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Ewing out for rest of playoffs
By Hal Bock
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Patrick Ew
ing, who played through in
juries all season, will miss the
rest of the playoffs for the New
York Knicks because of a par
tially tom Achilles’ tendon.
Ewing underwent tests this
morning that confirmed the in
jury, just hours after he missed
a potential tying shot at the
buzzer in game two of the East
ern Conference finals against
the Pacers in Indianapolis.
Ewing does not need surgery
and a full recovery is expected,
Dr. Norman Scott, the team’s
physician, said today. The 36
year-old center will be in a cast
for six weeks.
Ewing told Scott before Tues
day night’s game that he felt a
“ripping sensation” during
warmups.
Nonetheless, Ewing played,
limping much of the game. He
scored 10 points and grabbed
three rebounds in 25 minutes in
the Pacers’ 88-86 victory that
tied the series.
The injury is yet another blow
to Ewing’s quest for a champi
onship. He’s been to the NBA
Finals just once, when the
Knicks lost to Houston in 1994.
“It’s frustrating to work so
hard and be so close to some
thing I’ve dreamed about for so
many years,” Ewing said. “To
not be able to be on the floor to
help my teammates is very frus
trating and disappointing. But if
my Achilles ruptures complete
ly, it would end my career.”
His absence now makes New
York’s job even more difficult
against favored Indiana. The
Knicks are the first eighth-seed
ed team to make the conference
finals, and Ewing was a big rea
son why, despite his injuries.
Chris Dudley will take Ewing’s
spot at center.
The 14-year veteran has been
slowed all season by his sore
Achilles’ tendon, and also has
struggled with knees that need
to be packed in ice after every
game. He was out for most of last
season with a broken wrist but
came back in the second round
of the playoffs, when New York
lost to the Pacers in five games.
Ewing averaged 17.3 points
and 9.9 rebounds during 38 reg
ular-season games this year,
missing 12 games because of his
sore Achilles’ tendon. During
the playoffs he averaged 13.1
points and 8.7 rebounds a
game.
Boxing
Tyson-Foreman hot,
Holyfield-Lewis not
By Tim Dahlberg
The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — The heavy
weight fight picture grew more
clouded Wednesday amid talk of
a George Foreman-Mike Tyson
fight and new trouble in arranging
the title rematch between Evander
Holyfield and Lennox Lewis.
A Foreman adviser said he was
trying to put together a Foreman
Tyson fight for December that
would match the two former
heavyweight champions in a bout
that would pay Tyson $25 million
and Foreman $20 million.
Meanwhile, the rematch of the
first controversial fight between
Holyfield and Lewis was in jeop
ardy despite promoter Don King’s
announcement last week that the
fight would be held in November
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at a Las Vegas casino.
“There’s no deal,” HBO vice
president Lou DiBella said.
“There are some problematic is
sues that need to be worked out.”
Attorneys for Lewis and his
promoter sent a letter to Park
Place Entertainment on Wednes
day telling the casino operator to
stop giving the public “a false im
pression that the fight is made,
which is consistent with the cur
rent state of facts.”
Although Lewis and Holyfield
have both agreed to $15 million
paydays for the proposed Novem
ber fight and Park Place has
signed a deal with King to hold it
at one of its Las Vegas casinos, no
contracts for the fight have actual
ly been signed.
“I’m certainly concerned,”
Holyfield’s attorney, Jim Thomas,
said. “Evander wants this fight to
happen very badly and so, we
think, does Lennox.”
The main issue to be resolved is
HBO’s insistence that King step
aside as the fight promoter if he
were to be indicted on charges
stemming from a number of ongo
ing investigations into boxing,
sources close to the negotiations,
speaking on condition cf
anonymity, told The Associated
Press. King, so far, has refused
such a clause in the contract.
While the Lewis-Holyfield re
match for the undisputed title is
not a done deal, longtime Fore
man adviser Ron Weathers and
light heavyweight champion Roy
Jones Jr. were trying to put togeth
er a deal for Foreman and Tyson
to meet in December in a pay-per
view spectacle.
Officials at the Showtime net
work, which shows Tyson’s
fights, said they were interested
and Tyson adviser Shelly Finkel
did not discount the possibility of
a matchup between the two for
mer champions.
“It’s a good story more than reali
ty right now,” Finkel said. “I’ve told
them to have Foreman call me per
sonally so we would know if he re
ally wants to fight. So far he hasn’t.”
Tyson, released last month
from a Maryland jail, has been
running and doing conditioning
exercises since then while Finkel
and others try to put together a
deal for his first return fight.
That would most likely be in
September on Showtime, but not
on pay-per-view, against the likes
of Denmark’s Brian Nielsen or
Germany’s Axel Schulz.
If all goes well, Tyson would
fight in a pay-per-view bout in De
cember. And his opponent could
possibly be Foreman.
“From both of their stand
points, where else would they get
this kind of money,” said Fred
Levin, who is Jones’ lawyer and
would co-promote the bout with
the light heavyweight champion.
“Mike has got problems now
and it would be George’s swan
song. People wouldn’t buy Larry
Holmes and George Foreman, but
they will buy Mike Tyson and
George Foreman.”
Foreman would be 51 at the
time of the fight, which would ful
fill a goal he had when he came
out of retirement 13 years ago to
fight Tyson.
“It’s always been his one goal
in life to fight Mike Tyson,”
Weathers said. “It would be a
great show with two guys who
are huge punchers. Mike Tyson
didn’t want this fight for a long
time, but I’m told he does now.”