O’Neal Became Yet Another Forlorn Hope

Norm Sonju, general manager of the Dallas Mavericks, was overly excited about the prospect of getting Louisiana State center Shaquille O’Neal in the recent NBA draft lottery.

Don Carter, the club’s majority owner, told Sonju to “cool it,” according to the Dallas Morning News.

“Let’s play with what we know we have,” Carter said. “I’m not proud that we ended up with the third worst record in the league, but we have a right to get the third-best player in the draft.”

It didn’t work that way. The lottery determined the first three draft picks and Dallas was shut out. Dallas will pick fourth in the draft on June 24.

Add Mavericks: In previous draws on lottery day, they have finished seventh of seven teams, eighth of nine, ninth of 11 and sixth of 11 in 1991.

Trivia time: Bill Sharman won championships as a coach in three professional basketball leagues. Identify them.

Who said it? In response to a previous briefing item, reader Tim Burns disputes the origin of the remark, “Winning isn’t everything--it’s the only thing.”

It has been variously credited to the late Red Sanders and Vince Lombardi, football coaches at UCLA and the Green Bay Packers, respectively.

Burns contends that in a 1950s film, “Trouble Along the Way,” starring John Wayne as a football coach, his daughter in the movie, Sherry Jackson, quotes her father’s favorite remark, “Winning isn’t everything--it’s the only thing.”

Hitless wonder: At the end of his playing career in 1970, Mickey Mantle, as quoted in “Baseball Quotations,” said:

“During my 18 years (with the New York Yankees), I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at-bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.”

Matter of timing: St. Louis Cardinal Manager Joe Torre once fined Pedro Guerrero for missing a team flight. Someone asked: “But what if Guerrero got mugged on the way to the plane?”

Torre hesitated and then replied: “He’d still get fined--unless he told me the day before that he’s going to be mugged. Then it would be OK.”

Tiger bait: Cal State Fullerton’s 11-0 victory over LSU in an NCAA regional baseball game came despite a taunting, raucous Baton Rouge crowd that has a reputation as one of the most intimidating in college athletics.

In 1979, an unbeaten USC football team barely beat mediocre LSU, 17-12, at Tiger Stadium. That prompted Roger Valdiserri, a Notre Dame official, to say: “Our stadium is a kindergarten compared to Tiger Stadium.”

Good act, bad hit: In reviewing the movie, “The Babe,” Dave Kindred wrote in the Sporting News: “John Goodman can act. Utterly persuasive as the man-child Ruth. “But he can’t swing a baseball bat. . . . Goodman at bat as Babe Ruth is the visual equivalent of Roseanne Arnold in a bikini as Marilyn Monroe.”

Trivia answer: American Basketball League (Cleveland Pipers), American Basketball Assn. (Utah Stars) and NBA (Lakers).

Quotebook: Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder Gary Varsho, on his needless slide at home to complete an inside-the-park home run: “That wasn’t a slide. I just couldn’t stand up anymore.”