In Philadelphia, Joe Juliano notes details of Penn State football coach BILL O'BRIEN's contract indicate that he will make $2.3M "in base earnings the first year" of the five-year deal. O'Brien also will receive a 5% "bonus ($47,500 in the first year of his contract) if the Nittany Lions win the Legends Division of the Big Ten, and 8 percent ($76,000) if the Lions take the conference championship game." A bowl appearance "means an extra 11 percent ($104,500)." The contract states the added compensation "shall not exceed $200,000 per season" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 2/15).
MOVING ON UP: The Knicks announced the jersey G JEREMY LIN wore during the team's Feb. 10 win over the Lakers is being auctioned off to benefit the Garden of Dreams Foundation. Fans can bid for the autographed jersey, four tickets to the Feb. 22 game against the Hawks and a postgame meet and greet with Lin on CharityBuzz.com. The online auction will end Feb. 21 (MSG). Meanwhile, in N.Y., Jennifer Gould Keil noted Lin, who has been "crashing on his big brother's couch on the Lower East Side, is moving up in the world to the 20th floor of a posh Trump Tower in downtown White Plains." Lin is subletting the apartment from Warriors F DAVID LEE (N.Y. POST, 2/15).
SUITE LIFE: MLB Giants CEO LARRY BAER yesterday announced that the "best suite" in AT&T Park would be named the Tony Bennett Suite, noting that TONY BENNETT's song "I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO" has been played "573 times so far after Giants wins at AT&T Park." Bennett yesterday celebrated the 50th anniversary of the song's recording (BLOOMBERG.com, 2/15).
NAMES: Serbia President BORIS TADIC has awarded tennis player NOVAK DJOKOVIC the Karadjordjeva Star Medal, the "highest honor" in the country. Djokovic will formally receive the medal at a ceremony today marking Serbia's statehood day (AP, 2/14)....The ’12 U.S. Lacrosse National Convention presented by Champion drew a record 7,064 participants to the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia from Jan. 12-15. The previous record was 6,448 in Baltimore last year (U.S. Lacrosse)….Lions DT NDAMUKONG SUH will be the grand marshal for the NASCAR Subway Fresh Fit 500 on March 4 at Phoenix Int’l Raceway. Suh has an endorsement deal with Subway (DETROIT NEWS, 2/15)….Gym Class Heroes will headline a pregame concert at the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 26 in Orlando. Other performing acts include rapper J. COLE, singer NEON HITCH and a capella group Pentatonix. Access to the concert will be limited to those with tickets to the game. The musical acts will air live starting at 5:00pm ET on NBA TV (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 2/15).
