Scorecard

A Tyson Deal?

As SI went to press on Monday, sources told the magazine that negotiations were under way that could free former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson from prison as early as next week. Sources told associate editor Lester Munson that Marion County, Ind., prosecutors, as well as lawyers for Tyson and for Desiree Washington, the woman he was convicted of raping in 1991, have been talking about a deal that would free Tyson immediately. Originally sentenced to six years, he was expected to be released from the Indiana Youth Center in Plainfield in May 1995.

Sources say the deal would require Tyson to pay Washington $1.5 million to settle the civil lawsuit Washington has pending against him. Further, Tyson would apologize to Washington. An apology, in fact, has already been written, and both sides have tentatively agreed to its language, in which Tyson admits that he did something wrong and caused Washington harm but stops short of admitting rape. In turn, Washington would tell Marion County Superior Court Judge Patricia Gilford that she accepts Tyson's apology and thinks he should be released. Gifford, who was the trial judge in the rape case, would have the final say on any release.

A sentence-reduction hearing has been set for 9 a.m. on June 13. The deal could still fall through, but it's possible that Tyson could walk out of that hearing a free man. If that happens, Tyson, who is said to be financially strapped, may have to pay the $1.5 million in installments. But with a return to the ring, which is considered a virtual certainty, he could presumably increase his bank balance in a hurry.

Iverson's Choice

We're sure that eyes were rolling last week in response to the announcement that troubled high school basketball star Allen Iverson had signed a national letter of intent to attend Georgetown. Why, many were asking, would Hoya coach John Thompson take a convicted felon?

However, Thompson is exactly the kind of coach who should take a young man like Iverson. Coaches who are known for enforcing discipline and making sure their charges go to class—97% of the Georgetown basketball players who stayed for at least four years have earned diplomas during Thompson's 22-year tenure—should be the ones to take players with troubled pasts. If they don't, those young men will be left to the coaches who don't care about any aspect of their players' lives except basketball.

It's uncertain whether Iverson will be at Georgetown for the next school year. After serving four months of a five-year sentence for three felony counts stemming from a bowling-alley brawl in his hometown of Hampton, Va. (SI, Oct. 25, 1993), he was given conditional clemency by then Governor L. Douglas Wilder in December. Iverson still must complete his high school requirements, which one of his lawyers, Lisa O'Donnell, says he will do in July. Beyond that, to play as a freshman, Iverson must get a qualifying score on either the SAT or the ACT, which he failed to do in his first attempts at both tests. Iverson took the SAT again last week and will take the ACT on Saturday.

Thompson says he did not recruit Iverson; rather, Allen's mother, Ann, sought out Thompson in December (while Allen was still in prison), saying that she wanted a strong coach who could "guide my son in the right direction." Thompson believes his relationship with another player from the Tidewater area of Virginia, Alonzo Mourning, was also a factor. "Alonzo is a hero in those parts," Thompson told SI last week. "Everyone knows that Alonzo had a positive experience at Georgetown, and that might have been one of the things that prompted Allen's family to get in touch with us. Regardless of what's happened in the past, Allen is a bright young man who deserves a chance to pursue a college education. He will have to follow the same rules and accomplish the same things in the classroom as anyone else in this program." All coaches say that; Thompson may get it done.

Whether Thompson is the man to get it done for Iverson on the court is another question. Thompson's controlled style has generally worked against the development of flamboyant point guards, which Iverson, who led Hampton's Bethel High to the state title in his junior year with a 31.6-point average, clearly is. Thompson's my-way-or-the-highway philosophy has chased away several players over the years, including point guard David Edwards, who earned first team All-Southwest Conference honors last season after transferring from Georgetown to Texas A&M after his freshman year. But at this stage in his life, Iverson clearly needs a my-way kind of coach, and perhaps Thompson's way will be best.