TMZ Sports - Page 50

Team USA gymnastics stars Nastia Liukin and Laurie Hernandez say they did NOT experience abuse at the hands of former team doctor Larry Nassar -- but they feel horrible for those who did.

"We feel for them," Liukin said on the way to a charity event in NYC ..."Our hearts and prayers go out to all that were affected."

One of those affected is McKayla Maroney -- who says Nassar repeatedly sexually abused her during her gymnastics career ... beginning at age 13.

Maroney's 2012 Olympics teammate Gabby Douglas was also out in NYC last night -- and says she has not spoken with McKayla since she went public with the allegations ... but insinuated that she would be reaching out.

Floyd Mayweather is telling his TMT bodyguards he's 100% retired -- and will NOT set up a rematch with Conor McGregor ... so says Floyd's hired muscle.

Of course, Floyd JUST posted footage from his boxing gym hitting the heavy bag -- and he looks pretty good. Plus, with all the money he made from the last fight, ya gotta wonder if he's thinking about a 51st fight.

So, when we saw Floyd's famous private security team, The Brixx Brothers -- Big G and Jizzy Mack -- we asked for the inside stuff with Mayweather's fight plan. They didn't exactly rule out a comeback.

BONUS -- With O.J. Simpson living just miles from Floyd's home in Vegas, we asked if Juice should look into private security too.

Ex-Dallas Cowboys safety Gerald Sensabaugh tells TMZ Sports he wants to sue the Tennessee high school that put him on administrative leave ... claiming allegations he violated school policies are BS.

Sensabaugh -- who played 8 seasons in the league -- was in his first year as head coach of the David Crockett H.S. football team (and doing well) when things suddenly took a turn.

School officials fired off 2 letters to Gerald claiming he was using foul language in front of players and had unsafely forced an injured player to practice. He was placed on administrative leave on Oct. 10.

But Gerald says none of the allegations are true -- and claims school officials only turned on him after he started blowing the whistle about concerning classroom conditions and disappearing monetary funds.

Sensabaugh -- who made millions in the NFL -- says the job was never about money ... he was genuinely trying to make an impact on the kids and feels he got screwed by the administration.

Now, he's looking for a lawyer to sue the school district to clear his name so he can get back to helping kids.

Mike Tyson says he was definitely NOT a fan of "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out" when it was first released for Nintendo ... 30 YEARS AGO!

Yep, it was Oct. 18, 1987 when Little Mac began his 8-bit quest for boxing supremacy ... taking on guys like Bald Bull, King Hippo, Don Flamingo, and of course, Iron Mike Tyson.

We spoke with Mike about how the game has become a cultural phenomenon -- and he dropped this bombshell on us ... he hated it when it first came out!!

Tyson was super candid with Harvey Levin during a taping of an upcoming episode of "OBJECTified" (airs Sunday nights at 8 PM EST/5 PM PST on FOX News Channel) ... revealing how he came to love the NES game over time.

Salute to MTPO.

Former L.A. Dodgers and N.Y. Yankees second baseman Steve Sax has a bone to pick with the company that made his bobbleheads -- he says it screwed him out of some cash for his John Hancock.

Sax claims he made a deal with sports gear company Forever Collectibles for $10,000 -- allowing them to produce a bunch of bobbleheads in his likeness and sell them at an event in June ... and he'd sign about 504 of the 'heads.

According to the legal docs that all worked out fine, but Sax says FC also agreed to pay him another $5,000 to be at the event and sign extra autographs and inscriptions ... which he claims he did.

The problem, according to the suit, is the company never coughed up the additional dough. Now he's going after them for the $5k ... plus interest.

UFC flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson says size actually doesn't matter ... telling TMZ Sports he thinks he could actually beat Brock Lesnar, and he has a plan on how to get it done.

FYI -- DJ is 5'3", 125 lbs ... Lesnar is a damn monster at 6'3", 265 lbs, but when Johnson stopped by the "TMZ Sports" TV show, he laid out a plan of how he could chop the giant down and take him out.

Before you scoff, remember this man does the impossible, including an insane MID-AIR armbar that beat Ray Borg at UFC 216 ... something that we've never ever seen before!

We'll let Demetrious explain his plan of attack (it's pretty impressive and terrifying) and you can judge for yourself whether or not he could pull it off.

Chris Webber is praising the way the NBA handles social issues -- while throwing shade at the NFL -- saying basketball players have WAY MORE freedom to express themselves than football players.

"We talk about Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin and see guys wearing 'I Can't Breathe' shirts on the court," Webber says ... "We get to speak our minds."

Webber says NBA superstars like LeBron James have been praised for using the basketball court as a platform to speak out ... while NFL players like Colin Kaepernick get crushed.

Joe Theismann says watching Gordon Hayward's leg snap during NBA's opening night took him right back to 1985 ... an eerie reminder of that fateful encounter with Lawrence Taylor.

Of course, LT snapped Theismann's leg live on "Monday Night Football" -- essentially ending Joe's career. It remains one of the most gruesome injuries of all time.

Theismann tells TMZ Sports he really does understand Hayward's pain -- and feels terrible every time he watches a similar injury on TV.

The good news ... Theismann says he's optimistic Hayward can recover and go on to have a strong career in the NBA -- as long as he follows two important rules.

