Basketball: O'Connell makes his peace with Bown over availability

The Ireland international Jon O'Connell is missing from Birmingham Bullets' line-up for tonight's BBL Championship game with Newcastle Eagles at Aston Villa, but the club's fans hope he will play for them again after his agent and the club's owner stepped back from a row over his availability.

The Bullets' owner, Craig Bown, fined the 6ft 6in O'Connell £1,400 when he missed a BBL game at London Leopards while playing for Ireland in the European Championship in November. O'Connell said he had played his last game for the club after Bullets lost 112-105 against Chester Jets in the National Cup final in Sheffield Sunday week ago.

But Bown said: "Jon's agent has confirmed that the request for release [from his contract] is withdrawn. I think that's a positive move. I confirmed that we would not hold him to his request for release, and the Bullets will honour his contract. However, that may not be the end of it. His agent has made comments about finding higher paid work in Europe, I think it's a negotiating tactic to try and gain more advantage."

O'Connell will also miss Bullets' game on Saturday night against London Towers, but both the club's opponents are similarly affected by international calls.

Newcastle's 7ft 1in centre, Ian Whyte, misses tonight's game, while Towers will be without their England guards, Silas Cheung and Ronie Baker. Towers are also without the pair for their trip to Milton Keynes Lions tonight. England were playing Russia last night in their European Championship semi-final round group game before travelling to the Azores to face Portugal on Saturday.

The Eagles are also having to contend with the long-term loss of injury victim, and former Bullet, Fabulous Flournoy. The coach Tony Garbelotto said: "I have no definite date for when he will be back and that is one of the biggest problems for us."

* The New Jersey Nets appear to be on the way to 50 wins in a season for the first time since joining the NBA in 1976. New Jersey improved to 28 wins and 13 defeats at the halfway mark with a 92-86 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday, two more wins than the Nets had all of last season. The most wins ever scored by New Jersey in NBA play was 49 in 1982-83.