Sports briefs 6/19/04

Basketball

Bobbye Sloan, the wife of Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, died Friday from cancer, the team said. She was 61. Sloan, the coach's wife of 41 years, announced in January she had a malignant tumor in her pancreas, unrelated to the breast cancer she was treated for several years ago.

The NBA set an attendance record for regular and postseason games by fewer than 58,000 fans. The final NBA attendance was 21,855,125, breaking the mark of 21,797,222 set during the 1995-96 season.

WNBA Most Valuable Player Lauren Jackson posed nude in an Australian magazine that features Olympic athletes who will compete in Athens. The Seattle Storm forward participated in a seven-hour photo shoot last offseason in Sydney. The publication, called Black + White, includes 35 athletes and is expected to hit international newsstands next week.

College

Saint Louis University named Cheryl Levick as its new athletic director. Levick comes to the Billikens from Santa Clara University in California, where she became the first female athletic director in the West Coast Conference in 2000. Levick is a native of St. Louis and graduated from the University of Missouri.

Motorsports

Jeff Gordon won the pole for the DHL 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Gordon's fast lap of 190.865 mph broke the race qualifying mark of 190.365 set last year by Bobby Labonte. But it fell short of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s track qualifying record of 191.149 at the August race in 2000. It was Gordon's second pole of the season and the 48th of his career. He led a sweep of the top three spots by Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets, with rookie Brian Vickers second at 190.169 and Jimmie Johnson at 190.164.

-- From wire reports