NBA Players Forgo Greek Exhibition Series

OAKLAND — In the wake of the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, NBA player representatives canceled a scheduled basketball exhibition series in Greece at the request of the State Department, Purvis Short of the Golden State Warriors said Thursday.

Short, the team’s union representative, said the tour was to begin June 26. However, Short said the State Department contacted the union headquarters in New York and asked that the exhibitions be called off because the players’ “safety could not be guaranteed.”

Short said he had second thoughts even before the tour was officially canceled.

“I was thinking about not going,” he said. “We would have had to go through Athens twice to come and go, and I was worried because of the problems there.”