New Sixers owners to be introduced

IT APPEARS all the t's have been crossed and all the i's dotted, and now there will be a formal announcement that the 76ers sale has been completed.

Last week, the NBA Board of Governors approved the sale of the team by Comcast-Spectacor to a group led by billionaire Joshua Harris, co-founder of Apollo Global Management. Harris grew up in the Philadelphia area and graduated from the Wharton School of Business. Today at the Palestra, the group will be introduced to the media at an 11:30 a.m. news conference.

The sale was completed in July, but needed league approval. Forbes magazine put the team's value at $330 million. The new owners paid about $280 million.

The NBA, of course, is entrenched in a messy lockout, with the first 2 weeks of the season already canceled because there is no collective bargaining agreement. Commissioner David Stern said last week that without a deal by today, he didn't think there would be any basketball by Christmas.

Owners and players are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator today.