Bets, Basketball and the Green Beret

The subject was intensity, and Milwaukee Buck assistant coach Garry St. Jean said nobody can match Sidney Moncrief.

During training camp, St. Jean said to a reporter: “Wanna make some money? Sit here for a week and every time we scrimmage, bet on Sidney’s team to win.”

Bill Walton, calling Boston Celtic teammate Larry Bird an “unbelievable basketball player,” told J.D. Schulz of the Dallas Times Herald: “When he gets that look in his eye, you better get your butt in gear or you’re going to hear about it. You don’t like to hear about it from the MVP of the league. I like that sort of leadership and intensity.”

Then there’s Mike Ditka. Former Aliquippa (Pa.) High School teammate Don Yannessa, now the head football coach at the school, told Mike Prisuta of the Beaver County Times: “Mike should have been a Green Beret or a kamikaze pilot. Come to think of it, he’d have been a heck of a hit man.”

Trivia Time: Richard Dent is the fifth defensive player to be named the most valuable player of a Super Bowl. Who were the other four? (Answer below.)

Add Dent: When Vince Tobin, the Chicago Bears’ new defensive coordinator, said he would replace Buddy Ryan’s 4-3 with a 3-4, Dent said: “I don’t think you can win a Super Bowl with a 3-4 defense. You can’t put pressure on the quarterback with a three-man line and that was Buddy’s whole scheme--put pressure on the quarterback. I loved Buddy’s scheme. It will go down in history.”

David Spencer, assistant basketball coach at USC, said he could envision the day when the Trojans start an all-Philadelphia team. If so, it wouldn’t be the first time the school has started all imports.

In the 1937-38 season, USC started a team of all Indiana products. They were Ralph Vaughn and Clem Ruh at forwards, Carl Anderson at center, and Bill Remsen and Hal Dornsife at guards.

They didn’t win a conference title, though, until two years later when only Vaughn remained. He was joined by Jack Morrison (L.A. High) at forward, Dale Sears (Manual Arts) at center, and Tom McGarvin (Santa Monica) and Jack Lippert (Loyola) at guards.

The Trojans have two players from Philadelphia on this season’s team--Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble.

Now-it-can-be-told dept.: From IBF heavyweight champion Michael Spinks, revealing that not only Leon beat him up as a kid but older sister Karen: “She beat me up all the time. One day I thought I was getting good, so I boxed her and she busted my nose.”

Add Leon: When cassettes of his two fights with Muhammad Ali were being advertised for $89.95, ring physician Dr. Ferdie Pacheco said, “Hell for that money Leon will come to your house.”

From former NBA writer George Kiseda, protesting an item that listed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time leader in career blocked shots: “You aren’t wrong, but you aren’t right, either. Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Nate Thurmond all blocked more shots, but the NBA didn’t keep official stats on blocked shots when they were in their prime. Double digits were routine for Chamberlain and Russell; three in a game (Abdul-Jabbar’s average) was a bad night.”

Trivia Answer: Chuck Howley, Dallas linebacker, 1971; Jake Scott, Miami safety, 1973; Randy White, Dallas defensive tackle, and Harvey Martin, Dallas defensive end, 1978.

Quotebook

Former Boston Celtic player and coach Bill Russell, on why he worries about the future of the NBA: “Mainly because I’ve got a pension coming.”