Iverson, 76ers Agree on a Deal

Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers have agreed on a $76.7-million, four-year contract extension, a team source told Associated Press on Tuesday.

The deal will keep the three-time NBA scoring champion in Philadelphia through the 2008-09 season.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the 76ers would announce the deal at a special event for season ticket-holders tonight at the Wachovia Center. The contract extension was first reported on the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Web site.

Iverson has one year plus an option remaining on his current deal, which will pay him more than $28 million over the next two years. The extension begins in 2005-06.

Iverson averaged 27.6 points last season, helping Philadelphia finish 48-34 and advance to the second round of the playoffs. He was the NBA’s most valuable player in 2000-01, when he led the 76ers to the Eastern Conference championship for the first time since 1983.

In seven seasons, Iverson is averaging 27.0 points and 5.6 assists. This summer, he helped the U.S. team qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Iverson had a contentious relationship with former 76er coach Larry Brown, who left to coach the Detroit Pistons after last season. Iverson gets along well with new Coach Randy Ayers, who was Brown’s assistant.

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Rebecca Lobo retired after a career in which she led Connecticut to its first NCAA basketball championship and helped launch the WNBA.

The 30-year-old Lobo, who spent last season with the Connecticut Sun, was plagued by knee injuries during her seven years in the WNBA, the first five with the New York Liberty.

Lobo, 6 feet 4, led Connecticut to its first national championship in 1995, when the team finished 35-0.

Lobo was traded to Houston before the 2002 season and returned to Connecticut when the former Orlando Miracle franchise was purchased by the Mohegan Indian Tribe.

Lobo averaged 2.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 11.9 minutes for the Sun, which lost to eventual champion Detroit in the Eastern Conference finals. She averaged 6.7 points and 4.1 rebounds in 121 WNBA games.

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Free-agent point guard Bimbo Coles, a 13-year NBA veteran, signed with Miami. He played for Cleveland and Boston last season.

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Tom Abatemarco, an assistant last season for the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs, has been hired as an assistant to Utah men’s Coach Rick Majerus.

Abatemarco is a former coach at Cal State Sacramento, Drake and Lamar.

Miscellany

Caffeine and pseudoephedrine, an ingredient in over-the-counter cold remedies such as Sudafed, were removed from the list of banned substances for international sports.

The World Anti-Doping Agency said it wanted to prevent the suspensions of athletes who took common cold remedies or drank cola or coffee.

A two-day meeting at Montreal of WADA’s executive committee also made modafinil a banned stimulant for the first time. That is the medication that could cost American sprinter Kelli White two gold medals from the track and field world championships last month at Paris.

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Olympic 200-meter freestyle champion Claudia Poll’s suspension for testing positive for a banned steroid was cut to two years, allowing her to compete in the 2004 Athens Games.

FINA, swimming’s world governing body, said the Costa Rican was benefiting from its new doping code, applied retroactively.

Poll tested positive for the banned steroid norandrosterone in an out-of-competition test in 2002 and was suspended for four years.

FINA said Greek swimmer Vasileios Demetis, banned for life after testing positive for norandrosterone and lidocaine two years ago, would be allowed to return because of the new rule.

Swimming’s new doping code, adopted Sept. 11, stipulates that bans for “heavy drugs” such as steroids merit a two-year ban instead of four years.

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French middle-distance runner Fouad Chouki failed a drug test at the track and field world championships and could face a two-year suspension.

Chouki, eighth in the men’s 1,500 meters at Paris, tested positive for the performance enhancer EPO, the French Athletics Federation said.

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Obadele Thompson of Barbados finished in 10.20 seconds to beat world record-holder Tim Montgomery, who was clocked in 10.32, in the men’s 100 meters in the Yokohama Super Track and Field meet in Japan.

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Daniel Im of La Mirada, The Times’ 2003 boys’ golfer of the year, has committed to UCLA. Im won the CIF-SCGA individual title last spring and is ranked No. 10 in the nation among junior golfers by Golfweek magazine. He won the American Junior Golf Assn. Mission Hills championship in July.