FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was selected as The Associated Press Athlete of the Year.

Brady received 51 votes from members of The AP, 18 more than runner-up Roger Federer, who won his fifth straight Wimbledon and fourth straight U.S. Open tennis tournament in 2007. They were followed by Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning, Barry Bonds and Josh Beckett.

Lorena Ochoa, who won eight tournaments, including the Women's British Open, and became the first LPGA Tour player to win $4 million in a season, was the runaway choice as top female athlete for the second straight year.

MIAMI — As expected, the Miami Heat formally filed a protest with the NBA Friday over what they contend was a critical scoring error in Wednesday night's overtime loss at Atlanta.The issue is whether Shaquille O'Neal actually committed six fouls in the game.Miami believes O'Neal was only charged with five fouls, and stat sheets distributed after the game showed the same. But those sheets were changed by Atlanta officials when the discrepancy was pointed out.O'Neal was disqualified after the Hawks' official scoring table told referees he committed his sixth foul with 51 seconds remaining in overtime. Miami lost 117-111.