Cal’s Abdur-Rahim to Try NBA

The defections keep coming in Berkeley, where the latest, on Tuesday, was perhaps the most difficult for the Bears to take.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the Pacific 10 Conference player of the year and leading scorer as a freshman, said he will leave California and seek a career in the NBA, where he is expected to be a high draft choice.

Abdur-Rahim joins Stephon Marbury of Georgia Tech as freshmen eligible for the June 26 draft. Two high school players and 13 other underclassmen have made themselves available for the draft. Among those are Iowa forward Jess Settles and North Carolina guard Jeff McInnis, both of whom announced decisions on Tuesday.

“I’m not doing this for any selfish reasons. This is not for me,” Abdur-Rahim said, tears streaming down his cheeks. “If I was in this world by myself, I’d stay at the University of California. My mom has sacrificed for me all my life, and so has my father.”

Abdur-Rahim became the third key Cal player to defect in recent weeks. Sophomore guard Jelani Gardner said he will transfer to Pepperdine, and sophomore forward Tremaine Fowlkes was released from his Cal scholarship and is leaning toward Fresno State.

Center Michael Stewart also asked to be released, but that request was denied.

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The Big West men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will go from six to eight teams next season and will remain in Reno through the 1998-99 season.

Football

Voters in Nashville, Tenn., went to the polls to decide whether the city should issue $80 million in bonds to help finance a $292-million deal for a 65,000 stadium to lure the Oilers from Houston.

Kevin Clancy, the lawyer for Dallas wide receiver Michael Irvin, disputed a television report that Irvin has possessed cocaine three times since being indicted on felony drug charges.

The mounting accusations may be wearing on Irvin, who told a columnist he’s considering discussing “my future somewhere else” with Cowboy owner Jerry Jones.

The Cincinnati Bengals waived quarterback John Walsh, whom they had selected in the seventh round of the 1995 draft. . . . The Detroit Lions have signed free-agent right end Pete Metzelaars, a Carolina Panther last season.

Tennis

Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Mary Joe Fernandez, Aaron Krickstein and other notables from the tennis community were in Wheaton, Ill., for the funeral of Tim Gullikson, who died Friday of brain cancer at 44.

Mats Wilander rallied from a break down in each set to beat Australian Sandon Stolle, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round of the U.S. Clay Court championships at Pinehurst, N.C.

Conchita Martinez began her quest for a fourth consecutive Italian Open title with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Tatyana Jecmenica in Rome. . . . Jordi Burillo of Spain ousted two-time defending champion Andrei Medvedev, 6-3, 6-4, in the first major upset the German Open in Hamburg.

Miscellany

Tony Stewart, a 24-year-old rookie, led a Team Menard sweep of the top three speeds in the first full day of practice for the Indianapolis 500. Stewart turned a lap of 236.121 mph, just ahead of Eddie Cheever’s 235.997 and Scott Brayton’s 235.750.

Trainers of 16 horses have indicated an interest in entering them in the May 18 Preakness Stakes, the second jewel of the Triple Crown. The field will be limited to 14 because of the narrower track.

Federico Colonna of Italy overtook Steve Bauer of Canada in the final 250 yards of the Wytheville-to-Bristol road race in Virginia and won the seventh stage of the Tour DuPont in 4 hours 30 minutes 34 seconds. Lance Armstrong retained his leader’s jersey for a sixth day after finishing 29th in the field.

Lisa Leslie scored 33 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in leading the United States women’s basketball team to a 96-81 victory over host Australia in a four-nation tournament in Canberra.

World-record holder Wang Junxia ran the year’s fastest 10,000 meters in China’s Olympic trials in Beijing, 31 minutes 1.76 seconds.

Jurisprudence

Former NFL linebacker Lawrence Taylor swallowed the fake crack cocaine he is accused of buying from an undercover officer just before he was arrested, according to Myrtle Beach, S.C., police.

A federal judge in Roanoke, Va., dismissed Virginia Tech from a lawsuit filed by a former student, Christy Brzonkala, who alleged she was raped by two football players, then subjected to sex discrimination during campus hearings.

Olympics

The final four Soling class boats, skippered by Jeff Madrigali, Dave Curtis, Gerard Coleman and Harry Melges III, have been decided in the Olympic yachting trials, pending a protest by fifth-place finisher Ed Baird in Savannah, Ga.