NBA Players Change Exhibition

Facing bad publicity and long odds of selling the event, the organizers of an exhibition basketball game featuring locked-out NBA players to be played Dec. 19 at Atlantic City, N.J., changed course Thursday and decided to give all proceeds to charity.

Instead of dividing proceeds from the game among supposedly needy players and charities, any profits will be donated to UNICEF and other charities. Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Penny Hardaway and Reggie Miller are among those expected to play in the game.

“Because of the cancellation of the NBA All-Star game, the players want to do this for the fans in Philadelphia and the world,” said Curtis Polk, president of Falk Associates Management Enterprises.

Organizers hope to raise $1 million from broadcast rights and the sale of 13,000 tickets at $25 to $500 apiece. However, ticket sales have been delayed because of seating configuration problems at Convention Hall, undergoing a two-year, $70-million renovation.

Work will be discontinued to allow installation of the court, scoreboard and lighting, according to Convention Hall assistant general manager Gregg Caren.

As of Thursday, Ticketmaster ticket agency operators were still telling callers no information was available about the event.

Casinos, usually the biggest supporters of sporting events in Atlantic City, are being asked to buy blocks of tickets for their patrons.

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Tari Phillips had 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Colorado Xplosion in a 71-60 American Basketball League victory over the Seattle Reign. The game was played before 1,430 at Denver.

Winter Sports

Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria easily won the women’s super-giant slalom ski race at Val D’Isere, France, her third World Cup win of the season. Meissnitzer’s time of 1 minute 21.95 seconds put her ahead of Germany’s Martina Ertl, who finished 0.79 of a second behind.

World Cup ski leader Hannu Manninen of Finland took control inside the last kilometer to edge Olympic champion Bjarte Engen Vik of Norway by three-tenths of a second at Steamboat Springs, Colo. for his fourth World Cup Nordic combined victory of the season.

Manninen was third in jumping on the opening day of the Sprint Ski Town USA World Cup. He started the 7.5-kilometer race, which uses a handicap start format, nine seconds behind Vik. The event continues Saturday with 112-meter jumping.

Sondra Van Ert of Ketchum, Idaho, outclassed her competition to easily win a women’s World Cup super-G snowboard race at Whistler, Canada.

Van Ert, 34, ran the course in 1 minute, 7.12 seconds. Italy’s Margerita Parini was second in 1:08.50 and Austria’s Ursula Fingerlos was third in 1:08.97.

Ian Price of Manchester, N.H., won the men’s super-G in 1:00.64. Mark Fawcett of Canada was second in 1:01.81 and Richard Richardsson of Sweden was third in 1:02:06.

The men’s World Cup super-G wiped out by fog last week at Whistler has been rescheduled for Dec. 21 in Innsbruck, Austria.

Jurisprudence

Former NBA referee Paul Mihalak pleaded guilty in Erie, Pa., to filing a false income tax return in an airline-ticket scam and faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing, scheduled for March 2.

Oklahoma State wrestler Brian Burrows was found guilty of vehicular homicide and involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 4-year-old boy in an auto accident in Greensburg, Pa.

Burrows, 19, a former Pennsylvania state champion, was involved in the wreck on Jan. 4 while at home during a holiday break from school. Burrows could be sentenced to five years in prison.

Miscellany

Faced with clear evidence of drug use by former East German athletes, Olympic leaders must now deal with the question of whether to revise the record books going back 20 years and more.

The International Olympic Committee opens a four-day executive board meeting today at Lausanne, Switzerland, that will consider petitions seeking redress for American and British swimmers who lost medals to East Germans.

No decision is expected this week.

IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch ordered a probe into the scholarship payments made to relatives of IOC members, which have been described as bribes paid by the Salt Lake City bid committee to help win the 2002 Winter Games. The inquiry will be led by Keba Mbaye of Senegal, a former World Court judge who heads the IOC’s commission dealing with legal and ethical issues.

Top Japanese government officials have agreed to support a bid by Osaka, the nation’s third-largest city, to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. Paris, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur have also expressed a desire to host the Games, which will be decided at an IOC meeting in Moscow in 2001.

Names in the News

Robert Norton of Britain has pulled out of his scheduled World Boxing Council cruiserweight title fight against champion Juan Carlos Gomez of Cuba because of flu. Norton will be replaced by American Rodney Gordon, who will fight Gomez on Saturday in Frankfurt.