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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Auerbach was seeing red


Westphal
 (AP / The Spokesman-Review)
From wire reports The Spokesman-Review

Former NBA player Paul Westphal signed with the Boston Celtics for $60,000 a year, plus a $5,000 bonus – huge by 1972 standards. Coach Red Auerbach was not pleased that the team had spent so much on a rookie.

“The first day of practice he said, ‘You should be paying us for teaching you how to play the game,’ ” Westphal said.

Westphal, now Pepperdine’s basketball coach, said he recently saw the new massive parking structure on the University of Southern California campus, located about 200 yards from the basketball arena under construction.

Wondering why USC would need such a big parking structure for basketball, he said, “How many parking spaces do you need for a thousand fans?”

Trunk talk

Fox NASCAR analyst Jeff Hammond, during pre-race Nextel Cup coverage last Sunday from Talladega, Ala., was talking about the importance of the rear bumper of a race car when colleague Chris Myers said, “You have to cover your rear end.”

Bird of prey

Fox race commentator Darrell Waltrip, shortly after the start of last Sunday’s race, said, “This is a critical point in the race. You have to make up your mind what you’re going to do. Are you going to roar with the eagles and run up front, or are you going to be a buzzard and ride around in the back and pick up the pieces?”

Mind your own business

Horse trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who often travels by plane, said he usually doesn’t like to talk on planes, that when he tells the person next to him he’s a horse trainer, he invariably gets lots of questions.

“If I don’t feel like talking and the person next to me asks me what I do for a living, I say, ‘I’m in the insurance business. What do you do?’ “

Lukas said that does the trick every time.

Something about Mike and Victor

After wrist surgery, former Mariners center fielder Mike Cameron is set to return to the New York Mets this month, which could lead to a demotion for right fielder Victor Diaz. Marty Noble of MLB.com wonders if this means that the Mets have “a Cameron-Diaz issue.”

Making change

Bob Costas, on Dennis Miller’s CNBC show, was talking about the humbling of Maurice Clarett when he recalled that a linebacker once drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals called attention to himself by wearing a quarter in his ear.

According to Costas, tight end Jackie Smith said, “Here’s what this boy is going to find out about life in the NFL. He’s going to come around the corner and some nasty dude is going to turn that quarter into two dimes and a nickel.”

Grand Old Players

The Washington Nationals marked a return of major league baseball to the nation’s capital after a 34-year absence. Apparently the makeup of their roster has sparked a political debate.

“Some wise guy had to go and point out that, when it comes to throwing, 19 of the team’s 26 players – a 76 percent majority – are right-wingers,” wrote Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times.

Finding humor in it

Sitcom stars Ray Romano and Kevin James were filmed attempting to make the cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February for a special that will air on HBO on June 18. Said James: “As an amateur golfer, it’s a great experience. Even when you hook a ball into the other fairway, you get to apologize to guys like Freddy Couples.”