Heat Offended By Announcer’s Slave Comment

Several Miami Heat players were offended by comments made by radio announcer Dave Halberstam during Wednesday’s game against Golden State.

Halberstam’s remarks - made in reference to a nifty pass by point guard John Crotty, who played at Virginia, the university founded by Thomas Jefferson - were as follows:

“Thomas Jefferson would have been proud of that pass from Crotty. When Thomas Jefferson was around, basketball was not invented yet, but those slaves working at Thomas Jefferson’s farm, I’m sure they would have made good basketball players.”

Among the Heat players to take issue with Halberstam was forward Keith Askins, who is black.

“I am offended,” he said. “By someone making any comment like that, you have to wonder where it’s coming from. I mean if you don’t think that way, where did it come from? It’s very touchy.”

Several black players asked about the comments said they were offended, but didn’t want to worsen the controversy by responding.

Halberstam apologized on the air before Friday’s game against Los Angeles, and the Heat, which employs Halberstam, issued a written statement that called his comments “inappropriate and offensive,” and said the team has been assured by Halberstam it will never happen again.

Injury updates

Anthony Mason, a key cog in Charlotte’s best start in franchise history, was placed on the injured list Saturday with a partial tear of the plantar fascia tendon in his right foot and could miss three weeks.

Miami’s Alonzo Mourning, sidelined since Feb. 21 with a foot injury similar to Mason’s, made the trip to Minnesota and could play in today’s game against the Timberwolves.

Fight, fight, fight

Backcourt mates until free agency, Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson and Jerry Stackhouse got into a scuffle at a shootaround last week.

Stackhouse described the altercation as “a fight between one guy who didn’t know how to fight and another guy who didn’t want to fight.”

Van Exel fined

The NBA fined Los Angeles Lakers guard Nick Van Exel $10,000 Saturday for his harsh remarks about the officiating in Miami’s 98-97 victory over the Lakers on Friday night. Van Exel also apologized.

Van Exel, furious over a loose-ball foul call on Elden Campbell with 17 seconds left in the game, blasted officials Tommy Nunez, Ronnie Nunn and Tommie Wood.

“I think it was more of a betting call,” Van Exel said, after Campbell’s basket was nullified and Willie Anderson converted two foul shots, as the Heat won.

“It was a tough call, but bad refs make bad calls, so you expect that from refs like that. If the FBI wants to investigate Fresno State (where there were point-shaving rumors), they ought to investigate these refs.”

On the court

Portland’s winning streak stopped at 11 games as the Washington Bullets scored the final three points from the foul line in a 108-104 victory in Landover, Md… . Phoenix point guard Jason Kidd suffered a cut above his right eye late in the game that required stitches to close, but he quickly returned and finished with a triple double - 12 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists - as the visiting Suns tipped Houston 104-99… . Karl Malone scored 20 points, John Stockton added 19 points and 12 assists as Utah beat the visiting Los Angeles Clippers 107-94.