Heat guard/forward James Jones and point guard Mario Chalmers were both selected to compete in the shooting contest. Jones is the defending champion, while Chalmers has been shooting better than 46 percent from behind the arc.

In addition to Jones and Chalmers the three-point contest will also feature: Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Love, Orlando Magic forward Ryan Anderson, New Jersey Nets guard Anthony Morrow, and Atlanta Hawks guard Joe Johnson.

The three-point contest will be held February 25 at 8:30 p.m. on TNT.

According to Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks, Manning hasn’t had three procedures on his neck in the last year; he’s had four.

In addition, Banks is reporting that Manning may have developed bone spurs in his neck after the last surgery and may require a second bone fusion surgery.

Three of Manning’s surgeries were known. The fourth unreported procedure reportedly took place last summer in Chicago, according to SI.com.

Since it happened while the NFL was locked out, Indianapolis Colts team doctors had little if any contact with the franchise signal-caller.

According to Banks, Manning tried to come back last season in Week 16 to play when the team would reach the red zone.

Obersevers said Manning never threw a pass of more than roughly 22 yards and had about 80 percent of his normal arm strength on his passes, according to SI.com.

The news couldn’t come at a worse time for Manning. He’s involved in a public dispute with the Colts over whether the team will retain him and pay him a $28 million roster bonus and a $7.5 million base salary this season.

Manning has vowed to come back and play this year, but in his recovery from surgery on his neck; he’s still waiting for nerves to regenerate in his arm to regain his arm strength.

It’s unknown where Manning stands in his recovery from the surgery.

But, if SI’s report is accurate and Manning has to undergo another neck surgery; it could put both his 2012 season and the rest of his career in serious jeopardy.

For the Dolphins, it’s yet another red flag the team should monitor if its considering pursuing Manning if he’s released by the Colts, as expected.

Fins owner Stephen Ross has made no secret of his desire to upgrade the quarterback position, and Manning, if healthy, would be at the top of everyone’s list.

But, the Fins have to make a quick decision on the quarterback position. Manning will be released shortly before NFL free agency begins.

If the Fins are intent on pursuing Manning, that will likely preclude them from pursuing free agent quarterback Matt Flynn.

In addition, the Fins could opt to look past Flynn and Manning and trade up in the 2012 NFL Draft to select quarterback Robert Griffin, III.

RGIII, the defending Heisman Trophy winner, is expected to be the second quarterback selected after the Indianapolis Colts select quarterback Andrew Luck.

According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Tuesday’s drubbing of Indiana evened the team’s all-time record to 942-942. For the Heat, it’s been quite a journey that started with the team digging quite a hole for itself.

The first squad in 1988 started 0-17 and would end up with a record 15-67. The team finished the next season with an 18-64 mark and in the third season, the Heat won 24 games and lost 58. In those first few years, the Heat went 57-189.

It was a brutal stretch to start the season, but things changed when Pat Riley came to the team in 1995. Since then, the Heat have been a team on the rise and eventually made it to the top of the league in 2004 when the team won its first NBA championship.

But even after the championship there were lean years as Riley prepared to work his magic and sign the Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. Since then, no one can question the success the Heat have had and will have over the next few years.

Last season the Heat finished the regular season with a 58-24 record. This season, the Heat have already won 23 games and if their current play is a sign of things to come, should easily sail towards the NBA Finals again this season.

It’s been a long road to plow, but the Heat have finally made it to .500 and the ceiling from here is unlimited as long as the Big Three roam the court at the AmericanAirlines Arena.

That’s when single game tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. for the Marlins two exhibition games against the New York Yankees on Sunday April 1 and Monday April 2. The only way you can buy tickets for the game is through Marlins.com.

A total of 25,000 tickets will be made available for the Sunday game and 30,000 tickets will be up for sale for the Monday night game.

But if you’re hoping to get a ticket to opening night against the St. Louis Cardinals, time is running out. According to the Marlins, over 50,000 fans have registered for a lottery to buy two tickets for opening night.

The winners of the Opening Night lottery will be announced on February 23.

Single-game tickets for the rest of the regular season will go on sale March 3 at 10 a.m.

Miami finished off with a 105-90 victory over the Pacers, which wasn’t as close as the final score makes it appear.

The team finished off the Pacers early in the game and never looked back. It was the Heat’s third straight blowout and was history-making as well.

With the win, the Heat became the first NBA team in more than three decades to win three road games in three nights.

The victory showed the rest of the league the Heat have figured it out and are starting to fire on all cylinders.

