Nashville Offers $100 Million for Timberwolves

Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen and Gaylord Entertainment Co. said Friday they have offered $100 million to lure the Minnesota Timberwolves to Tennessee.

Gaylord has offered $80 million for the team. The city would pay $20 million to the current owners and build a $100-million, 19,000-seat arena for the Timberwolves.

In a non-binding, intent-to-move letter filed Friday with the NBA executive offices in New York, the Timberwolves named Nashville as a possible alternative site for the 1994-95 season.

New Orleans and San Diego also tried to buy the Timberwolves.

Marvin Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner, who own the Target Center in Minneapolis and the Timberwolves, are trying to sell the arena and have talked about moving the team.

Despite drawing near-capacity crowds, they say they are losing money on the $105-million arena.

The NBA has said it would prefer the Timberwolves stay in Minnesota.

Hockey

Paul Holmgren, the Hartford Whaler general manager, is entering the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage for evaluation and counseling after his arrest on a drunken driving charge in suburban Simsbury, Conn., on Thursday night.

The NHL said it will not discipline six Hartford players and two assistant coaches who were involved in a brawl in a bar owned by Bill quarterback Jim Kelly in Buffalo, N.Y., but the team fined the players $500 each.

Chris Marinucci, right wing for Minnesota Duluth, has been voted the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, college hockey’s version of the Heisman Trophy.

Tennis

Seventh-seeded Mary Pierce was a 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 winner over top-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the quarterfinals of the Family Circle Magazine Cup tournament on clay at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Other quarterfinal winners were No. 2 Conchita Martinez, No. 6 Natalia Zverea and Iva Majoli, who defeated her third seeded player in a row, Lindsay Davenport, 7-5, 1-6, 6-2.

Pierce will play Zvereva and Martinez will play Majoli in the semifinals.

Top-seeded Pete Sampras needed only 59 minutes to beat Gillaume Raoux, 6-3, 6-3, in the quarterfinals of the Salem Open in Osaka, Japan, but second-seeded Michael Chang lost to unseeded Henrik Holm, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Sampras will play Andre Agassi, who defeated David Wheaton, 7-6 (7-1), 6-7 (9-7), 6-3.

Qualifier Lionel Roux made it to the semifinals by beating sixth-seeded Aaron Krickstein, 7-5, 7-6 (7-2).

Despite a sore knee, defending champion Andrei Medvedev scored a 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 quarterfinal victory over Alberto Berasategui in the Estoril Open in Lisbon, where top-seeded Sergi Bruguera bowed out because of a sore elbow.

Bruguera defaulted in the second set to Alberto Costa, who plays Carlos Costa in the semifinals. Medvedev plays Javier Sanchez.

Third-seeded Thomas Muster lost to Jakob Hlasek, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, in the South African Open at Sun City.

Boxing

Stung by criticism after lopsided defeats suffered by ill-prepared American heavyweights Jesse Ferguson and Michael Bentt, British officials have denied a boxing license to James (Bonecrusher) Smith, 40, who was to fight European champion Henry Akinwande next week.

Miscellany

Tom Dolan set an American record of 4:13.52 in the 400-meter individual medley in the U.S. Swimming Championships at Federal Way, Wash. Dolan, from Arlington, Va., broke the American record of 4:14.50 set by Erik Namesnik last year.

Frederic Blackburn passed fellow Canadian Derrick Campbell on the final bend and won the men’s 500-meter final in 44.07 seconds at the World Short Track Speedskating Championships at Guildford, England.

Marinella Canclini of Italy was the surprise winner of the women’s 500 in 47.09 seconds, beating a field that included three top Chinese and defending world champion Nathalie Lambert.

World champion Juha Kankkunen of Finland was knocked out of the Safari Rally in Africa when his Toyota Celica Turbo turned over about halfway in the second leg of the race. Kenya’s Ian Duncan, driving a Celica Turbo, won the second leg, taking 8 hours 34 minutes to cover the 1,039 miles of the first and second legs.

Names in the News

The Green Bay Packers extended the contract of General Manager Ron Wolf through 1999. . . . Pooh Richardson will sit out at least five Indiana Pacer games because of a shoulder separation. . . . Mike Ploszek has resigned as Maine’s athletic director after weeks of turmoil over eligibility violations.