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1B
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SPORTS
THURSDAY, May 15, 1997
Dent
PHOTO/HERBERT L WHITE
Andrea Mangum goes up for a
shot during Sunday's tryout
A Dent
on Senior
PGA tour
By Karl Petraroja
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Jim Dent’s victory at the Home
Depot Invitational Sunday at
Piper Glen was a popular one.
Dent beat Senior and PGA tour
great Lee Trevino, nailing a
birdie on the second playoff hole
to pick up his first tournament
win of the year
and 11th of his
career. He also
extended his
streak to fom
years with at
least one tour
nament win.
Dent looked
at his come
back win in
Charlotte,
where he
trailed by as many as six strokes
in the final round, as a key to
igniting his season. The best
Dent had to show before playing
at Piper Glen, was a tie for sixth
at The Tradition in April. He
now heads to the Cadillac NFL
Golf Classic, hoping to add to his
substantial winnings on the
senior tour.
“The winner’s circle is every
thing, that’s your whole year,” he
said. “If you get in the winners
circle they won’t forget you so
fast. If you don’t get in that win
ners circle, I don’t care how
See DENT on page 4B
North Rowan
ready to track
championships
By Brian Powe
FOR 'ras CHARLOTTE POST
SPENCER - North Rowan
High continues to make its mark
in track and field.
Going into the Yadkin Valley
Conference 2A meet in
Albemarle this week, four ath
letes - Greg YeldeU, Drew
Caldwell, LaShannon Cowan,
and Anne Lyerly - are favored to
win their events
For the past three seasons,
YeldeU has topped local, state,
and national competition in the
long and triple jump. His best
efforts have been a jump of 23-8
in the long jump, and a triple
jump of 61-6. The junior has a
200 meters clocking of 22.31 sec
onds. He also runs on two relay
teams who have N.C.’s best time
in the 800 and 1600 meters.
Caldwell is Rowan County’s
beat long distance runner. The
sophomore has paced aU rivals
with leading times in the 1600
and 3200. He has been clocked
at 4:42.81 in the 1600 and
10:06.30 in the 3200.
Cowan has already been timed
at 12.50 seconds for the 100 and
26.21 in the 200. In addition, the
freshman is second in the county
in the 400 behind West Rowan’s
Ebony Pharr,
Lyerly holds the county’s best
times in the 1800 and 1600.
Walk-ons move step closer to Sting
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
CaU them the Lucky 11.
The Charlotte Sting decided on
11 players to join the original
eight signees later this month
for training camp, taking anoth
er step toward the Jime 22 open
er against Phoenix. Of those 11,
two will make the final roster
and four wiU be moved to the
practice squad.
Charlotte went for size, pick
ing up three centers and seven
players 6-0 or taUer.
More than 300 players showed
up at an open tryout last week at
the Charlotte Hornets Training
Center. Local colleges were rep
resented, including UNC
Charlotte and- Johnson C.
Smith, but most of the survivors
came from schools outside the
CaroUnas.
The Sting added a point guard
to the mix in Nicole Levesque of
Wake Forest.
“Nicole is a true point guard
and has the abiUty to see the
entire court and get the baU to
the person who is open,”
Charlotte coach Marynell
Meadors said. “She is an
unselfish player who leads the
team on the court and off. She
can hit the three-point shot con
sistently,”
Versatility was - an important
attribute Meadors looked for.
Swing playera Penny Moore,
Dafne Lee and Susie Hopson
Shelton, all play multiple posi
tions. Moore was especially
impressive, Meadors said.
“Penny is another versatile
player who can play either the
guard or forward spot,” she said.
“She is outstanding in the open
court and can find the open play
er. She is an athlete with leaping
ability and a nice shooter’s
touch.”
Small-college players also
made an impression. Susie
Hopson-Shelton, a 6-2 forward-
center from Mars Hill, made the
next round of cuts.
“Susie is another player who
caught our eye during the first
session on Saturday. She really
came from nowhere to possibly
take one of our final six roster
spots,” Meadors said. “She
played at a small school and had
to have been the best player in
Division H. It’s a tribute to her to
A Bull session
Chicago sends
NBA message
By Mike Nadel
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO - Playoff panic? It’s
more like another postseason
picnic for the Chicago Bulls.
Just a few days after the
defending NBA champions lost
homecourt advantage to the
Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern
Conference semifinals, they
advanced to the final for the
fourth time in six seasons.
Although they received almost
no contribution from Dennis
Rodman who, they say, has been
treated unfairly by referees - the
Bulls won Saturday and Simday
in Atlanta and eliminated the
Hawks \vith a 107-92 -win.
“I think we all got the mes
sage,” said Scottie Pippen, who
after last Thursday’s loss ripped
his teammates for their poor
play. “We realize still that we’re
not at the top of our game. But
we’re in control of this series.”
Bulls center Luc Longley said
Atlanta’s Game 2 victoiy “helped
our team focus.”
