T he P ortland O bserver • M ay 15, 1996
P age A 5
WOMEN’S LEAGUE FOR NBA
The growing popularity o f wom­
en’s basketball prompted the NBA to
start a women’s league in the summer
of 1997. “We are working on the con­
cept. It’s a working model, subject to
lots of changes,” said commissioner
David Stem. “ We are excited about
the prospects of using the assets o f the
NBA and its teams to give life to a
concept that's ready to bloom.”
The league expects eight teams to
play a 25 to 30 game schedule over 10
weeks, from mid-June to mid-August,
in NBA cities.
“Everyone has kind of agreed to
agree this is a good idea,” said Chris
Brienza, NBA director o f media rela­
tions. “As to specifics on franchise
sites, the format the number o f teams
and so on, none o f that has been worked
out yet and won’t be until early July.”
Stem sees no conflict with the
American Baseball League, a wom-
en’scircuit with plans to have a team in
Portland, the ABA plans to play in the
winter and the NBA is looking to
summer. Women would be able to
play in both leagues.
The NBA concept is to launch the
league as a single enterprise. Women
would sign contracts with the league
and be dispersed to teams on the basis
SONICS SWEEP HOUSTON
of territorial competitive consider­
ations as well as through a draft. Stem
continued to emphasize that all plans
were tentative and promised details
about television arrangement, number
of teams and the cities in which they
well operate by July.
“We will be working in places
around the calendar to make sure this
succeeds Our best assets are our cit­
ies, out buildings and our staffs, and
they will be made available. We will
hopefully show the world’s best wom­
en in the world’s best arenas ! can’t
imagine better circumstances,” said
Stem.
The Seattle Super Sonics sweeps
the conference semifinal series and
ends Houston’s two year reign as
NBA champion.
The Sonics’ 114-107 victory ad­
vances them to them to the Western
Conference finals to face the winner
o f the Utah-San Antonio series.
“I believe our heart was there,”
said Rudy Tomjanovich Rockets
coach “ But we ran into a team with
depth and confidence.”
The Sonics lead by as much as 20
points in late in the third quarter.
The Rockets, down by nine points
with 1.32 minutes left, rallied and a
OLYMPIC ORGANIZERS SUE DESIGN
When the Olympic Stadium plays
host to its first track meet this week,
the event will be celebrated by march­
ing bands and a grand ribbon-cutting
ceremony.
Two days after the happy chris­
tening, it’s o ff to court, where Olym­
pic organizers are suing the stadi­
um ’s designers over construction
problems and a death o f a worker.
Moments o f glory shadowed by
problems - that’s been the story ofthe
stadium and other major Olympic
building projects.
From the collapse o f a lighting
truss at the stadium to sinking athlete
dorms at the Olympic Village to fall­
en ro o f beams at the swimming pool,
Olympic construction has at times
seemed like too much, too quickly.
But several engineering experts with
e x p e rie n c e in sim ila r b u ild in g
projects said the problems with some
Olympic venues doesn’t indicate a
widespread problem.
“Any time you have a lot o f con­
struction going on, particularly on an
accelerated schedule, there’s an in­
creased chance for accidents,” said
Ray Holdsworth, who heads an engi­
neering and construction firm in­
volved in several projects for the
1984 O lym pics in Los Angeles
“T hat’s probably what you’re seeing
down in Atlanta right now,” said
Holdsworth.
W hen A tlanta won the 1996
Games, it lacked many ofthe venues
needed for an Olympics, so it em­
barked on a $500 million building
program that includes 11 new facili­
ties and renovations to several oth­
Auditions for the 1996-97 BlazerDancers team will be held on Saturday,
June 15 at Clackamas High School. Auditions start at 8 a m. First day
finalists will be invited to return on Sunday, June 16. Final auditions and
team selection will take place the following weekend. Dancers will be
judged on dance ability, enthusiasm and showmanship. Dance team appli­
cations are available at the Blazers office. One Center Court, Suite 200,
Portland, Oregon, 97227. All dancers must be 19 years o f age or older by
November 1, 1996. For more information contact the Blazers office at (503)
797-9626.
634 N. Killingsworth (Across from P.C.C.)
285-5253
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Despite the fallen light truss that
caused the death o f a construction
worker and the beam that came down
at in the pool, Olympic officials in­
sist their buildings are safe. They
staunchly deny that tight schedules
contributed to either accident
“If you look at any construction
program o f this size, it has been
ex tre m e ly s u c c e s s fu l,” ACOG
spokeswoman Lyn May said “When
you say problem, it’s been a media
description - not ours.”
BLAZER DANCERS AUDITIONS SCHEDULED
Gary Payton, Seattle guard.
series o f three pointers forced the
game into overtime
“ I kept wondering, ‘Why don’t
you guys just die?”’ Seattle guard
Gary Payton said. I just couldn't
believe it. They were like a vampire.
Y ou stab them 18 times and they just
w on’t die.”
“ We played right down to the final
possession,” Tomjanovich said. “But
we ran into a phenomenal basketball
team."
The victory extended the Sonics
winning streak over Houston to 13
games. They defeated the Rockets in
the 1993 playoffs.
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Parking at the Rose Garden could have posed a
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Working with the Blazers and Rose Quarter officials,
Tri-Met devised a comprehensive plan providing bus,
MAX, and shuttle service to and from the facility. In
fact, 12 different Tri-Met routes serve the Rose Quarter,
in addition to a dedicated MAX station. There’s simply
no faster, cheaper, or easier way to get to the arena.
Tri-Met service to the Rose Garden is certainly a
How We j
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holds over 20,000 people and has only 2,400 parking
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The Rose Garden is just one example of Tri-Met’s
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