Riley Gets Way With Hardaway, Who Agrees to One-Year Pact

Tim Hardaway has agreed to a one-year, $12-million contract with the Miami Heat that will make him the highest-paid point guard in the NBA. Hardaway, a member of the U.S. Olympic basketball team, was mailed his contract in Australia.

Hardaway had originally sought a three-year contract at less money per year, but Pat Riley, the Heat’s coach and president, said he is no longer offering long-term deals. Hardaway has been injured often the past two seasons. He was particularly hobbled in successive postseason losses to the New York Knicks.

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Former UCLA star Ed O’Bannon, 28, who played in Argentina last season, has been signed as a free agent by the Orlando Magic. The 6-foot-8, 203-pound O’Bannon, selected by the New Jersey Nets in the first round of the 1995 draft, has averaged 5.0 points and 2.5 rebounds in 128 games with the Nets and Dallas Mavericks between 1995-98. He has also played in the CBA and was with the Magic for a month in 1997 but didn’t appear in a regular-season game.

Pro hockey

Ottawa Senator owner Rod Bryden wants Alexei Yashin to pay the team $930,000 for sitting out last season. The Senators have asked Bill Daly, the NHL’s executive vice president and chief legal officer, to proceed with a lawsuit seeking damages from Yashin, an NHL spokesman said.

Bryden told the Ottawa Sun that he wants to continue with the unprecedented suit because Yashin’s absence from the lineup cost the club a chance to make it to the second round of the playoffs.

Even though Buffalo eliminated the Senators in the first round the previous year--when the team had Yashin in the lineup--Bryden believes not having the former All-Star cost the club financially.

Bryden was originally seeking $7 million from Yashin, but he dropped the figure when arbitrator Lawrence Holden ruled the club’s leading scorer in 1998-99 owed the team another year.

Yashin, 26, agreed to honor the final year of his deal this month after an Ontario court judge ruled he couldn’t become a restricted free agent until he completed the contract.

San Jose Shark right wing Ron Stern has retired after 13 seasons in the NHL. Stern, 33, had four goals, five assists and a team-leading 151 penalty minutes last season. . . . Goalie Steve Shields signed a one-year contract with the Sharks. Shields, who got mixed reviews in his first season as the Sharks’ starting goalie, was a restricted free agent. His deal contains a club option for a second year based on team performance, General Manager Dean Lombardi said.

Motor racing

Jeremy Mayfield won his fifth pole of the NASCAR Winston Cup season, driving his Ford around the demanding Dover Downs International Speedway in Dover, Del., at 159.872 mph. Mayfield will be seeking his third win of the season in Sunday’s MBNA.com 400. . . . In qualifying for today’s Busch Grand National race at Dover, Mike Skinner set a Busch record of 155.932 mph in winning the pole. . . . In the first NASCAR truck series race held at Dover, rookie Kurt Busch, who wrecked his primary truck in practice, came from last place to pass Mike Wallace and win.

NASCAR Busch Series driver Jimmie Johnson will drive in four Winston Cup races next season for Hendrick Motorsports, the racing team said. Johnson, 25, will join the Hendrick team full time in 2002. He will continue driving for Herzog Motorsports in 2001 in addition to his four Winston Cup races.

Miscellany

Arizona State basketball player Justin Allen has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. School officials said the disease was detected early in the stage two phase and Allen was expected to begin chemotherapy and radiation treatments next week.

The 6-foot-7 player from Malta, Ill., was checked by team doctors after an unexplained weight loss earlier this month. A biopsy of the lower abdomen detected the lymphoma on Sept. 20.

“I am confident that through the proper treatments that I can be back on the court next year,” said Allen, who will redshirt this season.

Warren Rutledge of Richmond, Va., one of the winningest high school basketball coaches in the country, has died. He was 69. Rutledge, who had 949 victories in 43 years at Richmond’s Benedictine High, died Thursday in Birmingham, Ala., one day after suffering a stroke during a fishing trip. He retired last season.