Pacers' Turner, Stephenson dispute report of fight

SOMETHING happened between the Pacers' Evan Turner and Lance Stephenson at practice last Friday. Exactly what is under dispute.

Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski reported the two engaged in a fistfight and had to be pried apart the day before Game 1 of the Pacers' first-round playoff series against he Hawks.

Not so, the players said yesterday.

"Honestly, the person who wrote the article asked me if the fight happened, I told him, 'No, it wasn't [a fight],' and he just went on and wrote that there were punches thrown and all this, and it wasn't," Turner, who played three-plus seasons with the Sixers, told the Indianapolis Star. "It was just a tangle-up and that was it."

Stephenson backed his teammate.

"We're competitive players," Stephenson said. "We got [into] a little scuffle but it was just practice-related. No blows, just playing hard and getting ready for the playoffs. I mean, I've got no problem with him."

An attempt to contact Wojnarowski was unsuccessful.

Two years ago, a statue of Joe Paterno was removed from Penn State's campus. It was a decision made after a report that alleged Paterno was among university adminstrators who concealed allegations of child sexual abuse against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

Yesterday, it was announced a new statue will be installed off-campus, outside the Tavern Restaurant in downtown State College.

A group of alums has commissioned Philly sculptor Zenos Frudakis to make the statue, which will depict Paterno sitting on a bench while reading a copy of Virgil's "Aeneid.''

That prompted someone writing under the name "Scott Tibbles" to make the following comment on ESPN.com:

"They should have 3 statues, all right next to each other . . . One of him covering his eyes, the other covering his ears, and the last one covering his mouth."