Sports briefs 1/4/06

Basketball

• Bob Weiss was fired as coach of the Seattle SuperSonics on Tuesday, with his team struggling at 13-17 after having won its division last year.

Weiss, in his first year coaching the Sonics, was replaced by assistant Bob Hill, the team said. Seattle opened a five-game road trip with a 115-96 loss to Indiana on Monday and plays in Chicago on Wednesday night.

Weiss was promoted from assistant to head coach on July 18 after Nate McMillan left for Portland.

* NBA commissioner David Stern, who pushed through changes in 2005 that gave the league more control over the image of its players, on Tuesday was named the most powerful person in sports by the Sporting News.

College

• Junior Mike Dale is no longer a member of Southern Illinois University's basketball team.

Dale, 21, "left the team for personal reasons," the school said in a statement.

But Dale told The Southern Illinois that coach Chris Lowery dismissed him from the team Sunday.

In December 2004, Dale and former teammate Stetson Hairston pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from a fist fight at a Carbondale apartment complex. Dale was placed on one year of court supervision and was suspended for violating team rules, missing two exhibition games and the season opener in 2004.

This season, the 6-foot-5 guard from Fairview Heights has not played in the Salukis last two games against Murray State on Dec. 28 and on Saturday against Drake. Dale also had been suspended for academic reasons by Lowery for SIU's Dec. 10 game against Kent State. He started the first five games of the season and averaged 9.4 points per game.

Football

• Lynn Swann, the former Pittsburgh Steelers star and veteran football commentator for ABC Sports, is expected to declare his candidacy for Pennsylvania governor today.

Swann planned to open a three-day state tour at a rally in Pittsburgh.

Swann, a wide receiver for the Steelers, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001.

Aides declined to confirm the purpose of the tour, but Swann's political committee -- Team 88, named after his football jersey number -- has been raising money for 11 months. Swann has billed himself as a prospective candidate while courting GOP activists across the state.

The 53-year-old Swann will be the last of the Republican hopefuls to make his candidacy official. Already declared are former Lt. Gov. William Scranton III, state Sen. Jeffrey E. Piccola and retired business advocate Jim Panyard.

* Green Bay Packers wide receivers coach James Franklin has been named the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Kansas State, the school announced Tuesday.

Franklin is the ninth and final assistant hired by Ron Prince since he was hired to replace Bill Snyder as the Wildcats head coach.

* Cleveland Browns president John Collins resigned Tuesday, ending a late-season power struggle in the team's front office.

-- From wire reports