Knicks’ King Will Miss Rest of Season Because of Knee Injury

Star forward Bernard King of the New York Knicks will miss the rest of the season after diagnostic arthroscopic surgery on his injured right knee Monday revealed both a torn ligament and torn cartilage.

Dr. Norman Scott, the team’s physician, did not rule out further surgery.

King was injured with 1:24 left in Saturday night’s game at Kansas City. He returned Sunday to New York, where he was immediately hospitalized.

King, who has played in 55 of the Knicks’ 72 games this year, has a 32.9 scoring average, more than four per game better than the No. 2 scorer, Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics.

He is eligible to win the scoring title. Under NBA rules, he must either play in 70 games or score at least 1,400 points. King has scored 1,809.

Jockeys, trainers and race horse owners are among 21 who have been arrested in connection with a three-month drug probe at three Louisiana race tracks, state police said.

Arrested at the Fair Grounds and charged with possession of methadone were owner Joyce Gaston and trainer Jimmy Lee Gaston of Metairie.

Also arrested at the Fair Grounds or in the New Orleans area were jockey Scott Mullins, for possession of dietlylproprion; Leon J. White, groom, for possession and distribution of heroin; Willie Henderson, vendor, for possession of nine grams of cocaine, and for criminal conspiracy and distribution; groom Arthur Manning, for possession of cocaine and heroin; and Herbert Williams, for possession of cocaine.

Jockey Lawrence Ray Young of Houston, Tex., picked up at Evangeline Downs, was charged with distribution of cocaine, marijuana and preludin, and jockey James Sam was charged with distribution of marijuana.

East Tennessee State University has offered Auburn Coach Sonny Smith a package to return to the school where he once coached, university President Ronald Beller said.

Beller said he plans to meet later this week with Smith, who said last month he would resign at Auburn, effective at the end of the season. He apparently has been having second thoughts, however.

“We took a good package to him,” Beller said. “It’s an honest-to-goodness Division I package. We feel it’s pretty close to being competitive with what they (Auburn) are offering.”

Smith told the Kingsport Times-News in a telephone interview Sunday night that the East Tennessee State offer was interesting, but that he planned to talk with Pat Dye, Auburn athletic director, before deciding.

Coach Jack Ramsay of the Portland Trail Blazers has accused Kelly Tripucka of the Detroit Pistons of being among the players who instigate confrontations on the basketball court, knowing that no blows will actually be thrown.

Ramsay made his accusation in his weekly column in a Portland newspaper, The Oregonian.

Ramsay’s ire was prompted by a scuffle involving Tripucka and Portland forward Audie Norris last week. The coach charged that Tripucka was one of the players, known as woofers, who realize that other players will keep such incidents from “reaching the point of combat” because of concerns about heavy league fines.

“They are frequently the cheap-shot artists who spray elbows or give the unnecessary forearm shiver when setting screens,” Ramsay said.

Guard Tim McCalister of the University of Oklahoma issued a formal apology for throwing water at a game official after the Sooners’ loss to Memphis State in the NCAA Midwest Regional final last weekend.

The statement, issued by the Oklahoma sports information office, was relayed through Sooner Coach Billy Tubbs, who said that McCalister, a sophomore from Gary, Ind., had said he was very sorry it had happened.

“McCalister came to me Monday morning and admitted he did toss some water on the official after our game with Memphis State,” Tubbs said. “He took full responsibility for the incident.”

Arizona State baseball coach Jim Brock, distressed over his role in his player’s use of a potentially dangerous mood-altering drug, says he’ll decide today whether to give up his job.

In a related development, Dr. James Gough, a Scottsdale psychiatrist who prescribed the drugs to Arizona State baseball players, scheduled a press conference for today to discuss the issue.

Reports published last week said Gough prescribed the drug, a hydrazine derivative manufactured by Parke-Davis Co., for two Arizona State baseball players and suggested it to six others.

Brock, who said that until two years ago he had used the drug under prescription while being counseled by Gough for depression, also has said it has been used in other Arizona State athletic programs.

Stirling Moss, one of the most famous drivers in Formula One history, is making a comeback at 55 in sports-car endurance racing.

Moss will race in the United States this season, beginning Saturday at Riverside. He will drive a Porsche 944 in the Playboy series for sports cars, competing in six races across the country. Each race will be worth $50,000 to the winner.

An Australian-style rugby player has had his ear lobe sewn back on after an opponent bit it off in a brawl during a weekend game.

The player who attacked Alan Haig, 36, spat out the ear, then fled the field, according to police who were still trying to locate him.

Names in the News

Oscar Robertson, Darrall Imhoff, Tom Sanders, Lee Shaffer and Jerry West have been named to the 11th annual Silver Anniversary All-America team by the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches. The team was chosen from the senior class of 1960.

Designated hitter Andre Thornton of the Cleveland Indians will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee today.

Jens-Peter Berndt, a world-class swimmer who defected from East Germany and is now swimming for the University of Alabama, will be hampered in this week’s NCAA meet by two cut fingers suffered getting into the back of a pickup truck last weekend. Berndt had three stitches taken in an index finger and four in a middle finger.