SHINN TRIAL: Former Hornets cheerleader DEBBIE CADDELL
testified in LESLIE PRICE's sexual assault case against
Hornets Owner GEORGE SHINN that she "never wanted to have
sex" with Shinn, but "kept meeting him because he threatened
to hurt her career." Shinn testified this week that the
relationship was "consensual, 'very cordial, very caring.'"
Caddell's testimony is the subject of two front-page stories
in this morning's CHARLOTTE OBSERVER (12/10). Also in
Charlotte, WCNC-TV's Scott Sayres reported on the progress
of the trial, and said, "We expected [plaintiff] Leslie
Price to be on the stand much earlier than this. One of the
reasons may be because just how slow it is moving. They've
only had about five witnesses in four days and it's really
beginning to perturb the judge as well. They expected to
move much faster than this and it's dragging. It may not
even wrap up by the end of next week" (WCNC-TV, 12/9).
FSN's Jim Rome, on the NBA bringing back the slam-dunk
contest at this year's All-Star Game: "The NBA took a good
thing and ruined it by promoting unworthy individuals and
hyping it unnecessarily. In this case, let sleeping dogs
lie. And this dog wasn't asleep, it was dead" ("Last Word,"
12/9)....WORTH magazine lists NIKE as No. 39 in total giving
and No. 14 in percent of average earnings given to charity
in its America's 50 "Most Generous Companies." Nike's
donations in '98 totaled about $22.3M --$19.9M in cash and
$2.4M in-kind -- or 2.03% of the company's average annual
earnings (WORTH, 12/99 issue). ...Sidekicks GM JIM TOLBERT
was named '99 WISL Exec of the Year (WISL).
