Mark Price

Cleveland Cavalier guard Mark Price will miss today's game against the Celtics at Boston Garden because of a sprained right thumb.

Could today's seductive conditions in the housing market — severely marked-down prices, record low interest rates and hundreds of thousands of foreclosures waiting to be resold — be breeding new generations of the very practices that led to the crash? In an ironic twist, there are signs that the wreckage left over from the housing bust may be reigniting dubious real estate schemes and fraud. According to researchers: •Property flippers are back in action in places like south Florida and Las Vegas, where condominium prices crashed but are now appreciating again in some areas.

An investigation into how Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. handled Bruce Springsteen concerts has reached the subpoena stage. The giant ticketing company based in West Hollywood incurred the wrath of the singer, concert-goers and even Congress in February for alleged actions that possibly forced fans to pay more than face-value for tickets through its resale operation, TicketsNow.

After Mark Price bumped into the scorer's table at Atlanta Friday night, it was thought that he merely had suffered a bruised knee. The bruise turned out to be serious ligament trouble and the Cleveland Cavaliers' standout guard probably will be sidelined for the season. The injury is similar to those that sidelined Bernard King, Danny Manning and Ron Harper for extended periods.

Washington Bullet point guard Mark Price will have surgery Friday on his left foot in a procedure that could cost him half the season and possibly more. Price has an inflammation of the tissue that runs from the heel to the toe. According to Bullet General Manager John Nash, Price won't be back until after the All-Star break.

Mark Price played 14 minutes, his first time on the court in two months, and his presence Thursday night helped lift the Cavaliers to a 93-85 victory over the Utah Jazz at Cleveland. Price, who underwent surgery on his right wrist in January, had 10 points and five assists. "I haven't been doing anything for two months. I should have a lot of energy," Price said after the Cavaliers had stopped Utah's nine-game winning streak.

The Lakers reached into their pocketful of miracles but fumbled. To pull off this particular upset, they needed to be a little luckier. And they needed to be a little smarter. Elden Campbell, told to make an intentional foul on the last Cleveland possession, couldn't get to Mark Price until Price was able to simulate a shot. Campbell wrapped him up, the referee called it a shooting foul and Price, at 95.

In a meeting room at the San Jose Airport Hyatt Hotel, a weary auctioneer is working a crowd of bidders, desperately trying to spark some excitement over the latest flood of leftovers from the boom-and-bust Internet economy. The assets of more than 20 defunct high-tech companies are on the auction block, packing the sales catalog with the usual list of desktop computers, printers and copy machines.

Mark Price still turns heads when he walks into the gym. Most people can't believe that a four-time NBA all-star, the greatest free-throw shooter in league history, is now coaching an obscure, private academy with just 80 students in its upper grades. "Everywhere we go, people say, 'Is that Mark Price?' " said Barry Morris, whose 10th-grade son, Tim, is a star for Whitefield Academy. "We tell them it is, but one guy said, 'I don't believe you.' " Believe it.

With seven days remaining on the holiday shopping calendar, retailers are slashing prices to boost apparel sales that have been hurt by warm weather throughout most of the country. While chilly and windy weather whipped up demand for sweaters and jackets and other clothing in Southern California during the first weeks of December, unseasonably warm weather in the East and Midwest has caused consumers to pass up knits and overcoats or postpone shopping for leisurely outings.

Blue-chip stocks leaped to their fourth record close for the week Friday as a slew of strong earnings reports lifted the Dow Jones industrial average above 6,800 points for the first time. The Nasdaq composite, Standard & Poor's 500 and New York Stock Exchange indexes also finished at new highs. Bond prices slipped. The Dow ended up 67.73 points at 6,833.10, beating Thursday's record of 6,765.37. Just 12 trading sessions into the new year, the index is up nearly 385 points, or a sizzling 6%.

The '80s are over, the Lakers learned last week. In the '80s, the Lakers never used to have any confusion about "roles." They were as set in stone as if Moses had brought them down from Mt. Sinai. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar took hook shots. James Worthy ran the floor and posted up. Byron Scott took jumpers. Michael Cooper hounded Larry Bird and dunked Coop-a-loops. Pat Riley looked good. Magic Johnson did everything else.

OK, so it doesn't look like a very big mistake. Here he is again, still larger than life and even larger than he used to be, high-stepping across half-court and suddenly it's as if he never went away, never announced a comeback and then did a 180. He's Magic. Everything's going to be all right. The passion, the game, the will, the smile--they're all still there, even if Magic Johnson is 36 and looks more like Antoine Carr these days.

Mark Price still turns heads when he walks into the gym. Most people can't believe that a four-time NBA all-star, the greatest free-throw shooter in league history, is now coaching an obscure, private academy with just 80 students in its upper grades. "Everywhere we go, people say, 'Is that Mark Price?' " said Barry Morris, whose 10th-grade son, Tim, is a star for Whitefield Academy. "We tell them it is, but one guy said, 'I don't believe you.' " Believe it.

Mark Price, a four-time all-star point guard and the NBA's career leader in free-throw accuracy, was traded Wednesday to the Washington Bullets for a first-round draft pick in 1996. The Bullets, who had the worst record in the Eastern Conference last season, were seeking a high-profile, veteran point guard to run their talented front court that includes rookie Rasheed Wallace, second-year player Juwan Howard and third-year pro Chris Webber.

Washington Bullet point guard Mark Price will have surgery Friday on his left foot in a procedure that could cost him half the season and possibly more. Price has an inflammation of the tissue that runs from the heel to the toe. According to Bullet General Manager John Nash, Price won't be back until after the All-Star break.

Whew! Talk about your nervous off-seasons. For a while it looked as if there wouldn't be a season and we would get to spend months asking millionaires' lawyers which of their clients was the victim. We reserve our right to criticize David Stern, Esq. (see below) but he gets high marks for dodging this bullet. Then there was concern money and fame would turn this league corporate like the NFL, or surly like baseball.