World Sports Scene / Randy Harvey : Lakers’ Divac Probably Can Delay Army Stint, Yugoslav Official Says

Boris Stankovic of Yugoslavia, secretary general of the Federation of International Basketball Associations (FIBA), confirmed reports that the Lakers’ first-round draft choice, center Vlade Divac, also has been drafted by the Yugoslav army.

But he said Tuesday that he believes Divac, 21, will be able to postpone his induction. According to Yugoslavian law, he must serve one year in the military before his 27th birthday.

“It is very difficult to have discussions with our army after it has made a decision, like all the armies in the world,” Stankovic said on the first day of the annual International Olympic Committee session here. He was elected to the IOC last year.

“But I think our Yugoslavia basketball federation will help solve the problem. There are some bad feelings on his part because we allowed him to go to the United States, and now it seems like we are trying to take him back.”

Although Stankovic won his campaign within FIBA to give NBA players eligibility for international competitions, he said that he has lost hope that the U.S. team in the world championships next summer in Argentina will include professionals.

As for whether teams such as Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and West Germany will be allowed to use NBA players from their countries in the world championships, Stankovic said discussions are continuing between FIBA and the NBA.

En route to Puerto Rico from his office in Munich, Stankovic met with NBA Commissioner David Stern in New York. “We have many, many, many problems,” Stankovic said, declining to elaborate. “My feeling is that David Stern wants the NBA players in our tournaments, including the Olympics, but it might be after 1992.”

On a related subject, Stankovic said that the world championships will be held in Argentina as planned despite that country’s financial problems. He said that he has received three letters from Argentina’s new government assuring FIBA that the tournament has not been jeopardized by the economy.

Government officials were upset when the first Winter Pan American Games, scheduled for September, were canceled because of a snow shortage. They feared that the international sports community would perceive Argentina’s cash shortage as the real villain and become even more reluctant than they are now to plan events there.

Philadelphia soccer fans turned out in record numbers last Friday for the U.S. national team’s game against the Soviet Union’s Dnepr team and were rewarded with a U.S. victory.

One of the largest crowds ever to watch the national team in the United States, 43,356, saw Erich Eichmann score in the first half on a pass from John Stollmeyer and the U.S. made that goal stand up for a 1-0 victory at Franklin Field.

If IOC members are disturbed by the massacre earlier this year at Beijing’s Tian An Men Square, they are not allowing it to affect the ascension of China’s He Zhenliang to one of the four vice-president positions. He is expected to be elected without opposition this week.

IOC members also appear to be comfortable with plans to hold next year’s Asian Games at Beijing, which, in light of the events at Tian An Men Square, might seem like an odd place to have a youth festival.

“We have assurances from the Asian Games organizing committee that the Games will be held,” said Kim Un Yong, an IOC executive board member from the city that staged the 1986 Asian Games, Seoul. “All construction and projects are going according to plan.

“Seoul had a lot of problems, too, before the Games. I’m not at all worried.”

Speculating that because of China’s political problems Beijing might have difficulty mounting a successful bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics, several European cities, including Paris, Munich, Frankfurt and Milan, have expressed interest.

But Kevan Gosper, an IOC executive board member from Australia, said that he saw no evidence on his recent trip to Beijing that the city has abandoned its plans for 2000.

“Everything that has been done for the Asian Games has been planned in such a way that it can be expanded for a future Olympic bid,” he said.

Moscow’s drug-testing laboratory, which is trying to regain its status as an IOC lab after having been decertified earlier this year, was criticized here this week by the president of the Soviet Union’s Olympic Committee, Marat Gramov.

Responding to the positive drug test of Soviet shotputter Alexander Bagach at the recent European Cup at Gateshead, England, Gramov said that the excess testosterone in the athlete’s system should have been discovered by the Moscow laboratory. Bagach was cleared by a Moscow test before departing for England.

As a result of Bagach’s disqualification, the Soviet Union will not be allowed to send its entire men’s team to next week’s World Cup at Barcelona.

The Soviets were second to Great Britain in the men’s team standings but dropped to third behind East Germany after losing the points that Bagach scored for his third-place finish. Only the top two teams advance.

There were suspicions about Bagach after he improved from 11th in the Soviet Union last year to fifth in the world this year.

A perestroika note: Gramov recently presided over a Soviet Olympic Committee meeting to select a bid city for the 1998 Winter Olympics. There were three candidates, which reportedly confused the delegates because, for the first time, no one told them which one to support. They selected Sochi, which is located on the Black Sea.

The IOC executive board did not act on Anita DeFrantz’s proposal to ban all athletes who test positive for drugs at the Olympics from participating in future Games. If passed, the rule would not affect sprinter Ben Johnson because it would not be retroactive.

The proposal will be discussed by the full session this week, then passed on to the executive board for consideration next year.

“Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t understand how someone could be opposed to this,” said DeFrantz, an IOC member from Los Angeles. “If we’re serious about solving the drug problem, we say, ‘That’s it; you’re not invited back,’ to athletes who are caught.”

She said the rule also would cover coaches, trainers and anyone else who assists athletes in the acquisition and use of banned drugs.