Ken, Barbie And Jack
Mark Kiszla in the Denver Post: “It’s a shame. The best team in basketball lives in the worst sports city in America. The Lakers are in the NBA finals. Does anybody in L.A. besides actor Jack Nicholson really care?
“When Los Angeles beat Indiana on Wednesday, there were 18,997 Kens and Barbies in the stands. Without a doubt, the spectators in the shiny, season-old Staples Center have the prettiest faces and weakest lungs in the league.
“The new downtown arena cost $375 million. It has 160 luxury suites and 1,200 televisions. But no basketball soul.”
More proof L.A. is a bad sports town
Steve Young, who this week announced his retirement after an outstanding career with the San Francisco 49ers, began his pro career as quarterback of the Los Angeles Express in the troubled United States Football League.
The Express played their games at the nearly empty Coliseum.
“There were so few fans that I actually had to whisper in the huddle,” Young recalled a few years ago. “We’d move the huddle farther away so the defense couldn’t hear.”
Now that’s peripheral vision
Red Sox outfielder Carl Everett, on hitting a game-winning home run in the top of the ninth off Florida’s Ricky Bones on Monday night: “I couldn’t believe he challenged me inside. He used to throw harder than 85, I’m sure, before surgeries and all that. I don’t think 85, 86 is going to get me out inside. It was a mistake on his part. He challenged me and he lost that challenge.”
Bones, on Everett’s comments: “That’s what happens when you’re going good. It’s good when you can hit that good and check what a guy’s throwing (on the scoreboard radar-gun display) at the same time.”
Theory for losers
Dan Shaughnessy in the Boston Globe: “(NBA Commissioner) David Stern has heard the theory a million times: The NBA wants high-profile teams in the finals.
“It’s all about big markets and TV ratings. That’s why the league conspired to have the Los Angeles Lakers in the finals instead of the Portland Trail Blazers.
“`I got an e-mail from Portland after the game Sunday,’ Stern said. `It said the NBA and the Trail Blazers conspired to miss all those (13 consecutive) shots.”’
The last word …
“The only thing big on him is his ears. Other than that, the man just comes with a big attitude and a big heart. He’s very different from everybody else in the league.”
- Sam Perkins on Pacers teammate Reggie Miller