In Auerbach’s Dream, Nobody Plays Game Better Than Bird

If you set out to build a 12-man all-time NBA team, who would you pick? Red Auerbach, the former coach-general manager of the Celtics who won 15 championships in Boston, had some surprising names on his real dream team. The squad (not in order of importance, he said): Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, John Havlicek, Michael Jordan, Bob Cousy, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Julius Erving, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone.

His assessment of Bird and Johnson: Bird--Plays all parts of the game better than anyone who ever lived. Johnson--The most potent point guard ever.

When it came to the 12th man, he picked Malone over Elgin Baylor and Bob Pettit “because what sets him apart from (them) is that he runs the floor like a big guard.”

Football diplomat: Al Davis has a different way of breaking news to a player that he has been traded. Appearing on Channel 2’s “L.A. Football Company,” Davis explained how he told linebacker Phil Villapiano that he had been traded to the Buffalo Bills in 1979.

Said Davis: “I asked Phil, ‘What would you think if we could get Bob Chandler from the Bills?’ Phil said, ‘That would be great. Chandler is a great receiver. Whatever it takes, we should get him.’

“I then told him we already had. He said, ‘That’s great. Who did we have to give up?’ I said, ‘You.’ ”

Trivia time: No Dodger has ever made the 30-30 Club (home runs and stolen bases). Who is the only Angel to make it?

No business: Ron Dixon’s job is to fire the cannon at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium when the San Diego Chargers score a touchdown or win a game. The Chargers haven’t given him much to do this year with one touchdown and no victories, which prompted Dixon to remark: “I am the Maytag repairman.”

Name game: While watching golf on television one day, Bob Sveen of Kirkland, Wash., started thinking of players who might make interesting pairing combinations. Golf Digest noted some of them: Strange-Couples, Bean-Pohl, Fehr-Price, Black-Mudd and Gardner-Tewell. And from the LPGA: Richard-Burton and Kean-Edge.

Quiet, please: Cris Collinsworth, interviewing Tampa Bay Buccaneer Coach Sam Wyche on HBO’s “Inside the NFL,” said: “At the beginning of training camp you released some of the more outspoken members of your team--Jesse Solomon, Tim Newton, Bruce Hill, to name a few. Was this an attempt to gain control over the clubhouse?”

Said Wyche: “You know how I feel about outspoken people. I don’t like them getting in the way of my being outspoken.”

Trivia answer: Bobby Bonds, 1977, with 37 home runs and 41 stolen bases.

Quotebook: Ray Jenkins, onetime Montana State football coach, assessing his team’s chances for the next year: “We definitely will be improved this year. Last year we lost 10 games. This year we only scheduled nine.”