Karl Gets Job to Turn Bucks Into Winners

After missing the playoffs the past seven years, the Milwaukee Bucks are turning to a coach known best for his teams’ postseason failures.

The Bucks signed former Seattle SuperSonic Coach George Karl to a four-year deal Saturday to replace Chris Ford, who was fired last week.

Over the past six seasons, the SuperSonics won more games than any NBA team except the Chicago Bulls. Still, owner Barry Ackerley was disappointed by his team’s lack of playoff success despite a trip to the NBA finals in 1996.

However, that lack of success didn’t stop the Bucks from pursuing Karl.

“When the opportunity here came about, I was very excited,” Karl said at a news conference. “I love coaching and I wanted to coach this team.”

Karl was said to be seeking a contract worth between $3 million and $5 million per year. When Ford was fired, owner Herb Kohl said money wouldn’t be an object in hiring a new coach.

The Bucks were 33-49 in Ford’s first season and 36-46 last season.

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The civil trial of Vernon Maxwell, who is accused of knowingly giving a woman herpes, is on hold after the former Houston Rocket star filed for bankruptcy.

Maxwell, 33, who played for the Charlotte Hornets last season, filed bankruptcy papers in Atlanta on Thursday, one day before the herpes trial was set to begin at Houston.

Under federal law, the plaintiff and all others seeking to collect from Maxwell must wait until the Georgia bankruptcy court rules on his case, something lawyers said could take years.

Tennis

After going more than a year without a title, Steffi Graff was a little nervous before the final of the Pilot Pen International at New Haven, Conn.

Graff overcame her jitters and continued her dominance of Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna with a 6-4, 6-1 victory.

Graf’s last title came in May 1997 on the clay courts of Strasbourg, France. A month later she had surgery on her left knee. The Pilot Pen was her ninth tournament this year and the first time she reached a final.

In a rematch of last year’s U.S. Open final, Patrick Rafter defeated Greg Rusedski with a 6-4, 7-5 victory to advance to the finals of the Hamlet Cup at Commack, N.Y. Rafter, 25-3 with three titles since mid-June, will face Felix Mantilla in today’s final after Mantilla defeated 18-year-old Russian Marat Safin, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

Fourth-seeded Michael Chang withstood a three-set challenge from qualifier Sebastien Grosjean to advance to the final of the MFS Pro Championship at Brookline, Mass. The 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory set up a match with unseeded Paul Haarhuis, who upset third-seeded Cedric Pioline, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

Auto Racing

It took him a while to get rolling, but Kenny Brack was there at the end of the inaugural Atlanta 500 Classic, becoming the first Pep Boys Indy Racing League driver to win three consecutive races.

Brack, a 30-year-old Swede, failed to win in his first 13 IRL races and hasn’t lost since, giving car owner A.J. Foyt victories at Charlotte, Pikes Peak and now Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The win, combined with Scott Sharp’s failure to finish because of a gearbox problem midway through the race, moved Brack into the season points lead with only two of 11 races remaining.

Brack was third when the green flag came out on lap 185 for the last restart, but he quickly passed Davey Hamilton for second and then chased down leader Jeff Ward.

Brack led only 17 of the 208 laps on the 1.54-mile oval, but took the lead for good on lap 195 when he passed Ward in the first turn and pulled away.

NASCAR Busch North Series driver Tom Bolles broke his neck in a racing accident at New Hampshire International Speedway at Loudon.

Greg Kraft, nursing supervisor at Concord Hospital, said Bolles fractured the second cervical bone in his spine, but had no apparent paralysis. Kraft said the driver was in stable condition, conscious and breathing without assistance and that no immediate surgery was anticipated.

The 37-year-old driver from Ellington, Conn., was injured when his car spun after slight contact with a car driven by Dale Shaw, and crashed into the first turn wall. The driver’s side of the car hit the concrete barrier.

Pole-sitter Ted Christopher, driving a Chevrolet, defeated Dave Dion in a Ford by 0.959 seconds.

Tony Raines waited through 61 laps under caution, then passed Mike Bliss with 10 laps to go and went on to win the Kroger 225 at Louisville, Ky., becoming the seventh different winner in as many races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Formula One standings leader Mika Hakkinen won the pole position for today’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

Boxing

Unbeaten junior-bantamweight champion Johnny Tapia, fighting four pounds over 115-pound class limit, scored a unanimous 10-round decision over Carlos Hernandez of Indio in a non-title bout at Las Vegas.

Tapia dominated throughout to improve to 44-0-2.

Unbeaten International Boxing Federation junior-flyweight champion Mauricio Pastrana of Colombia stopped Carlos Murillo of Panama in the ninth round, but still lost his title.

Pastrana failed three times during a 2 1/2-hour period to make the 108-pound limit at the official weigh-in. Under IBF rules, Pastrana could not retain his title even with a win. Had Murillo won he would have been crowned the new champion, but Pastrana was victorious so the title was declared vacant.

Cycling

Florian Rousseau of France won the men’s individual sprint world title for the third consecutive year at the World Cycling Championships at Bordeaux, France. Felicia Ballanger set a world record in the women’s 500-meter time trial before to Rousseau’s victory, giving France six gold medals with one day to go.