“I think as far as team chemistry, we got better every single night,” James said. “Tonight we had 17 assists. We rebounded and defended.

When we do that, we’re very, very tough to beat and it shows the professionalism of the group.”

It was a total team effort last night as the Big Three combined to score just 52 points with the rest coming from other teammates.

Rookie Norris Cole continued his impressive season by pouring in 20 points in the victory over Indiana.

Over the last four games, the Heat is beating opponents by a clip of 108-91. The 17-point spread is one of the largest the Heat has had over multiple wins this season.

It’s especially impressive given the three games in three nights schedule the Heat just completed.

“Our guys wanted this challenge and we were well aware it had not been done in 40 years, to back-to-back-to-back on the road and be able to stay focused,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. “We threw out anything we could have used as a crutch.”

As the Heat continue to power towards the NBA playoffs, the opponents of the Heat down the stretch are facing something they didn’t have to last season, a complete team.

The sky’s the limit if the Heat can keep playing the way they have recently.

Phoenix last won three on the road in three days, in 1979. Miami is also the first team in 42 years to win each of those three games by at least 10 points, a feat last achieved by Milwaukee in 1970.

And the Heat (23-7) tied the best start in franchise history, too. All that came on a night the Pacers (17-11) were hoping to send their own message after a much needed two-day break.

Instead, David West led the Pacers with 14 points — not nearly enough to avoid a fourth straight loss.

(© 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

For baseball fans needing an early fix after a long winter, spring training is hard to beat. The weather is almost always sunny and warm (temperatures in the 70s and 80s), the ballparks are cozier than regular stadiums, beer and hot dogs are cheap(er) and everything — parking, tailgating, finding your seats, standing in line for food — is just more laid-back. Many of the seats are so close that fans can hear the on-field chatter. Players haven’t become mired in slumps or losing streaks yet, so most of them don’t mind stopping for autographs.

“It’s very intimate compared to going to a big stadium,” says Julie Baldwin, who lives in suburban Washington D.C. and has come down with her family to root for the Boston Red Sox in some spring games. “Your parking is right there. It’s just easy, everything is so much on a smaller scale and not so daunting.”

In 2012, 15 teams will train beneath the palm trees in central and south Florida, playing a slate of 236 Grapefruit League games throughout March. (The other 15 teams play their preseason games in the Cactus League in Arizona.) For veteran players, it’s a chance to shake out the cobwebs, while rookies and journeymen compete to be one of the 25 guys left standing when the teams break camp.

Nine of the Grapefruit League parks are clustered on or near the state’s west coast, from Dunedin (Toronto Blue Jays), in the Tampa Bay area, south 150 miles or so to Fort Myers. The Minnesota Twins play there at Hammond Stadium, and the Boston Red Sox are this spring debuting a $78 million, 10,000-seat park whose confines are supposed to resemble Fenway Park, complete with a Green Monster left field wall.

The rest of the venues are scattered in central Florida and on the east coast, from the Atlanta Braves’ beautiful park at the Walt Disney World Resort down to Jupiter, just north of West Palm Beach, where the St. Louis Cardinals and rebranded Miami Marlins share training facilities and the 7,000-seat Roger Dean Stadium.

“You’re so close to the field,” said Brian Hurowitz, who has taken an annual trip down with his father from Long Island for the past 20 years or so to see their beloved New York Yankees. “You literally feel like you’re in the fourth or fifth row of the major league stadium, even if you’re in the last row at a minor league ballpark. It’s such a different event.”

Much to the delight of Tampa Bay Rays fans, the team plays its spring games in a terrific refurbished ball park about 75 miles south of the dreary domed stadium in St. Petersburg where they play their regular season home games. The 6,923-seat Charlotte Sports Park has become a fan favorite on the Grapefruit League circuit since the Rays moved in three years ago.

Spring training and some of the stadiums are as much a part of the fabric of their Florida communities as the teams are back in their permanent cities. The Detroit Tigers have trained in Lakeland — between Tampa and Orlando — since 1930 and have played in the current park, Joker Marchant Stadium, since 1966. The Philadelphia Phillies have played in Clearwater since 1947, and the Pittsburgh Pirates have called Bradenton’s McKechnie Field home for the past 43 years, although the place got a complete and much-needed facelift in the 1990s.

The 5,500-seat Florida Auto Exchange Stadium in a residential neighborhood in Dunedin has hosted every player in the history of the Blue Jays organization — it’s been the only spring home for Toronto since the expansion team started up in 1977.

