Ex-Duke Player Says He Is Close To Buying United

Brian Davis , a former Duke University basketball player who is part of an investment group purchasing the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies, said over the weekend that his company also is close to acquiring D.C. United from Colorado billionaire Phil Anschutz .

Davis, a Bladensburg High graduate and managing partner of Blue Devil Ventures, a community development company based in Durham, N.C., told the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper earlier this week that a deal for United "will be announced this month. . . . We're buying the team for $33 million."

Davis, 36, did not respond to phone and e-mail messages yesterday.

He is believed to have formed a partnership with Discovery Communications founder and chairman John S. Hendricks to buy the operating rights to United, which went back on the market last year after a $26 million deal between Anschutz Entertainment Group and a local investment group headed by Willi Lauterbach fell apart.

Anschutz Entertainment has operated United for five years and also runs the Chicago Fire, Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo.

United President Kevin Payne , who has been intensively involved in brokering the sale of the club, would not comment directly on Davis's comments, saying: "Nothing is closed yet. Until it is, we're not going to talk about it."

Payne was in Dallas yesterday meeting with architects to discuss United's proposed stadium in Anacostia.

Davis and former teammate Christian Laettner are planning to contribute $40 million toward purchasing the Grizzlies from majority owner Michael Heisley . The rest of their investment group has not been publicly identified.

Hendricks founded the Women's United Soccer Association, a professional league that shut down in 2003 after its third season.

-- Steven Goff and Thomas Heath