Jordan Pulls Switch on Indian Faithful

How much clout does Michael Jordan really have?

Pat O’Brien of CBS found out recently after a playoff game in Cleveland when he and Jordan were in a bar at the airport because of a flight delay. The television in the bar was tuned to the Indians game, which was tied, 6-6, at a crucial point in the ninth inning.

However, Jordan, an avid golfer, wanted to watch golf, so he and O’Brien polled the patrons and asked if it was OK to change the channel.

“They let him do it,” O’Brien said. “I couldn’t believe it. Here we were in Cleveland, and they let us change a Indian game that was tied in the ninth inning.

“Now that shows the power of Michael Jordan.”

Tuxedo junction: Sacramento Kings owner Gregg Lukenbill showed up in New York for dress rehearsals for the National Basketball Assn. draft lottery wearing a tuxedo, which everyone thought was a nice touch. But it was an accident.

Lukenbill had worn the tuxedo the night before in Sacramento at a black tie dinner, slept in it on his overnight flight to New York, then couldn’t change because his luggage hadn’t come with him. But by the time the lottery was held, Lukenbill had time to change his clothes to a suit.

It must have been Lukenbill’s lucky suit, because the Kings wound up with the No. 1 pick.

Trivia question How many times in the last seven years has UCLA finished ahead of USC in the final AP college football poll?

His Magic won: Jerry West said Magic Johnson’s second MVP award is an indication of the respect the Laker leader gets from around the league. And West said it means something else, too.

“It shows the consistency factor of the guy,” West said. “That is how you measure greatness. He’s been consistent his whole career.”

The envelope’s empty: How many times was West named MVP? None, the same number of times that Elgin Baylor received the award. Although they had Hall of Fame careers, they also had the misfortune to get swamped in the Bill Russell-Wilt Chamberlain deluge. In the 11 years from 1957-58 to 1967-68, either Russell or Chamberlain was named MVP nine times.

Heavy duty: Magic checked into training camp last fall at 220 pounds. After two weeks of camp, exhibition games, 77 regular season games and eight playoff games, what does he weigh nearly eight months later? “He’s a pound lighter,” West said.

Last call at Winchell’s: Remember Don Koharski? He’s the National Hockey League referee that once got into a shouting match with New Jersey Devil Coach Jim Shoenfeld that ended with Shoenfeld yelling at the pudgy Koharski the immortal words: “Have another doughnut--have another doughnut.”

Now, Koharski has to stomach another controversy. He is not working the Stanley Cup final series because of a curfew violation before Game 6 of the Wales Conference final. The NHL’s director of officiating said Koharski broke curfew in Philadelphia, the night before the deciding game of the Wales final between Montreal and the Flyers.

Koharski had to be in his room at the 11 p.m. curfew mandated by NHL rules.

Trivia answer: Seven times.

Quotebook: “He’s England’s version of Don King, except that he doesn’t steal my money,” said British middleweight boxer Nigel Benn, discussing his relationship with adviser Ambrose Mendy.