Delay of NBA Season Appears More Likely

The start of the NBA season was in greater jeopardy than ever Wednesday as owners and players announced they won’t meet again until Oct. 8.

The sides will have only a few days to strike a deal that would preserve an 82-game schedule. A quick settlement seems extremely unlikely with the parties so far apart on the main economic issue of a “hard” or “soft” salary cap.

“I’m starting to believe that not playing through this calendar year is becoming likely,” Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik said in New York as all parties to the dispute grew increasingly pessimistic.

Once a new agreement is reached, it will take at least three weeks to sign players, make trades and hold abbreviated training camps. So, unless a deal can be completed a few days after the sides reconvene, there appears to be no way the season can start on its scheduled date of Nov. 3.

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Jonscott Turco, 28, a former NBA employee charged with stealing more than $50,000 from the league through a phony recruiting firm, pleaded not guilty to grand larceny at his arraignment in New York.

Boxing

Mike Tyson’s handlers moved to clear a major obstacle toward regaining a license for the former heavyweight champion by trying to reach a settlement with two men who accused Tyson of assault following an Aug. 31 traffic accident in Maryland.

Richard Hardick, 50, says Tyson kicked him in the groin after Hardick’s car rear-ended a Mercedes-Benz driven by Tyson’s wife, Monica. Hardick and Abmielec Saucedo, 62, who said Tyson punched him in the face, have filed criminal complaints.

“Hopefully, this will all be resolved before the hearing,” Tyson advisor Jeff Wald said. “We’re going to try to deal with it before then.”

Hardick’s attorney, Roger Titus, confirmed that he had talked to Tyson’s lawyers about a possible settlement but that no agreement had been reached.

Tennis

Andre Agassi spent more time lashing out at outgoing U.S. Tennis Assn. President Harry Marmion than it took him to advance to the quarterfinals of the $6.7-million Grand Slam Cup in Munich, Germany. Agassi, trying to justify his absence from last weekend’s U.S. Davis Cup team’s semifinal loss to Italy, beat Cedric Pioline of France, 6-0, 6-0, in 34 minutes before blaming Marmion for his not playing.

“He [Marmion] won’t pick what the players need, what’s best for the team,” said Agassi, referring to the site in Milwaukee and the slow surface. “It’s what’s best for him.”

Miscellany

San Francisco 49er owner Edward DeBartolo Jr. will pay a $250,000 fine and avoid prison under a plea agreement with prosecutors investigating former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, according to a newspaper report. The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, citing an unidentified source, said that DeBartolo testified Sept. 24 before a federal grand jury in Baton Rouge after reaching the plea agreement in the scheme to illegally influence the awarding of the state’s last riverboat casino license.

Wilma Harris, mother of Laker Coach Del Harris, died in Crossville, Tenn., six weeks after her husband of 69 years, Elmer, died. She was 87. Wilma Harris had been battling illness for several years. . . . Derrike Cope won the first pole of his 16-year Winston Cup career for Sunday’s UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. . . . Scheduled to go on trial Wednesday, suspended University of Montana defensive end Maxime Pierre instead pleaded guilty to raping a former girlfriend last April in Missoula. Pierre, who will be sentenced in November, was also kicked off the team. . . . The Swiss Cycling Federation handed down eight-month bans and $2,164 fines to cyclists Alex Zuelle, Laurent Dufaux and Armin Meier for their expulsions from the scandal-rocked Tour de France for using an illegal performance-enhancing drug.