Less Than Two Years After Firing, Albert Rejoins NBC

Marv Albert is back where he started on network television, returning to NBC less than two years after he was fired for pleading guilty in a sex case.

Albert, who again will announce NBA games for the network, called his return “kind of a euphoria--a nice, weird feeling.”

“I’m just so happy to be back. . . . There will be plenty of national exposures, and I’m very satisfied to come home,” he said.

Albert won’t return to his former role as the network’s top play-by-play man for NBA games, but will complement existing broadcast teams.

Albert, who agreed to a multiyear deal, will work about 15 regular-season NBA games and the first four weekends of the playoffs. He will also be involved in boxing telecasts during the 2000 Olympics and hockey in the 2002 Winter Games.

NBC sports chairman Dick Ebersol made it known shortly after firing Albert in September 1997 that he was interested in bringing him back. Reports that Fox was close to signing Albert for its NFL games prompted Ebersol to move quickly.

“I was actually reading that Marv was in discussions with Fox and it told me that this was the opportunity to move or we wouldn’t be able to do this for three or four years,” Ebersol said. “I realized I’d better react immediately.”

Albert pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault charges in September 1997 after being accused of biting his lover’s back in a hotel room during a sexual encounter.

Basketball

Yolanda Griffith had 30 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Sacramento Monarchs over the Minnesota Lynx, 86-72, as the teams combined for a WNBA-record 21 three-point baskets before 8,484 at Minneapolis.

Sacramento shot 10 for 21 from beyond the arc and Minnesota was 11 for 25. The old record was 19, set by Houston and Phoenix on July 22, 1997.

Clem Haskins maintained he had no knowledge of academic cheating in the Minnesota men’s basketball program and would have stopped it if he had known, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

Haskins gave the Star Tribune his first interview since accepting a $1.5-million buyout of his contract last week, when he resigned as coach under pressure stemming from accusations of academic fraud.

Haskins, using a walker after having double knee-replacement surgery June 8, was interviewed at his home. He said he would have preferred to coach the final three years of his contract.

“They got me when I was on my back,” Haskins told the newspaper. “If I was up, I would have fought a little harder.”

“The combination of the surgery and the thought that I would never coach the Gophers again was tough to take. But now I’m really at peace with myself. I feel good with the way things are going.”

Miscellany

Workers at an auto shop in San Gabriel owned by NBA star Latrell Sprewell sold vehicles that were stolen in Mexico, authorities said.

Nineteen vehicles have been recovered but there have been no arrests directly related to the stolen vehicles, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said. Search warrants have been issued for eight locations.

The New York Knick guard “does not appear to be involved in these criminal activities,” a sheriff’s department news release said. Deputies refused to discuss the case.

Sprewell Racing, which opened in October, sells high-performance wheels, tires, suspension systems and other accessories.

A jury in Lubbock, Texas, awarded former Texas Tech quarterback Zebbie Lethridge $22.5 million in his lawsuit against Dillard’s department store and a security guard.

After Lethridge, 24, was found innocent of the stealing a pair of earrings in a 1995 incident in Lubbock Municipal Court, he filed a civil suit saying Dillard’s and security guard Tom Robison accused him of shoplifting only because he is black.

Colorado Avalanche center Peter Forsberg underwent surgery on his left shoulder that was injured when he was hit by Dallas Star defenseman Richard Matvichuk during the playoffs.

He is expected to be sidelined for four to six months.

The International Cycling Union said it has ordered organizers of the Tour de France to readmit French rider Richard Virenque to this year’s race.

Virenque was the best known of several riders ordered barred from the event earlier this month because of allegations of doping. The union ordered the reversal because of a technical error.

Christophe Dugarry, a member of France’s World Cup soccer champion team, tested positive for the anabolic steroid Nandrolene, though he denied taking the drug or any other banned substance.

Dugarry’s Olympique Marseille team confirmed that the 27-year-old failed a drug test after a French league match against Lyon on April 30.

Dugarry scored France’s first World Cup goal last year and played in the final against Brazil.

Marshall Wayne, an Olympic diver whose gold and silver medals in the 1936 Games in Berlin upset Adolf Hitler, died earlier this month. Wayne was 87.