FanFare 7/9/02

Briefly

Basketball

Frank Williams, a first-round pick in the NBA draft, signed with the Knicks. Williams, a 6-foot-3, 205 pound guard from Illinois, was the 25th overall pick in the draft, chosen by the Denver Nuggets. Denver then traded the rights to Williams, along with Antonio McDyess and a 2003 second-round pick, to New York for Marcus Camby, Mark Jackson and rights to Maybyner Hilario.

Mike Dunleavy, the third overall pick in the NBA draft, signed with the Warriors. Dunleavy, a 6-foot-9 forward, was a member of Duke's 2001 national championship team. He averaged 17.3 points and 7.2 rebounds for the Blue Devils last season, then skipped his senior season to enter the draft.

The Bulls hired Bob Thornton as assistant coach. Last season, Thornton served as head coach of the Huntsville Flight in the NBA developmental league, where the team finished 26-30 and in fifth place. Thornton, 39, spent the 2000-01 season as head coach of the Quad City Thunder of the CBA and was also responsible for all basketball personnel decisions and player recruitment.

Colleges

Southwest Missouri State University has hired Terri Flournoy as an assistant women's basketball coach. Flournoy will join new head coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson and assistants Scott Norris and Stephanie Guidi.

People

You can't get in

From the mind that brought us promotions like "Vasectomy Night," "Tonya Harding Bat Night" and "Marriage Counseling Night" comes a promotion that kept fans away in record numbers.

The Charleston (S.C.) Riverdogs, in a bizarre promotion to set the lowest attendance mark in pro baseball history, locked their gates and told fans to keep out -- letting in only employees, officials and media -- during a game Monday at Joe Riley Stadium.

The promotion was aptly named "Nobody Night."

There's some dispute about the actual lowest attendance record, but radio play-by-play announcer Jim Lucas said the record is the 12 people who braved a rainstorm to see Chicago defeat Troy on Sept. 17, 1881.

"We're hoping to get zero, like a goose egg, that nobody can break," said Marcus Kronick, 26, who stood outside to unofficially attend his 13th game of the season.

Fans were let in after the fifth inning when the game was officially considered complete.

Veeck was the mastermind of the Chicago White Sox's notorious Disco Demolition Night, where in 1979 fans were invited to burn disco records in the outfield of Comiskey Park and started a near riot.

Verbatim

Bob Hille of The Sporting News, on college basketball: "July is a crucial month for evaluating high-school talent. By coincidence, it also marks the start of crooked boosters' fiscal year."

Tiger Woods, on serving as best man at the wedding of a childhood friend: "I just have to tell him where and when to show up and remind him what to say on the altar. That's it -- three letters, two words. I think I can handle it."

-- From wire reports