John Williams had back spasms and could...

John Williams had back spasms and could not practice as the Cleveland Cavaliers opened camp in Dayton, Ohio. The 6-11, 245-pound Williams is a power forward who was the starting center last season when Brad Daugherty missed the season because of a back injury.

Olympics

With a record-setting $555-million TV rights deal with NBC for the 2002 Winter Olympics already signed, the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee announced that it had picked Utah’s finance director, Gordon Crabtree, as its chief operating officer.

Tennis

Top-seeded Jana Novotna was ousted from the quarterfinals of the European Indoors in Zurich, Switzerland, losing to No 7 seed Iva Majoli of Croatia 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-3. Third-seeded Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria didn’t even set foot on the court. Troubled by food poisoning since the start of the week, the defending champion withdrew from her match against Chanda Rubin.

Patrick McEnroe beat Renzo Furlan 7-5, 6-4, but the top three seeded players lost in the quarterfinals of the Salem ATP tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Top-seeded Richard Krajicek was ousted by Cristiano Caratti, defending champion and third seed Jacco Eltingh lost to Marcelo Rios and 18-year-old Australian Mark Philippoussis beat second-seeded Paul Haarhuis of Netherlands 6-1, 6-2.