Thomas Set to Become Majority Owner

A group headed by Toronto Raptor General Manager Isiah Thomas signed a letter of intent to buy majority ownership of the NBA team from broadcast magnate Allan Slaight.

When the deal is completed, Thomas will become the first black with majority ownership of a major league sports team. He will also become the Raptors’ third owner.

Two black investors, Bertram Lee and Peter Byno, at one time owned a minority interest in the Denver Nuggets.

The deal was announced late Monday after Thomas and Slaight spent most of the day negotiating the sale by telephone. Slaight was in Los Angeles.

Details of the deal were not disclosed.

The sale is expected to close early this summer. The final transfer has to be approved by the NBA’s board of governors.

Thomas, a former NBA star with the Detroit Pistons, had been trying for months to get majority ownership of the team. He currently owns 9%, with Slaight holding 81% and the Bank of Nova Scotia the other 10%.

Reports say Thomas represents a group that includes Chase Manhattan and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

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Boston Celtic officials would not confirm a report in Monday’s Boston Globe that a decision already has been made for M.L. Carr to give up his jobs as coach and director of basketball operations.

“That’s premature,” Carr told the newspaper.

“It’s been decided by whom?” team President Red Auerbach said. “There’s nothing I can even comment on until we meet.”

General Manager Jan Volk also said no decision has been made.

The newspaper also said that a front-office successor already has been determined and that it would not be surprising if was Larry Bird.

Bird, however, said that it would be news to him.

“[Owner] Paul Gaston has always told me that if I wanted a more active role, then we could sit down and talk about it,” he told the Globe. “But we haven’t.”

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Chicago Bull forward Dennis Rodman, who missed the last 13 regular-season games because of a knee injury, will wear a knee brace in Friday’s playoff opener against the Washington Bullets.

Both Rodman and Toni Kukoc returned to practice. Kukoc, who missed 22 of the final 26 games because of a foot injury, was able to participate in all the drills, trainer Chip Schaefer said. Rodman sat out one while he fine-tuned his knee brace.

“Unless something unforeseeable occurs, they’re both on target to play Friday. I can’t see why either one of them would not play based on what I saw today,” Schaefer said.

Rodman, like the other Bulls and Coach Phil Jackson, wasn’t talking after practice. Earlier, he told the Chicago Sun-Times he was OK physically and ready for the postseason.

“All this other stuff is well and good, bro. But the playoffs are what real men live and die for. So I’m ready,” Rodman said.

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Forward Glenn Robinson, the Milwaukee Bucks’ leading scorer, underwent surgery to remove bone spurs from his left ankle and foot that were causing tendinitis. Robinson was the top pick in the 1994 draft. . . . The Vancouver Grizzlies, in anticipation of hiring a new coach this summer, fired two assistants and retained only assistant Lionel Hollins. Rex Hughes and Jimmy Powell were ousted. The Grizzlies fired Brian Winters as coach last January and Stu Jackson, the team’s president and general manager, stepped in for the rest of the season.