Cheap Seats
Anyone seen that duct tape?
Only in California could a religious controversy delay a high school basketball game. It happened last week when an Orthodox Jewish boys team from Los Angeles refused to play without its yarmulkes.
State officials had written a letter granting Valley Torah High players permission to wear the caps, which symbolize a constant recognition of God, but referees ordered them removed “for safety reasons.” After a 40-minute delay, the refs finally relented.
Two days later, officials made the players affix their yarmulkes with tape rather than the metal clips that are normally used. State athletic officials are reviewing the incidents.
Are we talkin’ Harleys or hoops?
From the Superman insignia on Shaq’s biceps to the mural on Detlef Schrempf’s chest - complete with mountains, eagle, forest and lake - it seems everyone who’s anyone in the NBA has ‘em. Tattoos.
“The best one,” said Dennis Rodman, “was the Tasmanian Devil on Tim Kempton’s butt. He’s this big old white guy with red hair and the Tasmanian Devil tattooed on his butt.”
Glen Rice has one, but wasn’t too happy when his mother had a rose etched into her chest.
“But I figured, ‘Oh well, she’s a grown woman,”’ Rice said.
Former Texas standout Travis Mays was so excited to make an NBA roster he had the league emblem cut into his leg. At last look, Mays was fifth in the Greek League in scoring for a team called Chipita Panionios.
But tattoos - and butt tattoos, for that matter - aren’t for everyone. “Just like an earring,” Billy Owens said. “For sissies. That’s what my dad used to say.”
Enough to make fans turn to boos
“I don’t know what’s going on with the referees,” Rodman was saying after a recent ejection.
The San Antonio Spurs’ forward may not know about the refs, but he thinks he knows talent. “Houston isn’t that good,” he said, “and Phoenix reminds me of the Oakland A’s. They have all that talent, but does anyone really think they’ll win it? There’s already animosity over there.”
And as for the Spurs? There was Rodman, sounding lucid, looking ridiculous, saying he knew why his team hasn’t won it all. “We’re not all there yet mentally,” he said, with orange hair and a straight face.
The last word …
“If we play like that every night, I don’t care if we win another game. Sort of.”
- Central Valley boys basketball coach Terry Irwin, after the Bears’ hard-fought - but losing - double-overtime effort at Mead on Friday