Rodman’s Special Kind of Contract Isn’t Fine With NBA

Dennis Rodman made the Chicago Bulls an offer that sounded too good to be true: They could pay him nothing for any games he might miss for kicking a cameraman, head-butting a referee or any other inappropriate antics. However, Rodman’s agent said the NBA won’t allow the deal.

Rodman suggested that the team pay him nothing up front, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday. Instead, he said, the Bulls should set up a sort of debit-card system with $10 million in an escrow account. When it came time to pay him at the end of the season, the team could deduct a pro-rated amount for each game he was suspended.

“But I am told the league won’t allow that kind of arrangement,” his agent, Dwight Manley, told the Sun-Times. “They see it as a violation of the salary cap or something.”

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The Lakers signed rookie free-agent guard Shea Seals, who was not selected in the NBA draft. Terms were not disclosed. In four years at Tulsa, Seals, 22, averaged 18.5 points and 6.3 rebounds. He is the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,288 points.

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The NBA league meetings are set to begin today in Orlando, and trade-minded general managers are eyeing forwards Shawn Kemp of the Seattle SuperSonics and Antonio McDyess of the Denver Nuggets as the two top prizes. The Lakers--reportedly dangling Eddie Jones--Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets are among the teams involved in the bidding, according to league executives and player representatives.

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Former Boston Celtic swingman Todd Day signed with the Miami Heat for the NBA veterans’ minimum of $272,500. Day made $2.9 million last season in Boston. . . . Rick Mahorn, who turns 39 Sunday, agreed to return to the Detroit Pistons under a one-year deal. Terms were not disclosed.

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A prosecutor in York, S.C., said he might not decide until next month whether to charge Charlotte Hornet owner George Shinn, who is accused by a woman of kidnapping and sexually assaulting her in his home.

Track and Field

Despite being cleared by USA Track and Field after allegedly testing positive for testosterone at the 1996 U.S. Olympic trials, Mary Slaney remains ineligible to compete pending a decision by the sport’s international governing body, the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

Slaney hasn’t commented on the ruling, but her lawyer, Jim Coleman, said he expects the IAAF to go along with the U.S. ruling.

The IAAF isn’t expected to rule until late November.

Tennis

Former star Bjorn Borg avoided personal bankruptcy after one of his former companies agreed to pay part of his debt to 11 Swedish creditors.

Borg owed them more than $1 million, but the creditors will accept less than half of that, the Swedish newspaper Expressen said.

With the wind buffeting shots and her game in disarray, Chanda Rubin lost to qualifier Shinobu Asagoe, 6-4, 6-3, at the Toyota Princess Cup in Tokyo. Asagoe is ranked 259th in the world. Rubin is ranked 30th.

Top-seeded Monica Seles, who had a first-round bye, advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn, 6-1, 6-4.

Golf

The tournament committee of the PGA European Tour said it did not agree with the decision to remove Miguel Angel Martin from the Ryder Cup team, but the move probably will have no impact on next week’s competition.

Colin Montgomerie, the top money winner the last four years in Europe, said he might be playing mostly in the United States next year.

Auto Racing

Dexter Canipe, who won 17 of 21 races this season at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina, won NASCAR’s national championship of short-track racing. He earned a $132,500 bonus.

Boxing

Former heavyweight champion George Foreman pulled out of his Nov. 22 fight with unbeaten Hasim Rahman of Baltimore in Ledyard, Conn., HBO vice president Lou DiBella said. A source close to Foreman blamed promoter Bob Arum for suggesting it was too tough a match.

Boxing great Muhammad Ali wants back some cherished personal souvenirs scheduled for auction Oct. 19 at Christie’s in Los Angeles, saying “somebody stole my stuff.” The 3,000 items include his 1960 Golden Gloves trophy which could fetch at least $30,000.

Miscellaneous

The state-sponsored system that helped turn East Germany into a sports power still is producing drug cheats, said German researcher Werner Franke, who said files show that most of East Germany’s Olympic medal winners in strength and speed events have taken drugs. He said many of the people and methods involved were still active today. . . . The U.S. men’s and women’s teams will face Cuba in the finals of the North and Central American and Caribbean Volleyball Championships in Caguas, Puerto Rico, after the men beat Canada, 15-10, 15-13, 12-15, 15-13, and the women beat the Dominican Republic, 15-10, 11-15, 15-9, 15-4. The winners qualify for the World Cup in November in Japan. . . . Gusty winds forced American Craig Breedlove to scrub his plans for another test of his jet-powered car in anticipation of a run at the world land-speed record in Gerlach, Nev. . . . A bullet train that will run between Tokyo and Nagano, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics, was unveiled and will cut the three-hour trip in half.