They Pursue the Threads of Truth

Based on what NBA players spend on their wardrobes, it’s a good thing the minimum salary is $160,000 per season.

Kevin Willis, the Atlanta Hawks’ 7-footer, told M Magazine that he has spent $120,000 on clothes. In Willis’ closet you will find 70 suits, 25 sport jackets, 10 leather outfits, 30 pairs of shoes and 100 neckties.

“It’s a very competitive thing in the NBA,” Willis said. “There are a lot of younger players eager to establish a rep as a dresser.”

Willis said the right clothes on a player can help ease the awkwardness associated with being so tall.

Of course, clothes can’t work miracles for everyone.

“Guys with weird bodies are at a distinct disadvantage,” Willis said. “Look at Phil Jackson, the coach of the Chicago Bulls. He’s 6-foot-8 with a high waist, extra broad shoulders and he limps from an old back injury. Jackson often wears full double-breasted suits to try to cover up all the crooked angles of his body. He hangs nice clothing on himself, but eventually it all gets twisted.”

*

Add clothes: Charlotte’s Mike Gminski, another NBA giant, says shopping is all part of the NBA experience.

“There’s so much time to kill that you’re forever wandering in and out of clothing stores. The shopkeepers know who we are, so they sell us pretty hard.”

*

Lucas McPain: Former Dodger pitcher Don Newcombe recalled a minor-league incident in 1948 when he was pitching for the Montreal Royals. After Newcombe brushed a Syracuse player back with a pitch, the batter charged the mound.

But before the batter reached the mound, he was tackled by a hair-triggered teammate who, Newcombe told Baseball Weekly, “kicked the crap out of him.”

The player? Chuck Connors, who later starred as “The Rifleman” on television.

Connors, who died recently of cancer, played one game for Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949 and 66 with the Chicago Cubs in 1951. Connors also played for the Boston Celtics.

*

Trivia time: What current NBA coach was drafted as a wide receiver by the Dallas Cowboys in the 11th round of the 1967 NFL draft?

*

Just the facts: This is the 20th anniversary season of the Miami Dolphin team that finished the 1972 schedule undefeated and untied.

But during the regular season the Dolphins beat only two teams that finished with winning records: the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Giants, both 8-6.

*

The write stuff: Lloyd Daniels’ newfound success with the San Antonio Spurs recalls the line by a sportswriter after Daniels, once a functional illiterate, enrolled at UNLV in 1986.

The sportswriter wrote: “A jump shot like Larry Bird and a handle like Magic Johnson. The only thing he couldn’t do with a basketball was autograph it.”

*

Street sales: Don Baylor, recently hired as the first manager of the Colorado Rockies, was driving to a radio-station interview when he came to a stop at a traffic signal.

A man approached the car and knocked on the window. “It was a real estate agent,” Baylor told Baseball Weekly. “ ‘I know you’re going to be looking for a house,’ the man said. ‘Give me a call.’ ”

*

Trivia answer: Pat Riley.

*

Quotebook: Oscar the Grouch, speaking to broadcaster Tim McCarver during a taping of Sesame Street: “Hey microphone face, are you ever going to stop talking?”