Rockets Release Floyd, Trade Pick for Elie

The Houston Rockets released veteran guard Eric (Sleepy) Floyd Monday and acquired swingman Mario Elie from the Portland Trail Blazers for a second-round draft choice in 1995.

Floyd, an 11-year veteran, was cut to create room under the NBA salary cap.

He averaged 11.5 points and 5.4 assists in six seasons with Houston. Last season, in 52 games, he averaged 6.6 points and 2.5 assists. His scoring average is 14.2 points for his career.

Floyd, 33, has a million-dollar contract through next season that the Rockets are bound to honor.

The Trail Blazers made the move to make room in their salary structure for a free-agent center. They have been seeking Chris Dudley, who played the last 2 1/2 seasons with New Jersey.

The Trail Blazers also have been talking with Andrew Lang and Joe Kleine.

Portland reportedly is $7 million over the salary cap and had only a $650,000 salary slot available before trading Elie. The team also has yet to sign first-round draft pick James Robinson.

Baseball

A club owner in the Southern League proposed that the homeless Nashville Xpress play in Puerto Rico in 1994 to try to tap into the island’s love of baseball.

“We are simply offering the Southern League an additional alternative for the location of its 10th city while a permanent location is established,” said David Hersh, owner of the Memphis Chicks.

Hersh asked the Southern League’s board of directors to let his investment group manage the Xpress, a Minnesota Twin farm club, in Puerto Rico starting in 1994.

If approved, it would be the first minor league team affiliated with major league baseball to play regularly in Latin America and the first minor league team in Latin America since the Havana Sugar Kings of the International League in the days before Fidel Castro’s takeover of Cuba. Winter baseball has prospered for years in Puerto Rico.

Football

When Grant Teaff bid an emotional farewell to Baylor after a 21-year association, he did so knowing he wouldn’t be leaving town.

Teaff, 59, has accepted the executive directorship of the American Football Coaches Assn., effective in January, and will move the headquarters from Orlando, Fla., to Waco, Tex.

Miscellany

The Kings signed free-agent forward John Druce and re-signed forward Darryl Williams.

Druce, 27, is a five-year NHL veteran who played for the Winnipeg Jets last season, scoring six goals and 14 assists in 50 games.

Williams, 25, has spent the last five seasons in the Kings’ organization.

The Mighty Ducks have come to terms with free agents Mark DeSantis and Scott McKay.

DeSantis, a defenseman, and McKay, a center, were in the Ontario Hockey League last season.

DeSantis, 21, played with the Newmarket Royals and was second among league defensemen with 89 points.

McKay, also 21, played with the London Knights for the last four seasons. He was third on the team last season with 95 points.

Stanley Smith, severely injured in the July 25 DieHard 500 stock car race at Talladega, Ala., continues to improve, a hospital official said.

A spokesman for Carraway Methodist Medical Center said Smith’s condition was upgraded over the weekend from critical to guarded.

The 43-year-old driver suffered a fractured skull and paralysis on his right side after a seven-car pileup in the Winston Cup race.

Jan Hempel of Germany took his first major title when he won the three-meter springboard at Sheffield, England, and maintained his country’s dominance of diving events in the European Championships.

The Bolivian player who failed his drug test after a World Cup qualifying game last month said he has never used cocaine.

Miguel Angel Rimba said he drank tea that includes coca leaf, the main ingredient used to make cocaine.

FIFA, world soccer’s ruling body, temporarily suspended Rimba and the Brazilian player Zetti after both tested positive for cocaine following a July 25 qualifying game. The drug tests were done in Madrid.

Cristie Kerr of Miami and Skyli Yamada of Sandy, Utah, shared the lead at 72 after the first round of the USGA Girls’ Junior Championship at Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa.

Unlimited hydroplane driver Mark Tate left a Seattle hospital less than 24 hours after he was knocked unconscious when his boat flipped and crashed on Lake Washington. Tate, 33, of Wayne, Mich., suffered two broken fingers on his left hand and bruises on his left arm and shoulder.