Better Ask Him What He Thinks 20 Years From Now

After the Sacramento Kings drafted University of Louisville center Pervis Ellison, club Vice President Bill Russell was asked about Ellison’s reputed blase behavior.

“There was a kid I used to watch in high school they said that about,” Russell told the Sporting News. “He just retired at 42 years of age.”

Add draft: Seton Hall guard John Morton, first choice of the Cleveland Cavaliers, said at a news conference: “In the Bronx, I played on courts that had a lot of holes in them that helped me with my moves. At Seton Hall, I worked on my jump shot to the point where it was just about automatic.”

When someone reminded him of his 43% shooting from the floor, he said: “You remember I said just about automatic.”

Trivia time: Name the only player to represent both Canadian major league teams in the All-Star game. (Answer below.)

48 years ago today: On July 8, 1941, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox hit a two-out, three-run homer in the ninth inning to give the American League a 7-5 victory in the All-Star game at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. Pittsburgh’s Arky Vaughan hit two home runs for the National League.

For what it’s worth: David Atchison, UCLA’s new golf coach, is a great-great-great grandson of former U.S. senator David Rice Atchison (1807-86). Atchison was president for one day--March 4, 1848--when Zachary Taylor declined to be inaugurated on a Sunday.

Man’s best friend: Abe Lemons, Oklahoma City basketball coach, on the early days of his marriage: “I got home one evening, and my young wife met me at the door crying. She said the dog had eaten the meat loaf she had fixed for supper, but I consoled her and said I’d buy her a new dog.”

Oops: Said Cincinnati Manager Pete Rose last week when asked about Atlanta pitcher John Smoltz: “Believe me, Smoltz is one of the best. I voted for him for the All-Star team and I bet . . . oh, I shouldn’t say that. I hope he makes it.”

Would-you-believe-it Dept.: Kansas City’s Bo Jackson estimates that he receives about 20 pounds of mail a week. But he doesn’t feel overburdened. “I’m a speed reader,” he said.

The last round: Mac O’Grady says he’s quitting the PGA Tour this year to devote himself to writing and other pursuits. He said he and his Japanese wife will spend six months of every year in her homeland, living at the foot of Mt. Fuji, where he will be “a Zen gardener.”

He told Owen Canfield of the Hartford Courant: “I’m 38, but I’m old enough to retire. I figure each of the 17 times I went through the qualifying school it aged me a year, and every year I spent on the tour, seven of them, aged me a year. So I’m 62. That’s retirement age.”

Trivia answer: Ron Fairly.

Quotebook: Martina Navratilova, on why she didn’t take out a Lloyd’s of London policy on her left arm: “They wanted an arm and a leg.”