Marbury Says He’s Ready for the NBA

Stephon Marbury made it official Wednesday night in a Brooklyn restaurant: One year of college basketball, he said, was enough to prepare him for the NBA.

After one season at Georgia Tech, Marbury, a 19-year-old guard, said he had signed with an agent and would hope to be taken in the NBA draft.

“I’ve always worked hard for this. I’ve always watched the NBA growing up. I always watched Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, and I said I could be playing on the court with them. Next year, I will be,” Marbury said.

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Former Seton Hall and NBA player Luther Wright has returned home after being institutionalized for a month as a psychiatric patient being treated for manic depression.

Wright, a 7-foot-2 center, left Seton Hall after his sophomore season and was drafted in the first round by the Utah Jazz, but was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and cut from the team nine months later, accepting a contract settlement that will pay him $153,000 a year for 25 years.

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Rollie Massimino, who coached Villanova to the 1985 NCAA championship and later succeeded Jerry Tarkanian at Nevada Las Vegas, has withdrawn as a candidate to coach at Gannon. . . . Gary Waters was picked to succeed Dave Grube as basketball coach at Kent.

Jurisprudence

Former Los Angeles Ram defensive back LeRoy Irvin was sentenced to 60 days in jail after pleading no contest to spousal battery. Irvin, 38, was also placed on three years’ summary probation, ordered to complete a year of domestic violence counseling and stay away from the 40-year-old victim, who was not identified.

Colt linebacker Quentin Coryatt was released from custody in Indianapolis after posting a $2,500 bond in connection with a weapons charge.

Jeffrey Lange, 26, who was photographed tossing snowballs during a New York Giants’ game in December, was convicted of improper behavior, fined $500 and forced to pay another $150 in court fees and other costs.

Todd McNair of the Houston Oilers has been charged with mistreating 22 pit bulls seized at his East Greenwich Township, N.J., property, where authorities say the animals were being trained for dogfights. McNair denied the charges.

Football

The Washington Redskins re-signed defensive end Sterling Palmer, who started 13 games for them last season. . . . Former Los Angeles Ram quarterback T.J. Rubley signed a one-year, $225,000 contract with the Denver Broncos. . . . The Kansas City Chiefs have re-signed reserve quarterback Rich Gannon to a two-year contract.

Miscellany

Krzysztof Warzycha scored with four minutes to play for Panathinaikos, which pulled off the upset of the European soccer season, beating defending European and world club champion Ajax Amsterdam, 1-0, in the first leg of the European Champions Cup semifinals in Amsterdam. In the other semifinal, Juventus defeated Nantes, 2-0, in Turin, Italy.

In testing, Scott Brayton’s Menard-Buick turned a 237.555-mph lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the fastest unofficial lap in the track’s history.

Tennis

Second-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario recovered from a sleepwalking start to defeat 15-year-old Martina Hingis, 0-6, 6-2, 6-2, in the second round of the Family Circle Cup at Hilton Head Island, S.C. Fourth-seeded Gabriela Sabatini lost to Irina Spirlea, 6-4, 6-2.

Mikael Tillstrom will miss Sweden’s Davis Cup match against India this weekend because of an ankle injury.

Olympics

Lance Bade won the top spot in men’s double trap on the U.S. Olympic men’s shooting team, with David Alcoriza also making the team. In women’s double trap, 16-year-old Kim Rhode of El Monte won the top spot easily, with Terry DeWitt second.

Skiing’s world governing body, FIS, has threatened to move two 1998 Olympic races out of the Nagano, Japan, area if disputes over the courses cannot be solved. FIS has argued that the downhill ski course is too short to be challenging and wants the slalom moved to the same hill where the downhill course has been built.