Sports briefs 8/3/04

Basketball

Wizards forward Kwame Brown broke a bone in his right foot during a pickup game in Georgia last week and will have surgery today. Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld said doctors are confident that the surgery will be successful and that Brown will be ready for training camp in October. Brown, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 draft, set career highs with 10.9 points and 7.4 rebounds last season.

n The Orlando Magic signed free agent forward Stacey Augmon. The 36-year-old averaged 5.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in 69 games with New Orleans last season, including 24 starts. Augmon has averaged 8.5 points and 3.4 rebounds in a 13-year NBA career with Atlanta, Detroit, Portland and the Hornets.

College

The University of Illinois football team's leading tackler and another returning starter were charged Monday with aggravated battery stemming from a weekend bar fight, prosecutors said. Linebacker Matt Sinclair, 22, and defensive tackle Ryan Matha, 21, were accused of tackling and punching Jamaal L. Applewhite, 19, of Champaign, according to court documents. Applewhite also was charged with aggravated battery, accused of hitting Sinclair on the head with a beer bottle, according to the court papers.

The three men were arrested shortly after 1:30 a.m. Saturday when officers were called to Joe's Brewery, near campus, said Champaign police spokeswoman Joan Walls. She declined to release any details of the fight. Aggravated battery is a Class 3 felony, which carries a penalty of two to five years in prison, according to Illinois law.

Miami cornerback Antrel Rolle won't be tried for allegedly striking a police officer, and was reinstated to the team. Coach Larry Coker had indefinitely suspended Rolle after his arrest. Assistant State Attorney Michael Grieco said that while the arrest was "valid," Rolle's "post-arrest contrition and lack of criminal history" led to the decision to drop the case. The physical contact between Rolle and the officer was "merely incidental," Grieco said.

Footballn Rookie receiver Larry Fitzgerald and the Arizona Cardinals agreed Monday to a six-year contract that could be worth up to $60 million. About $20 million is guaranteed, said a source close to the negotiations. Fitzgerald, the No. 3 overall pick in the draft left the University of Pittsburgh after his sophomore year. In just 26 college games, he managed to rank first in Pitt history in touchdown catches (34), third in receptions (161), and fourth in yards receiving (2,677).

Joe Jurevicius had a major setback in his bid to return from a serious knee injury when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers revealed the receiver needs surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back. Jurevicius, one of the key components of the Bucs' Super Bowl run in 2002, missed most of last season after tearing the medial collateral ligament in his right knee against Carolina last Sept. 14.

Track and field

Calvin Harrison has been suspended for two years for a second doping violation, knocking the sprinter off the U.S. team for the Athens Olympics and likely forcing the United States to forfeit a relay gold medal from last year's world championships. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Monday that Harrison was found guilty of using the stimulant modafinil at the U.S. track and field championships in June 2003. His case was heard last week by a three-member arbitration panel, which rejected Harrison's appeal of the test results.

Harrison also tested positive for the stimulant pseudoephedrine at the 1993 U.S. junior indoor championships and served a 3-month suspension. As a repeat offender, he got the 2-year ban. Harrison, part of the 1,600-meter gold medal relay team at the Sydney Olympics that already faces loss of its medals because of a positive drug test by Jerome Young, had been named to the U.S. squad for Athens as part of the relay pool. He also was on the 1,600 relay team that won a gold medal at the 2003 world championships in Paris, and that squad now could face loss of its medals.

-- From wire reports