Lemieux May Be Out Until January

Pittsburgh Penguin star Mario Lemieux, still not healed from off-season back surgery, plans further rehabilitation for “weeks, maybe months” and probably won’t play again until at least mid-to-late January.

Sources close to the team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Penguins will announce before Saturday’s game with Detroit that Lemieux won’t play again until he is 100% ready. The team denied Lemieux would be out indefinitely.

Lemieux wasn’t in uniform Thursday night at Chicago as the Penguins completed a six-game trip.

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Andy van Hellemond, senior member among the 58 in the NHL Officials’ Assn., said he would recommend that the league’s final contract offer be rejected in voting today. The officials would like to present a counteroffer to Gary Bettman, but the NHL commissioner said the offer the league proposed Tuesday is final.

Golf

Fred Couples scored a double eagle and paced the defending champion United States to a three-stroke lead in the first round of the World Cup of Golf at Orlando, Fla. Couples holed a 250-yard, two-iron shot on the ninth hole, a 532-yard, par five on the Lake Nona Golf Club course, for the double eagle.

Couples shot 66, and his partner, Davis Love, had a 71. They were at 137, seven under par. France and South Africa shared second at 140 in the gathering of two-man teams from 32 nations.

John Daly matched par 72 in his first round since being suspended from the PGA Tour, leaving him six shots behind leaders Donnie Hammond and Jay Don Blake after the first round of the Mexican Open at Mexico City.

Heather Farr, 28, who has battled breast cancer and related ailments since 1989, was in serious condition in Scottsdale, Ariz., after surgery to relieve a brain hemorrhage, doctors said. Doctors said Farr’s condition is not considered life-threatening.

Basketball

The NBA Board of Governors changed the rules of the league’s draft lottery, increasing the chances of the teams with the worst records to get one of the top three picks. The action came after Orlando, which missed the playoffs on the final weekend of last season, came away with the No. 1 pick for the second consecutive year.

The new arrangement will use 14 Ping-Pong balls numbered 1-14 in a drum with four drawn to the top, creating 1,001 combinations. Each of the 11 non-playoff teams in the lottery will have numerical combinations assigned to them in declining order. The team with the worst record gets 250 combinations, or a 25% chance, at the winning combination. The team with the best record has five combinations for an 0.50% chance at the top pick.

With his right hand and wrist bandaged because of a sprain, Ed O’Bannon scored 31 points and his brother, freshman Charles, matched that to lead the Blue team to a 102-98 victory over the White team in UCLA’s intrasquad scrimmage at Pauley Pavilion. Shon Tarver led the White team with 34 points, 25 in the second half.

California is the favorite in the Pacific 10 Conference men’s race, according to a vote taken by the media. The Golden Bears got 29 of 45 first-place votes and 442 points, with UCLA placing second, with 12 first-place votes. Arizona was third and USC fourth.

USC’s George Raveling was selected as head coach of the U.S. men’s team at the Goodwill Games. Raveling will coach the team of collegians July 23-Aug. 7 in St. Petersburg, Russia. . . . Tremaine Fowlkes, a 6-foot-6 forward who led Crenshaw High to a record fifth state title, has signed a letter of intent with California, Bear Coach Todd Bozeman said. . . . UCLA officials said that they had declined a request from Nevada Las Vegas to move the teams’ Dec. 4 game from Westwood to Nevada to allow it to be televised. Under sanctions levied by the NCAA this week, UNLV games on the road may not be televised.