Cheap Seats
Fashion misstatement
Mr. Blackwell’s Worst Dressed List, which appears in the March issue of Sport Magazine, includes Chicago Bulls forward Dennis Rodman and boxing promoter Don King.
Joining the pair on that list are tennis star Pete Sampras and hockey player Sergei Federov.
Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, teammates of Rodman, are on Blackwell’s Best Dressed List, as are heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, golfer Tiger Woods, NFL players Ray Buchanan, Keenan McCardell and Kevin Hardy, and, of course, Miami Heat coach Pat Riley, who is always on the list. There is also a women’s category. Blackwell rates gymnast Dominique Dawes among the Best Dressed, and swimmer Amy Van Dyken among the Worst Dressed.
How to fail in business
New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica thinks he knows what ruined the Toronto Raptors, the NBA franchise sold by Allan Slaight to the owners of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs.
Writes Lupica: “Somebody has to explain to me what sort of organizational genius Isiah Thomas exhibited when he was running the Toronto Raptors. You know, before he began setting the television business on its ear sitting there next to (Bob) Costas.
“The guy was going to revolutionize basketball when he got the Raptors, and now you can have anybody on the team for some boxtops and a few coupons.”
Winning is the only thing
When the Washington Wizards’ Tracy Murray scored 50 points against the Golden State Warriors last week in Oakland, he was overjoyed.
Because he had a career high for himself and a season high for the NBA?
Of course, but, most of all, because his team won, 99-87.
Murray still remembers another big night in Oakland with a not-so-big finish. That was back in his prep days when his team, Glendora High, played in the state championship.
“I scored 64 points and lost the game,” Murray said. “I ask myself all the time, ‘How do you score 64 and lose?’ Haunts me to this day. That’s what makes this so sweet. We won.”
A shooter with a conscience? It can’t be true.
Instant stardom
A 9-year-old Brazilian farm boy has been catapulted to fame for his extraordinary likeness to his hero, world and European soccer player of the year Ronaldo.
Bruno Lima Alves beat 57 other look-alikes for the starring role in a new soft-drink commercial in which he represents the young Ronaldinho, as Ronaldo is affectionately known in Brazil.
Sources say there is no truth to the rumor that Mean Joe Greene appears in the ad.
The last word …
“The only one who had to fear for his job was the coach, so Colin Campbell lost his job Wednesday. The ones whose performance made the New York Rangers stink on ice are still there.”
- Newsday’s Steve Jacobson, on the decision of New York Rangers general manager Neil Smith to fire coach Colin Campbell.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo