Magic Signs Grant, Trades Skiles to Bullets

The Orlando Magic signed free-agent forward Horace Grant on Friday night.

The seven-year veteran was a key member of the Chicago Bulls during their run as three-time NBA champions but had publicly expressed his desire to join the Magic since last season.

Earlier Friday, Bull chairman Jerry Reinsdorf accused Grant of backing out of a handshake deal for a five-year contract worth more than $20 million. Terms of the deal between Grant and the Magic were not disclosed.

“It wasn’t a good time, and I’ll leave it at that,” Grant said. “If I were happy, I’d be in Chicago tonight.

“This was never about money. It was about being part of an organization that had a family atmosphere.

“I never burned bridges. It was the Chicago organization burning the bridges.”

Earlier Friday, to make room for a salary slot, the Magic traded point guard Scott Skiles and a first-round draft pick to the Washington Bullets for a second-round draft pick.

Skiles was the last remaining player from the Magic’s original expansion team five years ago. Anfernee Hardaway replaced Skiles as the starting point guard in February.

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Chuck Person, released by the Minnesota Timberwolves after the season, signed a multiyear deal beginning at about $1.1 million a year with the San Antonio Spurs, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

Tennis

Andre Agassi beat two-time French Open champion Sergi Bruguera of Spain, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1, in a quarterfinal match of the $1.7-million Player’s International tennis tournament in Toronto.

Agassi, seeded eighth, used a powerful forehand to chase the top-seeded Spaniard around center court at the National Tennis Centre and relied on his return of service to keep Bruguera off balance.

Agassi advanced to a semifinal match against sixth-seeded Wayne Ferreira of South Africa, who beat No. 14 Malivai Washington, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5. Jim Courier beat Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist, 6-2, 6-2, to earn a semifinal spot opposite unseeded Jason Stoltenberg of Australia, who eliminated 15th-seeded Richey Reneberg, 6-4, 6-2.

Top-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, the No. 2 player in the world, survived a scare in the morning to beat Sandra Cacic, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, and defeated Tami Whitlinger-Jones, 6-3, 6-0, in the afternoon to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Hardcourts tournament at Stratton Mountain, Vt.

Top-seeded Alberto Berasategui of Spain and unseeded Richard Fromberg of Australia gained quarterfinal victories in the Dutch Open clay-court championships.

College Football

National champion Florida State suspended four players, including All-American linebacker Derrick Brooks, for taking clothing and other gifts in a $6,000 shopping spree with agents last year.

Brooks and tailback Tiger McMillon were suspended for the first two games of the season that starts Sept. 3. Offensive guard Patrick McNeil will be suspended for the first three games. Offensive tackle Forrest Conoly was suspended indefinitely.

Volleyball

Gay activists celebrated what they called a victory for human rights after the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games pulled the 1996 volleyball competition out of suburban Cobb County.

The move came after months of public debate over an anti-gay resolution passed last August by the Cobb County Commission. The preliminary volleyball rounds will instead be held at the University of Georgia Coliseum in Athens.

Miscellany

Anson Dorrance, who coached the United States women’s soccer team to first place in the first FIFA Women’s World Championship in 1991, quit and will be replaced by Tony DiCicco, his assistant. . . . Tests showed Bob Probert had been using cocaine when the former Detroit Red Wing player was arrested for drunken driving, according to the Detroit News.