Van Gundy’s Contract Extended

Jeff Van Gundy, who coached the New York Knicks to the NBA finals, finally has the two-year contract extension he was seeking, the New York Daily News reported Friday.

The Knicks said no announcement was scheduled. Attempts to reach Van Gundy’s agent, Ron Ades, were unsuccessful.

Under his current contract, Van Gundy will be paid $2 million next season. By winning the Eastern Conference title last month, a $3.5-million extension for the 2000-01 season automatically kicked in. The new deal, extending Van Gundy’s contract through 2002-03, is worth between $8 million and $10 million, a high-ranking NBA official told the Daily News.

Tennis

Top-seeded Andre Agassi, currently ranked No. 1 in the world, drew a difficult opponent in his first-round match in next week’s Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA. Agassi’s opponent, in a match expected to be played Tuesday night, is American Jan-Michael Gambill, who beat Agassi at Indian Wells in 1998.

Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras, currently ranked No. 2 in the world and seeded No. 2 here, was more fortunate in the draw. His first-round opponent will be Long Beach junior player Phil King, 17, who was given a wild card into the tournament.

The event begins Monday morning at 11 and ends with the final at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 1. An annual highlight will be “A Night at the Net” Monday night, featuring Agassi, Sampras, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams.

Former No. 1 players Carlos Moya of Spain and Marcelo Rios of Chile lost in the quarterfinals of the $1-million Mercedes Cup at Stuttgart, Germany.

Moya lost to Tommy Haas of Germany, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5. Rios, rusty from a five-week layoff, was swept, 6-2, 6-2, by unseeded Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic.

Motor Sports

Dave Blaney won the pole for the NASCAR Grand National NAPA AutoCare 250 at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado Springs, Colo., at at 135.318 mph. Former Atlanta Falcon coach Jerry Glanville crashed on his last qualifying lap. He was carried from the car on a stretcher and was treated for a bruised ankle at a clinic and released. . . . Dodge scored an unprecedented sweep of the first four positions for the inaugural running of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series goracing.com 200 race at Brooklyn, Mich. Stacy Compton won the pole position with a speed of 175.717 mph. . . . Crew chief Larry McReynolds, unable to complete a deal to start his own Winston Cup team in 2000, will remain with Richard Childress Racing the next three years.

Miscellany

Two Olympic men’s basketball berths are at stake in today’s semifinals of the Tournament of the Americas at San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the United States plays Australia and Puerto Rico takes on Canada.

Despite winning the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, the United States has to qualify for the 2000 Games because of its finish in the 1998 World Championships. NBA players did not play there because of the lockout. Yugoslavia won and the United States finished third with CBA players.

Ronnie Nunn, one of 12 NBA referees investigated by the IRS for tax evasion, pleaded guilty to the charges in Bridgeport, Conn.

Nunn admitted that during 1993 he earned more income than he declared on his return by cashing in first-class airline tickets for coach tickets and pocketing the difference. He faces up to three years in prison and up to $100,000 in fines when sentenced Sept. 27.

Rick Neuheisel, the University of Washington’s new football coach, still doesn’t have a signed contract more than six months after he was hired.

Neuheisel, a former UCLA quarterback, left Colorado in January after Jim Lambright was fired at Washington after a 6-6 season. Athletic Director Barbara Hedges lured Neuheisel to Washington for about $1 million a season.

One of the major sticking points apparently is making Neuheisel’s contract conform with a ruling by the state’s Executive Ethics Board. In April, the board said outside compensation paid to Lambright violated the 1995 ethics law for state employees.

Native Canadian marchers paraded to the opening ceremonies of the Pan American Games at Winnipeg to protest what they say are third-world conditions for their people in Manitoba.

In events, shutouts and routs were the order of the opening day for the United States, which also collected six medals in canoe-kayak.

The soccer squads didn’t yield a goal and the men’s water polo team also was spotless. The women gave up two, but they scored 16.

Rookies Dario Brose and Richard Mulrooney scored second-half goals to rally San Jose from a two-goal deficit before the Clash defeated the Chicago Fire, 3-2, in a Major League Soccer shootout before 8,329 in Chicago.

U.S. luger Christian Niccum was banned from competing for two years because he tested positive for a drug banned by the International Olympic Committee.

Chad Alvarez, son of Wisconsin football Coach Barry Alvarez, pleaded not guilty in Madison, Wis., to charges of killing a fraternity brother’s parrot by putting it in a microwave oven.