Oklahoma City

Although the Sacramento Kings apologized yesterday for displaying negative images of Detroit during pregame introductions, the NBA has begun an investigation into the incident that could result in fines. Before the Pistons beat the Kings Tuesday night in Sacramento, fans were shown a montage of negative images of Detroit on the scoreboard above center court. They included abandoned buildings, boarded-up houses, burned cars and piles of construction rubble. Pistons players said they hadn't paid attention to the video display.

A group from Oklahoma City has agreed to buy the Seattle SuperSonics and the WNBA's Seattle Storm, the Sonics said yesterday. The Basketball Club of Seattle will sell the teams to the Professional Basketball Club LLC, headed by Oklahoma City businessman Clay Bennett, for $350 million. Bennett said at an afternoon news conference that whether the Sonics remain in Seattle for the long term would depend on whether the team can reach an agreement with the city to replace or renovate KeyArena.

Yesterday's final explosive assault on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City provided a certain closure to one of the most vengeful events in American history. Only 100 pounds of dynamite and eight seconds were required to complete the destruction of the ghostly structure and bring a measure of relief, not just to Oklahoma City residents, but to an entire nation still suffering the aftershocks of a singularly hideous act of governmental defiance. Much of the frustration of Americans stemmed from the blast that destroyed 167 lives and our comfortable but false sense of tranquility.

What's so nerve-racking about the Oklahoma City bombers is that they don't fit, they're outside the game, and the "message" that cost the lives of so many innocents remains hopelessly garbled. Most newspapers and commentators describe the alleged bombers as members of the "far right. " Far aright of what? I say. Does that make them anarchists? Or fascists? In whose tradition? In what context? For example, the bombers appear to be anti-government, so are they anarchists? Do they, as some commentators have suggested, fit into that old and recognizable American and European tradition that stretches back into the 19th century?

The La Salle Explorers didn't have an easy time getting to Oklahoma City, and they didn't have an easy time once they got there. James Anderson scored 28 points, Marshall Moses added 18 points, and Oklahoma State never trailed on its way to a 77-62 win last night at the All-College Classic. After La Salle (7-4) had cut a 16-point deficit in half, Anderson and Keiton Page led the Cowboys (10-1) on a 12-2 run to restore the cushion. Rodney Green scored 22 points to lead the Explorers, but his three-pointer to stop the Cowboys' surge was his team's only basket in the final 9 minutes.

Sometimes there is solace just in having the right words to use, in being able to call something exactly what it is. I would like to thank President Clinton for the phrase "evil cowards. " Evil cowards killed babies in the springtime. Evil cowards made death in Normal, Okla. A pickup truck, they say. Of course: so normal in Oklahoma. The cop with the beer gut, so normal, with an expression of anguish on his plain face, rushing the dying baby to a fireman. All those voices - in agony, in shock, in rage - all with that twanging, normal Oklahoma accent.

Five years ago today, April 19, 1995, at precisely 9:02 a.m. the bowels of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City erupted in a crimson fireball that left a hideous gash - nine stories high - in the structure's facade. The devastation had begun with a flash of energy that was immediately followed by a frightening and thunderous explosion. The building's frame buckled in the heat. High above the ground, shrapnel filled the air. Countless civilians, along with tiny knots of federal personnel, were instantly injured or killed, many tossed from their chairs as the blast rushed through the building's infrastructure ripping apart elevators, splintering windows and crushing vents with a staggering destructive force.

Ty Lawson scored 25 points, Andre Miller had 20 points and nine assists and the Denver Nuggets beat the host Oklahoma City Thunder, 114-104, Tuesday night to win a 13th straight game for the first time since joining the NBA. The Nuggets trailed by one at halftime but took control in the third quarter and never let Oklahoma City reclaim the lead. Denver moved within 31/2 games of the Thunder in the Northwest Division and became the first team this season to beat Oklahoma City three times.

The Oklahoma City Thunder haven't found any shortcuts as they try to climb to the top of the Western Conference. The Thunder's path through the postseason lined up so their first three opponents have been the only three teams to win the West since 1998. It started with the Dallas Mavericks, who were trying to defend their NBA title. Next up was the Los Angeles Lakers, who have won five championships since 2000. In the Western Conference finals, the Thunder will now face the four-time champion San Antonio Spurs.

We are horrified by the bombing in Oklahoma City. Nevertheless, human beings are working with each other, comforting each other, rescuing each other. Such events do bring out our magnificent human qualities. We are concerned that many people allow their fear and anger to suggest in- kind responses - bombing the countries of origin of those responsible, for example. People were making wild assumptions as to identities and motives. We are appalled by the assumption that those responsible are, for example, Arab terrorists or Branch Davidians, and we condemn any actions taken against any individuals who fit those categories.

