Basket, NBA: Phoenix Suns guard Goran Dragic, whose breakout campaign helped his team to a 23-win improvement, was named the National Basketball Association’s most improved player, the league said. Dragic received 408 of a possible 1,134 points, including 65 first-place votes, from a panel of 126 sportswriters and broadcasters in the United States and Canada. Lance Stephenson, of Indiana Pacers (158 points), finished second while Anthony Davis (155 points), of New Orleans Pelicans, was third. Dragic, who entered the 2013-14 campaign with a career scoring average of 9.5 points, averaged a career-best 20.3 points to go with 5.9 assists and 3.2 rebounds.

Baseball: Conrado Marrero, at 102 the oldest former Major League Baseball player and a patriarch of Cuban baseball known for his quick wit and goofy pitching delivery, died on Wednesday at his home in Havana. Marrero, who played for Washington Senators, was two days short of his 103rd birthday. He had been in declining health for weeks said grandson Rogelio Marrero. After an outstanding career in Cuba in the 1930s and 1940s, Marrero debuted in the Major Leagues with Washington in 1950, four days before his 39th birthday. Though mostly bedridden since breaking his hip in 2011, Marrero kept chewing on cigars until his final days.

Cricket: Paul Farbrace has been appointed England assistant coach, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said. Former Sri Lanka coach Farbrace will work alongside new director of cricket Peter Moores. The 46-year-old led Sri Lanka to this year’s Asia Cup and the World Twenty20 title in Bangladesh, the country’s first global trophy since 1996. “It’s fantastic to be given the opportunity to work with your own country’s national team and this was an offer that I could not turn down – much as I have enjoyed working with the Sri Lankan players and sharing in their recent success,” Farbrace said. England play home test series against Sri Lanka and India this year.

Basketball: Former Euroleague winners Maccabi Tel Aviv reached the competition’s May 16-18 Final Four after an 86-66 home win over Emporio Armani Milan late Wednesday completed a 3-1 victory in their best-of-five quarter-final series. Maccabi, who have four Euroleague titles, joined Barcelona in the showpiece event in Milan after the Spanish giants earlier booked their ticket with a 3-0 sweep of Galatasaray. In other matches, holders Olympiakos Piraeus beat Real Madrid 71-62 and their cross-town rivals Panathinaikos edged CSKA Moscow 73-72 in overtime to even the series at 2-2 and force tiebreakers this evening.