“We’d been playing just well
enough to win - a little bit of
luck, a little bit of just because
we’re the Bulls.’ But that game
brought us around,” he said.
“We’ve shed the shackles and
started playing better, I think it
will be a trend you’ll see more
of.”
Will you see more of Rodman,
though?
BuUs coach Phil Jackson said
television replays showed that
referees have been picking on
Rodman, who has verbally
berated officials for years and
who was suspended for head
butting a ref last season. With
Rodman getting called for what
Jackson considered several
phantom fouls, the six-time
NBA rebounding leader played
only 18 minutes in the two
games at Atlanta.
“I think that the league looked
bad. NBC made the league look
bad on TV by drawing focus to it.
I think theyTl ease off. I think
they know that they’re overdo
ing it,” Jackson said Monday.
“It’s obvious. They’re punish
ing the team for his presence on
the floor.”
In the series, Rodman has
been called for 20 fouls and
seven technicals. In eight playoff
See BULLS on page 3B
PHOTO/WADE NASH
Chicago guard Michael Jordan goes around Atlanta defenders Eldredge Recasner (S) and
Christian Laettner (32) for a layup in the Bulls’ win Sunday In Atlanta.
Sonics take comfort in comeback capabilities
By Michael A. Lutz
THE ABSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON - The Seattle
SuperSonics know it’s not
impossible to come back fbom
a 3-1 deficit in the NBA play
offs. After all, five other teams
have done it.
The 1996 Houston Rockets
were one of them, giving the
SuperSonics a glimmer of
hope as they go into Game 6 of
their Western Conference
semifinal series trailing 3-2.
“I don’t think the/ro that
much better than us that we
should count ourselves out,”
said Seattle forward Terry
Cummings. “These games
have all been close except the
first one.”
The Rockets were the last
team to dig out of a 3-1 hole.
Two years ago, they fell
behind Charles Barkley and
the Phoenix Suns before over-
See SONICS on page 3B
continue playing hard when she
wasn’t getting the national
attention at Mars Hill. She
played center or power forward
in college and when we switched
her to the small forward spot
last weekend, she did quite well.
She has good post moves and is
very effective armmd the bas
ket.”
Players who made the cut dur
ing last week’s Charlotte Sting
open tryouts:
• Danlette Coleman, 6-2, for
ward, Miami-Dade Community
See STING on page 3B
Ethnic sports
humor takes a
major beating
By Hal Bock
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - So the rabbi
and priest are teeing off for a
round of golf and the priest says
Stop right there.
Humor is one thing. Ethnic
humor is quite another.
Injured pitcher Jason
Isringhausen used a clubhouse
slur when he called New York
Mets public relations director
Jay Horwitz “Jew boy.” Horwitz,
accustomed to playing foil for
the players, shrugged it off.
Others might not be so charita
ble.
“Ethnic humor is a well-devel
oped genre in this country,” said
Jim Fisher, an anthropology pro
fessor at Carleton College in
Northfield, Minn., who has
taught a coimse called
Anthropology of Humor. “Slurs
aren’t jokes. They’re derogatory,
“What counts as a joke
depends on who is telling it and
who the audience is. The same
joke might be fiirmy m one con
text and a slur in another.”
The Isringhausen episode fol
lowed the Fuzzy Zoeller-Tiger
Woods affair in which Zoeller
made a remark about Med
chicken and coUard greens after
Woods became the first black to
win the Masters. That attempt
at humor in a pubhc setting cre
ated an outcry and woimd up
costing Zoeller a lucrative spon
sorship by Kmart stores.
That incident followed New
Jersey Nets coach John Calipari
lashing out at a reporter by call
ing him a “Mexican idiot,” an
outburst that resulted in a
$25,000 fine by the NBA.
“And that followed Marge
Schott, and that followed Jimmy
the Greek, and that followed A1
Campanis,” said Ken Jacobson,
assistant national director of the
B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation
League, listing some of the more
embarrassing attacks of loose
lips in sports.
“We believe there is no place
for prejudice, whether it’s on the
playing field, the locker room or
the corporate board room. We
see it at all of those levels. Words
have impact. We think these are
serious matters that should not
be taken lightly.”
Isrin^iausen used the slur fol
lowing a conference call with
reporters to discuss his recovery
from a broken wrist and a sus
pected case of tuberculosis. He
was stunned that his interplay
with Horwitz might be inter
preted negatively.
“We all talk to Jay like that,”
he said, “Jay’s almost like my
brother. He is to everybody.
That’s stupid to think anybody
would think anything bad about
Jay,”
Horwitz was in a forgiving
mood.
“I know it was said in terms of
affection,” he said. “Stuff is said
in the locker room; people kid
each other. That’s the way I take
it,”
That was good enough for
Fisher, but not for Jacobson.
“If the guy to whom it was
See ETHNIC on page 3B