Scorecard

Latrell's Legal Tab
Spending Spree

Latrell Sprewell can't catch a break. First the Warriors dumped him for attacking coach P.J. Carlesimo, an act that cost Sprewell (above) $6.4 million in pay during his seven-month NBA suspension. Last August, Sprewell responded by suing the NBA for $30 million, charging that league owners perpetuate "slavery whereby white owners can deprive blacks of their most basic rights" and that the NBA altered photos of the damage he had done to Carlesimo's neck. In March, Judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. district court in San Francisco dismissed the suit, writing that the only rights the case involved were the dubious ones of "strangling, punching and threatening" Carlesimo, and that Sprewell's claims were so "frivolous" and "meritless" that the Knicks guard must pay his opponents' legal bills.

According to court documents filed last week, that will mean coughing up as much as $153,515—including $1,701 in photocopying charges—to the lawyers who represented the Warriors and the NBA in their legal dunk of Sprewell. "That's funny" said Sprewell on Monday. "You know how lawyers are. They got a lot of paperwork."

Sprewell plans to appeal the dismissal of his case and Walker's ruling on legal fees. He might also challenge the amount of the fees. The NBA and the Warriors will suggest that he pay the bill for those appeals, too.

Subtracting the $153,515 from Sprewell's 1999 salary leaves him with $4,906,485 for the season. If you think that's not enough, fax your pledge to the Latrell Sprewell Legal Offense Fund at 212-522-4543.

Title IX's Toll
Red Ink Kills RedHawks

In February, Miami of Ohio's board of trustees gave an ultimatum to the RedHawks' golf, soccer, tennis and wrestling teams: Raise $13 million or the programs will die (SCORECARD, Feb. 22). The money normally budgeted for those sports was to be redirected to women's sports to help Miami comply with Tide IX regulations.

Last week university president James Garland announced that the golf team, which had come up with $750,000 in supporters' pledges, will survive for now. Soccer, tennis and wrestling are history. The school's verdict left some RedHawks envious of the women's precision skating team, which gets most of its funding from the U.S. Figure Skating Association. The skaters flew to G�teborg, Sweden, this month for the sport's World Challenge Cup and have made two trips to Europe in the past three months. "We went to Iowa this year, and Florida," wrestling coach Chuck Angello told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "We drove."

Horse Racing Furor
A Shocker in Arkansas

Valhol's unlikely victory in the April 10 Arkansas Derby is being investigated by the state's racing commission. Officials suspect that jockey Billy Patin used a handheld device commonly called a buzzer or battery to stimulate the 30-1 shot to his first win in three career starts. Buzzers, which work like miniature cattle prods, can be hidden in the end of a whip or up a jockey's sleeve. None has ever been detected in such an important race.