Australian Star Shane Heal Signs With Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves have signed Australian guard Shane Heal, who scored 28 points in an exhibition game against the U.S. Olympic team this summer.

Heal made eight three-pointers in that game and got into a shoving match with Charles Barkley, who later praised Heal.

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The Utah Jazz requested waivers on forward Kenny Gattison, acquired from Orlando as part of the trade that sent center Felton Spencer to the Magic. A team spokesman said he understood Gattison planned to take an assistant coaching job in the NBA.

Boxing

Seven months after announcing he had tested HIV positive, former heavyweight boxer Tommy Morrison scheduled a news conference for today in Tulsa, Okla., to make a “major announcement.”

Morrison’s attorney, Stuart Campbell, refused to elaborate but pointed out it would be Morrison’s first news conference since announcing in February that his HIV-positive status would force him from the ring.

Sources say Morrison has expressed an interest in resuming his boxing career and has been trying to schedule a fight in his home state of Oklahoma. Morrison probably would have trouble getting a license to box in Nevada, New Jersey or New York.

Kevin Rooney, former trainer for Mike Tyson, tried to convince a jury in Albany, N.Y., that the fighter owes him $49 million for breaking a contract. Rooney claims Tyson reneged on a handshake deal that promised him 10% of the fighter’s earnings for the rest of his career.

Jurisprudence

Nebraska linebacker Terrell Farley will be sentenced Oct. 25 on a charge of first-offense drunk driving. Farley, 21, was arrested in Lincoln on Aug. 30 after police saw him driving erratically. His blood alcohol level was 0.17%. The legal limit is 0.10%.

Farley earlier pleaded guilty to the drunk-driving charge and in turn had tickets for negligent driving and driving on an expired license dismissed.

A misdemeanor case against Miami Hurricane offensive tackle Ricky Perry was dismissed when witnesses and the alleged victim failed to show for the start of his trial.

Perry, who has been suspended from the team, had been charged with beating his 17-year-old date in June and still faces a felony trial Sept. 30 on charges that he held a gun to a man’s throat last November.

A trial date of Nov. 21 was set for former Notre Dame basketball player Doug Gottlieb, accused of using credit cards of fellow students to buy nearly $1,000 worth of merchandise.

Soccer

The 2002 World Cup, co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, will not expand from 32 to 40 teams, as Japan had requested.

“It’s not their decision,” FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper said on the eve of informal discussions in Zurich, Switzerland, on World Cup 2002. “They should know that they don’t have the right to make that kind of decision. It is FIFA who decides how many teams there are in the World Cup. The regulations say it is 32 teams, and that’s how many will play.”

Olympics

The International Olympic Committee offered $7.3 million in hush money to Monique Berlioux when it dismissed her as its powerful administrative chief in 1985, a Berlin newspaper, Berliner Zeitung, reported.

Berlioux, who was 61 when she was fired, was the IOC’s top executive officer for 14 years and played a crucial role in planning eight successive Summer and Winter Olympics, including Munich 1972, Montreal 1976, Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. Her contract was to run through the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

Tennis

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Conchita Martinez, ranked second and third in the world, will lead Spain in the defense of its Fed Cup title when it plays the United States on Sept. 28-29 at Atlantic City, N.J.

Gala Leon Garcia and Virginia Ruano-Pascal will also play for Spain. Monica Seles leads the U.S. squad, which also incudes Lindsay Davenport, Mary Joe Fernandez and Linda Wild.

Golf

Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino will be among the competitors in the Ralphs Senior Classic at Wilshire Country Club Sept. 30-Oct. 6.