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FEB. 10, 1999
Page B5
A Dark Day for
German Soccer
B E R L IN - Som e called it a de­
bacle. O thers w ere stunned. Franz
B eckenbauer said the loss points
to a generational crisis in G erm an
soccer.
Sw ift and undisguised anger
across G erm any follow ed the na­
tional team ’s 3-0 loss to the United
States on Saturday in Jacksonville,
Fla.
“A fter I heard that the score is 3-
01 thought this ca n ’t be true,” said
G erm an captain, O liver Bierhoff,
w ho d id n ’t accom pany the three-
time w orld champions on their U. S .
tour. It was the U.S. team ’s first win
over G erm any in four gam es be­
tw een the nations.
Ethics Report Targets
Welch, Johnson
S A L T L A K E C IT Y - T he top
tw oofficialsofSaltL ake’sOlympic
bid w ere condem ned today for ethi­
cal violations by an internal inves­
tigation o f the biggest corruption
scandal in the history o f the games.
T he report focused on Tom
W elch, w ho directed the success­
ful bid for the 2002 W inter O lym ­
pics, and D ave Johnson, his top
lieutenant. Italsosin g led o u tC raig
Peterson, the form er finance chief
for the Salt Lake O rganizing Com ­
mittee.
T he investigation by the inde­
pendent panel, headed by a form er
Utah Suprem e C ourt justice, found
no evidence o f crim inal conduct,
s a id S L O C a tto r n e y B e th
W ilkinson. “T his is an ethical di­
lem m a, and we did find several
instances in w hich individuals
stepped over the line,” she said.
Hingis reclaims top
spot from Davenport
S T A M F O R D , C onn.-M artina
H ingis regained the w orld’s No. 1
tennis ranking 17 w eeks after she
lost it.
H ingis earned the top spot dur­
ing her victory at the Pan Pacific
O pen in T okyo on Sunday. Her
sem ifinal w in over No. 3 Jana
N ovotna on Saturday assured the
18-year-old H ingis o f m oving up
from No. 2 after top-ranked Lind-
-say D av en p o rt w as b eaten by
A m anda
C o e tz e r
in
th e
quarterfinals.
Bure Signs Deal to
i
Play in Florida
Through 2003-04
SU N R ISE , Fla. -Pavel Bure was
w illing to give up hockey to get
away from the Vancouver Canucks.
N ow he w ouldn’t m ind spending
the rest o fhis playing days in South
Florida.
‘T m really enjoying it here,” the
three-tim e 50-goal scorer said after
signing a contract extension M on­
day that will keep him with the Florida
Panthers through at least the end o f
the 2003-04 season.
“It’s nice to have a long-term
contract. I ’ve always felt com fort­
able here. It feels good to be around
the guys and playing the game. ’
Falcons Receiver
Charged W ith
Money Laundering
M IA M I -A nother A tlanta Fal­
cons player is taking a legal hit.
R eceiver T ony M artin, 3 3, w ho
caught five passes in the F alcons’
34-19 Super B ow l loss to D enver,
returned to M iam i M onday, ap ­
pearing in court in shackles to face
m oney laundering and conspiracy
charges.
P ro B o w l s a f e ty E u g e n e
Robinson w as arrested the night
before the Super Bow l on charges
o f soliciting oral sex from a female
undercover police officer.
Robinson is due back in court
M arch 2, but M artin is potentially
in m uch deeper legal trouble.
“I ’m not guilty o f anything,”
M artin said after being released on
$250,000 bond. “This w hole thing
is ludicrous. A fter this trial is over,
1 w ill be cleared.”
Check out next week in
SportsBriefi
Trailblazers Triumph over Grizzlies
V ANCOUVER-British Colum bia
The Portland Trail Blazers aren ’t sure
w hat they have in Jim m y Jackson
yet. They certainly like w hat th ey ’ve
seen so far.
Jackson, w ho signed a three-year
deal as a free agent last w eek, scored
17 points in 26 m inutes to help the
T rail B lazers to a 95-76 w in o ver the
G rizzlies in V ancou ver’ s NB A hom e
opener on M onday night.
“ Jim m y played great for us,” said
coach M ike D unleavy, w ho used
Jackson ju st 17 m inutes in the T rail
B lazers’ season-opening 91-88 loss
to Seattle the previous night.
“The thing is, yesterd ay w as the
first gam e w e had w ith Jim m y. I ’m
trying to learn about him and feel him
out and w hat the best positions are
to put him in, but he certainly showed
his all-around gam e to n ig h t.”
Jackson, once a m em b er o f the
h ighly touted D allas M a v erick s’
T riple-Js (Jackson, Jam al M ashburn
and Jason K idd) in the m id -1990s, is
now playing w ith his fifth team in
less than tw o years.
H e’s happy to have found a home.
“I just wanted to play an all-around
gam e,” said Jackson, w ho had three
m ore m inutes o f court tim e — and
scored 11 m ore points — than start­
ing off-guard Isaiah Rider. “ I think I
can take a lot o f pressure o f f (point
guard Damon) Stoudam ire and allow
him to run around.”