And the New York Yankees have maintained a Florida presence since 1919, moving from Fort Lauderdale in 1996 to an 11,076-capacity park in Tampa that now bears the name of late owner (and beloved local resident) George M. Steinbrenner. It’s the largest park in the Grapefruit League.

Proximity of the parks to each other — especially the ones clustered in the Tampa Bay area — makes a multi-day, multi-park tour relatively easy to plan. Nearby beaches and the central Florida theme parks mean non-baseball fans will find plenty of ways to enjoy the trip, too. Don’t forget the sunscreen.

A word about game tickets: It’s best to buy them online well in advance. Many spring games sell out early, especially the weekend contests. Tickets for Yankees games in Tampa and Red Sox games in Fort Myers are always difficult to find, even for weekday contests. Tickets start at $8 or $9 at some parks, but figure on paying $25 to $30 for really good seats. It’s still a bargain compared to the cost of seats at the big parks.

Spring training makes Florida tourism officials smile, too. The Grapefruit League stadiums host about 1.5 million people every spring, and a 2009 study showed that its annual economic impact is in the neighborhood of $753 million.

Tiger is set to compete in the Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens March 1-4 at the PGA National Resort & Spa Course. It’s going to be Woods’ first appearance at the Honda Classic since he joined the PGA Tour.

Tiger is also expected to play in the Cadillac Championship at the Doral Resort & Spa later the next week from March 7-11. Tiger won the Cadillac Championship the last time in 2007 at Doral.

The past four years have seen four different players win the Cadillac Championship at Doral including: Geoff Ogilvy, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, and Nick Watney.

Bylaws in the Big East had required a school planning to leave the conference to give at least 27 months notice before leaving. West Virginia didn’t do that and sued to get out of the conference and join the Big XII.

The Big East countersued to make West Virginia stay in the conference for the full 27 months.

However, in the ensuing months between the announcement and Tuesday’s settlement; the Big East recruited several more teams to replace West Virginia. This likely played a big part in allowing the school to finally leave the conference.

WVU had previously paid $5 million to leave the conference. Monday’s settlement was for an unspecified amount of money. But, things are going to settle down for the Big East just yet.

Syracuse and Pittsburgh are scheduled to leave the conference in the coming months, but hadn’t challenged the 27 month lead time before the schools leave the conference.

If either school wanted to pay the same amount WVU paid, it’s realistic those teams could also leave for their new conference, the ACC.

The ACC is the home conference to both Florida State University and the University of Miami.

The Big East has added Boise State as a football-only member along with the University of Central Florida, the University of Houston, the University of Memphis, San Diego State University, Southern Methodist University and the Naval Academy in recent weeks.

But, with WVU officially out of the conference next season, the Big East needs one of those schools to join ahead of next year. Otherwise, the remaining seven schools will have to find a replacement game for next year.

According to multiple report, Boise State has been discussed as a team that could leave its current conference the Mountain West, and join the Big East immediately as a football-only member.

LeBron went for 35 points Monday night and hit more than 70 percent of his shots during the game. He was especially deadly in the post, where no one on the Bucks could even come close to stopping James.

It’s the latest example of how much LeBron’s summer of work on his post game has really pushed him over the top.

LeBron spent the summer working with NBA legend Hakeem Olajuwon on his post game and the results have been better than the Heat could have hoped for this season.

According to ESPN.com, of NBA players with at least 75 post-ups this season, LeBron is shooting better than anyone in the NBA.

For the season, LeBron is shooting 55.4 percent in the post, which is nearly three percent better than the next closest player, Carl Landry.

This season, LeBron is averaging 28.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game.

But it’s not just LeBron that’s powering the Heat’s lineup. Once overlooked point guard Mario Chalmers is also having a career year from behind the three-point line.

Chalmers leads the Heat with 54 three-point shots made this season and is shooting better than 45 percent from behind the arc. He’s doing this while averaging nearly 30 minutes a game, thanks to the improved play of rookie Norris Cole off the bench.

Chalmers missed a game with an injured wrist, but once he returned to the lineup, he hasn’t missed a beat. Chalmers credits LeBron for his improved shooting.

“I’m just moving without the ball and finding various spaces,” Chalmers told CBS4 news partner the Miami Herald. “I know what LeBron is going to do. I know where his vision is going to be.”

The vision for everyone on the Heat is on the postseason right now. The Heat are 22-7 on the season and are just one-half game behind the Chicago Bulls for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

If the rest of the Heat continue to step up their game the way LeBron and Rio have this season, there’s no one in the league that can stop the Heat from hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy in June.