It’s a Matchup He Has Waited Years to Miss

Columnist Mike Littwin of the Baltimore Sun isn’t going to sign up to watch Kareem Abdul-Jabbar play Julius Erving in a one-on-one match on pay-per-view TV next month.

“It’s the match nobody wanted to see,” Littwin wrote. “What’s next? Why not charge 20 bucks to see Willie Mays hobble out to center field and have someone hit fungoes at him and see Willie limp out from under his cap while fly balls drop all around him?”

Littwin says Abdul-Jabbar shouldn’t come out of retirement.

“He is talking about coming back to play in the NBA. He’s kidding, right? The last time I saw him play, Kareem was only slightly more mobile than the Chrysler Building. During a rainstorm, they have to oil him or he rusts. . . .

“All athletes come back, but I think Kareem’s motivation is different. I think he wants to come back so he can retire again. Remember the last retirement tour? He got more gifts than Liz Taylor at all her weddings combined. A shopping tip: Kareem loves jazz CDs.”

Trivia time: UCLA’s basketball team won its 13th consecutive conference title in 1978-79. How many have the Bruins won since then?

Olympic sport?Pool in the Olympics?

Don Mackey, commissioner of the Professional Billiard Tour in America, said pool has a good chance of being admitted into the Olympic games in either 1996 or 2000.

“I believe that conditions are now right for a successful effort to enter pool and its sister sports into the Olympics,” Mackey said.

Eight-ball, anyone?

Tackling drill: After USC guard Duane Cooper drew an intentional foul for tackling UCLA guard Tyus Edney in the Trojans’ four-point victory over No. 2 UCLA Wednesday, sportscaster Bill Walton of Prime Ticket said Cooper should play football for the Trojans.

“USC tackled so poorly last season that they could have used Cooper,” Walton quipped.

On-the-job training: Sportscaster Sean McDonough, who will be covering the bobsled and luge for CBS in the Winter Olympics, prepared for the Games by taking a ride on a luge.

A third of the way down the track, he was cursing himself for throwing away his career--and his life.

McDonough said the 40-second luge ride seemed like an hour and a half.

No books, no play: Wilberforce (Ohio) University’s basketball team forfeited a recent game against Wilmington College when 12 players boycotted, protesting because they had not received money to buy school books.

Team captain Pat Moore said the players have been without money to buy books since the semester began three weeks ago.

“So we just decided not to play the game until we’re able to get books,” Moore said. “We can’t buy our own books.”

Trivia answer: The Bruins have won two more Pac-10 titles.

Quotebook: Owner Harold Katz of the Philadelphia 76ers: “This team is like Jekyll and Hyde. We’re capable of beating anybody on a given night, and we’re also capable of losing to anybody. It’s like shooting darts and just seeing where they’re going to stick.”