1,105 points in the media vote. He was followed by New Orleans’ Chris Paul (28 and 889), Boston’s Kevin Garnett (15 and 670) and Cleveland’s LeBron James (1 and 438).

“I’ve said since two, three years ago that Kobe Bryant is the best player in the league,” James said before the Cavaliers faced the Celtics in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. “He’s been the best player the last five, six years. I’m glad he won it. His team had a great year, finishing first in the West.”

This season there was no denying the Lakers’ 6-foot-6 star. Los Angeles rose to the top of the West despite key injuries and following Bryant’s trade demands last spring when his team was eliminated in the first round by Phoenix for the second straight year.

Bryant averaged 28.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.84 steals while playing all 82 games despite tearing a ligament in his right pinkie in February. He put off surgery until after the Olympics.

The knock on the 29-year-old Bryant had been that he didn’t make those around him better — not anymore.

“He’s deserving in this particular season with all of the question marks and everything going on coming into the season and the uncertainty,” teammate Derek Fisher said. “Not only did he statistically have an MVP type of season, everybody can reasonably say they were better this year because of what he did. He met the so-called criteria, elevating his teammates’ games.”

Word leaked last Friday night that Bryant had won the award.

Bryant, second in the NBA in scoring behind James, is the first Laker to win the MVP award since O’Neal. Other Lakers to win since the award was first presented in 1956 were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson — each times. Abdul-Jabbar also won three with Milwaukee.

“I didn’t expect this award would come to me,” Bryant said. “I’m surprised. I’ve played pretty well in other seasons. Our team hasn’t been as good. Things just fell into place.”

Bryant and O’Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive championships, from 2000-02, and a berth in the finals in 2004. The Lakers hadn’t won a playoff series since until sweeping Denver in the first round last month.

Bryant and O’Neal were often at odds during their eight years together. Assistant coach Brian Shaw, who played for the Lakers from 1999-03, has noticed a big difference in Bryant.

“He’s a much better teammate now than he was in the championship days. That’s a credit to his maturation. There were definitely times when he was not a good teammate. No one worked harder than he did. The same is true today,” Shaw said.