Johnson Ordered to Stay Away From Wife

Dennis Johnson is accused of grabbing his wife’s throat and holding a knife to her face, and the former Boston Celtic star was ordered Tuesday to leave his Florida home and stay away from her.

Police said that during an argument at their home outside Orlando, Donna Johnson told her husband of 21 years: “What are you going to do, kill me? Go ahead.”

Johnson, 43, was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated assault and domestic violence. His wife was not injured. Although she refused to press charges, deputies were required to arrest him under Florida law.

Police said Johnson’s 17-year-old son tried to stop the fight, but Johnson threatened him and the son ran to a neighbor’s home for help.

Bond was set at $5,000 and Judge Stan Strickland told Johnson he could go to his house only to collect clothes and personal items.

Johnson posted bond and refused to talk to reporters when he left jail Tuesday. No arraignment date was set.

Johnson, who retired as a player in 1990 after 14 seasons with the Celtics, returned as an assistant coach in 1994 but lost his job after last season when the entire coaching staff was fired.

College Sports

A proposal to substantially reduce summertime basketball recruiting by college coaches was discussed by the NCAA Management Council at its meeting in Kansas City and is expected to be forwarded to the NCAA subcommittee on recruiting, Shane Lyons, an NCAA spokesman said.

The Management Council wants to hear opinions from the subcommittee and other basketball constituency groups, Lyons said. Legislation will probably be drafted at the next Management Council meeting Jan. 9-10, with a possible vote at its April meeting.

The National Assn. of Basketball Coaches has proposed restrictions on the summer recruiting season that would allow only a series of USA Basketball development camps, state high school sanctioned all-star games and national junior college-sanctioned all-star games.

Point guard Charles Williams, one of three University of Cincinnati basketball players declared ineligible because of NCAA rules violations, has made financial restitution for favors he improperly received from an instructor. Williams’ godmother paid the school $445.33, the first step in trying to get his eligibility restored, according to attorney Anne Frayne.

Junior forward Sam Okey was suspended by Wisconsin basketball Coach Dick Bennett for two weeks of practice and four games after the coach was told Okey was smoking marijuana, the Capital Times of Madison reported. Okey was the Badgers’ top scorer last season.

Tom Jurich, former athletic director at Colorado State, was hired as athletic director at Louisville. Jurich, 41, replaces Bill Olsen, who said last July that he would retire. . . . South Alabama officials denied having offered the school’s vacant coaching job to former Michigan basketball coach Steve Fisher or anybody else.

Olympics

Los Angeles is among a record 10 cities to have signed up as candidates to bring the Summer Games back to the United States in 2012. The cities each submitted a letter of intent and a non-refundable bid fee to the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The USOC’s board of directors meets in Orlando, Fla., next week and among the top items on the agenda is a decision on pursuing a 2012 Olympics bid.

Los Angeles, host of the 1932 and 1984 Games, was joined by Arlington, Texas; Tampa, Fla; Baltimore, Cincinnati, Houston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington.

Intent on abiding by environmental laws, Nagano’s Winter Olympic organizers rejected the latest proposal to extend the downhill ski course into national parkland.

Motor Sports

Some of the drag racing cars that will compete in the NHRA’s Winston Select World Finals next month in Pomona will be on display tonight from 6-9 p.m. in downtown Covina. Also on hand will be 100 restored street rods ranging in vintage from the late ‘20s through the ‘60s. The Thunderfest display is free.

Track and Field

Dong Yanmei, a 17-year-old Chinese runner trained by controversial coach Ma Junren, smashed the women’s world record in the 5,000 meters by more than five seconds at China’s National Games in Shanghai. Dong was timed in 14:31.27 to break the old record of 14:36.45 set by Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal in 1995.

Tennis

Top-ranked Pete Sampras, looking a little rusty after not playing for more than three weeks, beat Magnus Gustafsson, 6-3, 6-4, to reach the third round of the Eurocard Open at Stuttgart, Germany.

Defending champion Boris Becker, who beat Sampras in the Eurocard final last year for his last title, beat German compatriot Marc-Kevin Goellner, 6-2, 6-4, in a first-round match.

The nation’s top women’s collegiate players will compete in the Riviera All-American Championship beginning Thursday at the Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades. The event is the second leg of the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. Grand Slam.

Miscellany

Tom Lasorda will receive the first honorary doctorate degree of humane letters from the University of Phoenix’s Southern California campus in Costa Mesa on Nov. 8 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Boxing

America Presents, by offering a purse of $2.4 million, won the bid to stage a Roy Jones-Michael Nunn World Boxing Council light-heavyweight championship fight. America Presents, based in Denver, is headed by Mat Tinley and Dan Goossen. Goossen manages Nunn. . . . The U.S. was left without a fighter in the World Amateur Championships at Budapest, Hungary, after Anthony Stewart was stopped in the fifth round by Cuba’s Isael Alvarez Bicet.