Issel Returns to Nuggets

Denver, suffering through one of the worst seasons in NBA history, looked to their past for a solution by hiring former Nugget player and coach Dan Issel as general manager Wednesday.

Issel was given a three-year contract to fill the position left vacant since the Feb. 4 ouster of Allan Bristow.

Issel, forced out as the Nuggets’ coach in January 1995, will try to rebuild a franchise that has posted an abysmal 8-62 record this season, challenging the NBA’s all-time futility mark of 9-73 set by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers.

Issel’s first goal is to get the team to 10 wins.

“It is about winning. We’re gonna go forward and I’m looking forward to the challenge,” Issel said.

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Washington Wizard guard Rod Strickland was fined $5,000 by the NBA for verbally abusing officials and failing to leave the court in a timely manner following his ejection in Portland on Tuesday.

Strickland was ejected with 2:39 left in the third quarter. The ejection carries an additional automatic $1,000 fine.

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Thomas Christopher Davis, 23, of Rocky Mount, N.C., was charged with making harassing phone calls after allegedly calling the Target Center in Minneapolis during a Chicago Bulls-Minnesota Timberwolves game Dec. 30 claiming to be Michael Jordan’s brother and saying Jordan’s mother had been rushed to a hospital. Davis was released without bail and is due in court April 9.

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Phoenix Sun guard Rex Chapman will be sidelined for at least one week because of a groin injury suffered in Tuesday’s loss to the Utah Jazz, the team said. . . . The Portland Trail Blazers signed point guard Gary Grant to a contract for the rest of the season. Grant had signed two 10-day contracts. . . . Reggie Hanson, who played for Boston Coach Rick Pitino at Kentucky, signed a 10-day contract with the Celtics.