Former Celtic Told 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.

Johnson, who retired in 1990 after 14 seasons with the Celtics, posted a $5,000 bond Tuesday.

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, Mo., and is expected to be forwarded to the NCAA subcommittee on recruiting, Shane Lyons, an NCAA spokesman said.

The National Assn. of Basketball Coaches has proposed restricting the summer recruiting season to 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 restitution of $445.33 for favors he improperly received from an instructor, 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.

Illinois State point guard Jamar Smiley was suspended for four games because of run-ins with the law, the school said. Smiley, fourth in the nation last season with 7.3 assists per game, pleaded guilty in Nassau County, N.Y., to a misdemeanor charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He faces a felony charge in McLean County, Ill., stemming from the same incident.

Tom Jurich, 41, former athletic director at Colorado State, was hired in the same capacity at Louisville.

Olympics

Los Angeles is among a record 10 cities seeking to bring the Summer Games back to the United States in 2012. The cities each submitted a letter of intent and a nonrefundable bid fee to the U.S. Olympic Committee. The USOC’s Board of Directors meets in Orlando, Fla., next week.

Los Angeles 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.

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. Dong’s teammate, Jiang Bo, was timed in 14:31.30, and Liu Shixiang clocked 14:32.33, both taking more than four seconds off the previous record.

Wang and Qu were both among the first members of Coach Ma’s “army” of women runners who turned in record-breaking performances during the early 1990s, fueling allegations of drug abuse in Chinese sports.

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.

Seventh-seeded Kimberly Po advanced to the second round of the Luxembourg Open when Barbara Rittner of Germany retired in the decisive set because of injury with the score 0-6, 7-5, 4-1.

Top-seeded Francisco Clavet of Spain beat Andrea Gaudenzi of Italy, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0, in the first round of the Mexican Open clay-court tournament in Mexico City.

The nation’s top women’s collegiate players will compete in the Riviera All-American Championship beginning Thursday at Riviera Tennis Club in Pacific Palisades.

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, tentatively scheduled for January. America Presents 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.

Miscellany

Key Minnesota legislators dealt a devastating blow to prospects for a new Minnesota Twins stadium by failing to endorse any funding proposals for a ballpark.

The PGA of America’s choice for captain of the 1999 Ryder Cup team will be revealed today. Among those considered the top contenders are Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Larry Nelson and Tom Kite, captain of this year’s team.

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

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.