Havana Cool Needs a Break to Join NBA

The Havana Cool already has a logo, jackets, caps and a natural geographic rival in the NBA--the Miami Heat. All that the hopeful group of Cuban-American businessmen need is the multimillion-dollar expansion fee, the blessing of the NBA and the departure of Cuban President Fidel Castro.

“If Castro falls in the next year or two, and in the next three to five years there is an opportunity for a basketball franchise, we want to give it a shot,” said Humberto Cortina, a former Florida state representative and a Cool executive.

Objet d’art: Gold, silver and bronze medals were not always the reward for finishing in the first three at the Olympic Games. In the 1900 Paris Games, valuable pieces of art were presented instead.

Trivia time: Who set a world record in the long jump during the 1924 Olympics but got only a bronze medal?

Sizes galore: For the U.S. Olympic team, one size obviously does not fit all.

Reebok says it produced 38,000 pieces of clothing in 12 sizes ranging from double extra-small for female gymnasts to size-6 extra-large for Mark Henry, the 367-pound weightlifter. The company also produced size-3 extra-tall for the men’s basketball team.

More on sizes: Henry may need a tuck in his tights. “I’ve dropped about four pounds, you know, walkin’ and scopin’ out the local (Barcelona) scene,” he said. “Ain’t much food here I can call by name, but I’m hoping to get back up to 367 before my competition.”

Modesty: Joey Gamache, the World Boxing Assn. lightweight champion from Lewiston, Me., asked his hometown to put up a billboard depicting his face on the Maine Turnpike.

Poor Magic: “We’re here for free, we’ve given up our summer,” Magic Johnson told Dave Kindred of the Sporting News in Barcelona. “There’s a lot of money up here, a lot of people putting their livelihoods at stake just to be here.”

Today’s world: Shawn Tomson, a surfing legend in the 1970s, doesn’t think much of today’s professional surfers. “I think they are more concerned with being heavy-metal rock stars or skateboarders than they are with being surfers,” he told Surfing magazine.

Solid idea: Jean Borotra, one of France’s famed Musketeers who dominated tennis more than 60 years ago, is still an active player at 94. And to what does he attribute his longevity? “A glass of red wine each day,” Borotra says. “But only one.”

Trivia answer: Robert LeGendre, who jumped 25 feet 5 3/4 inches in the pentathlon, in which he finished third. He failed to make the U.S. team in the long jump, then called the broad jump. The gold medalist in that event, De Hart Hubbard, won at 24-5.

Quotebook: PGA champion John Daly, on how he relaxes when he’s away from the tour: “Usually with a Miller Lite and a Marlboro.”