Bird: NBA Refs Favor Big Stars

Larry Bird confirms what many have long suspected, that the big stars in the NBA get away with more on the court than the lesser lights.

During the Boston-Detroit series, Bird told Charlie Vincent in the Sporting News: “I’m sure if you got an official alone, where no one would ever know, they’ll say, ‘We adjust to his type of game.’ There are guys who travel a lot down low and guys who take stutter steps. And Isiah Thomas carries the ball, but you can’t call that. He’s probably been doing that since he was 6 years old.”

And Bird?

“I try to get away with as much as I can,” he said.

Add Bird: After Sunday’s loss to Philadelphia, he said of Julius Erving who was guarding him: “I’ve never seen a guy get away with so much.”

Add 76ers: When 265-pound Charles Barkley went crashing into the crowd Sunday, he wound up in the lap of Melissa Nathanson, a student at the University of Virginia.

Said Nathanson: “I saw him coming, but I didn’t know which way to go.”

Says Larry Holmes, defending his choice of opponents as he pursues Rocky Marciano’s record of 49-0: “If they talk about my opponents, then they better take a look at the record book and see who the Alis and Marcianos fought.”

True, Marciano fought a number of stiffs but those fights were early in his career when he was pretty much an unknown himself. After he won the title, he defended it only six times, all against contenders--Jersey Joe Walcott, Ezzard Charles twice, Roland LaStarza, British champion Don Cockell and Archie Moore.

From Mike Douchant in the Sporting News: “Former St. John’s guard Rob James dropped out of Chowan (N.C.) Junior College after last season. . . . Many of James’ education courses at St. John’s weren’t accepted as credits at Chowan.”

Hmmm.

A confession from baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams: “I’ve got to admit that when there’s baseball and tennis on TV at the same time, I cheat a bit and switch back and forth. I makes me feel a little disloyal, but geez, what a great game tennis is.”

When Reggie Jackson said he wanted to buy a piece of the Oakland A’s, they asked A’s coach Billy Williams what kind of an owner Jackson would make.

Williams: “He’d be like a couple of guys he played for, Charlie Finley and George Steinbrenner. He would be strict, stern, speaking his mind a lot. He learned from them how to put a winning team together.

“He’ll always be competitive. If you’re in a plane that flies at 30,000 feet, Reggie will want one that flies at 35,000.”

Nancy Lopez, after winning her first tournament in nine months last Sunday in New Jersey, said it helped to have the support of husband Ray Knight, who joined the gallery between assignments for the New York Mets.

She also said she finally stopped thinking so much about her swing.

“When you are thinking too much, that’s when golf gets hard,” Lopez said. “It has to be automatic. I keep telling Ray to just swing at the ball when he golfs. If you are aggressive, the ball will go straight.”

Quotebook

Frank Luksa of the Dallas Times Herald, on new Texas Ranger Manager Bobby Valentine: “He’s a 35-year-old rookie. He will make many mistakes through inexperience. Every previous Ranger manager would say he’s already made the most elementary error. He took the job.”