This Is Not a Testimonial to USC Days

Harold Miner, the former standout guard at USC, was a rookie with the Miami Heat last season, and still, in a sense, is a rookie.

Miner, who won the NBA slam-dunk contest at the All-Star break, is attending the Heat’s rookie camp.

“He’s got to learn how to play,” Heat assistant coach Alvin Gentry told the Miami Herald. “I know that’s a broad statement. But he has to learn how to use screens, how to get the ball in isolations and go (to the basket) right away instead of holding the ball, and about individual and rotating team defense.”

Is that all?

Trivia time: Who is the only man in the pro football, college football and baseball Halls of Fame?

Taking out trash: Al McGuire, the former Marquette basketball coach, believes that trash-talking in sports is nothing more than a fad.

“It’s like baggy pants around the knees and hats on backwards,” McGuire said. “Most of it comes out of the playgrounds. Give it 12 to 18 months and it will fade out.

“It’s like high-fives were. If you high-five somebody today, it’s a yuppy move. It means you live in Scarsdale and you probably have glass backboards in your driveway.”

Four-get it: Now that Pat Riley’s “three-peat” has been accomplished by the Chicago Bulls, Dan Bickley of the Chicago Sun-Times asked readers to come up with a phrase for the Bulls’ possible fourth consecutive NBA championship next season. A sampling:

“Four the record,” “Go 4 it,” “Four-peat’s Sake,” “We Roar for Four,” and “Four of a Kind.”

Sounds grim: Darrel (Mouse) Davis, the well traveled offensive coordinator who originated the run-and-shoot offense, has taken his scheme to the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.

“We’ll either execute it right, or we’ll execute ourselves,” Davis said.

Wait a minute: At the recent U.S. Senior Open, television commentator Steve Melnyk said: “Has there ever been a golf swing more fluid, more gorgeous than that of Tom Weiskopf?”

Ever hear of Sam Snead, Steve?

Year of the Cardinal?Inside Sports magazine predicts that Stanford will win the Pacific 10 football championship, with USC finishing third and UCLA eighth. Stanford hasn’t represented the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl game since the 1971 season.

Trivia answer: Cal Hubbard. He is in the baseball Hall of Fame as an umpire.

Quotebook: Former major leaguer Bob Uecker on facing Don Drysdale: “I put tiptoes in the back of the batter’s box and couldn’t wait until my three pitches were over.”