Timberwolves Raise Garnett Offer to $120 Million

The Minnesota Timberwolves increased their contract offer to forward Kevin Garnett from $103.5 million for six years to $120 million for the same length of time, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. But Garnett remained unsigned after five hours of meetings with club officials Tuesday.

Garnett, due $1.8 million this season, the last of his three-year rookie contract, will become a free agent at the end of the season unless the Timberwolves sign him by midnight EDT tonight.

Garnett sped from Target Center--site of the negotiations--Tuesday night, using a diversion to avoid a group of photographers. Negotiations were to resume this morning.

There is speculation that the Chicago Bulls are interested in Garnett, the third player in NBA history to jump from high school to the pros. Garnett attended Farragut Academy in Chicago.

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An announcement is expected today that Detroit and Washington have been awarded WNBA expansion teams for next season.

Nikki McCray, a 1996 Olympian who was the most valuable player, of the rival ABL with the Columbus Quest last season but defected to the WNBA, is expected to be awarded to one of the new franchises.

Tennis

Top-seeded Alex Corretja of Spain defeated Marzio Martelli of Italy, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, in the first round of the Sicilian Open.

Javier Sanchez of Spain beat No. 4 Hicham Arazi of Morocco, 7-5, 6-3, and defending champion Karim Alami advanced when Andrea Gaudenzi withdrew because of an eye injury.

Slovakia’s Karol Kucera defeated third-seeded Goran Ivanisevic, 6-4, 6-3, in the first round of the Swiss Indoors at Basel, Switzerland.

Top-seeded Yevgeni Kafelnikov of Russia defeated Lorenzo Manta of Switzerland, 6-1, 7-6 (7-2), and second-seeded Carlos Moya defeated Tommy Haas of Germany, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Golf

Greg Norman, who has reclaimed his No. 1 world ranking from Masters champion Tiger Woods, said Woods is a lot like everybody else on the PGA Tour.

“Tiger got off to a phenomenal fast start,” Norman said in a recorded interview played at the announcement of the Players Championship in Brisbane, Australia. “But he’s come back to reality and he’s just another golfer out there, like all of us, who’s going to have his ups and downs.”

Woods twice replaced Norman as the world’s No. 1 golfer this year before falling back to No. 2. Woods has struggled recently and in last weekend’s Ryder Cup play won only 1 1/2 of a possible five points.

“In any profession when there’s a lot of hype, the individuals that play the game understand that,” Norman said. “And in a career like golf, it takes decades to really smooth itself out and see how good you are over a period of time.

“The hype has put him up on a level and now, the way his play is, it’s not up to that level and the hype has calmed down.”

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Kevin Stadler, son of PGA Tour pro Craig Stadler, had a 36-hole total of three-over-par 145 at the 6,801-yard Collindale Golf Course to win individual honors in the Colorado high school boys golf championship.

Jurisprudence

Mitch Green’s mother cried as she testified in her son’s $25-million civil assault suit against former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who allegedly beat Green in 1988.

“I saw his face,” Charlene Green said. “It was horrid. He had a cut right here [putting her finger between her eyes]. His eye was swollen. His face was grotesque. Oh, my God, he looked bad.”

Tyson broke Green’s nose, cut up his face and knocked him cold in a Harlem street fight, Green’s lawyer, Alan Rich, said in opening statements. Rich said Tyson hit Green’s face so hard that he broke his own hand.

Tyson’s lawyer, Robert Hirth, said Green started the fight and that when Tyson tried to leave, Green grabbed him, ripped his shirt and tried to hit him.

Boxing

The Nevada State Athletic Commission dropped its temporary suspension of Oliver McCall, whose $3-million purse has been withheld since his tearful breakdown in a heavyweight title loss to Lennox Lewis in February.

McCall isn’t expected to be allowed to fight again until at least February, under a conditional settlement that called for him to be suspended for a year and fined $250,000 for breaking down and crying and then refusing to fight for the vacant WBC title.

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Unranked challenger Tony Marshall set the tone with a first-round knockdown and went on to a unanimous decision over Steve Martinez to win the North American Boxing Federation junior middleweight title at Bay St. Louis, Miss.

Auto Racing

The Indy Racing League has increased its 1998 schedule to 10 races with the addition of a second event at Texas Motor Speedway and a race at Dover Downs in Delaware.

The Lone Star 500K at the 1.5-mile Texas track will be run Sept. 20, 1998, and Dover Downs, the site of two NASCAR Winston Cup races each year, will stage an Indy car race for the first time since 1969 on July 19.

Driver Robby Gordon, has been released by Team Sabco, a NASCAR Winston Cup team, and is expected to move back to the CART PPG Cup World Series in 1998.

Gordon had only one top-10 finish in 20 Winston Cup events and is 39th in the standings.

Two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin is expected to replace Gordon with Team Sabco.

Miscellany

The United States modern pentathlon team was awarded the world championship after a member of the Russian team that won the gold medal in Bulgaria last August tested positive for a banned steroid.

The U.S. team of Vakhtang Iagorashvili, Scott Christie and Richard Connors was moved up from second after Dmitrii Sergeev tested positive for norandrosterone.

Federation rules say the entire team is disqualified if any member fails a drug test. Mexico moved up to second and Poland to third.

A former University of Michigan booster once sent airline tickets to the home of a star basketball player, the player’s mother said.

Records from a school investigation suggest that Ed Martin, under investigation for providing improper benefits to players, sent the tickets to the home of junior guard Louis Bullock in August, 1996, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Bullocks’ mother, Mary, said she rejected the tickets, acceptance of which would have violated NCAA rules.

College Football

Louisville Coach Ron Cooper apologized for an outburst against university staff that lead to an investigation by the university’s president and athletic director.

The investigation involved Cooper’s actions three months ago during a disagreement with sports information department photographer Kurt Vinion over photos for the team’s media guide. It ended without a reprimand.