All You Could Do Was Hit Him and Hope He Somehow Missed

The Boston Globe recently asked Celtic players to name the toughest player they ever had to defend against in the NBA.

Robert Parish, the veteran center, didn’t have to ponder.

“No one will ever give me as much trouble again as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did,” he said. “That guy gave me the blues.

“There was nothing I could do to stop him. I fouled him, I hit him, I fronted him, and it never worked. Kareem always had my number. I was so happy when he retired I almost bought him a gift myself.”

Trivia Time: Who had baseball’s longest hitting streak last season?

Now hear this: The World League of American Football faces cultural and linguistic barriers when it becomes the first transatlantic league starting next weekend.

With teams in five countries, the WLAF will be a multilingual league.

For example, the Frankfurt Galaxy, which plays host to the London Monarchs in the league’s first game Saturday, will have public address announcements in German as well as English.

There is however, one universal language: booing.

Work ethic: Yo, Magic Johnson. You’re not the only player in the NBA who is logging excessive playing time. There are 16 players in the league averaging as many or more minutes than the Laker star player.

For example, Utah’s Karl Malone is averaging 40 minutes. Other workaholics include Boston’s Larry Bird, Atlanta’s Dominique Wilkins, Detroit’s Joe Dumars, Philadelphia’s Charles Barkley and Minnesota’s Pooh Richardson.

Get it right, kid: If Florida State Coach Pat Kennedy was intimidated by Bob Knight when his team lost to Indiana Saturday in a second-round NCAA tournament game, it would be understandable.

As a high school player, Kennedy once worked at his brother’s summer basketball camp, where Knight was the featured lecturer.

“One time he told a kid to go down and get a blade of grass at the lake,” Kennedy said. “The kid got the blade of grass and ran back with it as fast as he could. When he gave it to the coach, Knight said, ‘Wrong one.’ ”

The Ice Man: Joona Partanen won $270,000 in a marathon nine-day ice fishing competition in eastern Finland, defeating 5,000 other ice anglers.

Partanen said he had a simple game plan.

“You just drill the hole, put the bait on and drop the line. And then you wait,” he said.

Brrrr.

Tony tunes: Tony Dorsett, who ran defenders ragged when he played for the Dallas Cowboys, will soon do the same to villains on the fictitious planet Sylon.

“He won’t be able to pick up 12 cars, or move a building or anything, but everybody on the planet will marvel at his athletic ability,” said a spokesman for a company planning a syndicated TV cartoon show and comic book titled “T.D. Tony.”

Trivia answer: Houston’s Jose Tolentino had a 30-game streak while playing for Tucson, a triple-A team.

Quotebook: Atlanta Falcon Coach Jerry Glanville on the Cincinnati Bengals and Sam Wyche: “How would you like to coach a team every week that looks like they’re getting ready for Halloween?”