His Coaching Approach Falls Far Short of the Olympic Ideal

Ira Berkow, writing in the New York Times, blames Coach Chuck Daly for the Detroit Pistons’ unsportsmanlike behavior while losing to the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

“The Pistons finished the playoffs like defending chumps instead of defending champs,” Berkow writes. “And the man who is ultimately responsible for it is their coach, Chuck Daly, who has been named to coach the United States Olympic team in the 1992 Games in Barcelona.

“If Daly holds to the same disgusting theories of physical intimidation and miserable sportsmanship that the Pistons displayed in their series against the Bulls . . . then the Olympic Committee should rethink their choice.”

Trivia time: Who holds the NBA playoff record for assists in a game?

Sweep talk: If the Chicago Bulls sweep the Lakers, they would finish with a 15-1 record in the playoffs, the best postseason record in NBA history, surpassing Philadelphia’s 12-1 of 1983. Since going to the current format, the 1989 Detroit Pistons have the best record at 15-2.

A throwback: The Yankees’ Pat Kelly reportedly told New York Manager Stump Merrill that he would shine shoes or mop the floors when told that he was being moved from second base to third base--anything to stay in the major leagues.

“If you’re tired of Jose Canseco, Rickey Henderson, Barry Bonds and the rest of baseball’s miserable millionaires, then Kelly is your kind of player,” writes Tom Verducci in Newsday. “He should be wearing baggy flannels, not polyester double-knits. He has come to life out of a Rockwell painting, or maybe a black-and-white newsreel.”

Lucky: The number 13 has no negative connotations for the LPGA’s Pat Bradley. She was the player of the year in 1986, her 13th season on the tour, and she recently won the Centel tournament, the 13th event of the season, which began May 13.

A man of his word: A day before Ben Johnson and archrival Carl Lewis ran in separate 100-meter races at Seville, Spain, Johnson assured reporters that he wouldn’t run another embarrassing 10.54-second 100-meter race.

“I won’t be running 10.5 all season long, that’s for sure,” Johnson said.

Johnson kept his word. Thursday night, he finished fifth in 10.69, more than one-tenth of a second slower than his time of the previous weekend and nearly a second off his drug-aided 9.79-second victory over Lewis in the 1988 Olympic Games at Seoul.

Nostalgia pays: At a recent auction of sports memorabilia in San Francisco, Gil Hodges’ 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers World Series ring sold for $20,900, and a Louisville Slugger bat signed by Joe DiMaggio brought $9,350.

Babe Ruth’s signed 472nd home run ball from April 28, 1929, went for $12,600, and Stan Musial’s 1948 home flannel jersey changed hands for $24,200.

Trivia answer: Magic Johnson and Utah’s John Stockton, with 24 in 1984 and 1988, respectively.

Quotebook: NBC Sports executive producer Terry O’Neil, on the Magic Johnson-Michael Jordan matchup in the NBA finals: “Even we probably couldn’t screw this up.”