King Loses Grip on Door Handle--and Tyson

Is the honeymoon over for Mike Tyson and Don King? According to Wallace Matthews of Newsday, stories were flying in Las Vegas recently about friction between the two.

Wrote Matthews: “One incident, confirmed by a Las Vegas Hilton parking attendant, had Tyson and King engaging in a very public shouting match in front of the hotel. According to witnesses, Tyson leaped into his car, and King grabbed the passenger-side door handle, trying to climb in. But before King could open the door, Tyson sped off, nearly running over King’s foot.

“A chagrined King, unaccustomed to being upstaged in public, snickered to onlookers, ‘I guess he wanted to be alone.’ ”

Hockey may be starting to catch on in Los Angeles, but it has a long way to go to catch such cities as Detroit. Last week, a minor league game between Adirondack, a Red Wing farm club, and Newmarket, a Toronto Maple Leafs affiliate, attracted 17,446 to Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.

Trivia time: Who is the National Basketball Assn.’s highest-scoring nonstarter this season?

A new reason to stall: Walhalla High School of Spartanburg, S.C., lost more than a basketball game Friday night. The team also lost its bus.

While Walhalla lost its 23rd consecutive game, 87-66, to Chapman in Inman, S.C., the team’s chartered bus was repossessed because the charter company apparently failed to meet loan payments.

Eventually, another bus was sent to take the team, coaches and cheerleaders back home.

Walhalla Coach Tes Vitaris said: “With a minute left in the game, I called time out and told the boys they could go ahead and stall, because the bus had been stolen and we were going to be here for a while.”

Trivia answer: Eddie Johnson of the Phoenix Suns, who is averaging 20.8 points per game.

Quotebook

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, on being named to replace Magic Johnson in today’s All-Star game: “The All-Star game is for players who have been giving All-Star level performances that year, and I am far from having an All-Star year thus far this season.”