Rider Sent to Jail for Four Days

Joking he’ll miss out on Labor Day cookouts, Isaiah Rider of the Minnesota Timberwolves was sentenced to four days in jail Wednesday in Minneapolis when a judge revoked his probation on a 1994 assault conviction.

Hennepin County District Judge Dolores Orey found Rider violated the terms of his probation by failing to stay in touch with his probation officer. He reported to the county’s Adult Detention Center on Wednesday night.

He will be held until 7 a.m. Saturday.

“I’ll miss my Labor Day weekend,” Rider said. “I don’t eat barbecue, I eat jailhouse food. That’s terrible.”

Then he turned serious.

“I mean, I think there were other ways this could have been handled,” he said. “But this goes to show you that there has been no special privileges like everyone has said there’s been.”

Rider, a rising NBA star whose two-year career with the Timberwolves has been clouded by his off-court behavior, was accused of assaulting a Mall of America manager last year.

He was sentenced in September to two years’ probation and nearly violated his probation in December when he completed a community service requirement at the last minute.

He was supposed to contact his probation officer once a month, which he hadn’t done since April. At a hearing last week, Rider said it had been a misunderstanding. He believed the probation officer, Betty Curry, would contact him through his attorney.

When Rider repeatedly failed to contact Curry, an arrest warrant was issued earlier this month.

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The Chicago Bulls and superstation WGN-TV have been ordered to pay the NBA about $1.2 million for the right to show 30 games on WGN in the 1994-95 season. It was less than half the amount the NBA sought.

In a written opinion, U.S. District Judge Hubert Will rejected the NBA’s proposed fee structure for determining how much the Bulls and WGN should pay. That structure was based on the price paid for game telecasts sold to the league’s national cable carrier, Turner Broadcasting.

Will said the formula violated antitrust laws.

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The United States men’s basketball team held the Czech Republic to 16 points in the second half and rallied for a 77-62 victory at the World University Games in Fukuoka, Japan. The U.S. meets Canada on Friday, with the winner advancing to the gold medal game against the winner of the Japan-Czech Republic game.

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Former Florida basketball player Eugene McDowell died last week from an enlarged heart, police in Casselberry, Fla., said in revealing that an autopsy found no evidence of illegal drugs.

Soccer

AC Parma, a finalist in the Italian Cup last season, was upset in the tournament’s second round with a startling 3-0 loss at second division Palermo in Rome.

Parma, the reigning UEFA Cup champions, fielded five attackers for the final 30 minutes to no avail.

Other first-division losers Wednesday were AS Roma, Torino, Piacenza and Bari.

Roy Lassiter, a member of the U.S. national soccer team, received an arrest order after failing to show for a hearing on 3-year-old charges of breaking-and-entering and forgery in Raleigh, N.C.

Lassiter’s attorney sought a delay, telling Wake District Judge William Creech his client was in Costa Rica playing pro soccer and would arrive in North Carolina today.

“The judge said he should have been in court and issued the order for arrest,” said Donna Kulpa of the Wake County District Attorney’s Office.

U.S. goalkeeper Jurgen Sommer appears set to join the Queens Park Rangers of the Premier League in London.

The First Division club Luton, Sommer’s team last season, said it has accepted a $924,000 offer for Sommer.

Sommer said he needed first-team experience to press his claim to be the No. 1 goalkeeper for the U.S. team, where he is competing with Kasey Keller and Brad Friedel.

Boxing

Gabriel Ruelas is scheduled to defend his world Boxing Council super-featherweight title against former champion Azumah Nelson Dec. 2, probably at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on a pay-per-view card. This will be Ruelas’s first fight since his bout with Jimmy Garcia, who died 13 days after the fight because of head injuries.

Miscellany

Georgians aren’t overly proud their state is hosting the 1996 Summer Olympics, but they expect the state to benefit from international recognition, according to a poll.

The Georgia State University Applied Research Center asked Georgians to rank possible benefits of the 1996 Games on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest.

Out of six possible benefits, Georgians gave international recognition an 8.4. The lowest scores went to increased tourism and Olympic facilities, both rated 7.3.

The University of Pennsylvania will upgrade locker rooms, gyms and equipment used by its women athletes and turn several women’s coaching jobs into full-time positions under a settlement reached between Penn and the Women’s Law Project.

Tonya Harding’s attempt to alter the terms of the sentence she received for her role in the attack on rival skater Nancy Kerrigan was denied.

As part of the original plea bargain, Harding is to donate $50,000 to Special Olympics and perform 500 hours of community service. She asked Circuit Judge Donald Londer to allow her to pay the remaining $25,000 she owes to the Loaves and Fishes program instead. She also wanted the judge to let her out of her remaining 100 hours of community service.

The Philadelphia Flyers traded defenseman Dimitri Yushkevich to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a first-round choice in the 1996 entry draft, a second-round choice in 1997 and a fourth-round choice in 1996.