Akeem’s Brother Is No Dream, Yet

Tajueen Olajuwon, 15-year-old brother of Akeem Olajuwon, has moved from Nigeria to live with his brother and is playing on the JV team at Marian Christian High School in Houston.

Tajueen stands 6-5 and is a good jumper, but apparently it will be awhile before he makes an impact on the game.

His coach, Bob Gallagher, told Danny Robbins of the Dallas Times Herald: “He can’t dribble, and he hacks everything that moves on defense.”

His most impressive statistic?

“He’s fouled out of every game,” Gallagher said.

Said Roger Staubach, 42, rejecting suggestions he try a comeback after being elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: “I played a flag football game the other day and got chapped lips from the cold and a sore arm.”

For what it’s worth: San Francisco defensive lineman Michael Carter is 2-0 over Miami quarterback Dan Marino in bowl games.

Carter played for SMU in the 7-3 win over Marino and Pittsburgh in the 1983 Cotton Bowl.

“I remember it well,” Carter says. “As a matter of fact, I got the last sack of his college career.”

While expressing an interest in Doug Flutie, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell said he wasn’t prepared to match the reported offer of more than $1 million a year by the New Jersey Generals.

Modell: “It would wreck the whole payroll structure of my team, as well as the payroll structure of the entire NFL.”

Modell’s critics, of course, will remind him that the team spending the most money in the NFL is the team that won the Super Bowl.

According to The Sporting News, the average salary on the San Francisco 49ers is $200,000, which is 25% higher than the league average. Joe Montana’s deal reportedly has a minimum value of $6.9 million over six years.

Joe Douglas, the manager of Carl Lewis, has maintained that everything has been going swimmingly for his client, but he’s quoted in Track & Field News as saying: “The press is very powerful. We wouldn’t have lost a very major endorsement contract with one of the world’s largest companies if that company hadn’t decided after L.A. that Carl’s image wasn’t what it wanted. And the press put out that portrait of him.”

Said Roy Conrad of T&F; News, accusing the press of yellow journalism: “The hatchet jobs on Carl Lewis before, during and after the Olympics should make the fourth estate ashamed of itself.”

Martina Navratilova, something of a cut-up off the court, was asked why she was so businesslike in her matches.

“The main reason I find it difficult to joke around and laugh it up is because I’m beating people 99% of the time. And I wouldn’t want somebody beating me and joking around about it,” she said .

“When I used to lose, it was easy to kid around and have a good time. When you’re down 5-2, you can lighten up because you’re obviously going to lose. You can sit on the lineman’s lap or whatever. But I’ve been very conscious of not rubbing it in my opponent’s face when I’m winning because I know it would hurt. I would love to celebrate and jump around, but that’s not right.”

Quotebook

Senior golfer Don January, on his lack of conditioning: “I like to smoke and drink, and I’m lazy. I enjoy doing absolutely nothing, and I’m pretty good at it.”