Knicks Await NBA Ruling as NBC Acknowledges Error

The outcome of Sunday’s New York Knick-Miami Heat game remained in dispute Monday as NBA Commissioner David Stern considered a protest filed by the Knicks that could change the final score--and the playoff race.

The Knicks formally protested their 82-81 loss by sending a videotape, a letter and a $10,000 fee to the league office. The team narrowed its argument to claim that a technical malfunction--the early illumination of a red light behind the basket with one-tenth of a second left--could have caused referees to wave off Allan Houston’s last-second basket.

Had the shot counted, as replays showed it should have, the Knicks would have had an 83-82 victory that kept them in seventh place in the Eastern Conference instead of eighth.

Meanwhile, NBC acknowledged it was wrong to switch away from the end of the game before showing a replay of the disputed last play. NBC immediately sent its audience to Seattle for the SuperSonic-Houston Rocket game before finally returning to Miami with 6:02 left in the first quarter in Seattle to air three replays that clearly showed Houston’s shot got off on time.

“We probably made a mistake and could have stayed with the game a little bit longer just to close the loop on it,” NBC Sports spokesman Ed Markey said in New York.

Stern could take as long as five days to rule.

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Attorneys for Washington Wizard forward Juwan Howard, concerned that their client could soon be arrested, went public with their version of what happened at a party thrown by Howard and teammate Chris Webber.

The players were named in a sexual assault complaint filed by a Connecticut woman after the party April 6 at Howard’s suburban Maryland house. They have not been charged, and the case is scheduled to be turned over to a grand jury on Thursday.

“One of the witnesses interviewed informs us that she was an eyewitness to a sex act between the complaining witness and a person we wish not to name at this time,” attorney Billy Martin said. “According to the eyewitness, not only was the sex act consented to by both parties, but the sexual act was initiated by the complaining witness.”

Martin did not say whether the sex act involved either Howard or Webber.

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Charlotte Hornet guard Vernon Maxwell turned himself in to Harris County authorities and began serving a 90-day jail sentence in Houston resulting from a 1995 marijuana possession case. . . . Center Arvydas Sabonis worked out with the Portland Trail Blazers and showed no ill effects from the sore hip that caused him to miss six games. He will play tonight against Sacramento. . . . WNBA players have begun informal talks about forming a union, The New York Times reported.