Escrow Tax to Cost NBA Players 10% of Their Paychecks

NBA players will lose 10% of their paychecks in the 2001-02 season.

“I think players are going to be really upset when they learn about it,” said Pat Garrity of the Orlando Magic, who was elected Tuesday as the union’s secretary-treasurer. “Ten percent is a pretty big chunk.”

The 10% giveback is known as the escrow tax, which the players agreed to during negotiations to end the 1998-99 lockout.

The tax would be triggered only if players received more than 55% of basketball-related income. But projections show the players will receive 64% of such income in the upcoming season.

Collectively, the players will be returning more than $150 million to the owners in 2001-02. The tax will stay in effect for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons under current basketball-income projections, meaning the players will pay back close to $500 million by the time the six-year collective-bargaining agreement expires.

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Rashard Lewis, a 6-foot-10 forward who became a restricted free agent July 1, has told the Seattle SuperSonics he plans to return to the team.

Track and Field

Michael Johnson, who bowed out of the U.S. Olympic trials because of a severe leg cramp during the 200-meter final, is backing off statements he would never run the distance again. His coach, Clyde Hart, also chimed in, saying Johnson was probably finished with the race this year but could run it in years to come. . . . Doug Walker and Mark Richardson, British runners who tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone, were cleared to compete in next month’s national Olympic trials. But the sport’s world governing body might have the last word on their futures. . . . Two women, sprinter Monica Bumbescu and triple jumper Adelina Gavrila, were suspended from Romania’s track and field team after they were accused of shoplifting razor blades and tweezers in England. . . . Ondodo Osoro, a marathon runner on Kenya’s Olympic team, was shot in the neck by carjackers in Nairobi, and his pregnant wife and 4-year-old daughter reportedly were taken hostage and then released. The runner’s condition was not immediately clear, but he told reporters from his hospital bed Monday that he still hopes to run in the Olympics. . . . Sprinter Merlene Ottey, 40, of Jamaica will be going to her sixth Olympics, but it is uncertain if she will run the 100 meters. Ottey, returning from a one-year ban from international competition, placed fourth at the country’s trials and can compete in the 100 only if one of the first three finishers step aside. She is, however, scheduled to run on the 400-meter relay team.

Miscellany

Missouri football Coach Larry Smith plans to skip the Big 12 media day Friday while recovering from a blood clot in his lung. The former USC coach, 60, was released Monday from a Tucson hospital.

Mika Hakkinen’s victory in the Austrian Grand Prix on July 16 was upheld, but his McLaren Mercedes team was fined $50,000 and stripped of its points from the race because of a technical violation. . . . PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe’s second-largest car maker, said it will sell its Formula One interests to Asia Motor Technologies after the end of this season and will exit the sport after its seventh year of competition.

A further investigation was ordered into the case of an English soccer fan convicted under special legislation for assaulting police during the European Championship. Mark Forrester, 33, was released last week on bail pending an appeal of the one-year jail sentence imposed under the special rules introduced to help Belgian authorities cope with violent fans during the June soccer tournament. . . . Referee Peter Prendergast said he was justified in awarding a controversial penalty kick that gave Costa Rica a 2-1 victory over the United States in a World Cup qualifier Sunday. Prendergast said television replays confirmed that U.S. defender Gregg Berhalter had handled the ball in the penalty area, which resulted in a Costa Rican penalty kick by Hernan Medford that broke a 1-1 tie. . . . The first two World Cup qualifiers for the United States were each watched in fewer than 400,000 homes. The Americans’ 1-1 tie at Guatemala on July 16 got a 0.55 cable rating among ESPN2’s 70.5 million homes, which translates to 388,900 households. Sunday’s loss got a 0.51 cable rating on ESPN2, which comes to 360,000 households. . . . Chile beat Venezuela, 2-0, and Colombia played to a scoreless tie at Ecuador in World Cup qualifier. . . . UEFA said it is investigating claims that a Romanian soccer team tried to offer prostitutes to referees in charge of an Intertoto Cup match. UEFA spokesman Thomas Giordano said the issue had been raised by the body’s delegate to the July 15 match between Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt and Austria Vienna in Romania.

Anna Kournikova of Russia and Amanda Coetzer of South Africa won first-round matches in the Best of the West Classic at Palo Alto. . . . Sergi Bruguera of Spain defeated top-seeded Franco Squillari of Argentina, 6-1, 6-4, to advance to the third round of the San Marino Open. . . . Marcello Filippini, a Uruguayan who has spent 13 years on the ATP tour, announced his retirement after losing to Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-3, in the first round of the Generali Open at Kitzbuehel, Austria.

The Greek government approved $5.3 billion in spending for the 2004 Olympics, with more than half that money aimed at infrastructure projects in Athens and around the country.