Jackson helped Portland put the
gam e aw ay in the third quarter, when
the Trail Blazers outscored the Griz-
zlies 22-10. D uring a 14-1 Portland
run, Jackson and W alt W illiams made
consecutive 3-point shots as the
Trail B lazers opened a 64-52 edge.
C enter A rvydas Sabonis led P ort­
land, scoring 10 o f h is 22 p oints in
the th ird qu arter and g rabbing 11
rebounds.
Tony M assenburg, filling in at
the starting center ro le fo r o v er­
w eight B ryant R eeves, led the G riz­
zlies w ith 24 points.
V ancouver sm all forw ard S hareef
A bdur-Rahim continued to struggle,
finishing w ith 14 points.
Coupled w ith his 4 -fo r-14 outings
in S un d ay ’s season-opening 109-87
loss in Sacram ento, A bdur-R ahim is
9-for-29 from the floor and has ju st
26 points.
“H e ’s playing as hard as he can
play,” V ancouver coach B rian Hill
said o f h is young star. " H e ’s doing
a great jo b at the defensive end. And
quite honestly team s are able to tee-
o ff on him. T h ey ’re not w orried about
a lot o f other guys out there. And
th ey ’re ju st keying th eir defenses at
him.”
A bdur-R ahim said it’s not tim e to
get frustrated yet.
“It’s ju st som ething I have to
adjust to and deal w ith it and do a
better jo b o f handling them ,” said
A bdur-R ahim , who finished tied for
sixth am ong all N BA scorers last
season, and has led the G rizzlies in
points during his tw o seasons w ith
the third quarter and grabbing 11 rebounds.
Mike Tyson may
be History
LAS V E G A S- It was five days be­
fore M ike Tyson’s return to the ring
against Francois B otha w hen the
former heavyweight champion sat on
a couch at the M GM Grand hotel and
talked about his troubled life outside
the ring.
“ I’m M ike, and M ike is going to be
M ike,” Tyson said. “I’m not what
people portray me to be, but it's easy
to portray m e.”
The talk turned to the three years in
prison Tyson served for a rape con­
viction and the possibility he might go
to jail again for attacking two men
following a traffic altercation in Mary­
land. It was a defiant Tyson who spoke,
seemingly without remorse.
“I f you’re going to send me to jail,
send me to jail,” Tyson said.
“I ’ve done that. I’m ready for any­
thing.”
O n Friday, a judge did ju st that,
sentencing Tyson to a year in jail. It
was a sentence Tyson took stoically
even as his wife, M onica, wept qui­
etly. It was a sentence that may have
pushed an already teetering career to
the brink o f collapse.
The m an who once terrorized the
heavyw eight ranks is beset by prob­
lems both inside and outside the ring,
and his third enforced absence from
the ring leads som e to question
whether his future will be as a con­
tender or a m ere curiosity.
“I think he’s pretty much history,”
veteran prom oter Bob Arum said. “It
may very well be w e've seen the last o f
Tyson as a m ajor fighter.”
Exposed by Botha only a few weeks
ago as a rusty and aging fighter,
T yson’s skills figure to deteriorate
even further if he spends his 33rd
birthday in jail. Barring a successful
appeal, he figures to spend at least six
months in jail. And even then his
troubles are far from over.
Indiana officials could give him
further prison time for violating his
probation. And em barrassed Nevada
boxing authorities may not be in the
mood to allow him to fight again even
when he is free.
Even if Tyson is allowed to tight
once more, he is growing older and
there are real questions about how
much fight he still has left in him.
“At the age o f 32, you’re on the
down side, not the up side o f your
career,’’ Tyson manager Shelly Finkel
said. “ Y ou have about another year or
the club.
V ancou ver set a franchise low for
Tyson may be a thing of the past
for boxing
____
so .”
The fighter whose mere presence
intimidated m ost opponents in his
heyday is long gone, dealt a final blow
by two losses to Holyfield.
Tyson has slipped so m uch that
Botha was taunting him in the ring and
easily outboxing him before Tyson
landed a single right hand that tempo­
rarily. it turns out, rescued his latest
comeback. It may be tim e for M ike
Tyson to look aw ay from boxing. The
taunting w ould have been unthink­
able to a Tyson in his prime, (against
Botha), he had the mindset, but noth­
ing was happening."
Tyson’s ability to sell tickets may
also be slipping, even though the fight
with Botha did enough business for
him to make some $20million. Thepay-
per-view sales w ere h alf w hat they
were forhis first comeback fight against
Peter McNeeley, and the MGM Grand
hotel-casino had to give aw ay a few
thousand tickets to fill up the arena.
It’s an indication T yson’s act is
wearing thin, even on his devoted
fans. And that could be catastrophic
to a fighter w ho spends freely and
rem ains heavily in debt despite m ak­
ing some $ 130 million in the ring in the
last 41 months.
