Teammates Pierced Barkley’s Defense

Charles Barkley, Mike Gminski and Rick Mahorn of the Philadelphia 76ers vowed that if the club won 10 consecutive games, they would get their left ears pierced.

The 76ers won 12 in a row before losing last week. Gminski and Mahorn kept their vows and began wearing diamond-studded earrings; Barkley, the instigator of the pact, held off.

“I said when I was ready to do it, I’d do it,” Barkley said. “We made a pact, and I’m going to stick to it. It’s a permanent fixture.”

Barkley finally kept his word Wednesday.

“I think once he saw Rick and I had done it, he finally succumbed to peer-group pressure,” Gminski said. “He was, like, back there making the snowballs and we were throwing them, and so he had to finally step up to the plate.”

Trivia time: On Feb. 17, 1954, who retired after 26 years as unbeaten world champion in court tennis?

Thrill is gone: Mike Eruzione, whose goal lifted the U.S. team to a 4-3 upset victory over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics, on the political upheaval in the Eastern Bloc: “I’ll be interested to see if the Eastern European hockey players maintain their attitude. Before, their only escape was to be a great athlete. Now their systems will be more like ours. I wonder if they’ll lose that edge. For one thing, the rivalry isn’t going to be the same. The Soviets aren’t the bad guys any more.”

Add hockey: Bob McCammon, coach of the Vancouver Canucks, on 200-pound-plus Soviet left wing Vladimir Krutov: “His weight’s down to its best level, but I swear he’s going to miss a flight one of these days chasing a hot dog.”

Malpractice: Joe Fields, center for the New York Jets, on playing for Joe Walton, hired Friday as offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers: “He inherited a healthy patient, a team that came within one game of the Super Bowl. All we needed was a little exploratory surgery to get better, but Joe cut everything up and killed the patient.”

Last things first: John Thompson, Georgetown basketball coach, on substitutions: “I have never felt it was a special honor to start. We are a team of finishers, not a team of starters. We give a lot more credence to who is in there at the end, not who is in there at the beginning.”

Take it up the middle: Jud Heathcote, Michigan State basketball coach, on George Perles being appointed to the dual role of Spartan football coach and athletic director: “I just know he’ll come down here and advise me to run more than pass.”

Saying a mouthful: Lance Blanks of the University of Texas basketball team, denying he spit at a Texas Tech player: “(The other player) just took out his mouthpiece to say something and slobbered all over himself.”

Trivia answer: Pierre Etchebaster.

Quotebook: Former NBA star Rick Barry, who has four basketball-playing sons: “If my kids were horses, they’d be worth a million dollars because of their breeding.”