NBA Players Leery of Proposal

NBA owners agreed Friday to accept the union’s concept of a luxury tax on some contracts to see if such a system will slow salary growth, but player response doesn’t indicate that the sides are any closer to ending the lockout.

The league asked for a two-year trial, with higher tax rates and a lower threshold than the union had proposed. A hard salary cap would be installed for the 2000-01 season if the percentage of league revenue devoted to salaries failed to drop from 57% to 52%.

Despite the apparent movement on the part of the owners, the union responded negatively.

“It appears at a quick glance to be a step backward . . . more onerous than the proposal we received from them Sept. 24,” union director Billy Hunter said. “It may be disguised in terms of a tax, but it is in fact a hard cap.”

According to the league’s projections, the tax would have no impact on 85% of future player contracts. But Hunter claimed it would be a tax on all contracts, not just “Larry Bird exception” contracts as the league said, and would cause up to 95% of the players to accept the league minimum salary.

The Larry Bird rule allows teams to exceed the salary cap to retain their own free agents.

The league also included an exemption for any player who accepts a Bird contract with a 5% raise. Such a rule would allow the Chicago Bulls to re-sign Michael Jordan for about $36 million without having to pay any tax.

The NBA has already canceled the first two weeks of the season, 99 games. More games will be lost if the sides can’t reach agreement soon. The only day available for bargaining next week is Tuesday. The sides expect to receive an arbitration ruling from John Feerick by Monday on whether owners have to pay players with guaranteed contracts during the lockout.

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The Clippers, who have been without a coach since Bill Fitch was fired at the end of last season, plan to interview three candidates next week: Chris Ford, former Laker Eddie Jordan and Jim Brewer. Both Ford and Jordan coached in the NBA last season but were fired after the season by the Milwaukee Bucks and Sacramento Kings, respectively. Brewer was an assistant under Fitch last season but was released when Fitch was fired.

Tennis

Second-seeded Venus Williams blasted her way into the semifinals of the European Championships at Zurich, Switzerland, capping a 6-4, 6-1 victory over No. 7 Mary Pierce with a women’s-record serve timed at 127 mph. . . . Top-seeded Pete Sampras took only 57 minutes to defeat unseeded Tim Henman, 6-0, 6-3, and advance to the semifinals of the $800,000 CA Trophy tournament at Vienna. . . . Wild-card entry Jim Courier advanced to the semifinals of the Singapore Open with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over fellow American Michael Gambill.

Golf

Tiger Woods won on the first playoff hole of the quarterfinals at the World Match Play Championships at Virginia Water, England, as Ian Woosnam missed four-foot putts at the 34th and 36th holes, then bogeyed the first extra hole.

In the other 36-hole quarterfinals at Wentworth Club, defending champion Vijay Singh defeated Patrik Sjoland, 7 and 6; Mark O’Meara rallied to beat Colin Montgomerie, 5 and 4; and Lee Westwood downed three-time champion Ernie Els, 2 and 1.

Bob Tway shot a three-under 69 in gusty conditions to move into sole possession of the lead in the Las Vegas Invitational--and one round closer to his goal of making it into the season-ending Tour Championship.

Tway overcame three three-putts to get to 14-under 202 and take a two-shot lead over Davis Love III, Jim Furyk and David Ogrin on a day when winds gusting to 40 mph sent most third-round scores soaring.

Despite gusty winds throughout the day, John Schroeder, Kurt Cox and Jim Albus managed three-under 69s in the opening round of the Raley’s Gold Rush Classic at El Dorado Hills, Calif.

Fred Gibson, Terry Dill and Tommy Aaron were all at 70 as only 16 of the 78 golfers in the Senior PGA Tour field broke par.

Auto Racing

Alex Zanardi, looking for his seventh Champ car victory of the season, broke the Surfers Paradise street circuit qualifying record in Australia with a lap of 109.002 mph. He covered 2.795 miles in 1:32.310 in his Reynard-Honda.

Jurisprudence

Boxer Mike Tyson’s trial on criminal assault charges stemming from a traffic accident in Rockville, Md., originally set for Monday, has been moved to Dec. 1. . . . Jose Brea-Tousent, Natividad Tavarez and Milton Gonzalez, minor league players for the New York Mets, were convicted of sexual battery on a 17-year-old girl in an incident in Florida last April.

Miscellany

Lennox Lewis is expected to sign a contract on Monday to fight Evander Holyfield in a heavyweight championship unification match in late February or early March, according to Panos Eliades, Lewis’ British promoter. Once Lewis signs, an agreement must be reached between promoter Don King and HBO, whose pay-per-view arm, TVKO, would carry the fight. . . . The school board in Chapel Hill, N.C., rejected $2,300 in gifts pledged by Adidas to a local school, saying it didn’t want sports apparel companies influencing high school athletics.