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Basketball
stands as topic of Mariucci, Owens truce SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Just when Steve Mariucci’s relationship with Terrell Owens starts improving, something else pops up. This time, it’s basketball. The San Francisco 49ers’ coach and their All-Pro receiver, who have clashed publicly and repeatedly over the past two seasons, made progress toward a truce in their uneasy relationship during a lengthy meeting in Atlanta last week. “We talked about a lot of things about the past and a lot of things about the future,” Mariucci said Tuesday. “It was a good conversation between player and coach. We had a chance to sit down and talk about everything we wanted to talk about.” Of course, that was before Owens announced his plans to join the United States Basketball League’s Adirondack Wildcats some time after the 49ers’ minicamp next weekend. Owens, who played basketball at Tennessee-Chattanooga, has long fancied becoming a two-sport star, even though the 49ers aren’t certain how his lucrative San Francisco contract would be affected if Owens gets injured while hooping it up. The 49ers’ brass, deep in preparations for the draft, chose to focus on the positives from Mariucci’s three-hour breakfast meeting at an airport hotel last Tuesday with Owens and his agent, David Joseph. “I think it’s a good step,” Mariucci said. “It put things in a good perspective for everybody.” Ever since Mariucci suspended Owens for one game in September 2000 because of two outlandish touchdown celebrations in Dallas, their relationship has deteriorated. Owens is an avid recreational basketball player, and he played in a summer pro league with Kansas City tight end Tony Gonzalez last summer. In fact, after his meeting with Mariucci last week, Owens — a 6-foot-3 shooting guard — headed off to a pickup game. Now Owens, in the midst of a seven-year, $34.5 million contract with the 49ers, plans to become the latest superstar athlete to join the USBL. |
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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002 |
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