This Time, It Could Be More Than Just a Crowd at Airport

The World Cup soccer tournament started Friday in Italy, where Italian soccer players are regarded as national heroes.

But only when they honor their homeland.

Sports Illustrated reported that when the Italians were eliminated by France in the second round of the World Cup four years ago at Mexico City, a huge crowd gathered at the airport outside Rome to meet the team when it returned home.

“But the fans didn’t come to console the players,” the magazine reported. “They came to jeer and spit at them, and to scream, ‘Italy vomits on you.’ ”

Trivia time: Who were the first three picks in the 1981 NBA draft?

Choose your poison: Mike Reid, on the difference between the Butler National Golf Club, site of this week’s Western Open, and Medinah Country Club, which will be the host club for the U.S. Open next week: “Butler can ambush you. Medinah just body-punches you to death.”

Rookie ritual: Calling it “just the routine of your average player,” Stacey King of the Chicago Bulls revealed his pregame ritual to Inside Sports magazine:

--He phones his mother in Lawton, Okla.

--He plays at least one hour of Nintendo video games. “I can’t sit still,” he said.

--He pats teammate Michael Jordan. “I had a poster of him in my room at college,” said King. “Now I touch the real thing.”

--He rubs his lucky rabbit’s foot.

--He strokes his lucky Pink Piggy, which was given to him by his college sweetheart, Lisa Lawson. “She gave it to me two years ago and I scored 38 points that day,” he said.

For what it’s worth: Inside Sports, basing its poll on conversations with NBA scouts and player personnel directors, lists Cedric Ceballos of Cal State Fullerton as the No. 22 prospect and Trevor Wilson of UCLA as the No. 36 prospect in this month’s NBA draft.

At Pauley Pavilion on Dec. 23, with scouts from eight NBA teams watching from the stands, Ceballos missed seven of his first eight shots and 13 of 19 overall, scoring 14 of his 18 points after the Titans had fallen behind UCLA, 51-31, at halftime.

Meanwhile, Wilson had 23 points and 12 rebounds in an 87-75 Bruin victory.

Add poll: Bo Kimble of Loyola Marymount is listed as the No. 11 prospect in the Inside Sports poll. Derrick Coleman of Syracuse is listed as No. 1.

Trivia answer: Mark Aguirre of DePaul, Buck Williams of Maryland and Isiah Thomas of Indiana, all of whom are playing in the NBA finals.

Quotebook: Uruguayan forward Sergio Martinez, whose team has prohibited the players’ wives or girlfriends from joining them during the World Cup: “The World Cup is only played every four years. We can have sex the rest of our lives.”