Fast Break

Horse racing

Sculptor plans Barbaro statue

Sculptor Alexa King will create a statue of Barbaro in time for the Kentucky Derby next year.

The statue will be part of Barbaro’s grave in front of Gate 1 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. The Derby winner was euthanized in January 2007 after he broke his leg during the Preakness Stakes.

King plans to use 500 to 700 pounds of wax clay to create a 1,500-pound statue of Barbaro striding toward the Derby finish line.

NBA

Bryant wins MVP award

Kobe Bryant has won his first MVP award after leading the Los Angeles Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference.

He will receive the trophy tonight from commissioner David Stern before the Lakers face Utah in Game 2 of their conference semifinal. Bryant was followed in the voting Tuesday by Chris Paul, Kevin Garnett and LeBron James.

Bryant entered the season as the league’s two-time defending scoring champion, but had finished only as high as third in MVP voting. He averaged 28.3 points while playing all 82 games despite tearing a pinkie ligament in February.

College basketball

MSU player gets life in prison

Former Montana State player Branden Miller has been sentenced to 125 years in prison in the shooting death of a suspected drug dealer.

District Judge Mike Salvagni sentenced Miller to 100 years in prison for deliberate homicide, 10 years for the use of a weapon, 10 years for tampering with evidence and five years for an earlier bar assault.

The sentences are to run consecutively.

Miller pleaded guilty to deliberate homicide in the June 2006 shooting death 26-year-old Jason Wright, whose body was found in a field near Montana State University.

However, he says he did not shoot Wright.

Salvagni said Miller was solely responsible for his “heinous actions.”

Miller will be eligible for parole in about 30 years.