January 25, 1993

In 1984, while he was still playing basketball in Europe, Drazen Petrovic once scored 112 points in a game. Over there he was something else, and over here that hasn't changed. Quite simply, he may be the best pure shooter in the National Basketball Association. Tonight against Houston, he was unbelievable. Making his bid to become an All-Star, Petrovic, the league's leading 3-point shooter, scored 32 points in the second half en route to a career-high 44 points. His bombing run buried the Rockets, who entered the game on an eight-game winning streak but were visibly tired, playing their fifth game in seven nights. They didn't have a chance. When Petrovic's radar is on, no one has a chance. It was: Nets 100, Houston 83. It shouldn't have been that close.

Thurgood Marshall, pillar of the civil rights revolution, architect of the legal strategy that ended the era of official segregation and the first black Justice of the Supreme Court, died today. A major figure in American public life for a half-century, he was 84 years old. Toni House, the Court's spokeswoman, said Justice Marshall died of heart failure at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland at 2 P.M.

In a hastily called meeting this evening, the board of Brinker International named a new chairman and chief executive, three days after the company's well-known leader, Norman E. Brinker, was rendered unconscious in a jarring collision during a polo match in Florida. Ron A. McDougall, who has been president and chief operating officer of the rapidly growing restaurant company since 1986, was named to succeed Mr. Brinker. Mr. McDougall, 50 years old, has been a close ally of Mr. Brinker in several restaurant businesses for nearly 20 years.

An inches-thick binder of press clippings -- "LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae in the News" -- rests in the waiting room of Frederick B. Lacey's law offices. Although the big firm has offices across two continents and 11 time zones, half the items seem to be about Judge Lacey himself. It is a stout testament to the busy public life of a retired Federal judge and leading corporate lawyer who has spent his working life as a leading member of New Jersey's legal and political community.

Fears of Ethnic Hungarians Hungary is promoting autonomy for the three million ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries, adding a potentially explosive element to a region torn by ethnic conflicts. Page A3. An Educational Partnership Syracuse University is teaming up with New York City as part of an innovative program to create small, theme-based high schools. Page B1. Send Sewage, Please In Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona, farmers are carpeting the ground with a precious import from New York City: sludge. Page B1. Billion-Dollar Wish List Made hopeful by the Clinton promise to rebuild America, mayors present the Administration with an array of expensive projects. Page A15. Gospel Music's 'Father' Dies Thomas A. Dorsey, who composed many of the most popular gospel songs as well as many blues songs, has died at the age of 93. Page B7.