SuperSonics, Bennett divvy up artifacts
The championship banners and trophies from the SuperSonics’ best days will stay in Seattle. But the flat screen TV in the coaches’ locker room is going to Oklahoma City.
The city of Seattle and Clay Bennett’s ownership group have divvied up the artifacts of the NBA’s past in the Pacific Northwest, with the details outlined in a settlement obtained Wednesday by the Associated Press.
The agreement calls for Bennett’s Professional Basketball Club to leave any banners, trophies and retired jerseys. Those will be placed in a curatorship at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry, although the new Oklahoma City franchise would be allowed to borrow them to put on display periodically and make copies.
The settlement also finalizes Bennett’s agreement to pay $45 million to Seattle to break the team’s lease at KeyArena and the possibility for another $30 million if the state approves funding for a new arena but Seattle doesn’t get a new franchise.
Bennett will retain the rights to the SuperSonics’ name and logos but has agreed not to use them after moving to Oklahoma City. If a new NBA team arrives in Seattle, Bennett would turn over the rights to the new team’s owner at no cost.
•Theo Ratliff returned to the Philadelphia 76ers, seven years after he was traded from the team. Terms of the deal were not released.
Ratliff, 35, played for Minnesota and Detroit last season.
•American University coach Jeff Jones, who last season led the Eagles to the first NCAA Division I men’s tournament berth in school history, was given a contract extension.
Golf
Tway’s son advances
Kevin Tway took another step toward establishing himself by advancing to the second round of match play at the U.S. Amateur in Pinehurst, N.C.
The son of former PGA champion Bob Tway defeated Philip Francis 2-up in the first round of match play, winning a matchup of former U.S. junior amateur champions on the No. 2 course at Pinehurst Resort.
Incoming Washington State University freshman Trent Sanders was eliminated 3 and 2 by Canada’s Nick Taylor.
•A home being built for Gary Nicklaus, the son of Jack Nicklaus, in Jupiter, Fla., has been destroyed by fire. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
College football
New Mexico penalized
The NCAA put New Mexico’s program on three years of probation and cut five scholarships as punishment for academic violations involving two former assistant coaches.
New Mexico’s head coach Rocky Long was not accused of any wrongdoing in the case.
The NCAA concluded that the unnamed former Lobos assistants in 2004 improperly helped three recruits to obtain fraudulent academic credits through correspondence courses they never completed at Fresno Pacific University, a fully accredited, four-year college in California that also offers online degrees.
Miscellany
Crew chief fined
Donnie Wingo, crew chief for Sprint Cup driver Reed Sorenson, was fined $25,000 by NASCAR for an improperly attached weight on the No. 41 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge after Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway.
•Fernando Clavijo is resigning as Colorado Rapids coach for personal reasons and assistant Gary Smith will take over as interim coach. Clavijo left last week to go to his native Uruguay for a family medical emergency.