General drills U.S. team

Bob Knight said the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team didn’t win the gold medal in Athens last month because the players were too pampered on and off the court.

The Texas Tech coach, speaking to a gathering sponsored by the San Antonio Sports Foundation earlier this month, said things would have been different had he been leading the team instead of Larry Brown.

For starters, the NBA stars representing the United States would not have been staying on a luxury ocean liner.

“They would not have been on the Queen Mary,” said Knight, who coached the U.S. men to the gold in 1984. “They would have been in the Olympic village, just like everybody else.”

He recalled his Olympic time in Los Angeles with a team including Michael Jordan, Chris Mullin, Sam Perkins and Patrick Ewing.

More than 70 players were invited to try out for the team, he said, and the hopefuls were pared to 12 over several strenuous months of auditions. He contrasted that to the 2004 team, whose players were assured roster slots.

Knight was critical of the several non-starters on the 2004 team who openly complained about limited playing time.

He didn’t refer to anyone by name, but NBA rookie sensations LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony expressed their dissatisfaction about too few minutes.

Knight suggested that perhaps the United States should send the defending NBA champion to the Olympics.

“The Detroit Pistons would have won the Olympics,” he said of the current champs, also coached by Brown. “They would have won because they are a team. … Their bottom four or five players already know their role.”

Yankee Stadium, go home

Boston Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez has had some rough going at Yankee Stadium during his career, so it’s understandable he isn’t fond of the place.

Martinez was asked by the New York Post’s Steve Serby to name the funniest thing a fan had said to him at Yankee Stadium.

“Nothing funny. Everything is rude,” Martinez said.

Serby also asked Martinez: “Do you pitch in a controlled rage?”

Said Martinez: “What is this, a psychology test?”

Race for this deal

Don’t miss your chance to place your bid on eBay to buy the Sandia Motor Speedway in Albuquerque, N.M.

The 85-acre track was listed on the Internet auction site Sept. 17 and had received a high bid of $3,999,500 as of Saturday. The track was appraised at $4.24 million in 2002, said manager Dawn Freeze, one of 52 investor-owners authorizing the sale.

Although no price was listed for the track, the owners have the right to pull the speedway off eBay if the bids aren’t high enough. The auction ends Oct. 17.

Striking comparison

Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, on the NHL’s labor dispute: “Will Mario Lemieux, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ player-owner, get into an ugly confrontation with himself on the NHL picket line?”