“People w ere fascinated w ith his
whole story, and there was this whole
Tyson phenom enon," A rum said.
“But that is pretty m uch gone now,
and people really d o n ’t care about
him any m ore.”
T y so n w as su p p o sed to fight
again April 24, against an unnam ed
opponent at the M GM Grand. That
fight is in jeopardy, even if Tyson
gets out o f jail on bond and files an
appeal
field-goal percentage in the third,
finishing 3-for-24 (12.5 percent). The
previous low for a quarter was 2-for-
15(13.3 percent) recorded twice, the
last tim e against Chicago on Jan. 27,
1998
M assenburg hit his first nine shots
a franchise record before m issing
w ith four m inutes left in the second
quarter. C om bined with his 4-for-4
outing in Sacram ento, M assenburg
hit 13 straight shots — another fran­
chise best — to open the season. He
m is s e d h is la s t fiv e s h o ts o f
M onday’s game.
D oug W est played his first gam e
w ith the G rizzlies since being a c ­
quired last Feb. 18 in a deal w ith
M innesota. W est, how ever, irritated
a right ham string injury he suffered
in training cam p and w as forced to
leave the gam e in the second quar­
ter.
W est did not play for the G rizzlies
last year after entering a rehab clinic
for alcohol abuse.
The T rail B lazers return to P ort­
lan d to p la y th e ir hom e o p en er
against Indiana on W ednesday. The
G rizzlies, 1-3 all-tim e in hom e open­
ers, had only one starter (A bdur-
R ahim ) that w as am ong the starting
five that opened the season a year
ago.The Trail Blazers, w ho w ent 2-0
in the preseason, beat the G rizzlies
109-89 in V ancouver on Jan. 29. ...
P rior to the gam e, G rizzlies G M Stu
Jackson, speaking from center court,
w elcom ed back the fans and thanked
them for their patience.
More Pebble Beach Rain
Means Victory for Payne
P EB B L E B E A C H , C alif. - G o lf
oes still on. rain pants over his
lickers, Payne Stew art rem ained
sdy to prove that another 18 holes
?uld not stop him from winning for
e first time in four years.
He should have listened to David
aval, who knew the final round o f the
T&T Pebble Beach N ational Pro-
m would be rained out shortly after
■ m ade eagle from 142 yards out on
e first hole.
He could have taken a cue from
rm er Eagles drum m er G lenn Frey,
ho was asked whether he was going
play Sunday.
“Cards?” Frey responded.
After all, this is Pebble Beach. O r is
at Puddle Beach?
R ain w reaked havoc on Bing
rosby’s old clambake for the third
Tie in four years. Stewart was de-
ared the winner by one stroke over
rank Lickliter w hen the final round
as canceled because o f standing
ater on the course and no hope for
:tter weather.
“ I had a feeling it would be good to
! leading after 54 holes," said Stewart,
h o managed that with a 5-iron within
Spyglass Hill on Saturday to put him
at 10-under 206. “I have seen w hat’s
happened here before, and I guess I
was right. I did want the opportunity
to prove I could win in 72 holes, but I’m
going to take this and run.
“I was low after 54 holes, and that
was good enough this week.”
It usually is at Pebble.
In 1996, only 36 holes were com ­
pleted by Sunday and the tournament
was canceled, the first time that had
happened on tour since 1949. Last
year when only 36 holes were in after
four days, the tour asked players to
return in August to play the final and
third round. Prize money can only be
awarded if 54 holes have been played.
Stewart earned $540,000 for his 10th
career victory, but only his second
since winning the 1991 U .S. Open. He
also picked up valuable points for his
quest to make the Ryder Cup team for
the first time since 1993.
“ 1 have won again,” Stewart said. “I
think it w ill be easier this year when
I get in position, and T m going to be
in position again because I ’m play­
ing good.”
Lickliter liked his chances, but the
d id n ’t agree w ith him. He
actually w as tied for the lead on
Saturday until a bogey on his 17th
hole at Spyglass, and then Stew art
dropped in the birdie that m eant more
than he realized.
“I ’m ju st sorry the w eather was so
bad we couldn ’ t play,” said L ickliter,
w ho earned $302,400 for his best
finish in four years on tour. “ I w as
looking forw ard to seeing w hat I
could do out there.”
Nearly every hole at Pebble Beach
w as unplayable because o f o v er­
night rains that left puddles all o ver
th e c o u rse , p a rtic u la rly on th e
greens. CB S Sports analyst D avid
F eherty m easured the speed on one
green at 3.5 on the Stim pm eter. B e­
fore the rain, the speed had been
about 11.
D uval nev er had to w orry about
that. His 8-iron took one hop and
w ent into the hole, b ut he could hear
his feet squish as he w alked across
the green to get the ball from the cup.
“Y ou could tell it w o u ld n ’t be
long before w e w ere done,” he said.
“ W hat goes aro u n d com es
around,” S tew art said. “I ’ve been on
the other side o f the 54-hole deal,
and today I ’m on the right side o f it.”
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