NBA Locks Out Refs After Pledge Rejected

The NBA announced Friday that it will lock out its game officials after their union’s rejection of a no-strike, no-lockout agreement while a new collective bargaining agreement is being negotiated.

The lockout, which begins Sunday, follows by two weeks the end of a player lockout.

Fred Slaughter, an attorney for the referees, could not be reached for comment.

The NBA has offered a 10% salary increase for the 1995-96 season, and a 30% increase over a five-year term in its proposed deal.

The officials are seeking a 70% increase for the 1995-96 season alone.

Replacement officials have been hired to attend a training camp that will open Sunday.

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Derek Harper, the oldest starting point guard in the NBA, has asked the New York Knicks to extend his contract or trade him. Harper, 34, is scheduled to earn $2.8 million in the final year of his contract and reportedly wants to be the second-highest paid on the team behind Patrick Ewing.

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Nine years after drafting him, the Portland Trail Blazers signed 7-foot-3 Lithuanian Arvydas Sabonis, 30, to a multiyear contract. Terms were not announced but Sabonis was seeking a three- or four-year deal worth about $4 million annually. To make room, the Blazers renounced the rights to free agents Terry Porter, Steve Henson and James Edwards.

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Houston acquired some front-court help by signing former Portland power forward Mark Bryant, 30, to a multiyear free-agent deal. . . . Guard Bob Sura, Cleveland’s 17th pick in the draft, and forward Donny Marshall, the 39th selection, signed contracts. . . . San Antonio signed second-leading scorer Sean Elliott and four other players, among them former Rocket forward Carl Herrera. Others signed were former Spur forward-center Greg (Cadillac) Anderson, forward-center Brad Lohaus from Miami and Doc Rivers. . . . Free agent Sam Mitchell, a forward who scored the first point in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ history, rejoined the team by signing a multiyear deal. Mitchell spent the last three seasons with Indiana.

Hockey

Arbitrator George Nicolau ruled that New Jersey Devil star Claude Lemieux, the MVP of last season’s playoffs, has a valid contract with the team, meaning the right winger can’t get out of his $5.2-million contract after claiming it was invalid because he signed a faxed copy, not the actual document.

Veteran center Terry Yake was released by the Winnipeg Jets. . . . The NHL Board of Governors approved a number of rules changes in New York, including adding one that makes clipping illegal and punishable with a two-minute minor penalty or a five-minute major and game misconduct if it results in an injury.

Golf

Steve Stricker shot a bogey-free 67 for an 11-under-par 133 and held a two-stroke lead over Glen Day, who also had a 67, after two rounds of the Buick Challenge in Pine Mountain, Ga. John Adams tied a tour record with three eagles in one round, shooting a 68 and leading a group of eight golfers three shots back.

Barry Lane, trying to win on the European tour for the first time in 18 months, shot a one-under par 71 and held a two-stroke lead at 138 in the European Open in Dublin, Ireland. . . . Gail Graham shot a four-under-par 68 and took a one-stroke lead over first-round leader Hiromi Kobayashi halfway through the inaugural LPGA Fieldcrest Cannon Classic in Cornelius, N.C. . . . Hale Irwin shot a six-under-par 66 in the first round of the Senior Vantage Championship in Clemmons, N.C., to take a one-shot lead over Mike Hill and Bob E. Smith.

Tennis

Top-seeded Boris Becker of Germany beat No. 8 Stefan Edberg of Sweden, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, to advance to the semifinals of the Swiss Open in Basel. Becker will face Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands today, and fifth-seeded American Jim Courier, who beat Martin Damm of the Czech Republic, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-3), will play Greg Rusedski of Britain. . . . American Marianne Werdel-Witmeyer defeated Joannette Kruger of South Africa, 7-5, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals of the WTA women’s tennis tournament in Leipzig, Germany.

Miscellany

New Mexico State put its men’s basketball program on two years’ probation for NCAA violations, but cleared Coach Neil McCarthy of wrongdoing in the transfer-credits scandal that led to the sanctions. The NCAA could impose additional penalties.

Series leader Mike Skinner turned a lap of 116.315 m.p.h., barely beating Ernie Irvan’s 116.135, in qualifying for the pole for today’s NASCAR SuperTruck race in North Wilkesboro, N.C.

Las Vegas lost its Arena Football League team, the Sting, when the team was bought by Orange County attorney David Baker. He plans to move the team to Anaheim.

South Korea submitted a bid to serve as host to soccer’s 2002 World Cup finals, a day after Japan made the only other presentation to FIFA.

Marion Clignet of France broke the world record with a time of 3 minutes 36.227 seconds in qualifying for the women’s 3,000-meter individual pursuit race at the World Cycling Championships in Bogota, Colombia. The old mark was 3:37.347, set in 1993 by American Rebecca Twigg.