Lenny Wilkens is expected to be hired as head coach of the Toronto Raptors today, reports say.
Wilkens has agreed to a four-year contract worth $20 million and is to be introduced at a news conference today, the Toronto Sun reported.
Wilkens, the winningest coach in league history, has been in Toronto since Monday. He met with GM Glen Grunwald, team president Richard Peddie and minority owner Larry Tanenbaum on Monday night. Yesterday, Wilkens was introduced to the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. board of directors.
The Raptors fired Butch Carter last week. Wilkens quit the Atlanta Hawks after the season.
New Jersey Nets guard Stephon Marbury was robbed early yesterday in New York when two men reached into his car at a red light and grabbed a diamond necklace he said was worth $150,000. Police said the men approached Marbury's Bentley in the Chelsea section of Manhattan at about 3:45 a.m. Marbury, who had just left a club, was not hurt. The two suspects fled.
FOOTBALL
NFL suspends Titans' Evans for year
Josh Evans of the Tennessee Titans was suspended for the 2000 season following a third violation of the NFL's substance-abuse policy.
Evans, a defensive lineman who started for the Titans in the Super Bowl last season, won't be eligible for reinstatement until next February, the league said.
Evans, a five-year NFL veteran, has said he believed prescribed medication might have accounted for the latest positive test.
The suspension puts John Thornton, who was second only to NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Jevon Kearse in sacks last season among rookies, into the starting rotation in Evans' place.
The renovated Ohio Stadium is projected to have 95,346 seats this fall, 5,505 seats more than a year ago. Ohio State's 78-year-old stadium is in the second year of a $187 million, three-year renovation.
BOXING
IBF elects woman as president
With its past president on trial for bribery, the IBF has elected a former Michigan boxing commissioner, Hiawatha Knight, as its new president. Knight, of Detroit, is believed to be the first woman to head one of boxing's major sanctioning organizations.
Knight, a longtime IBF vice president, has been interim president since January, a month after IBF founder and president Robert W. Lee resigned. Lee is now in the second month of a racketeering trial in federal court, accused with other IBF officials of taking $338,000 to rig the organization's rankings.
HOCKEY
Sales of three NHL teams approved
The NHL approved the sales of three franchises, including the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils.
John McMullen completed the $175 million transfer of the Devils to Puck Holdings LLC, an affiliate of YankeeNets, whose principal owners are George Steinbrenner, Lewis Katz and Ray Chambers. The company also owns baseball's New York Yankees and the New Jersey Nets of the NBA.
Also approved were the sales of the Colorado Avalanche and New York Islanders.
The Avalanche were sold to Stanley Kroenke, a real estate developer and heir to the Wal-Mart fortune. Kroenke also purchased the NBA's Denver Nuggets and Pepsi Center in a $450 million deal with Liberty Media last April.
Computer Associates executives Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar purchased the Islanders for an estimated $190 million from Howard and Edward Milstein and Steven Gluckstern last April.
ETC.
Expanded coverage of LL Series
Little League World Series coverage will be expanded under a six-year contract signed with ABC Sports and ESPN Inc.
Ten of the 15 World Series games will be televised on ESPN2, meaning all eight teams will play at least one game on national television. The championship game will be televised live Aug. 26 on ``ABC's Wide World of Sports.'' ABC will add the U.S. title game to its coverage in 2001.
Under the new television contract, which runs through 2006, the Little League World Series will expand next year from eight teams to 16. A second stadium will be built next to the current one.
Buzz Peterson was hired as Tulsa's basketball coach, leaving Appalachian State after four years. Peterson won two-thirds of his games at Appalachian State. He succeeds Bill Self, who left two weeks ago to take over as coach at Illinois.
Italy's Stefano Garzelli took the eighth stage of the Tour de Suisse, and Swiss rider Oscar Camenzind took the overall lead as Germany's Jan Ullrich faded in the Alps. Garzelli finished in 4 hours, 40 minutes, 19 seconds.
Craig Foster scored four goals and Clayton Zane added three - in a seven-minute span - as Australia routed the Cook Islands 17-0 in the opening round of the Oceania Nations Cup at Papeete, Tahiti.
