Isiah’s Smile Doesn’t Mask True Attitude, Layden Says

Although he isn’t exactly objective, Utah Jazz President Frank Layden is his usual outspoken self on the subject of Isiah Thomas’ exclusion from the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team.

Layden considers Thomas’ objection as a dig at Jazz point guard John Stockton, who was selected to the team in what would have been Thomas’ spot. And Layden has had enough of it.

“John Stockton will deliver the ball,” Layden told the Associated Press. “That’s what John Stockton does better than anyone, and that’s what the (selection) committee was looking for. I’m not sure they knew Isiah would do that.

“Is everybody afraid to say this to Isiah’s face? I don’t know. But I’d tell him. I’d say, ‘Because of your actions, nobody likes you. We see through the smiles. We see all through the baloney. We don’t want you on our team.’ ”

According to Layden, the refusal by Thomas and his Detroit teammates to congratulate the Chicago Bulls after last season’s Eastern Conference finals played a part in the decision to keep Thomas off the Olympic team.

Said Layden: “Would he do something like that if the Russians beat us? Would he embarrass the whole country? That was a disgrace.”

Add Olympics: Speaking of Detroit center Bill Laimbeer’s threat of legal action because he wasn’t given a chance to try out for the team, Layden said: “Laimbeer couldn’t make the Czechoslovakian Olympic team. In 9 million years, he couldn’t make our Olympic team.”

Last add Olympics: During the Boston Celtics’ media day, Larry Bird was asked whether Thomas’ cool relationship with Michael Jordan led to Thomas’ exclusion from the team.

Said Bird: “I think that’s a bunch of bull. I don’t think Michael has any say over who goes over and plays. Isiah’s just upset because he wasn’t picked. I can understand a guy being upset. But there are a lot of great players on that team. What can you do?”

Trivia time: Three conferences each had two schools ranked among the top 10 in home attendance during the past college basketball season. The Southeastern Conference had Kentucky at No. 2 and Tennessee No. 8, and the Big Ten had Indiana No. 9 and Minnesota No. 10. Name the third conference.

The people speak: Should the Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield fight be canceled because of Tyson’s legal problems? When the Sporting News asked readers to phone in their opinions--at 99 cents a minute--59% said the fight should go on as scheduled.

Dead again: Gene Corrigan, commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, says he knew the idea of a playoff in college football was in trouble when, at a meeting of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics last winter, he heard an influential college president say it was “time to throw a little cold water” on college football.

How much influence could one college president have?

According to Bill Millsaps of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Corrigan would not identify the president except to say the individual’s school had won two national football championships in the 1980s.

Didn’t Penn State win two national titles in the ‘80s?

Looking ahead: Expect to see wide receivers Desmond Howard of Michigan and Carl Pickens of Tennessee, both juniors, in the NFL next year, according to the Sporting News’ “Draft Watch.” The logic: They are simply too good to stick around for another season of college football, NFL scouts believe.

Howard and Pickens are “like two Rockets,” the Sporting News quotes one identified NFL scout as saying, referring to former Notre Dame star Raghib Ismail. But the scout believes they are more polished than Ismail as receivers.

Added the scout: “Pickens, I think, is ahead of Howard, primarily because he’s bigger, stronger and probably just as fast. But these guys just knock you out with ability.”

Trivia answer: The Western Athletic Conference, with Brigham Young ranked No. 6 and New Mexico No. 7.

Quotebook: Larry Bird, when asked whether his 3-month-old son, Connor Anthony Bird, had changed his life: “It’s made my life better. Now I look forward to going home.”