Maxwell Takes All His Troubles to Philadelphia

The Philadelphia 76ers signed controversial guard Vernon Maxwell to a free-agent contract Tuesday.

Maxwell spent the last six seasons with the Houston Rockets and was their starting shooting guard during their first championship season, 1993-94, but lost most of his playing time last season after the Rockets traded for veteran all-star Clyde Drexler.

The Drexler trade was made after the volatile Maxwell was suspended for 10 games for going into the stands and punching a fan. He was also fined $20,000 by the league.

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George Zidek, the 7-foot center from UCLA, signed a three-year contract with the Charlotte Hornets, who had drafted him in the first round.

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Hoping to capitalize on the growing popularity of women’s basketball on the college level, a group of prominent players announced plans for a national professional league.

Backed by former college stars Jennifer Azzi, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Teresa Edwards, the American Basketball League hopes to begin play in 1996 with 12 teams.

Jurisprudence

The mother of Mike Tyson’s 5-year-old daughter says the fighter held her against her will when she met him to discuss his promise to buy her a house.

Kimberly Scarborough, 27, said in papers filed last week in state Supreme Court in Manhattan that she met with Tyson on Sept. 8 in the Manhattan townhouse of boxing promoter Don King. Tyson was to give her the $450,000 remaining for a $550,000 house he had agreed to buy for her in New Jersey, she said.

Scarborough said that Tyson--the father of her daughter, Michael Lorna (Mickey) Tyson--”detained and imprisoned” her to force her to sign documents.

Tyson’s attorney, Robert Hirth, denied Scarborough’s allegations about being held and said that Tyson had never agreed to buy Scarborough a house.

Tyson, 29, spent almost three years in prison in Indiana for the rape of beauty contestant Desiree Washington before being released earlier this year.

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Former New England Patriot star John Hannah’s investment consulting firm is being sued by the Chicago Housing Authority for mistakes that allegedly allowed a housing authority employee to loot more than $15 million from its pension fund.

The suit charged that failures by the Hannah Group allowed John D. Lauer to divert pension money into phony investment schemes, beginning in 1992. The bogus investments allegedly cost the housing authority’s pension fund about 40% of its assets.

Miscellany

Thomas Hearns, at 36 long past his best days in the ring, scored a unanimous decision over journeyman Earl Butler in a 10-round cruiserweight bout at Auburn Hills, Mich. Hearns is 55-4-1.

Tim Wilkison advanced to the second round of the Champions Over-35 tennis tournament at Thousand Oaks when Mel Purcell was forced to retire because of a right eye injury.

In another first-round match, Jose-Luis Clerc defeated Peter Fleming, 6-4, 6-4.

The International Olympic Committee moved to ensure that women would fill at least 10% of decision-making roles in the Olympic movement by the turn of the century. The IOC executive board said the figure should reach at least 20% within 10 years.

Three cyclists competing in the opening day of the World Cycling Championships at Bogota, Colombia, crashed, two of them apparently breaking bones. Jose Maria Lovito of Argentina, Marcelo Beneton of Italy and Toshimasa Yoshioka of Japan collided during a 200-meter race in the Luis Carlos Galan Velodrome.

Shane Kelly of Australia set a world record in the first event, finishing a kilometer in 1 minute, 0.613 seconds.

The U.S. Soccer Federation announced it will replace Timo Liekoski as coach of the national under-23 team, which will serve as the Olympic team next year.