He Couldn’t Adjust to 82-Game Schedule

Derek Smith of the Philadelphia 76ers was a member of the 1979-80 Louisville team that won the NCAA title. In the NBA, he played for the Golden State Warriors, the Clippers and the Sacramento Kings before joining the 76ers.

He told the Philadelphia Inquirer: “I came out of college winning 30 games a year to the pros, where I still won 30 games a year. Unfortunately we were playing 82.”

Add Smith: During the 1985-86 season with the Clippers, he tore up a knee in a collision with Seattle’s Tom Chambers.

Smith: “As I lay on the floor in pain, I looked over my head and there sat the owner of the team, Donald Sterling. Six days earlier, he had offered me a five-year contract for $5 million. We were gonna work on the contract for the next 30 days. As fate would have it, I got hurt and landed in his lap. I knew from the feeling in my leg I was in big trouble. And that contract was no longer on the table.”

Trivia time: When Larry Mize chipped in to beat Greg Norman in the 1987 Masters, who was the third man in the playoff? (Answer below.)

Add forgettable quotes: Robert Gamez, a two-time winner this year, said before the Masters: “It’s just another golf tournament. Sure, it’s a major championship, but from tee to green it seems easy, really, and that’s the strongest part of my game.”

Gamez missed the cut.

Wish fulfilled: Said Loyola Marymount Coach Paul Westhead when he took the microphone at the Wooden Awards banquet: “Coach Wooden, last year, at this dinner, I sat in the audience with Hank Gathers. Near the end of the ceremony, Hank looked at me and said, ‘Coach, next year, I’m gonna be up at that head table (where the Wooden All-Americans sit).’ And you know what? He is.”

Add banquet: Said Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim: “I had UNLV’s Larry Johnson on my World University Games team last summer. It didn’t take him long to establish himself in the trials. The first day, four other guys were injured and two more just went home.”

Add UNLV: Mike Littwin of the Baltimore Sun has come up with a new title for Jerry Tarkanian--the Prince of Sharkness.

Crash landing: From Jayson Stark of the Philadelphia Inquirer: “In Joe Carter’s first round of batting practice as a San Diego Padre, he crushed a transcontinental home run that came down in the parking lot--right on top of teammate Rob Nelson’s car. Nelson’s license plate reads: ‘Hit 1 Deep.’ ”

Mind-boggling: Said Mickey Mantle after learning that Bo Jackson settled for $1 million after asking for $1.9 million in arbitration: “The money that Bo Jackson didn’t get this year is more than I made in my lifetime as a player.”

Forget it: Said former Pittsburgh pitcher Steve Blass, 47, when asked if the three-inning rule would bring him out of retirement: “I can’t even watch three innings.”

Trivia answer: Seve Ballesteros.

Quotebook: Doug Melvin, assistant general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, on 36-year-old minor league pitcher Daniel Boone: “We give all the other guys gas money. We give him covered wagon money.”