Olajuwon Suspended for Hitting a Referee

Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets was suspended by the NBA for one game Monday for hitting referee Bill Spooner in the stomach with an open hand during Sunday night’s game in Phoenix.

Olajuwon will sit out Houston’s game tonight in Sacramento.

Olajuwon struck Spooner, apparently accidentally, while gesturing to protest what he thought should have been a foul on the Suns’ A.C. Green.

“Spooner felt a shot in the solar plexus,” said Darrell Garretson, NBA supervisor of officials. “That can happen with a guy running by, it can happen a thousand ways.”

Rocket Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said the team will abide by the ruling.

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Andres Guibert, 25, a 6-foot-10 center who defected from Cuba last year, signed a 10-day, $25,000 contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and will become the first Cuban to play in the NBA.

Guibert is considered Cuba’s best basketball prospect. He left the Cuban national team during the 1993 regional athletic championships in Puerto Rico. In seven games, he averaged 14.9 points and 6.9 rebounds while leading his team to the silver medal. Cuban president Fidel Castro blamed Guibert’s defection for Cuba’s failure to defeat Puerto Rico for the gold medal.

Pro Football

The Rams apparently have lost tight end Pat Carter to the Houston Oilers but will talk today about the possibility of increasing efforts to sign Houston wide receiver Haywood Jeffires.

Phil Williams, Carter’s agent, said an agreement with the Oilers has been reached on a one-year, $1.1-million contract, and that he expects Carter to sign with Houston on Wednesday.

A CBS affiliate in the South Bend-Elkhart, Ind., area has signed what is believed to be the first agreement in the country that will allow the station to show the Fox network’s coverage of NFC games this fall.

CBS lost its telecast rights to NFC games after 38 years after a bidding war with Fox.

“The decision was made based on the fact that there is not a Fox affiliate in this area,” WSBT station manager Roland Adeszko said, adding that there is strong local interest in the Chicago Bears.

The Cincinnati Bengals signed free-agent offensive lineman Darrick Brilz, formerly of the Seattle Seahawks, to a two-year, $4-million contract. Brilz, 30, will be starting his eighth season.

Jurisprudence

An assistant football coach at Northern Iowa faces misdemeanor charges that he fondled a male undercover police officer, then resisted arrest.

Richard Moseley, 60, was arrested Thursday at a downtown Minneapolis adult bookstore.

Tennis

Chanda Rubin and Lori McNeil lost in the opening round of the Family Circle Magazine Cup in Hilton Head, S.C., becoming the first seeded players to lose.

Rubin, seeded 13th and ranked 27th in the world, was stopped by Caroline Kuhlman, 6-1, 6-4. McNeil, seeded 11th, lost to Emanuela Zardo of Switzerland, 7-6 (7-2), 1-6, 6-4.

Ninth-seeded Amanda Coetzer defeated Karin Kschwendt, 6-4, 6-2. Play was interrupted for about two hours because of heavy showers after the first game of the match.

Miscellany

Sentencing for Tonya Harding’s former husband, Jeff Gillooly, has been delayed until July 5 to allow time for the others charged in the attack to have their cases resolved. . . . Greg Marsden, University of Utah gymnastics coach, was reprimanded and put on probation for one year for pulling his squad off the floor during a meet against Brigham Young.

Salvatore (Toto) Schillaci, the 1990 World Cup scoring leader, has reached a general agreement on a $3.2-million, two-year contract to play with Jubilo Iwata in the Japanese League starting next season. . . . Mark Sentel, a defender and midfielder from St. Louis, was cut from the U.S. national soccer team’s player pool.