After Considering Jackson, SuperSonics Hire Westphal

The Seattle SuperSonics said they had some interest in Phil Jackson as their new coach. Instead, they decided to hire Paul Westphal to replace George Karl.

“We interviewed four outstanding candidates for the job and the speculation that we were waiting to talk to a fifth candidate [Jackson] was accurate, but the further we got into the process the more evident it became that Paul was the right man for this job,” President Wally Walker said Wednesday in Seattle.

Said Westphal: “I think this is the best job that’s come available in the time I’ve been out. I was waiting for a great job and this is a great job.”

Westphal, 47, was introduced during a news conference at SuperSonic headquarters, a day after agreeing to a four-year contract that reportedly will pay him between $1 million and $1.5 million a season.

Westphal, out of coaching almost three years, made no promises.

“All I’ll try to do is get this team playing the best it can play and see how far we can go in the playoffs,” he said.

Five years ago, Westphal coached the Phoenix Suns to the NBA finals. He was fired in January of 1996.

Karl, who had the best winning percentage of any coach in SuperSonics’ history at 71.9, was fired two weeks after Seattle was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs following four consecutive losses to the Lakers.

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Interest in Laker forward Rick Fox has quickly turned international, with a team from Bologna, Italy, making the first offer to the free agent-to-be.

Fox almost certainly will not take it because of a desire to remain in the NBA, but it’s attractive enough not to be ruled out.

NBA clubs are not allowed to contact Fox until July 1--and that date is written in disappearing ink because of a looming lockout--but foreign teams deal with no such regulations.

That it comes at a time of uncertainty with the labor unrest gives Fox that much more reason to consider the multimillion-dollar offer for 1998-99. If current rules carry over into the new collective bargaining agreement, it greatly hurts the Lakers’ chances of retaining him, though their starting small forward will listen to pitches from around the league before seriously considering the Italian team.

“He would consider it,” agent Mark Portnoy said. “It is a second choice, but it’s a lot of money as well. This summer especially.”

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A moratorium resembling a no-lockout, no-strike pledge was discussed Wednesday during an NBA collective bargaining session as a way to reinstate the 12 players who were removed from the U.S. world championship team.

Seven of the 12 expelled players met by conference call during the morning as Commissioner David Stern, deputy commissioner Russ Granik, union director Billy Hunter and union president Patrick Ewing convened at a Manhattan law office for a regularly scheduled bargaining session.

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Roy Williams’ name has been linked to the Chicago Bulls so often, irritation is turning to amusement for the Kansas coach.

Since the highly successful Williams and Michael Jordan are good friends, the speculation goes, the Bulls will hire him to replace Jackson and thus entice Jordan to stick around and go for a seventh NBA championship.

“They’re all rumors,” said Williams, who has been Kansas’ coach for 10 seasons. “I’ve spoken to one team, a good bit ago, and told them I was not interested. I have never had any discussions with the Chicago Bulls.”

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Golden State Warrior guard Latrell Sprewell “strenuously objects” to television cameras being allowed in court during the upcoming trial of his reckless driving charge, his attorneys say.

Sprewell’s attorneys said in court papers filed Tuesday in Walnut Creek, Calif., that Court TV’s plans to televise the proceedings could create “the kind of circus atmosphere that surrounded the O.J. Simpson case.”

Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Bruce Mills is expected to rule on the Court TV issue on July 20.

The trial is set to begin July 28.

Sprewell’s reckless-driving charge stems from a March 1 accident in Pleasant Hill, 25 miles northeast of San Francisco. Sprewell crashed his Mercedes into another car, which flipped and injured the two people inside.

Sprewell has pleaded not guilty. If convicted of the misdemeanor, he could face up to six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine.

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Jordan has earned yet another victory.

Spencer Communications, a California advertising firm, will pay an unspecified amount to settle a lawsuit over a magazine ad for a high-speed boat that mentions Jordan, according to a court document signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Wallace Dixon in Greenville, N.C.

The ad contains the sentence, “Move over Michael Jordan.”

Agents for Jordan demanded $1 million, saying the advertisement constituted trademark infringement and diluted the value of Jordan’s name.

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Staff writer Scott Howard-Cooper contributed to this story.