O.J. Simpson can return to Florida, but he ain't gonna get a sunshiny welcome -- so says Senator Marco Rubio ... who seems pretty against The Juice lettin' loose in his home state.

"What can I do about that?" Rubio told TMZ Sports when we got him in D.C. ... "He has a right to live wherever he wants."

Technically, yes ... though Florida's Attorney General has strongly objected to O.J. coming back to his old digs.

Marco didn't come at O.J. as hard, but he did tell us there ain't much love for Juice in the area.

Rubio would know ... after politicking in Florida for two decades.

They're not just money partners, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Cuban have been actively mentoring Chris Gronkowski ever since making a deal for his Shaker Cup Company on "Shark Tank."

Chris -- supported by Rob Gronkowski and the rest of his musclebound bros -- sold 15% of his Ice Shaker biz to A-Rod and Mark for $150k on Sunday's show (which was taped months ago).

TMZ Sports spoke with Chris (who also played in the NFL) to find out how his new business partners are REALLY like to work with off camera ... and it sounds AWESOME!

"It's a dream," Gronk says ... explaining that both sharks are extremely accessible to him and usually email back within 10 mins when he's got a question.

But it wasn't all sunshine and roses on the show -- Chris says one of the sharks he turned down gave him TERRIBLE advice ... and he's definitely putting her on blast now!

Bobby Portis is paying the price for his brutal punch on Bulls teammate Nikola Mirotic ... as the team has slapped him with an 8-game ban.

Portis laid out Mirotic at practice on Tuesday ... sending him to the hospital with a fractured jaw and a concussion.

Nikola was discharged from the hospital later that day, but will likely need surgery -- forcing him to sit out at least 4 weeks.

The incident went down after the Bulls forwards got into it with trash-talk and shoving. Multiple reports claim Mirotic was the aggressor -- repeatedly charging at Bobby before being put down.

Which is probably why Portis only got 8 games. Could've been a lot worse.

The Big Baller Brand is conquering social media now too ... with the Ball family's new emoji line rocketing up the charts in the App Store after just 1 day on the market.

LaVar, Lonzo and the rest of the fam dropped "Big Baller Brand Emojis" on Oct. 17 -- which feature the Balls doing everything from dancing to dunking to shoe designing ... for $1.99 a pop.

On Wednesday, the App had already reached #2 on the Top Paid App charts ... right underneath Arimoji by Ariana Grande (#1).

To be fair, Ariana's app features the singer playing with adorable puppies -- good luck competing with that.

Kobe Bryant says Gordon Hayward needs to let his emotions run wild -- "Be sad. Be mad. Be frustrated. Scream. Cry. Sulk." -- it's all part of bouncing back from a catastrophic injury.

Of course, Kobe knows what he's talking about -- he tore his achilles during a game in 2013 (still made his free throws) -- and fought his way through rehab to get back on the court.

So, after Mamba watched the Celtics star go down hard on Tuesday ... he penned a motivational note to the NBA star with some deeply personal advice.

"Time to move on and focus on doing everything in your power to prepare for surgery, ask all the questions to be sure you understand fully the procedure so that you may visualize it in your subconscious while being operated on and better the chance of it’s success."

"It’s a long journey but if you focus on the mini milestones along the way you will find beauty in the struggle of doing simple things that prior to this injury were taken for granted."

Kobe says in the long run, Hayward will have a deeper appreciation for the simple things like "being able to stand, walk, run" and it'll motivate him to train harder.

Here's a pretty cool moment ... Kyrie Irving took a few moments to dap up LeBron James' kids after the Celtics lost to the Cavs on Tuesday -- and it was all caught on video.

You know the backstory ... Kyrie left Cleveland during the off-season amid reports he just wasn't getting along with LeBron. Seemed like a pretty nasty split.

But things seemed cool between the families after the game -- when Kyrie bumped into Bron's sons LeBron Jr. and Bryce and stopped to give 'em a handshake and bro hug.

So ... water under the bridge???

Don't worry too much about Gordon Hayward ... 'cause God's got his back -- so says his family.

"Thanks to everyone for all the messages, prayers & love," Hayward's dad tweeted late Tuesday night ... after his NBA superstar son snapped his ankle in his 1st game with the Celtics.

"We know that Gordon will be fine & God has big plans for him! #Godisgoodallthetime," he added.

Hayward's wife, Robyn, also believes he's in good hands ... posting this on Wednesday morning:

FYI, Gordon hurt himself trying to catch an alley-oop against the Cavs in Cleveland. The official diagnosis was a fractured left ankle ... putting the rest of his season in jeopardy.

Warning: The following video is extremely graphic.

Eagles star Chris Long is droppin' a fat stack of cash on youth education in America ... pledging his entire 2017 NFL base salary -- an even $1 MIL -- to various initiatives.

Long just announced that his last 10 game checks will go to 4 organizations supporting educational equality ... after donating his first 6 checks to college scholarships in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia.

"I think we can all agree that equity in education can help affect change that we all want to see in this country," Chris told The AP.

"We have such a great platform as football players and hopefully fans get behind it."

If this sounds familiar, it's probably 'cause Colin Kaepernick also made a million-dollar pledge last year ... donating $1 mil of his NFL money to "organizations working in oppressed communities."