Section B · Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, December 4, 1998
Michael Jordan makes appearance as lockout negotiations continue
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Late in the lockout game, Michael Jordan checked back in.
Jordan made a surprise appearance at the NBA labor talks Thursday but whether his magic touch can save the season remains to be seen.
"His understanding was that a new proposal was going to be made (by the owners), and he wanted to be there to listen to it," agent David Falk said. "You can read into it that he's continuing to be involved and supportive of the union leadership."
His presence was promising, however, since his agent had said he would not get involved again until discussions got serious.
Jordan did not comment as he entered a hotel across from NBA headquarters.
After about six hours of talks, neither side had put anything new on the table.
where the league and union were huddled in a conference room trying to end the five-month dispute that threatens to wipe out the entire season.
Commissioner David Stern said the sides spent the first two hours feeling each other out and went back to work after a lunch break. The bargaining session was the first
in 13 days with both full negotiating committees in attendance.
If the owners and players can not come up with a solution in the next couple of weeks, the entire 1988-99 season will be canceled, but Stern steadfastly has refused to reveal the specific date.
Jordan's arrival marked the first time he had joined the talks since Oct. 28, when he spent about 8 1/2 hours at the bargaining table and helped try to broker a deal.
The sides met one other time on Nov. 20 and called it their most productive session to date.
Things unraveled in the next couple of days. The union said proposed changes to free agency timing rules were a deal-killer, and the owners then said the union reneged on its acceptance of a complicated tax formula.
Pressure for a settlement and panic during the season's fate increased in recent days, with former union president Isiah Thomas even suggesting that the union could replace Billy Hunter and Patrick Ewing as its lead negotiators.
"The one message I know he (Jordan) is delivering emphatically is that people like Isiah can sit on the sidelines and criticize, but when you are in the game it's harder," Falk said.
The first order of major business yesterday was to decide whether to continue negotiating under the framework that the sides had
"This lockout won't end until the owners get as much as they can out of the players. It comes down to greed on their part."
Alonzo Mourning Miami Heat player
discussed in two previous sessions — a sixor seven-year agreement with a complicated escrow tax system in the final three or four years.
The Nov. 20 proposals would include players having 10 or 15 percent of their paychecks withheld if spending on overall player salaries exceeded a targeted percentage of revenues.
The owners have asked for a 50-50 split, while the players have tied many of their concessions to receiving 60 percent.
The owners moved to 52 and 53 percent on Nov. 20 and the players dropped to 57 percent, but those concessions became void under the ground rules that have been set for the new talks.
"This lockout won't end until the owners get as much as they can out of the players." Miami Heat's Alonzo Mourning said as he arrived for yesterday's talks. "It comes down to greed on their part."
Tyson finds himself in ring of legal trouble
INDIANAPOLIS — Mike Tyson's probation officer plans to file court papers by Monday that could result in the former heavyweight champion returning to prison.
The Associated Press
George Walker, the chief probation officer for Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis, said yesterday that Tyson appeared to violate terms of his parole because of his no-contest plea to misdemeanor assault charges in Maryland.
Tyson was convicted of rape in 1992 and served three years of his six-to-10-year sentence. His probation expires in March.
against Francois Botha in Las Vegas.
The judge can do everything from nothing all the way to imposing the originally suspended sentence, Walker said.
Tyson has a fight scheduled for Jan. 16
Judge Patricia Gifford, who sentenced Tyson, was out of her office yesterday and could not be reached for comment.
Tyson's plea Tuesday stemmed from a traffic accident in August, in which two motorists claimed he kicked and punched them after the fender-bender.
He faces sentencing in Maryland early next year, and he also could wind up back in prison in Indiana, where he already has served three years for rape and has less than four months left on probation.
In addition, Nevada authorities have the
power to revoke his newly granted boxing license.
Tyson: No contest plea could land him back in prison.
Tyson's January fight would be his first since his boxing license was revoked for biting Evander Holyfield's ears during a title match in June 1997. He was reinstated in October.
A news conference will be held Tuesday in Los Angeles to announce the Tyson-Botha bout in Las Vegas, according to a boxing source who spoke on the condition that he not be identified.
Shelly Finkel, Tyson's boxing adviser, said he thought sentencing would be in late January or early February. Mary Moffett, supervisor of the traffic and criminal division of Montgomery County (Md.) District Court, said no sentencing date has been set.
The two men Tyson scuffed with in Maryland already have reached a settlement with the boxer to avoid a civil suit. But, the prosecutor wants jail time on the criminal charge.
Indiana law does not allow no contest pleas, and prosecutors have to weigh the effect of Tyson's plea on his probation, representative Beverly Phillips of the Marion County Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday.
Naming undisputed football champion might be difficult
The Associated Press
All season, ABC has billed the Fiesta Bowl as the undisputed national championship for college football. Without an upset tomorrow, one of the network's analysts says that's not fair.
If No. 1 Tennessee beats Mississippi State in the SEC championship, No. 2 Kansas State beats Texas &M in the Big 12 title game, and No. 3 UCLA beats Miami, one of those deserving teams will be watching the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 4.
That's a far cry from all the promotion ABC has been dedicating to that game since last year, when Michigan and Nebraska couldn't play in a bowl game and ended up splitting the national title.
"I wouldn't be 100 percent comfortable calling the Fiesta Bowl the national championship game then," said ABC analyst Todd Blackledge, who will co-host the network's studio coverage tomorrow and the Bowel Championship Series selection show on Sunday.
The network assured fans that wouldn't happen again. But tomorrow, that may be the scenario.
Kansas State, which is in third place in the BCS standings, is the team most likely to be left out of the Fiesta Bowl. Compounding the problem is that the Wildcats are the No. 1 team in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll, which will automatically crown the winner of the Fiesta Bowl as its champion.
"Grant Teaff, as executive director of the coaches, made a calculated risk that there wouldn't be three undefeated teams," said ESPN analyst Lee Corso, who is a member of the American Football Coaches Association. "That was a good percentage risk, but it may not work out."
"I think this will be
"I think Kansas State may be the best team, but if someone should be left out of the mix, it should be the team with the weakest schedule. In this scenario, it is Kansas State."
Bob Griese ABC analyst
addressed after the season,
and one of the possible
changes is to vote after the
bowl games for the No.1 team."
But Blackledge says that could be too late, especially if Kansas State were to win the Sugar Bowl and coaches would have no choice but to drop them.
"It strikes me as unfair," said Blackledge, who votes in The Associated Press media poll. "The balance of that is they still have the opportunity to be voted No. 1 in the other poll. So it is not like they have absolutely no shot. That would be very unfair."
ABC analyst Bob Griese sees no problem with Kansas State being left out. He says coach Bill Snyder's decision to schedule Northern Illinois, Northeast Louisiana and Indiana State in the non-conference season should put the Wildcats behind UCLA and Tennessee.
UCLA played Miami and Texas out of conference, and Tennessee traveled to Syracuse.
"I think Kansas State may be the best team, but if someone should be left out of the mix, it should be the team with the weakest schedule," said Griese, who will call the SEC championship tomorrow night. "In this scenario, it is Kansas State."
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