How Suite It Is: He Nurtures Air of Superiority

They call him Air Jordan, and when the Chicago Bulls went to New York to play the Knicks in the playoffs, Michael Jordan was living high.

Wrote Lacy J. Banks of the Chicago Sun-Times: “Owner Jerry Reinsdorf and operations chief Jerry Krause treated their players to a free meal Wednesday night in the Marriott Marquis Hotel, just a block from Times Square.

“The players met in Michael Jordan’s suite, watched the Piston-Bucks and Lakers-Sonics playoff games, played cards and swapped small talk. Jordan’s two-bedroom suite rents for $2,500 a day.”

A long way down: Golfer Jay Don Blake, former NCAA champion at Utah State, told the Richmond News Leader: “I live near the Grand Canyon, as well as Zion and Bryce, and Grand Canyon is nice. But look down and it’s a big hole. You wouldn’t get me going down the trail to the bottom on one of those jackass rides. Not interested.”

Trivia time: Abe Stark is the answer to what trivia question?

A lot to learn: Jerry Buss, recalling his purchase of the franchise, told David Kahn of the Portland Oregonian: “The first thing I remember about my first year was the excitement I had, that I could now talk to the legends of basketball in Los Angeles. Suddenly I had the opportunity to sit across the desk from Bill Sharman and Jerry West and talk to them.

“In those days I found that I gave a lot of basketball advice to West and Sharman, and I must admit they never let on what a nincompoop I really was. It took me several years to learn the little I knew about basketball, and fortunately they didn’t let me make too many mistakes.”

Ouch: When Rick Pitino signed as the new basketball coach at Kentucky, his fourth job in six years, a New York columnist referred to him as “a Larry Brown on training wheels.”

King me: From Terry Pluto of the Akron Beacon Journal: “Believe it or not, the Clippers’ Benoit Benjamin reportedly is close to signing a deal to be represented by fight promoter Don King.”

California, here he comes: Keith Marder of the Albany (N.Y) Times-Union, on Deion Sanders, who is trying to decide between football and baseball: “He even joked that if he had a choice, it wouldn’t be the Yankees or the Falcons--he’d want to play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers.”

Kinerism of the week: New York Mets announcer Ralph Kiner, on injured Atlanta reliever Bruce Sutter: “He’s going to be out of action the rest of his career.”

Trivia answer: He was the Brooklyn clothier who had a sign on the right-field wall at Ebbets Field that said: “Hit this sign, win a suit.”

Quotebook: Dodger pitcher Mike Morgan, on pitching for the Oakland Athletics right out of high school: “I had nothing to lose, everything to gain. I gained a lot of losses.”