BIGGER, BADDER, and so far better. Physical beat finesse yesterday, as the Indiana Pacers outworked and outmuscled the New York Knicks in a 102-95 victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Madison Square Garden. David West scored 20 points and Paul George added 19 for the Pacers, who outrebounded the Knicks 44-30, showing the smaller team that in the rugged East, size does matter. "I thought guys did a good job just putting them on their heels," West said.

David West scored 20 points, Paul George added 19 and the Indiana Pacers beat the New York Knicks, 102-95, on Sunday in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Madison Square Garden. D.J. Augustin had 16 points for the Pacers, who built a 16-point lead while New York's Carmelo Anthony was on the bench in foul trouble in the third. Anthony finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds. Thunder top Grizzlies. Down by one in the final minute, Oklahoma City's Derek Fisher poked the ball away from Memphis' Mike Conley, springing Kevin Durant into the open court with a chance to put the Thunder on top. Durant sank a jumper with 11.1 seconds left for the last of his 35 points, lifting the Thunder to a 93-91 victory over the Grizzlies in Game 1 of the Western Conference semis.

BROOK LOPEZ had 28 points and 10 rebounds, Deron Williams added 23 points and 10 assists, and the Brooklyn Nets beat visiting Chicago, 110-91, last night, cutting the Bulls' lead to 3-2 in their first-round playoff series. The Bulls were outscored 15-1 down the stretch and failed to set up a second-round series with Miami. Instead they will host Game 6 on Thursday. The Bulls' Nate Robinson had 20 points and eight assists starting in place of point guard Kirk Hinrich, who bruised his left calf in Saturday's game.

Bernard Cross, 89, of Elkins Park, former president of Cross Bros. Meat Packers Inc. in Kensington, died Thursday, April 18, of cancer at his home. Once one of the largest meatpacking companies on the East Coast, Cross Bros. closed in 1979. Mr. Cross was past president of Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, and a board member of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Solomon Schechter Day Schools. He was the founder and an officer of the Hebrew Free Loan Society and was a member of Ashbourne Country Club, Philmont Country Club, and Hackenburg Masonic Lodge.

Paul Lightfoot, marathon runner and local food zealot, is determined to change the way highly perishable, expensive-to-ship produce is grown and distributed to supermarkets in the Northeast and other parts of the nation. Starting in Yardley. As CEO of BrightFarms Inc., a big-picture company with a hyper-local focus, Lightfoot wants to "create beautiful local produce, near grocery retailers, that's thousands of miles fresher, and do it with the same food safety and year-round commercial volume as a large, centralized supplier might have been doing from a huge facility in California.

LeBron James scored 20 points in 29 minutes and Rashard Lewis added 19 on a huge night for the Miami bench as the Heat beat the Boston Celtics, 109-101, Friday, to tied their franchise record for home wins in a season. The Heat erased an early 13-point deficit with a 41-point second quarter to win their 35th home game to tie the standard set in 2004-05. Dwyane Wade, back after missing six games with a bruised right kneecap, scored 11 points in 34 minutes. Elsewhere: Deron Williams scored 33 points to lead Brooklyn, 117-109, over host Indiana, securing home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Warren: Son got gun on Internet LOS ANGELES - The gun that Rick Warren's son used to kill himself last week was unregistered and purchased on the Internet, the pastor tweeted Thursday afternoon. Warren's tweet read: Someone on the internet sold Matthew an unregistered gun. I pray he seeks God's forgiveness. I forgive him.#MATTHEW 6:15 Sheriff's Department records show no one in the Warren family is registered to carry a concealed weapon in Orange County, and authorities have said they were struggling to determine where Matthew Warren, 27, obtained the weapon.

Former Phillies and Red Sox manager Terry Francona, now the newest Cleveland skipper, made an error in his first home game with the Indians. He got lost making the two-block walk from his apartment to Progressive Field and had to ask for directions. Eventually, a team employee picked him up in a golf cart. Can't blame him. When his father, Indians star Tito - who threw out the ceremonial first pitch - played in Cleveland (and when Terry had a late 1980s stint there), the Tribe played in Municipal Stadium, a crumbling hulk better known as the "Mistake by the Lake.

DRIVING TO the basket in crunch time, Raymond Felton slipped and lost the basketball. All he could do was lunge back at it and bat it toward J.R. Smith as the shot clock ticked closer to zero. For the second straight possession, Smith beat the buzzer - this time with a three-pointer - and the visiting Knicks closed out a 125-120 victory Sunday over Oklahoma City. "He makes plays like that. He makes tough shots. Sometimes I think he likes to take the tougher shot than the easier shot.

Edward W. Gormley, 64, of Fort Washington, a banking executive in eastern Montgomery County for many years, died on Thursday, March 28, of sepsis at Abington Hospice at Warminster. Born in the East Falls section of Philadelphia and raised in Warminster, he was the son of Edward and Marian Kinsky Gormley. After graduating from William Tennent High School in 1967, he attended Bucks County Community College for two years before earning a bachelor's degree in business from Bloomsburg State College in 1971.