Service for Chamberlain Is Scheduled for Today

A memorial service for former Laker great Wilt Chamberlain is scheduled for this morning at the City of Angels Church of Religious Science near Marina del Rey. The service is scheduled for 10 a.m.

A second memorial service will take place Thursday at Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Philadelphia, just blocks from the high school where Chamberlain first achieved fame on the basketball court.

The 7-foot-1 center, whose dominance changed the game, died Tuesday of heart failure at his Bel-Air home. He was 63.

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The NBA will work to develop a minor league system in the United States before looking to establish an overseas presence, Commissioner David Stern said Friday in Milan, Italy.

“The way we now see the development of basketball around the world is encouraging,” Stern said, “but the NBA must develop a minor league in our country first, either expanding our relationship with the CBA or perhaps consider starting a league of our own in the next year to 18 months.”

Stern spoke before the semifinals of the McDonald’s Championship, which he billed as “an unofficial global club championship.”

In those semifinals, the San Antonio Spurs flirted with making history of the most unenviable sort before their little guys saved them.

Trailing almost throughout against Italy’s Varese Roosters, the NBA champions used a late run for a 96-86 victory and avoided becoming the league’s first team to lose at the tournament.

As Spurs’ big men Tim Duncan and David Robinson had poor offensive games, point guard Avery Johnson had 18 points and 12 assists, while backcourt mate Mario Elie scored half of his 16 points in a 32-13 run over the final 9:30.

Notes

Chicago Bull veteran point guard B.J. Armstrong will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Monday and is expected to be sidelined up to a month. . . . The Boston Celtics signed forward Tony Battie, 23, to a multiyear contract extension. . . . Toronto Raptor guard Dee Brown underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. Brown said he could be sidelined for as long as two months or as little as two weeks.