What Went Around the NBA Came Around for Thomas

The debate continues on whether Isiah Thomas should have been included on the 1992 Olympic basketball team. But, as Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post points out, anyone who thinks Thomas didn’t make the team because of his strained relationship with Michael Jordan is missing the bigger picture.

“Let’s get this straight right off the bat,” Wilbon writes. “If NBA players are eligible, Isiah Thomas deserves to be on the team. No lead guard who’s ever played the game, except Magic, has ever dominated it like Isiah. Nobody.

“Obviously, however, there were other considerations. Lots of them. Let’s just say, the chickens have come to roost for ‘Ol Zeke. While, on merit, he belongs absolutely, it’s virtually impossible to feel sorry for him.

“You certainly won’t find too many of his peers feeling sorry for him either. Across the league he’s created ill will. He sandbagged Adrian Dantley, one of the league’s most respected players. He supported an offensive and stupid remark Dennis Rodman made about his supposed friend, Larry Bird. He allegedly participated in ‘freezing out’ Michael Jordan during an NBA all-star game.

“And last June, when he walked off the court before the end of Game 4 while his Pistons were being swept by the Bulls, without congratulating the winners or even showing any sign of class, he probably sealed his fate with the Olympic selection committee.”

Trivia time: USC’s Mazio Royster had his seventh 100-yard rushing game Saturday at Oregon. Who holds the Trojan record?

Ryder on the storm: After Saturday’s Ryder Cup matches, U.S. golfer Paul Azinger called NBC analyst Johnny Miller the “biggest moron who’s ever been in the booth.”

The Sunday Post Courier of Charleston, S.C., used the item in its Ryder Cup notes section, with a headline that read: “Azinger Calls Miller a Moron.”

But at the news conference after the United States’ victory, Azinger said he needed to clarify his comment.

“I just want everyone to know there was a misprint in the newspaper this morning,” he said. “You got it wrong, I said Miller was the biggest Mormon I ever saw in the booth.”

He will be free: Rusty Hilger was either being realistic or not thinking. The former Raider quarterback, now with the Seattle Seahawks, set Jan. 26 as his wedding date while playing for the Indianapolis Colts.

That is Super Bowl Sunday.

Bush League: Dozens of Minnesota Twin fans lit up the switchboard at WCCO-TV last week to make clear their disapproval of seeing Randy Bush being pulled for George Bush.

Fans were watching the game from Toronto between the Blue Jays and the Twins, a probable preview of the American League championship series. One minute it was Randy Bush watching a triple sail past him in right field, and the next it was President Bush talking defense of a different sort.

As soon as the President appeared on screen, callers made sure receptionist Katheryn George knew which Bush they preferred.

“Actually, I thought it would be worse,” the receptionist said. “We preempted ‘Knots Landing’ once, and boy, did we get calls.”

Trivia answer: Charles White, with 31.

Quotebook: John Madden, on the weird shirts worn by New York Giant Coach Ray Handley: “How did the designer know when he was done?”